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August 24, 2026


Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

I don’t plan to publish anything this week. My family is visiting me in LA, so I’ll be in hosting mode, spending much-needed quality time with them and soaking up the California sun! But you have plenty to read from the reading list I sent last week, so that should keep you busy :)

ICYMI: Reading List: Liberatory Philanthropy

CTA of the Week: Back Black Before August Ends

Black Philanthropy Month highlights that small donations from everyday institutions are just as impactful as those from larger institutional funders. The BackBlack initiative, started by Floyd Jones, has directed more than $12 million to underfunded Black-led nonprofits in three years, with most of last year’s 130,000-plus donors giving less than $100. With about a week left in the campaign, visit backblackmovement.org to donate to an organization listed in the directory or use their toolkit to engage your network. Black-led nonprofits should visit the Get Funding page, where partners have over $100K available this month. For more details, read the full story at U.S. News about how organizers are shifting the focus toward operating in abundance.

A Win Worth Celebrating: One Nonprofit’s Big Impact on Musicians’ Healthcare

Austin musicians have better insurance coverage than most Texans, thanks to a nonprofit focused on this goal. The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) spent ten years connecting members with free and low-cost clinics, yet about 85% remained uninsured. When the ACA marketplace launched, HAAM began directly subsidizing premiums through a partnership with Central Health, Travis County’s public hospital district. The program now costs about $4 million annually and has increased membership by 77% to over 3,300 people, with more than 90% insured and many paying nothing toward their premiums. The model has expanded to Denton, offering local musicians a $100 monthly subsidy, and to Austin restaurant workers via a Good Work Austin pilot. Read the full story on NPR.

In the News

• Q&A: Sharon Bush unpacks why AMARA is putting Black communities at the center of its philanthropy, The Triibe

• Ben & Jerry’s co-founder: corporate philanthropy ‘rolling over’ under Donald Trump, Alliance Magazine

• Evaluation for and in Solidarity: Practicing Narrative Evaluation for Systems Change, Colorlines

• Walking Targets, Columbia Journalism Review

• The nonprofit leader’s guide to keeping good people, The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• How the Trump Administration’s Actions Are Silencing the Next Generation of Black Women Advocates, National Partnership for Women & Families

• Who Gets Healthcare and Who Gets Handcuffs?, Ms. Magazine

• Playing a Rigged Game, The Progressive Magazine

• They grew up with disability rights. Now, they’re fighting to keep them, NPR

• This Is the Solution to America’s Literacy Crisis, and It’s a Lot of Fun, The New York Times

• ​​Proposed Data Centers Could Use More Electricity Than All Alabama Homes Combined, Analysis Shows. Who Will Pay?, Inside Climate News

• Voting Rights Organizations Seek to Enforce Injunction Against Mail Voting Executive Order, Legal Defense Fund

• Does Donald Trump Have a Point About the Southern Poverty Law Center?, Slate

• ‘Every advocate’s nightmare’: Inside ICE’s strategy to sidestep local oversight laws, LA Times

• Are Flock cameras the next bipartisan political issue?, The Washington Post

Listen + Watch

• Listen to Nonprofits Are Messy, a podcast that explores real-world challenges faced by nonprofit leaders, including fundraising, board leadership, organizational culture, burnout, and fostering belonging. Featuring candid conversations and practical advice from nonprofit leaders and experts, the podcast offers valuable insights for anyone involved in the nonprofit sector.

• Watch How to Build a Library, a documentary about two women in Nairobi who seek to transform a former whites-only library into a vibrant cultural center. The film follows their struggles with fundraising, local politics, and Kenya’s colonial history. It explores themes of history, access, belonging, and community effort in the reclamation and reimagining of public spaces. The premiere airs on PBS on August 24.

• Check out the Environmental Justice Oral History Project, a powerful collection of firsthand accounts from environmental justice advocates, community leaders, and residents across the U.S. South. These oral histories preserve community knowledge and experiences related to environmental injustice, land, climate, and activism. Listen to learn directly from those shaping the movement.

Tools + Resources

• This oldie but goodie from HistPhil is a valuable graduate-level syllabus for those seeking to explore the history and development of philanthropy. Created in 2015 and updated with newer works, it compiles readings and discussion topics on philanthropy and capitalism, race and inequality, foundations and government, and philanthropy’s role in shaping public policy.

