WIN: A federal court blocked Texas AG Ken Paxton’s attempt to revoke a pro-voting group’s corporate charter. The group, which focuses on increasing voter turnout among young Latinos, argued Paxton’s actions were part of an intimidation campaign meant to halt voter registration efforts.

New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life. apply.interfolio.com/178796

it is important to assert, while recognizing all the dangers it faces, and all the ways it has disappointed in the last year, that civil society in the US is still vital and strong. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

The Dells' $6b pledge to support Trump Accounts has been understood as a push for nonprofit "disintermediation." But, as Madeline Brown & I argue, it also highlights the import of the robust nonprofit infrastructure that's advanced the cash benefit field. www.urban.org/urban-wire/d...

New HistPhil post: histphil.org/2026/01/13/r... Jeffrey Berry, James Glaser, & Deborah J. Schildkraut outline the findings on the relationship btw political ideology and charitable giving from their recent book, Everyday Democracy: Liberals, Conservatives, and Their Routine Political Lives.

For a bit of a timeline cleanse...I recently finished watching Heated Rivalry, and the obvious question I have is: Is the proposed Hollander-Rozanov hockey/mental health nonprofit the most narratively consequential charity is recent cultural history?

The 10-year old me would have had his mind blown to know that Don Mattingly would one day be wearing a Phillies uniform. I don't remember why, but even as a devoted Phillies fan, he was always my favorite player growing up. I remember checking box scores every morning to see if he outhit Wade Boggs.

Finally saw Sinners; founds parts of it enjoyable, others heavy-handed. But one thing that really confounded me was its treatment of trad Scots-Irish music, literally the devil's music. Esp. given celebration of non-Anglo trad music in film, doesn't this point to a pretty ugly cultural politics?

I think there should be regulation for public bodies--and a strong norm for private ones--that having one's name attached to an institution should be an exclusively posthumous honor. www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/p...

For those trying to get a handle on the sprawling Darwin-at-the-galapagos variety of contemp mega-philanthropy, I highly rec @insidephilanthropy.com series on billionaire giving in a new Gilded Age. Here's the first post from David Callahan w/ predictions: www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/the-fut...

New Histphil post: Dana Brakman Reiser reviews Gelles's Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune and Gave It All Away. She finds it a compelling read but wanted more scrutiny of the purpose trust, Chouinard's main philanthropic instrument. histphil.org/2025/12/16/t...

NEW: The Trump-Vance White House has falsely accused an ally of Pope Leo — Sr. Norma Pimentel — of illegal activity tied to migrant aid, and cut off all federal funding to Catholic Charities in Texas. Church leaders say it’s a targeted, political reprisal against Pope Leo and the Catholic Church.

Showdown looming? NYT notes that tied for second largest gift in this $7.2b tranche from Scott was $70m to Hispanic Scholarship Fund. The week before, HSF was target of lawsuit from Edward Blum's American Alliance for Equal Rights for illegal discrimination. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...

I think you have to sit Hurts for a bit.

Jalen Hurts is simply not playing well now.

New HistPhil post: John Miles Branch writes on the history of debates over union exemptions for nonprofit organizations, and in doing so, helps bridge labor and nonprofit history, two subfields that, as Branch notes, have often moved along "separate tracks." histphil.org/2025/12/08/u...

NEW: I got a hold of letters from nearly 20 of Trump's ballroom donors, sent to a senator who requested details on how much they gave + who solicited money from them. Most ignored the actual Qs and instead boasted of their philanthropy and love of America. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Scott Bessant at WH event announcing Dells $6.2B pledge toward the Fed Savings Accounts for Children: it will usher in a "new age of capitalism and market interest for the whole country..." and of philanthropy, providing an inspiring platform. “Every Tuesday can become Giving Tuesday.”

New HistPhil post: Gizem Zircirci on her book, The Muslim Social: Neoliberalism, Charity, and Poverty, which recently received ARNOVA's 2025 Outstanding Book Prize. histphil.org/2025/11/24/t...

New HistPhil post: Peter Kurie on what the history of the Hershey Trust--the OG U.S. nonprofit with controlling stakes in a major for-profit corporation--can tell us about the OpenAI Foundation, on paper now the wealthiest private foundation in the U.S. histphil.org/2025/11/13/f...

This is obv a clash abt a very particular political moment, w/ implications touching on shutdown politics. But it likely has implications as well relating to philanthropy's ability to target pub benefit recipients & to the politics of voluntarism more generally. www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-r...

Prediction: if MTG runs, she will tap into the dormant conservative tradition of voluntarism that MAGA (& really Trump) has up till now shown little sympathy for. You could see it bubbling up in inchoate form in some of the recent congressional hearings she chaired on nonprofits...

One of the least remarked parts of Mamdani's speech yesterday was its strong implication that he wants his army of 100k volunteers to stick around and do stuff.

Call it political Skocpolianism or what you will--but this is going to be a major focus of progressive philanthropy in the coming year.

