Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Friday, June 5, 2026
Supreme Court Allows Alabama’s Racially Discriminatory Congressional Map
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map eliminating a district where Black voters had the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. The 6-3 ruling follows the court’s April 29 decision eroding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which struck down a majority-Black Louisiana district. Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida swiftly moved to redraw their maps. “The court’s decision gives cover to Alabama and others to deliberately and openly discriminate against Black voters without fear of any consequence,” said Deuel Ross of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Advocates warn the ruling could reshape representation in Congress for a generation.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Melinda French Gates Commits Another $50 Million to Women’s Health, Calls on Other Donors
Melinda French Gates this week committed another $50 million to women’s health organizations, bringing her total since leaving the Gates Foundation in 2024 to more than $600 million. The Menopause Society will receive $10 million to train frontline providers; Co-Impact, a collaborative funding women-led nonprofits in Africa, will receive $40 million to integrate mental health into maternal care. French Gates called on major donors to match her urgency. “When women are healthier, their families, communities, and countries are, too,” she said. A woman dies every two minutes from childbirth-related causes worldwide, according to Pivotal Ventures, and more than 19 million U.S. women lack access to contraception in their communities.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy
New Research Points to an Achievable Pro-Trans Majority—If Movements Choose to Build It
A recent Voss Research poll found only 35 percent of respondents support policies to limit transgender freedoms, while 49 percent believe trans people should have the freedom to be themselves—evidence that the assumed anti-trans majority is a political fiction, writes organizer Jess St. Louis in Convergence. Right-wing groups spent over $200 million on anti-trans messaging in 2024, creating false “social proof” that opposition is the mainstream view. St. Louis and co-authors identify four strategic pillars for building genuine power: cultivating majorities, practicing cross-movement solidarity, contesting for governing power, and offering a concrete vision of democracy that frames trans liberation as part of broader working-class and racial justice gains.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Trump’s Museum Edits Threaten Community History—Nonprofits and Funders Are Pushing Back
The Trump administration’s executive order directing federal institutions to “restore truth” has already resulted in the removal of a slavery display at Independence Hall. Scholars and museum directors told Nonprofit Quarterly that White House interference risks homogenizing a national narrative that erases community-centered histories. The Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C., offers a counter-model: exhibits co-created with residents honor everyday advocates like 95-year-old food justice activist Vivian Williams. Several funders are responding—the National Trust for Historic Preservation has awarded $3 million in grants preserving sites commemorating Black American activism, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore has directed $5 million to nonprofits preserving African American heritage.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Community Accountability, Not Donor Comfort, Must Drive Nonprofit Boards
Nonprofit boards risk drifting toward serving organizational comfort rather than community need, warns consultant Kristin Lincoln in Nonprofit Quarterly. The core problem, she argues, is that boards built primarily around wealth and professional credentials filter decisions through privileged perspectives rather than those the mission exists to serve. Lincoln proposes a governance discipline anchored in the question “Who does this serve?”—applied to financial oversight, executive evaluation, and strategic planning. “Representation isn’t a diversity initiative layered on top of governance. It is governance,” she writes. She also cautions that boards yielding to donor preferences that diverge from community need have failed their fundamental stewardship responsibility.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
How American Independence 250 Years Ago Created the Nonprofit Sector We Know Today
As the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Smithsonian curator Amanda Moniz traces how the American Revolution transformed charitable giving and civic infrastructure. The colonial era’s elite, church-controlled giving gave way in the 1780s and 1790s to mutual aid organizations, humane societies, and women-led charities. Black Americans like Dolphin Garler—who risked his life to rescue a drowning boy in 1794—received awards from anti-drowning groups on equal terms with white peers; women like Isabella Graham co-founded relief societies for widows and orphans. “For that generation, philanthropy—love of humanity—was the bedrock of the American experiment in republican government,” Moniz writes.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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