Her budget was cut by $40M overnight: What we do from here
When democracy is dismantled in silence, we’ve got to get louder
I got the call last week.
A longtime friend and colleague whose organization has supported pro-democracy efforts in conflict zones around the globe reached out. Her voice was steady—but it was the kind of steadiness that only comes after shock has yielded to clarity.
She told me her organization’s budget was cut from $50 million to $10 million overnight due to the closure of USAID. No hearings. No press. Just… gone.
A program built over decades, gutted in silence, and far from the only one.
She wasn’t calling for money. She wanted advice.
What do you hold onto when the house is burning down? How do you reconfigure an entire organization overnight so there’s something to continue to have an impact?
What my colleague is facing isn’t a one-off. It’s a pattern. Programs are being quietly dismantled by a vengeful administration.
So, what’s really going on?
Let’s be honest. These cuts aren’t about cost-saving. They’re about control.
I’ve seen this play out before. In my time with Human Rights Watch, I witnessed governments—some celebrated as democracies—slip into authoritarianism while the world blinked. They attacked civil society and gutted nongovernmental organizations.
Now, the signs are all too clear - it’s happening right here at home:
Patrimonial rule. The current president isn’t governing; he’s employing “strong man” posturing and rewarding loyalty. Allies get contracts. Friends get cabinet seats. And donors get to cash in on new policies while civil servants get purged.
Corruption masked as chaos. Remember when Trump allies like Marjorie Taylor Greene won big by buying stocks that dipped due to Trump’s tariff rollouts, only to cash in even bigger when those tariffs were paused? Yeah, it looks like that wasn’t an accident. It was a payday. For a very small, very powerful few.
Malfeasance so absurd it would be laughable if it weren’t terrifying. Case in point: SignalGate. Or the moment we discovered they used a chatbot to draft tariff policy based on… deficit numbers?
And the criminalization playbook. This is an old, dirty trick. Use fear to consolidate power. Manufacture domestic enemies. Scapegoat. Immigrants are among the first communities targeted as families are ripped apart and loved ones are deported without hearings, evidence, or due process. But the abuses won’t stop there. I promise you that. I’ve seen this slope. It gets steep and vast quickly, and it’s paved with silence.
So, how do we respond? Specifically, how does philanthropy respond?
Let’s start with a clear-eyed assessment of what we’re facing. This is systemic. Retaliatory. And strategic. DEI programs aren’t being reformed—whole histories are being erased. Climate groups aren’t being critiqued—they’re being criminalized.
But buried in all that gutting, dismantling, and repression is an urgent question: Can we hold the line for justice?
I think we can. Especially if we get coordinated and courageous.
Here are some thoughts on how we do that.
1. Help organizations find what’s salvageable. If a group has 95% of its budget slashed, what can they still do with integrity? Unfortunately, this may not be a moment where we get to ask, “How do we keep it all?” Instead, we may need to ask, “What must endure?” Our support should come with strategy and allyship, not just checks.
2. Restructure for resilience. We don’t have the luxury of shying away from bold pivots right now. But we can help leaders explore shared infrastructure models, strengthen coalitions, and reimagine what justice-rooted operations can look like. Not as an act of retreat—but as an act of shifting into the best fighting formation possible.
3. Acknowledge our limits—while testing them. Even if every foundation spent down their endowments tomorrow, we wouldn’t come close to closing the gap left by these government grant cuts… let alone come close to creating the durable institutions our communities deserve. What we can do is fund faster. Freer. With fewer strings and more trust. Now is the time for catalytic giving—and crystal-clear honesty about what our sector can and can’t do alone.
So, while this administration has its eyes set on dismantling democracy, we’ve got to not only join together in our fight back, but have our eyes set on building what comes next.
A final thought (and a preview)
There’s no sugarcoating this: we’re entering uncharted territory in the US. But even amidst the erosion, we still have choices. And every choice we make—to fund boldly, to restructure with vision, to speak truth, to act despite fear—is an act of love for our communities and an act of collective resistance.
In an upcoming newsletter, we’ll dive into how philanthropy itself is a target—and what it looks like to stand together when the hits come for us.
Until then, let’s coordinate our courage with the same ferocity and long-term vision this administration coordinates its attacks.
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