Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Friday, April 24, 2026
Treasury Announces IRS Form 990 Overhaul to Boost Nonprofit Transparency
Treasury announced April 23 that the IRS will revamp Form 990 to require clearer disclosure of government contracts, grants, and fiscal sponsorship arrangements by tax-exempt nonprofits. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the changes aim to uncover fraud, expose hidden funding, and reduce misuse of taxpayer dollars. The overhaul targets fiscal sponsorship arrangements flagged by Congress as potentially obscuring who controls charitable funds. The IRS will publish proposed regulations and invite public comment before any changes are finalized. This is the first major Form 990 transparency initiative in years and arrives as the sector faces heightened federal scrutiny. Nonprofit legal advisers recommend organizations review their fiscal sponsorship and contracting structures now.
Sources: Accounting Today, U.S. Treasury
Connecticut Crime Victim Nonprofits Face Deepening Cuts as Federal Fund Shrinks
Nonprofits serving survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in Connecticut face a second consecutive year of funding reductions. The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence saw its Crime Victims Fund allocation fall from 8.5 million dollars in 2025 to 4.5 million in 2026 and expects a further cut to under 4 million in 2027. The Coalition reduced full-time advocates from 83 to 55 and projects serving 26,300 victims this fiscal year, down from more than 40,000 in 2025. The federal fund peaked at 13.1 billion dollars in 2017 and has since declined to 3.3 billion. Advocates say tighter budgets mean some survivors will not receive timely services.
Sources: CT Mirror
Planned Parenthood CEO Describes Leading Nonprofit Through 53 Closures and Federal Defunding
Alexis McGill Johnson, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, described leading the organization as ongoing crisis response in an April 22 interview with Nonprofit Quarterly. Since 2025, the organization has closed 53 health centers following the Supreme Court ending federal abortion protections and the Trump administration cutting Medicaid reimbursements for providers offering abortion services. The funding cuts affect more than 1.1 million patients and disproportionately harm communities of color, LGBTQ patients, and rural residents. Johnson, the second Black woman to lead the century-old nonprofit, said she is focused on sustaining services in key states while the Medicaid ban threatens to close nearly 200 additional centers nationwide.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
For-Profit Fundraising Platforms Pose Systemic Risks to Charitable Giving, Report Finds
A Nonprofit Quarterly investigation published April 22 found that for-profit fundraising platforms hold systemic power over charitable giving with limited regulatory oversight. Using the December 2025 Flipcause bankruptcy as a case study, the report documents how the platform diverted 29 million dollars meant for 3,200 nonprofits into failing operations and executive accounts. Flipcause funneled all donations through a single company bank account and withheld nonprofits access to their own money. A California attorney general investigation found nearly one in five platforms were not registered as required. The report calls for stronger state oversight and warns that unregulated intermediaries pose growing risks to small nonprofits.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
NPR Receives $113 Million from Donors After Congress Eliminates Public Media Funding
NPR received 113 million dollars in major gifts following Congress eliminating all 1.1 billion dollars in federal public media funding. Connie Ballmer, a former board member, contributed 80 million dollars — the largest gift by a living donor in the organization’s history — and an anonymous donor added 33 million. The funds are intended to support digital innovation and stabilize local stations, which lost roughly 10 percent of their annual budgets. NPR president Katherine Maher said the donations do not replace federal funding and did not rule out job cuts. Public television stations and PBS lost closer to 15 percent of their budgets in the same congressional action.
Five Consecutive Years of Donor Decline Threaten Grassroots Giving Foundation
Five consecutive years of declining donor participation are threatening the structural foundation of the U.S. nonprofit sector, according to Stanford Social Innovation Review analysis published in spring 2026. The share of giving households has fallen from two-thirds in 2000 to roughly half today, a loss of approximately 20 million giving households. Charitable participation dropped 4.5 percent in 2024 alone, and just 3 percent of donors now supply 78 percent of all charitable dollars. Congress enacted a new 1,000-dollar above-the-line deduction for non-itemizers in 2026, but analysts say the cap is too low to reverse the trend. Researchers warn the erosion of grassroots giving threatens the independence of social innovation.
Sources: Stanford Social Innovation Review
DOGE Has Terminated 15,887 Federal Grants Worth $49 Billion, Nonprofits Absorb Impact
The Department of Government Efficiency has driven termination of 15,887 federal grants totaling approximately 49 billion dollars since early 2025, according to the National Council of Nonprofits. The cancelled grants were already awarded, staffed, and mid-execution before cancellation notices arrived. AmeriCorps absorbed nearly 400 million dollars in grant slashes, shutting down over 1,000 programs and cutting more than 32,000 service positions. A sector survey found 85 percent of nonprofits reported some impact from the federal changes and 51 percent lost grant funding. Twenty-four percent have reduced staff capacity. The National Council called the disruptions the most severe in the sector’s recorded history.
Sources: National Council of Nonprofits
Charity Navigator Overhauled Its Ratings System with Impact Metrics and Workplace Standards
Charity Navigator announced April 8 it has overhauled its nonprofit ratings system for the first time since 2020, adding impact metrics, workplace standards, and a new partnership with the Impact Reporting Network from True Impact and Blackbaud. Nonprofits can now submit one outcomes report shared across Charity Navigator and corporate giving platforms. Two new evaluation areas assess employee pay equity and workplace practices. The revamped system extends impact ratings to advocacy and policy programs previously excluded. Charity Navigator evaluates more than 200,000 organizations and expects the changes to raise transparency at a time of heightened donor and government scrutiny of the sector.
Sources: The NonProfit Times
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.