Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Friday, June 12, 2026
AFP Fundraising Day New York 2026 Convenes More Than 1,200 Philanthropy Professionals Today
The Association of Fundraising Professionals’ New York City chapter is hosting Fundraising Day New York today, June 12, at the New York Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, running 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Billed as the premier one-day philanthropy conference, the event draws more than 1,200 fundraising professionals for sessions covering trends and emerging innovations across the full spectrum of fundraising. Sessions are designed and led by industry leaders and experts. An exhibitor area on the 6th and 7th floors features consulting services, businesses, and educational programs. CFRE continuing education credit is pending. Speaker and session details are available at frdny.org.
Rhea Wong’s Mid-Year Gut Check: How to Find Where Your Fundraising Pipeline Is Leaking
Nonprofit fundraising coach Rhea Wong, in NPQ’s Ask Rhea column, challenges organizations reaching June’s midpoint to stop hoping and start diagnosing. Responding to a fundraiser who has raised 40 percent of their annual goal but cannot explain the pipeline, Wong argues the problem is not capacity but clarity. She outlines six stages of the major gift process—engagement, preliminary qualification, complete qualification, caseload management, proposal, and stewardship—and tells fundraisers to find the leaking stage before summer ends their leverage. Wong warns that the summer lull belongs to fundraisers, not donors. She recommends a two-hour self-audit using six trackable pipeline metrics, and urges completing the exercise before July 1.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
SPLC Interim CEO Defends Civil Rights Mission Before House Judiciary Committee
Southern Poverty Law Center interim President and CEO Bryan Fair testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on June 9 as part of a congressional inquiry into the SPLC. Fair, who took a one-year leave from teaching to lead the organization, defended its 55-year record fighting racial terror, white supremacy, and discrimination. Simultaneous with the hearing, SPLC released its annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, documenting how hard-right groups have used federal government levers against marginalized communities. Fair noted he was constrained on certain questions because of a pending criminal case, which he said the congressional majority had injected itself into three days after it was filed.
Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center
NPQ and Liberation Ventures Announce 16-Day ‘Week of Repair’ Partnership for America’s 250th
Nonprofit Quarterly and Liberation Ventures announced a 16-day editorial partnership called the Week of Repair, running Juneteenth through July 4, 2026. Content published via the #WeTheCivic platform will cover reparations and racial repair ahead of the US 250th anniversary, organized around four pillars: Repair is Personal, Repair is Love, Repair is Community, and Repair is the Future. Dozens of partner organizations will contribute essays, reported pieces, poetry, and visual art. NPQ Interim CEO Sara Hudson said, “Official commemorations are never neutral—they are arguments about who belongs.” Liberation Ventures Co-Founder Aria Florant called it “exactly the amplification this moment demands.” Submissions are open at wethecivic.org.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
The 1787 Free African Society That Seeded Modern Black Mutual Aid and Nonprofit Infrastructure
In NPQ, writer Shivank Pandey profiles the Free African Society, founded in Philadelphia on April 12, 1787, by Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and fellow free Black men. Each contributed a shilling; the organization covered burial costs, aided the sick, placed children in apprenticeships, and encouraged literacy. Historian Amy Jane Cohen told NPQ the society was the first Black organization of its kind, and that by 1838 more than a hundred similar mutual aid societies had formed. Historian Richard S. Newman describes it as “a precursor of what may be called non-profit work in the Black community.” Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal denomination; Jones founded St. Thomas African Episcopal Church.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
National Council of Nonprofits Urges Sector Action Before July 13 on Federal Grantmaking Overhaul
The National Council of Nonprofits is urging the sector to oppose a proposed federal grantmaking overhaul before a July 13 comment deadline. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget published the proposal on May 29, 2026, targeting the Uniform Guidance governing federal grants and cooperative agreements. NCN says the changes would grant any administration unprecedented discretion to withhold, suspend, or terminate grants, allow awards to be determined by partisan ideology, and purport to bar federal funding for DEI practices the administration deems unlawful. NCN is asking nonprofits to sign a national letter, submit a public comment using NCN’s guide, and email members of Congress in opposition.
Sources: National Council of Nonprofits
An Incarcerated Journalist Exposes Georgia’s Prison-to-Profit Pipeline, From Chain Gangs to Modern Contracts
Writing in NPQ under a pseudonym, an incarcerated Georgia journalist traces the state’s prison labor system from 19th-century Black Codes and convict leasing to its present-day operation. Georgia Correctional Industries still pays zero dollars per hour under the Thirteenth Amendment’s slavery exception. A 2025 DOJ investigation found conditions constituting cruel and unusual punishment; 330 people died in state prisons in 2024, an annual record high. Governor Kemp’s parole board cut grants between 2020 and 2025 by half while Georgia’s incarceration rate stands at 968 per 100,000. The author reports the sector generates approximately $5.98 billion annually; Kemp received $1,724,956 from construction industry donors in 2022.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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