• Check out DonorAssess, a free tool that assesses a donor’s emotional preparedness and alignment for giving. It goes beyond wealth or capacity to give, offering a fresh perspective on donor relationships and helping fundraisers have more intentional, donor-centered discussions.

• Explore the National Council of Nonprofits’ guide to running a nonprofit, covering legal and ethical obligations, financial management, fundraising, staff hiring and support, and strong governance. It is a practical resource for nonprofit leaders and teams seeking guidance on day-to-day operations.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Check out Turn the Volume Up! at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. This exhibition showcases how artists and everyday people can challenge injustice and drive social change. It examines themes of activism and collective action across justice movements. The exhibition opens on August 27 and will be on view until July 11, 2027. View some of the artwork featured by The Guardian.

• A new wave of Native entrepreneurs is shaping an economic future rooted in culture and history. They build on traditional trade and entrepreneurial practices to create new opportunities and strengthen their communities. Explore this MPR News feature on entrepreneurs who are helping forge a more self-reliant and sustainable economic future.

• Taawon is a leading Palestinian development organization dedicated to advancing Palestinian communities, preserving their heritage and identity, supporting living culture, and strengthening civil society. It seeks to expand equitable opportunities for Palestinians to achieve their full potential and to live with dignity, prosperity, and self-fulfillment.

Professional Development Opps

• New Voices is offering a free, one-hour online Civic Power Hour on Black August, scheduled for August 25 at noon ET. This session examines the history and significance of Black August and its legacy of resistance, and it connects that history to current local issues. The session also explores the origins and effects of the school-to-prison pipeline. Attendees will leave with specific actions they can take in their communities.

• Register now for Candid’s Proposal Writing Boot Camp. This intensive three-week online course is designed for experienced grant writers seeking to strengthen their proposal and fundraising skills. Participants receive peer collaboration and personalized feedback as they craft a funder-ready proposal and budget. The course also covers customizing proposals for funders, identifying promising funding opportunities, and building relationships with funders. The registration deadline is September 11, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET. Early-bird registration through September 2 is $650, and regular registration is $800.

• Apply for the 2027 Creative Catalyst Fellowship, offered by the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. Up to eight AAPI artists will each receive $30,000 to create work centered on the theme of “Belonging.” The program also includes a two-day in-person retreat, peer learning sessions, communications and promotional support, community engagement, and potential exhibition opportunities. The application deadline is October 15, 2026.

From Me to You

I came across this article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy about nonprofits shutting down their entire offices for a week after peak seasons, giving staff a real chance to rest and recharge. I wish more organizations would adopt this practice. Unlike individual PTO, an organization-wide break frees everyone from the pressure to check email or worry about creating additional work for others. It makes it easier for all staff (including leaders) to truly disconnect, prioritizes staff well-being, and reduces burnout.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

This list complements my Substack article, “The Master's Tools: How Traditional Grantmaking Blocks Liberation,” in which I critique the contradiction of communities relying on the same tools that sustain their oppression to attain freedom and explore more liberatory approaches to grantmaking. Liberatory philanthropy begins with the premise that those closest to the problem are also closest to the solution.

These readings expand the article’s references, tracing how tax policy and private wealth laid the foundations we know, how funding has redirected movements away from their original demands, and how communities have financed their own survival without waiting for permission from institutions. They also offer tools for funders seeking to redistribute decision-making power. I hope these sources inspire you to consider the possibilities that arise when grantmaking strategies prioritize true liberation.

Foundations (from the original essay)

brown, a. m. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.

• An approach to change grounded in relationships and adaptation, offering funders a practical alternative to planning models that leave no room for changing conditions.

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.). (2017). The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Duke University Press.

• This is the fundamental critique of the nonprofit industrial complex, including a comprehensive account of the Ford Foundation's defunding as presented in this essay.

Kaba, M. (2021). We do this ‘til we free us: Abolitionist organizing and transforming justice (T. K. Nopper, Ed.). Haymarket Books.

• Essays and interviews on abolitionist organizing and transformative justice, valuable for funders interested in adopting governance structures centered on community, accountability, transparency about rejection reasons, and ongoing support, even when a grantee’s work faces political challenges.

Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Crossing Press.

• A collection of essays and speeches on race, class, and difference, useful for funders evaluating whether their community engagement initiatives genuinely transfer authority or whether decision-making remains unchanged.

Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.

• This examines how racialized trauma embeds in the body and is transmitted across generations, offering practices for addressing it. This is useful for funders to consider when assessing the costs associated with their application cycles and the reporting requirements for those involved.

Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid: Building solidarity during this crisis (and the next). Verso Books.

• A guide to organizing survival efforts through horizontal groups, focusing on decision-making, conflict resolution, and burnout prevention. It’s helpful for funders seeking to support groups that lack nonprofit status and do not meet typical eligibility criteria.

How philanthropy shapes movements

Ahn, C. (2007). Democratizing American philanthropy. In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.), The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. South End Press.

• A historical overview of how tax laws and wealth accumulation shaped the development of the American foundation, including suggestions for higher payout requirements and greater public oversight. This overview is helpful for funders evaluating the origins and ongoing protection of their endowments.

Francis, M. M. (2019). The price of civil rights: Black lives, white funding, and movement capture. Law & Society Review, 53(1), 275–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12384

• An archival study examining how white philanthropic funding shifted the NAACP’s focus from anti-lynching efforts to education litigation, offering insight for funders tracking how their priorities shape grantees’ work.

Kivel, P. (2007). Social service or social change? In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.), The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. South End Press.

• A chapter that explains how nonprofits are often structured to address the effects of inequality rather than its root causes, helping funders evaluate whether their grants support reactive or proactive efforts.

Kohl-Arenas, E. (2015). The self-help myth: How philanthropy fails to alleviate poverty. University of California Press.

• This ethnography of farmworker organizing in California’s Central Valley traces how foundation funding shifted from confronting growers and labor issues to programs centered on individual responsibility. This shift helps funders assess whether their strategies target the root causes of poverty or simply ask impoverished people to fix the problems themselves.

Ostrander, S. A. (2007). The growth of donor control: Revisiting the social relations of philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 356–372.

• A research article examining how donors have gained more direct control over their donations, helping funders assess whether their practices have shifted authority toward or away from communities.

Rodríguez, D. (2007). The political logic of the non-profit industrial complex. In INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.), The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. South End Press.

• The specific chapter that defines the nonprofit industrial complex and argues that it absorbs radical movements into structures controlled by the state and private wealth, helping funders understand what their grantmaking supports and what it unknowingly restricts.

The critique of institutional philanthropy

Arnove, R. F. (Ed.). (1980). Philanthropy and cultural imperialism: The foundations at home and abroad. G. K. Hall.

• This collection of case studies examines how Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller shaped education, research, and public policy in the U.S. and internationally. It is valuable for funders seeking to track how early strategies from their field spread a single development model and displaced alternative approaches.

Giridharadas, A. (2018). Winners take all: The elite charade of changing the world. Alfred A. Knopf.

• This book highlights how elite-led social change, driven by philanthropy, directs reform efforts toward solutions that do not jeopardize their wealth. It helps funders determine whether their grantmaking practices are effectively addressing inequality or merely creating the illusion of doing so.

McGoey, L. (2016). No such thing as a free gift: The Gates Foundation and the price of philanthropy. Verso.

• A case study of the Gates Foundation’s influence on global health and agricultural policy, tracing how its funding shapes decisions at the World Health Organization and beyond, useful for funders seeking to hold the Foundation accountable for the agendas its money sets.

Nickel, P. M., & Eikenberry, A. M. (2009). A critique of the discourse of marketized philanthropy. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(7), 974–989.

• A research article examining how business language, such as return on investment, scale, and impact, has reshaped the way giving is discussed and evaluated, useful for funders considering what gets excluded when social change must be described as a product with measurable returns.

Reich, R. (2018). Just giving: Why philanthropy is failing democracy and how it can do better. Princeton University Press.

• A political theorist analyzes how tax subsidies and legal protections allow foundations to operate indefinitely with minimal public oversight, helping funders assess whether their independence from public accountability is beneficial or problematic.

Roelofs, J. (2003). Foundations and public policy: The mask of pluralism. State University of New York Press.

