Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Saturday, June 13, 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.
Fundraising as Democracy: Honoring a Legacy, Claiming Our Moment
Kim Klein and Stephanie Roth, who built the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT) and the Grassroots Fundraising Journal over decades, are winding down their consulting firm. In this tribute and manifesto, angélique nguyẽn green reframes their legacy as fundamentally democratic: grassroots fundraising trains communities to mobilize resources for justice, not charity. The essay traces this tradition through Black fraternal orders, mutualistas, and Indigenous giveaways—structures of mutual support that predate and outlast any nonprofit institution. As authoritarianism expands and civic infrastructure frays, Green argues social justice fundraisers are not revenue generators but builders of civic life. The piece asks readers to reframe what it means to ask: a fundraiser who returns to their community is not supplicating—they are acting as a democratic agent. Klein and Roth’s departure marks the end of an era, but Green insists the tradition they cultivated belongs to the field, not to them.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Economic Mobility Is Essential to Family Wellbeing—and to Society
Chastity Lord, president and CEO of the Jeremiah Program, opens with data that illustrates why direct service alone cannot move families out of poverty. Childcare costs now consume 35 percent of a single parent’s median income—five times the federal affordability benchmark of 7 percent. The 2022 expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit doubled child poverty rates in a single year. More than 25 million people were disenrolled from Medicaid and CHIP during the pandemic-era unwinding. The federal CCAMPIS program, funded at $73.5 million in FY26, serves only 3,300 student parents against a national population of 3 million. Lord’s central argument: the “benefits cliff”—where earning more triggers loss of subsidies—structurally penalizes economic gains. Nonprofits serving low-income families must combine direct services with advocacy for structural policy change. The data here belongs in every funder’s briefing room and every advocacy team’s planning session.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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