The social sector is in severe distress. Nonprofits serving communities across the country have faced an existential crisis since January 2025, when the Trump administration and its allies in Congress began a series of actions targeting the sector: freezing federal funds, terminating grants, investigating nonprofits, censuring specific causes, holding congressional hearings, threatening to revoke their tax-exempt status, and tying federal funding to Trump’s political priorities. Nonprofits that provide vital services to communities have faced these challenges even as demand for their services has increased as a result of cuts to social safety net programs.
We have been monitoring the fallout of these attacks on nonprofits, as well as tracking the philanthropic response. Our research is particularly focused on the response of philanthropic foundations, which control $1.8 trillion in charitable assets, and whose giving represented $117 billion out of total charitable giving of $617 billion in 2025 – nearly one in every five charitable dollars – according to Giving USA.
