Samwise Nonprofits & Charities Newsletter
Monday, July 20, 2026
Hewlett Foundation Announces $100 Million Emerging Technology and Security Initiative
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced a $100 million, five-year initiative to address the governance and safety risks of emerging technologies. Foundation President Amber D. Miller unveiled the Emerging Technology and Security Initiative at the Aspen Security Forum, committing funding to address risks posed by artificial intelligence, advanced biotechnology, and quantum computing. The initiative will support policy research and advocacy aimed at building oversight frameworks as these technologies develop faster than regulatory systems can respond. The Hewlett Foundation framed the effort as a response to the growing gap between technological capability and the capacity of governments and civil society to govern it.
Sources: Hewlett Foundation Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Ariana Grande Launches Brighter Days Ahead Foundation Through Entertainment Industry Foundation
Pop star Ariana Grande launched the Brighter Days Ahead Foundation in June 2026, structuring it as a fiscally sponsored project of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The foundation channels giving through four named funds: the Protect & Defend Fund, the Heal & Dream Fund, the Seen & Celebrated Fund, and the Emergency Support Fund. The Chronicle of Philanthropy examined the initiative as an example of how celebrity philanthropy is evolving, with artists increasingly using fiscal sponsorship arrangements to provide administrative infrastructure and legal compliance rather than building stand-alone foundations requiring significant independent overhead.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Global South Nonprofits Have Already Solved the Funding Crisis, NPQ Analysis Argues
Nonprofit Quarterly published a piece by Farkhanda Zahoor arguing that nonprofits in the Global South have developed community-funded models that are more resilient than the institutional-grant-dependent structures common in higher-income countries. Writing at a moment when many U.S. and European nonprofits face funding contractions, Zahoor challenges the assumption that best practices in philanthropy flow exclusively from the Global North to the South. The analysis argues that Southern nonprofits—having long operated with limited access to large foundation funding—have built financial structures that continue functioning when institutional support disappears, and that their approaches merit serious study and adoption in higher-income contexts.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
NPQ: Black and Indigenous Communities Have Built Parallel Reproductive Health Systems Over 250 Years
Writing in Nonprofit Quarterly on the 250th anniversary of the United States, Zane McNeill and Khadijah Silver examine a 250-year history of community-based reproductive care among Indigenous and Black communities as a form of resistance to governmental control over bodies and health decisions. The piece traces midwifery, collective birthing knowledge, and community health networks as alternative care systems that operated outside and often in defiance of official institutions. McNeill and Silver frame these traditions as directly relevant to current nonprofit advocacy on reproductive rights, arguing that the sector can draw on this history to build resilient community health infrastructure.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Somali Referee Deported, Iranian Team Rerouted: Nonprofits Mobilize for Human Rights at the World Cup
Nonprofit Quarterly reported on nonprofit-led human rights advocacy alongside the 2026 World Cup in the United States, following high-profile incidents involving civil liberties and immigration enforcement. Somali match official Omar Artan was detained and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while the Iranian delegation relocated its base of operations to Mexico due to entry restrictions. Author María Constanza Costa identified multiple organizations responding to the incidents, including the Fair Work Center, Workers Defense Action Fund, the ACLU, CAIR, and the Sport & Rights Alliance, which were coordinating legal support, public statements, and policy pressure during the tournament.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Private Foundations Routinely Outlive Their Charitable Missions
A Chronicle of Philanthropy contributor argued this week that private foundations routinely outlive the social conditions that justified their creation, calling for clearer mission-review processes and sunset provisions. Thomas Adam, a historian at the University of Arkansas, examined three case studies—the Milton Hershey Foundation, the La Verne Noyes Fund, and the Julius Rosenwald Fund—to show how foundation charters can remain legally binding long after the original purpose has been achieved or become irrelevant. Adam argued that philanthropy needs mechanisms that regularly assess whether a foundation’s mission still serves the public interest and that encourage redistribution when it does not.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Samwise Nonprofits & Charities Newsletter — Monday, July 20, 2026
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