November 12, 2025 | Read Time: 10 minutes
This collection of essays is part of a special package of predictions from sector leaders and thinkers about what lies ahead in 2026 and how to respond to what will likely be another unprecedented year for the nonprofit world. Read more predictions about Major Donor Giving | Foundation Giving | Democracy and Threats to the Sector | Fundraising and AI | Equity Efforts | Nonprofit Operations | Policy Changes | Bridge Building, and Predictions for 2030.
Deepak Bhargava Warns the ‘Cost of Timidity Is High’
Deepak Bhargava
Scholars are sending stark warnings: Authoritarian power is rapidly consolidating in the United States, and the countdown clock to save democracy is ticking. The next 12 months present a critical juncture for philanthropy and the nation.
How this story turns out depends on the choices made in the coming months by leaders in key sectors, including philanthropy. The cost of timidity is high. But if we act boldly together, our impact will be huge.
First, we must spend aggressively. The legally mandated 5 percent minimum payout for philanthropies is exactly that — a minimum. Spending at this level is questionable in ordinary times. But with democracy under siege, much more is needed. If democracy falls, our dollars will have far less value.
Second, we must invest more in organizing. Throughout American history, popular movements have expanded democracy. The civil rights, suffrage, and labor movements succeeded by organizing everyday people to come together to build power and take collective action to change the rules that shaped their lives. Around the world, organizing helped stop and reverse authoritarian rule in countries like Brazil, Poland, and South Africa. Philanthropy has tended to favor strategies of elite influence and research, but as norms and guardrails fall, there is no substitute for people power.
Third, we must move together. The philanthropic sector is the subject of an orchestrated campaign attacking our freedoms to speak, give, and invest. Our response must be equally coordinated. In the months ahead, we can demonstrate the power of solidarity through efforts such as the Unite in Advance campaign, which has banded together hundreds of foundations to defend our rights and the rights of those we fund. We can partner, too, with colleagues in other sectors who are under attack.
More money, more organizing, more solidarity. That’s how philanthropy can and will rise in 2026 to meet this enormous moment in history.
Deepak Bhargava is the president of the Freedom Together Foundation.
The Freedom Together Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
John Palfrey Calls on Foundations to Form a United Front
John Palfrey
Heading into 2026, the philanthropic sector must be clear-eyed about the challenges ahead: the pattern of targeted attacks and government overreach designed to stifle our most fundamental freedoms.
The federal government is engaged in a comprehensive campaign to silence charitable foundations and nonprofits, misrepresent our work, and curtail the uniquely American tradition of giving. Our rights to speak freely, to assemble peacefully, and to donate time and money toward issues we care about are under threat.
Keeping the impact of our work in the foreground is critical because communities across the country depend on our ability to give without fear or favor. Charitable foundations and nonprofits serve people in every state and support an enormous range of issues: From science to the arts, from schools to hospitals, from local media to technology, from violence prevention to clean air initiatives.
Limiting our freedoms affects everyone, no matter their identity, geography, or politics. We need to build broader coalitions consisting of all who agree that our freedom to speak and give is sacrosanct. Our coalition must include people who don’t share our beliefs or priorities. Charitable organizations exist to bring people together, not drive them apart.
In 2025, we saw unprecedented unity from the charitable sector. We need to remain united — regardless of ideology or background — in the face of escalating attempts in the coming year to undermine freedoms that have defined our nation for 250 years.
United, we will not tolerate efforts to silence our speech, malign our charitable work, or limit our ability to give in line with our values. It’s on each of us to uphold the fabric of civic life that allows all Americans to heal, live peacefully, and work toward a brighter future together.
John Palfrey is the president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
A Shellshocked Sector
Suzanne Nossel
In rosier times, Americans saw civil society — alongside the three branches of government — as a guarantor of democracy. But amid an unprecedented assault on democratic conventions, the nonprofit advocacy world is straining to fulfill that promise. While legal organizations are notching important victories in lower courts, policy and advocacy groups seem shellshocked by the scale and speed of President Trump’s assault on democratic norms and vulnerable communities.
Those that have narrowcast to like-minded allies now find themselves preaching to a choir locked out of the cathedrals of power. Groups are divided over whether controversial topics — from transgender issues to Charlie Kirk’s ideology to the Israel-Hamas War — are beyond debate. Movements built online suddenly need to leap from the screen to the streets.
Dilemmas abound. Amid intimidation tactics and rising political violence, nonprofit leaders must decide how visible they want to be. Progressive groups are split over whether traditional targets such as the Democratic establishment and corporations like Disney remain valid or merely distract from the true menace in the White House. Meanwhile, the raging competition for funding, audience, and attention force nonprofits to weigh what programs are most effective against what will keep their staffs paid and doors open.
Just as artificial intelligence is poised to upend the American economy, this political revolution will transform the nonprofit sector. Organizations that can swiftly reinvent themselves for relevance in an authoritarian age will thrive. Groups that lack visionary leadership or whose tempo, sensibilities, and priorities are tethered to a fading past will wither from lack of salience and funding.
