Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
New Report: 73 Percent of Nonprofits Report COVID-Level Demand as Funding Erodes
A new report by the Center for Effective Philanthropy reveals that the nation’s nonprofits face an unprecedented existential crisis. Since January 2025, federal funding freezes, DOGE-ordered grant terminations, and threats to tax-exempt status have created financial distress across the sector. The report finds 73 percent of nonprofits report demand for services at COVID-era levels, while 30 percent have already cut staff and 66 percent worry about financial stability. Nearly half of nonprofit leaders describe burnout as “very much” a concern. The sector cut nearly 29,000 jobs in 2025, with an estimated 2.8 million additional positions at risk if government funding continues to erode.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Federal Agencies Turned into Immigration Surveillance Tools, Leaving Nonprofits to Adapt
The Trump administration has extended immigration enforcement beyond ICE to agencies including the IRS, Medicaid, the Department of Education, and HUD, turning institutions created to guarantee social rights into surveillance tools. Nonprofits serving immigrant communities report clients are increasingly afraid to seek essential services, including food assistance and healthcare. Noah Gottschalk of HIAS told Nonprofit Quarterly that clients now try to “minimize being in public spaces” and that nonprofit offices — once designated sanctuary spaces — are no longer safe. A survey by the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition found 83 percent of Americans support allowing lawfully present immigrants to access health and social service programs.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
North Star Fund Chair Describes Five Ways Nonprofits Build Democratic Belonging
Sayu Bhojwani, board chair of the North Star Fund and an adjunct professor at Columbia University, reflects on four decades of nonprofit leadership built around immigrant belonging. Writing for Nonprofit Quarterly’s WeTheCivic series ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, she describes five principles nonprofit founders use to create belonging: making paths where none existed, shaping inclusion through language, building new tables for excluded communities, advocating for community needs, and bridging communities to government. Tracing her path from founding South Asian Youth Action in New York City in 1996 to her present work, Bhojwani argues the nonprofit sector is “a fundamental building block of the democracy we need today.”
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Founding a Women-led Nonprofit in Mizoram: One Leader’s Account of Building Against the Grain
Rebek Lalruatdiki Khiangte, co-founder of Full Life Access Trust (FLAT) in India’s northeastern state of Mizoram, describes leading a women-founded nonprofit in a male-dominated social sector. Founded in 2015 in Lunglei, FLAT creates safe spaces for youth through a listening room called Ka Thiante In, a personal safety education program for child protection, and life skills training. Khiangte recounts being questioned about whether a women-led organization could sustain long-term projects, and describes setting firm personal boundaries against casual sexism in professional interactions. As FLAT enters its second decade, she is working to professionalize the organization while preserving its core identity as a nimble, human-centered nonprofit.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Survey: 96 Percent of Nonprofit Boards Recruit from Personal Networks, Perpetuating Insider Culture
Nonprofit boards are not failing because of poor effort — they produce exactly the results their recruiting systems are built to produce, argues Daniel Student of Potrero Group in a Nonprofit Quarterly webinar transcript. Survey data cited by Student found that 96 percent of boards rely on personal networks of their members for recruitment, and 88 percent rely on CEO and executive director networks. The outcome is an insider-centric culture generating overextended board members, limited innovation, and a persistent shortage of diverse voices. Student argues that meaningful change requires structurally different recruiting approaches, not more effort within the same system.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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