rise above

Foundations Must Lead With Guts, Not Just Grants It’s no secret: charitable foundations may be the next American institutions to come under attack. And that matters, because millions of people depend on nonprofits for food, shelter, education, health care, and advocacy. Those nonprofits, in turn, rely on foundations to keep their doors open. The warning signs are already here: revenue freezes, politicized investigations, executive orders targeting institutions. Oversight dressed up as intimidation. We’ve seen this before, in our own history and across the globe. And if philanthropy waits quietly, we risk becoming easy targets. As leaders of foundations with more than a century of collective experience, the authors put it plainly: complacency is complicity . Foundations must step up, not only with resources but with courage. Here’s how: 1. Prepare, but don’t obey in advance. Time is short. Foundations need legal and crisis plans ready, reserves in place, and a clear commitment to defen...