This morning, more convergence btw 2 discourses: recognition of a real appetite for participation in civic & political life as a way to address disconnection; & an appreciation that in investing in infrastructure to support that civic life, prog philanthropy is presented with a real opportunity.

Now it’s @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social, declaring civil society to be a “horrifying disappointment.” He’d like to see leaders of civil society “not be cowards”.

At the Center for Effective Philanthropy conference, @feliciawong.bsky.social discusses the Beyond Neoliberalism initiative, its successes & failures & cites the Garland Fund as historical inspiration (as chronicled by @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social). Garland Fund met the moment…is philanthropy today?

New HistPhil post: David Pozen continues our book forum on @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social' s The Radical Fund, questioning whether, given evolution in nonprofit law since the fund's heydey, it can serve as a model for contemporary philanthropy seeing to "upend America." histphil.org/2025/11/03/c...

Reporting from NYT there were other donors to the WH ballroom not cited by the administration, including several that have business before the admin. The admin's use of a nonprofit as a receptacle for the funds allows them to maintain discretionary anonymity. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/u...

One striking element of lawsuit that coalition of nonprofits filed in RI district court to challenge Trump admin's suspension of SNAP benefits, which highlights damage that will be done to nonprofits bc of massive increase in demand for their services. www.councilofnonprofits.org/pressrelease...

In Emma Green's recent NYer piece on Trump's war on higher ed, she reports she heard a version of this from multiple admin officials: "[I]f the endangered research is truly vital, universities can figure out other ways to fund it, such as donor dollars." Market infallibility applied to philanthropy.

New HistPhil post from John Witt, inaugurating a book forum on his recently published "The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America," which chronicles the influence of the American Fund for Public Service (the Garland Fund, est 1922). histphil.org/2025/10/27/w...

Not a parody.

Besides assessing how large conditional donations to fed agencies might violate the Antideficiency Act, another policy consideration must involve questions of transparency. It seems to me that over a certain dollar threshold, these sorts of gifts should not be allowed to be made anonymously.

Keep in mind as well that Congressional Republicans have directed lots of attention recently to the dangers of foreign philanthropy into US, w/ calls to restrict funding & for greater transparency.

Trump: "It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself. But I was damaged very greatly and any money I would get I would give to charity."

The whole recent Benioff saga--the about-face, the push back from Powell Jobs & Conway, and then the quasi-apology, w/ the lure of govt contracts & social ostracism as likely motives, is a perfect illustration of liabilities of reliance on engaged living mega-donors. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

For those seeking to promote civil society, good to know who's marching under its banner. NYT reports that Nigel Farage led "Civil Society Round Table" at Westminster, attended by delegation from House Judiciary Comm, to discuss threats to free speech in UK, w/ help from Alliance to Defend Freedom.

You have to read this article to its (literally) jaw-dropping end. Just quote after quote from Marc Benioff, pledging fealty to Trump, in highlight what rivals Zuckerberg as most intense shift in *public* political identity of major philanthropist in recent years. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

New HistPhil post: Nicole Marwell and Jennifer Mosley chronicle the rise of the randomized controlled trial to the top of the hierarchy of program evaluation, while also highlighting the significant ambivalence nonprofit & foundation staff have to that ascension. histphil.org/2025/10/10/r...

I think the Capital Research Center should get its story straight--the "aw shucks, we're just doing research on Open Society & had no idea the Justice Dept would weaponize it" argument is laughable. They are a part of the civil society they are working to erode. (Links in comments)

With a little bit of perspective I think it’s fair to say: that was one of the more miserable, draining nights of Philadelphia sports fandom I’ve experienced in my lifetime. When does the Sixers season start!!

Among the 9 groups cited by WH to Reuters as examples of orgs it said helped finance or plan protests where violent incidents occurred are *Indivisible*--which really does make clear how admin's anti domestic terror campaign is being used to go after pol opposition. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Just to develop the tax / nonprofit angle a bit more, the last sentence (allowing donors to claw back donations) would violate every 501(c)(3) organization's governing documents, and make them ineligible for deductible contributions. State orgs a little more complicated but likely same result.

That rare initiative in which excessive philanthropic power and state power are exquisitely intertwined. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...

Is this populism? [Butterfly meme]

CEO of DonorsTrust, the conservative DAF supporting org, warns Free Press against "weaponiz[ing] philanthropy in a way that is antithetical to philanthropic freedom.” Key to stress that defense of civil society extends across ideological & partisan spectrum. www.thefp.com/p/conservati...

I want to flag an exchange in Ross Douthat's recent NYT interview with May Mailman, "the Harvard-Trained Layer Behind Trump's Fight Against Top Universities," as the Times put it, in which Mailman directly discusses the relationship btw govt funding and philanthropy. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

New HistPhil post: I gave close watch to two cong. hearings this summer on fed funding of nonprofits to get a better sense of scope of the right's antagonism to nonprofits. One striking dimension: stirrings of MAGA voluntarism premised on split btw good & bad nonprofits. histphil.org/2025/09/25/n...