Our 'Uncivil Society' - the Fight Continues
A new name for the newsletter - and a slightly shifting focus - designed to mirror to new toughness that we're seeing in the opposition to the radical regime in Washington.
American civil society is often described as the leavening in the national bread - the working confluence of government in a liberal democracy, our vast nonprofit sector, organized philanthropy and other semi-public entities and campaigns that strive (broadly speaking) on behalf of the common good. Our communitarian instinct, and indeed, the institutional power of organizations and departments dedicated to improving life in this country, provides the air in the dough - giving us room and light and space. The bread rises.
I'll be blunt. Last week's arrest by the Trump Administration of a Wisconsin judge on specious accusations of aiding an immigrant is the darkest sign yet that civil society itself is under threat.
That’s why I’ve changed the name of this newsletter to Uncivil Society. It’s less about me, and more about the existential threats and challenges in what I’d broadly term the social sector. I’ve worked as a consultant for nonprofit organizations for 25 years now. I have 30 years of combined experience as a member of boards. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words about philanthropy, social innovation, nonprofit governance, protest movements, human rights campaigns, public-private partnerships, and new models to support an old American instinct: pitching in to help other people.
My liberalism is communitarian rather than purely ideological. It tends to support incremental but insistent change born of partnership and collaboration, imperfect but also urgent at times. This is one of these times and while we won’t be playing offense on advancing progressive policy for the next 45 months nationally, our commitment to opposition can be liberalism at its best. In this “uncivil society” our work is a contrast and an alternative - and while this newsletter will be dedicated to sounding the alarm about those existential threats posed by the gang of hateful extremists running our national government, it will also focus on hopeful signs and breakthroughs - political, cultural, organizational, maybe even technological.
The “uncivil” part may not always refer to the malignity of the moment, but to the necessity among the opposition to speak plainly, to abandon pure careerism and the mirage of safety, and engage in online spaces and on the front lines. Here’s an example: over on LinkedIn these past few weeks, the signs of danger and fear are creeping into a discourse once dedicated to career congratulations, happy talk promotional items, and employment opportunities. If you work in the nonprofit sector, you will have known a fearful few weeks. And while the threatened executive order on tax exempt status did not fall bluntly on our sector, the axe is still raised high. Some of the gosh gee super positive chatter is giving way. People are digging in, and not just the lefties.
It is fascinating to see this kind of discussion break through the standard “this is fine dot gif” attitude of the uber-polite LinkedIn. The resistance is arriving there too. But it’s also more institutional, more considered, more organizational. That’s a good thing! The professional connections in the real world matter and can be the crucial stitching that knits a successful opposition together. I admit I’m spending more time there listening to major grantmakers, leaders of nonprofit organizations, academics and thought leaders.
After all, if Trump and his rogue Department of Justice are willing to arrest a judge they don't agree with, is there a single nonprofit entity they wouldn't try to destroy?
The answer is no.
These past two weeks, I’ve spoken with clients of my consulting practice, fellow board members of the organizations whose boards I sit on, and colleagues across the sector. Everybody was scrambling. Contingency budgets and crisis plans are the order of the day. Yet the ground below us is just dry, thin, shifting sand - there is no sign of a let-up, of sanity in the national administration, or the easing of the malignity that threatens everyone who tries to make society a little fairer, to help the poor, to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to heal the sick, to preserve our environment, and educate our young people.
“What is their strategy?” I hear this constantly. But my answer holds no comfort: their strategy is destruction, pain, and misery - it’s based on a hunger for unchecked power and hatred for anyone they believe is weak and non-representative of their culture. We have seen this before in history. There is no complexity, no sub-plot, no deep plan to be countered. Only unified opposition over the next 45 months - yes, 45 months - can preserve American civil society as we know. Just as our economy was the world’s best among large nations as dawn broke on January 20th, so too was U.S. civil society - which some deride as “the establishment” or “the swamp,” depending on political ideology - an imperfect but powerful backstop to poverty, conflict and discrimination. Now, we face the end of the post-war era of gradual progress - two steps up, one step back - that has been emblematic of our institutional society. Oh, all the inequities will remain! Heck, they’ll be worse. All the base instincts of robber barons and tech edgelords will run free.
