Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Saturday Deep Dive
Today we step back from the daily news cycle and surface the best recent research and long-form analysis on nonprofit impact, philanthropy, and sector policy. Worth a slower read.
Twenty-One States Press GoFundMe and PayPal Over Unauthorized Charity Pages
Alaska’s Attorney General filed lawsuits in March 2026 against six crowdfunding and charitable giving platforms — GoFundMe, PayPal, Charity Navigator, JustGiving, Pledge, and Network for Good — alleging they created fundraising pages for nonprofits without the organizations’ consent and then solicited public donations through those pages. GoFundMe reportedly generated 1.4 million such pages using publicly available data in fall 2025, potentially covering as many as 5,000 Alaska-based charities. The lawsuits allege violations of Alaska’s Charitable Solicitations Act and Consumer Protection Act. By April 2026, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and officials from 20 additional states had joined the pressure campaign, demanding GoFundMe provide documented evidence that all unauthorized pages had been removed. Sector leaders warn the practice erodes donor trust and sets a dangerous legal precedent for the broader fundraising ecosystem.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy · Alaska Public Media
A Third of U.S. Nonprofits Report Government Funding Disruptions in Early 2026
A third of U.S. nonprofits reported experiencing at least one government funding disruption in early 2026, according to data from the Urban Institute and National Council of Nonprofits. Those organizations reported increased service demand, staff layoffs, program reductions, and growing wait lists for housing and behavioral health services. The Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would cut non-defense discretionary spending by 22.6 percent — a $163 billion reduction — targeting rental assistance ($26 billion cut), Medicaid ($1.02 trillion over ten years), and SNAP ($186 billion over ten years). Nonprofit leaders say the ripple effects extend well beyond direct federal grantees: when federal funds flowing through state and local governments are reduced, nonprofits that receive no direct federal funding also face diminished contract revenue. The National Council of Nonprofits has described the combined effect as a compounding crisis unlike anything the sector has seen in decades.
Sources: National Council of Nonprofits · Nonprofit Quarterly
Foundations Open Endowments as Nonprofits Face Compounding Funding Emergency
Eighty-seven percent of U.S. foundations surveyed by the Council on Foundations reported seeing increased demand for funding since January 2026, with 30 percent responding by raising their annual payout. The MacArthur Foundation set its charitable payout target at 6 percent or more of its $8.67 billion in assets for 2025 and 2026 — up from its prior 5.25 percent target — amounting to roughly $150 million in additional grantmaking. Sixty-four percent of foundations issued emergency grants, and 42 percent are distributing more unrestricted funds than in prior years. Nine leading nonprofit organizations, including Independent Sector and the National Council of Nonprofits, have publicly urged foundations to dig further into endowments to address compounding pressure from federal cuts and surging service demand. A bipartisan Senate measure — the ACE Act, sponsored by Senators Grassley and King — would waive foundation excise taxes in years when payout exceeds 7 percent of assets.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy · Chronicle of Philanthropy
CPB Funding Clawback Puts Rural and Native American Public Media at Risk
Congress approved a law in July 2025 rescinding $1.1 billion in previously appropriated Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, placing more than 1,500 locally operated public radio and television stations at serious financial risk. Stations in rural communities are most vulnerable, with some depending on CPB grants for up to half their operating budgets. The Native Public Media network of 57 radio stations and four television stations — a primary news source for tribal communities — faces potential closure. In April 2026, six major foundations — MacArthur, Knight, Ford, Robert Wood Johnson, Schmidt Family, and Pivotal Ventures — pledged $26.5 million to a Public Media Bridge Fund to provide emergency grants and low-interest loans to the most vulnerable stations. Nonprofit Quarterly reports that the funding loss accelerates the catastrophic decline of local journalism, particularly in communities that commercial media markets have long underserved.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly · Nonprofit Quarterly
AI Adoption Accelerates Across Nonprofits, but Governance Gaps Raise Concern
More than half of applicants to the nonprofit accelerator Fast Forward described themselves as AI-powered organizations in 2026 — up from just 13 of 247 applicants in 2024 and fewer than half in 2025. Across the broader sector, fundraisers are deploying AI for prospect research, grant screening, and donor communications: the GitLab Foundation used AI systems to process 800 grant applications in 30 minutes. Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis describes the emerging model as precision philanthropy — AI-generated ranked donor lists paired with personalized outreach calibrated to each donor’s giving history and motivations. Nonprofit Quarterly and SSIR caution that adoption is outpacing governance: many organizations lack formal AI policies, raising risks around data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the erosion of authentic donor relationships. Researchers argue the sector must treat AI adoption as a governance question — not only a technology decision — before the gap between capability and accountability widens further.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy · Nonprofit Quarterly · SSIR
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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