Unmoored from legacy programs and strategies, nimble new initiatives and coalitions are emerging in defense of higher education, to activate business leaders in support of democracy, to reinvent international cooperation, and more. Their ability to innovate and take risks may help vindicate the promise of civil society as a bulwark for democracy, seeding a revitalized sector prepared for the second quarter of the 21st century.
Suzanne Nossel is the former CEO of PEN America and a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Philanthropy Will Come Together to Ensure Free and Fair Elections
Joe Goldman
With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, President Trump has made clear that he wants to reshape our system of free and fair elections. While attempts to create barriers to voting are nothing new, we should be ready for far more extreme attempts to manipulate the system, including the use of the military and law enforcement to intimidate voters.
In the face of this, I expect philanthropy to expand nonpartisan investment in organizations that strengthen election administration, defend voting rights, and foster civic engagement. That means committing to early grant making, consistent with 2024’s All by April pledges, so that nonpartisan voting groups have the resources they need promptly to ensure the U.S. election system is free, fair, and representative of the American public.
The coming year must be a time of courageous collective action from philanthropy. No matter our focus area or where we stand on the ideological spectrum, this moment demands that we are united in the understanding that without a functioning democracy, none of our missions can be achieved. We know that the path to a country that works for everyone will not be won by a few, but by the many who are willing to link arms and place democracy at the center of their commitments.
We can be remembered as the generation of charitable leaders who refused to obey in advance, who saw the danger on the horizon and chose to act together. The fight for democracy is not separate from the individual causes we fund — it is the heartbeat of them all. And it is ours to protect.
Joe Goldman is the president of Democracy Fund.
With Big Philanthropy Under Attack, Smaller Funders Step Up
Shaady Salehi
In 2025, most of the attention on the nonprofit sector focused on large foundations standing up in defense of philanthropic freedom. But a quieter movement is percolating whose full force will be felt in 2026: coalitions of small and midsize philanthropies working with nonprofits to build democratic power at the state level. While the federal government sets its sights on targeting big progressive funders, these smaller foundations will operate under the radar, defending communities with the nimbleness this moment demands.
Want evidence? Nearly 200 family philanthropies, intermediary funds, and community foundations, the majority of which have assets of less than $50 million, have signed the Meet the Moment pledge, launched in March by my organization — the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project — in collaboration with the National Center for Family Philanthropy and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. The pledge calls on signers to, among other things, increase giving, commit to multiyear unrestricted funding, and simplify their grant-making process in response to federal funding cuts, the gutting of social services, and the militarized crackdowns in communities nationwide. It also invites coordinated action among funders, particularly at the regional level.
Signatories hail from cities and counties that rarely get named in the national media coverage. Many have operated in trust-based ways for years and as a result have built the community relationships and structures that enable effective collaboration and advocacy at the state level. We anticipate that this work will kick into higher gear in 2026. Additionally, these efforts will be bolstered by increased investment in mutual aid networks and data collection on community needs, alongside greater mobilization of smaller donors. By the end of next year, these funders will have demonstrated that the only way to meet need in a highly volatile political environment is to focus on local and state power-building in solidarity with frontline nonprofits.
Shaady Salehi is a co-founder and co-executive director of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project.
Funders Will Strengthen Local Journalism – and Democracy
Howard Husock
I expect philanthropy to fully embrace its role as a key player in saving local journalism. The massive closing of local newspapers, along with the federal defunding of public broadcasting, has heightened the need for major philanthropic support.
This is a relatively new field of interest for funders. Few viewed it as a priority when most cities and even small towns supported their own local media. But the closure of more than 3,200 local newspapers since 2005 has dramatically changed that calculation. More grant makers recognize the importance of local media in holding government leaders accountable and keeping voters informed.
Funders will find opportunities to make a difference in a range of promising nonprofit news organizations across the country — identified by Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative as “Bright Spots” in the media landscape. They include outlets such as the Cardinal News in Roanoke, Va., and Ideastream in Cleveland, one of many local public radio news operations attracting donors in the wake of federal defunding. Traditional newspapers like the Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts have added nonprofit charitable arms to receive support. Community foundations, in particular, are increasingly likely to nurture such enterprises.
Nonprofits such as Report for America offer another strong option for funders. Modeled after Teach for America, it supports reporters in hundreds of news organizations across the country, deploying a funding model that should appeal to grant makers: The organization covers 50 percent of a reporter’s salary but requires the local news organization to cover 25 percent and to raise matching local funds to support the rest.
All communities need traditional, shoe-leather reporting of local city councils and zoning boards — coverage of the issues communities care about and that donors, in turn, should care about, too. In the coming year, philanthropy’s recognition of that need will continue to grow.
Howard Husock, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of “Who Killed Civil Society?”
Photos: Freedom Together Foundation; MacArthur Foundation; Julianna Sohn; Democracy Fund; Courtesy of Shaady Salehi; Courtesy of Howard Husock