A common stand is both needed and necessary; but I think friends in civil soceity and across the nonprofit sector should understand that there are very hard days ahead. What we have to embrace is the mission-driven portion of our myriad organizational cultures - that and a willingness to work in coalition much more than our sector is used to doing. We cannot just be a million nonprofits competing in a fiscal death match for (possibly shrinking) grants and major gifts. We can’t be dozens of political factions. We have to look for ways to work together, fundraise together, go to court together and yes, stand out at the barricades together.
So stay tuned. And thanks for all your support. These newsletter has almost doubled since last fall’s election.
Taking A Stand
As some of you know, I’ve been writing that amounts to a monthly column for Democracy Docket, the journal created by civil rights lawyer Marc Elias, who is helping to lead the vast legal fight against the abuses of the Trump Administration.
Last week, I wrote about my friends at the Vera Institute of Justice, a beloved former client dedicated to fighting against mass incarceration and for a fairer system of justice in this country:
The Department of Justice abruptly cancelled $5 million in grants to fund sign language interpretation for victims of domestic violence who are deaf, expand access to counseling and treatment for people in mental health crisis and work with prosecutors’ offices to reduce the number of people entering the criminal justice system.
Then Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency stepped in to demand an oversight role in Vera’s operations.
Vera said no, and did so loudly.
First, Vera President Nicholas Turner wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi: “This leads us to believe that we are being targeted for our public opposition to President Trump’s mass deportation agenda and his gutting of federal funds for mental health and drug treatment, among other actions.”
Then Vera publicly refused to give DOGE access to its work. ““This administration has systematically attacked every aspect of civil society, from academia to law firms and the media, and is now coming after the nonprofit sector. We can only surmise that these tactics seek to silence us,” said Turner.
Vera’s actions in the face of authoritarian aggression are vital for readers of Democracy Docket to understand — and to support and emulate. For one thing, Vera is among the foremost justice reform organizations in the U.S., and has been working for more than 60 years to make our broken justice system fairer, particularly for those left behind by economic challenges or racial prejudice. For another, Vera is the model of a non-partisan organization in civil society — often acting as a bridge for government and private funding, and as a trusted partner for many nonprofit organizations and municipalities. If Trump and this outlaw administration can kneecap the Veras of this country, they can sweep the field.
In truth, this is one of the things keeping me up at night.
Today, Vera did something else that I consider both courage and smart: they started fundraising off Trump’s attack, creating an emergency campaign designed to fill the gap left by the cancellation of their Federal grants. Here’s Vera chief Nick Turner’s appeal to supporters and donors - straight up and to the camera. Well done Nick! Other nonprofit folks under attack: watch this and emulate it.
The Pope’s Visible Empathy Mattered
When Pope Francis visited the U.S. in 2015, I wrote this column for the The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Here's the money quote: "The pope’s message is one that reverberates in the U.S. social sector because it stresses both structural change and the kind of do-gooderism — a broad kind of empathy, really — that attracts so many people to work for (or support) nonprofits."
With our sector now under direct attack from a radical U.S. administration entirely lacking in human empathy, I dearly wish things had turned out differently - and that more people in this country had listened to Francis.
The Church is the world's largest human services agency, and serving the poor always seemed to be at the top of the Franciscan agenda. The Pope's personal humility, his devotion to migrants and the world's poor, his opposition to violent conflict and prejudice, and his explicit opening toward the LGBTQ community are his greatest legacies.
The institution of the Church is vastly imperfect, but Pope Francis steered it towards a humanistic liberalism that asked "who am I to judge?" Especially now, he will be greatly missed.
Thank you for your column and your insights. The complete destruction of our democratic republic, and the gutting of government functions for the people, not just millionaires, is a powerful reminder we can take nothing for granted. The assault against legitimate non-profits, against our legal and judicial systems, the attack on education in public schools and universities, the demeaning and erasing of every human not male and white, the erosion of civil and human rights - is an existential crisis in the US. It must be met with concerted resistance - written, spoken, and in the streets.
Great read. Not only are the not for profits getting shut down, so is all medical research. We are in the process of losing our standing as the leading research producing country in the world. It is very difficult to see, since I used to be funded by grants from the NEI. I expect those funds have all but dried up.