Fear and Loathing in the Nonprofit Sector
How nonprofits should respond to Donald Trump.
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I have worked in the nonprofit sector for nearly 40 years. During that time, I have experienced several economic downturns that made it extremely challenging to fundraise. The aftermath of 9/11 dramatically affected the discourse and put anything that required travel on hold for months. And of course, the Covid-19 pandemic brought enormous disruptions to nonprofit workplaces.
But nothing compares to the first months of the second Trump administration.
The president and his minions have thoroughly destabilized the nonprofit sector—attempting to dictate policy to high-profile nonprofits like Harvard and Columbia, cancelling federal grants when they have been deemed inconsistent with administration priorities, and signaling that any institution that expresses support for diversity, equity and inclusion is subject to attack, including the potential loss of their tax-exempt status. The dominant mood among the nonprofit executives I know is one of both fear and loathing—no one wants to find their agency under the microscope, and everyone wants to figure out how to fight back.
The first thing for these leaders to understand is that, while the Trump administration’s actions may be unprecedented, they do not come out of nowhere. Indeed, they are in some respects a natural extension of a line of criticism that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years: the idea that the nonprofit sector amounts to a self-serving “nonprofit industrial complex,” composed of organizations that are more interested in lining their own pockets than in solving social problems. Tellingly, this criticism has come not just from the right, but from the left as well.
Left-wing critics of the nonprofit sector have tended to focus on a series of problems within the sector, including racial disparities on nonprofit boards and executive teams, sexual harassment by imperious male executives, and inadequate wages for lower-level employees. They also point to the fact that many nonprofits are funded by government agencies or rich people to argue that powerful purse strings constrain these organizations from pursuing truly transformative change.
Meanwhile, conservatives often believe that nonprofits are left-leaning institutions that are out of step with mainstream America. According to these observers, many nonprofits that previously had a narrow organizational focus have morphed into all-purpose advocacy organizations, signing on to a long list of progressive goals, including climate change, racial justice, and trans rights. These critics argue that nonprofits have effectively become hostile workplaces for conservative and moderate staffers.
Vocal elements on both sides of the political divide seem to have come to the conclusion that the nonprofit sector isn’t a bunch of well-meaning do-gooders trying desperately to make the world a better place—it’s a self-interested actor, if not an enemy to be vanquished.
To put my cards on the table: I believe that the nonprofit sector, by and large, is a force for good in the world. I subscribe to neither the left- nor the right-wing critiques—at least not in whole. Nonprofit organizations are not standing in the way of the revolution. Nor are they deliberately undermining American values by foisting wokeness on an unsuspecting public.
Having said that, there are elements of truth to both the left- and right-wing critiques of the sector. Generally speaking, nonprofits have tried hard to respond to the progressive criticisms in recent years while mostly ignoring the criticisms coming from the right. Nonprofit agencies have gone to great lengths to attract a new cadre of racially diverse leaders, to identify and punish cases of sexual harassment, and to improve salaries for underpaid staffers. There has been no similar sector-wide momentum to respond to concerns about viewpoint diversity. Nonprofits are now paying a heavy price for this failure.
A recent poll commissioned by the Independent Sector found that, after four years of decline, public trust in nonprofits has recently inched upwards, with 57% of respondents expressing trust in the sector. That’s good news, of course, but hardly cause for celebration. Indeed, the fine print suggests that there are plenty of reasons for nonprofits to be concerned—only 45% of respondents thought that nonprofits are making things better and only 24% trusted nonprofits to avoid partisan politics.
In a similar vein, a recent report from Benjamin Soskis of the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy suggests that the share of U.S. households that donate to charity has been falling—from more than 66% in 2000 to less than 50% in 2018. Notably, most of the decline seems to be coming from lower-level donors.
What is to be done? How should nonprofits respond to the challenges of the moment?
Avoiding negative polarization is an essential first step. The trap that Trump sets for nonprofits is that full-throated opposition to his administration risks further undermining public trust in the sector—in general, politicized institutions tend to be distrusted institutions. Direct confrontation with Trump likely means lighting on fire any credibility these institutions might hope to have with the tens of millions of Americans who either support Trump or who are sympathetic to his ideas.
Nonetheless, nonprofits cannot do nothing while Trump threatens their very existence. It would be absurd for an organization devoted to serving immigrants, for example, to shrink rather than rise to this historical moment. They must fight where necessary, which typically means in the courts and in Congress. But even as they engage in litigation and lobbying, most nonprofits should take pains to present themselves as reluctant warriors rather than fiercely ideological opponents of the president.
They should also think deeply about the right-wing critique of the sector and look to make changes where warranted. For example, nonprofit leaders should strenuously resist the dangers of mission creep, ensuring that their organizations remain focused on what they do best and avoid getting ensnared in activities (and political controversies) beyond their ken. They should also explicitly signal that they are open to staffers who have a broad range of political and cultural perspectives.
The nonprofit sector is far from perfect and, like any long-standing institution, it is in need of constant updating and reform. But we should not lose sight of its importance to our civic life. After all, the strength of our nonprofit sector is one of the things that distinguishes the United States from other places—in many countries, there’s the government and the private sector and precious little in between.
When they are functioning properly, nonprofits are part of the connective tissue that binds us together as Americans, helping to keep a country of remarkable size and unprecedented diversity moving forward. That’s why, even as they confront the Trump administration, nonprofits must keep one eye firmly focused on the need to restore public trust.
Greg Berman is the co-editor of Vital City and the former executive director of the Center for Justice Innovation. He is the author of The Nonprofit Crisis: Leadership Through the Culture Wars, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
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