This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. In 2024, grantees in Open Philanthropy’s Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) portfolio made progress toward developing a next-generation malaria vaccine, successfully advocated for U.K.retailers to adopt a new welfare standard that we expect to improve conditions for 350 million chickens, and contributed…
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. On Monday, Trump appeared to freeze millions of dollars in grants for students and schools. Or did he? Two days later, many aren’t sure.
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. With the introduction of innovative new tools, the push to ensure a more equitable and sustainable democracy is gaining traction.
2025 is particularly significant: It marks just five years until 2030, the target for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. What happens when a term becomes so politicized that identifying with it — or not — carries too much baggage for a funder?
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. The US workforce development system fails millions of people each year. The time for systemic transformation is now.
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. The SEEK formula, or Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, determines the amount of state funding to local school districts.
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. When President Trump named Oklahoma’s Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2016, he was a controversial pick. But Pruitt’s policy positions quickly became overshadowed by another set of problems when it was revealed that he crossed various ethical lines while in office. In one instance, he rented a condo co-owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist at a below-market rate. In another, he hired a dubiously massive security detail. In the end, it was these scandals that forced his resignation, and a big part of the reason these scandals ever came to light was that journalists on the EPA beat used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain records that helped them write their exposés.
That’s hardly the only recent example of FOIA making a difference. One journalist broke the story, using FOIA, that established the political origins of the Justice Department’s 2017 request that the census include a citizenship question (rather than the stated law enforcement justification). Yet another reporter used FOIA to document a pattern of negligent medical care in immigrant-only private prisons run under a federal government contract. While no single news story typically provokes immediate change, these pieces were among the reasons why Pruitt’s tenure at the EPA came to an end, the citizenship question was not included on the census, and the federal government announced in 2016 that it would let its contracts with privately run prisons expire.
Unfortunately, though, while these examples demonstrate FOIA’s potential, they represent bright spots amidst a sea of frustration and failure. By and large, journalists’ loudest complaints about FOIA are not that its guarantees of access to information are inadequate, but that agencies are not complying with them. This noncompliance is not sporadic; it is endemic. Despite hundreds of dedicated personnel working in…
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. A controversial bill, described by critics as a calculated strike against pro-Palestinian groups, cleared the House of Representatives in November but stalled in the Senate as the session came to a close. The legislation, however, is expected to resurface in the new Congress, where it could gain fresh momentum. Analysts warn the measure could be wielded as a powerful tool to silence a broad spectrum of organizations at odds with President Donald Trump’s agenda, far beyond those protesting the war in Gaza. To many observers, the bill underscores a growing willingness among Republicans to help Trump target his political adversaries.
But it’s not just Republicans who supported the legislation. H.R. 9495, or the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, initially garnered the support of 52 House Democrats before a public pressure campaign reduced the number to 15. With Republicans controlling both chambers next Congress, the bill could pass the House and Senate on a party line vote and send shockwaves through the nonprofit ecosystem.
H.R. 9495 would grant the secretary of the treasury the ability to strip nonprofit organizations of their tax-exempt status if they are deemed “terrorist supporting organizations,” and if those organizations fail to successfully appeal within 90 days of being notified.
During a House floor speech before a vote on the bill, Republican Congressman and Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee Jason Smith said H.R. 9495 was necessary to stop “abuse of our tax code that is funding terrorism around the world.”
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But the Internal Revenue Service already has a process for revoking the tax-exempt status of nonprofits found to be supporting terrorist organizations, which has critics like Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, calling the bill…
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order declaring that the U.S. recognizes “only two sexes, male and female,” will not impact passports issued before the start of his term to transgender and nonbinary people that have their preferred gender or “X” marker.
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The White House told NOTUS that Monday’s executive order is not retroactive and does not invalidate old passports. However, if government-issued documents need to be renewed, they must reflect the person’s sex assigned at birth.
“They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “Thanks to President Trump, it is now the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes — male and female.”
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Trump’s order directs the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Office of Personnel Management to implement changes to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
It’s unclear when that will happen, given Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the only cabinet official who has been confirmed.
LGBTQ+ rights groups urged trans and nonbinary people to update documents like passports, Social Security cards, and driver’s licenses ahead of Trump’s return to the White House. While those documents remain valid, advocates expect lawsuits to challenge Monday’s order.
“Now we’re going to look at what they actually do and when people’s rights are actually affected, then there will be lawsuits,” said Jennifer Pizer, chief legal officer at Lambda Legal, a firm that supports LGBTQ+ rights.
Lambda Legal represented Dana Zzyym, an intersex and nonbinary veteran who challenged the State Department in 2017 for…
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators. Just a day after Trump issued a slate of executive orders aimed at restricting immigration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it was rescinding protections for “sensitive zones” where undocumented immigrants were protected from deportation. Some immigrant rights advocates are particularly worried that this could deter women experiencing domestic abuse from going to women’s shelters, which will no longer be protected from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
The sensitive zones policy, which was created in 2011, initially applied to places like churches, schools and hospitals. In 2021, the list of places was expanded by the Biden administration to include locations offering disaster or emergency relief and social services. The policy was put in place to allow undocumented immigrants access to essential services like health care without the threat of being deported. ICE could enter these places only if there was a threat of terrorism or imminent risk of death, among other exceptions.
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“What is really important about sensitive zones is that they allow migrant women and families to safely access these spaces without fear that ICE will arrest or deport them there,” said Zain Lakhani, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “The impact might be, for instance, that a domestic violence survivor will stay in an abusive situation because they’re being forced to choose between their immediate safety and arrest and deportation if they go to a shelter or take their children to a shelter.”
More executive orders
Trump signs executive order ending birthright citizenship
Trump revokes federal diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines
Trump clears the…