• A political analysis of how foundation funding professionalizes movement work, making it more acceptable to institutions. This helps funders evaluate grantees’ current outputs against their previous organizing efforts before funding.

Horizontal Resource Sharing

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. (n.d.). https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org

• Free organizing guides and training materials for managing mutual aid efforts through decentralized, volunteer-led initiatives. These resources help funders understand how survival work is coordinated in the absence of a formal staffing structure.

Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. (n.d.). From banks and tanks to cooperation and caring: A strategic framework for a just transition. https://movementgeneration.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/JT_booklet_Eng_printspreads.pdf

• A framework designed to transition economies from reliance on extraction to community-led governance and shared ownership, offering funders insights from organizers rather than from grantmakers.

Sitrin, M., & Colectiva Sembrar (Eds.). (2020). Pandemic solidarity: Mutual aid during the Covid-19 crisis. Pluto Press.

• Firsthand accounts from mutual aid groups across 15 countries during the early pandemic highlight that communities provided food, medicine, and housing support more quickly than traditional funders.

Community-controlled economics

Akuno, K., & Nangwaya, A. (Eds.). (2017). Jackson rising: The struggle for economic democracy and Black self-determination in Jackson, Mississippi. Daraja Press.

• This outlines Cooperation Jackson’s initiatives to develop worker cooperatives, community land trusts, and a democratic city government in Jackson, Mississippi. It serves as a valuable resource for funders evaluating the requirements of long-term investments in community ownership and contrasting them with the limitations of a typical grant duration.

Hossein, C. S. (2017). The Black social economy in the Americas: Exploring diverse community-based markets. Palgrave Macmillan.

• Research on rotating savings clubs, cooperative banking, and informal lending systems developed by Black communities across the Americas after being marginalized from formal financial options. This research is valuable for funders seeking to channel capital into community-led practices.

Nembhard, J. G. (2014). Collective courage: A history of African American cooperative economic thought and practice. Pennsylvania State University Press.

• A history of Black cooperative businesses, credit unions, and mutual aid efforts from the 1800s onward, often established under threat of violence. Useful for funders seeking to develop strategies grounded in cooperative ownership, democratic governance, and a tradition of Black economic self-determination that predates institutional philanthropy.

Redesigning grantmaking practice

Gibson, C. (2018). Deciding together: Shifting power and resources through participatory grantmaking. GrantCraft, Candid. 10.15868/socialsector.32988

• A free guide, created with input from participatory grantmakers worldwide, explains why and how funders delegate funding decisions to the communities they serve, sharing challenges, lessons learned, and best practices. This resource is useful for funders seeking to involve communities in grantmaking.

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. (2018). Power moves: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide for equity and justice. https://ncrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Power-Moves-Philanthropy.pdf

• This self-assessment tool evaluates whether a foundation strengthens community power, shares authority with grantees, and uses its influence to advance justice. It’s useful for funders focused on questions of authority and power.

Villanueva, E. (2021). Decolonizing wealth: Indigenous wisdom to heal divides and restore balance (2nd ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

• This argument suggests that philanthropy follows the logic of colonization and separation. It outlines seven steps toward reparative giving, helping funders reflect on how their endowments were formed and what giving back that wealth entails.

Wrobel, B., & Massey, M. (2021). Letting go: How philanthropists and impact investors can do more good by giving up control. Massey & Wrobel.

• Case studies of donors and investors who have delegated decision-making authority to the communities or individuals their funds support. These serve as useful examples for funders seeking to understand what ceding control entails in practice and the potential costs to institutions that adopt this approach.

Additional resources

Liberated Capital

• A giving community within the Decolonizing Wealth Project that moves unrestricted funds to Indigenous and Black-led work.

The Resonance Framework

• A Just Transition guide from Justice Funders for philanthropic institutions, organized around redistributing wealth, democratizing power, and shifting economic control. It includes strategic questions to help institutions move toward more restorative practices and stories of funders acting in solidarity.

Resource Generation

• A community group for individuals ages 18 to 35 with wealth and social privilege, focused on redistributing the resources they control and guided by the communities most affected by injustice.

Trust-Based Philanthropy Project

• A funder-to-funder initiative to make equitable grantmaking and community accountability standard practice. It provides tools and peer networks to help institutions shift from a donor-centric to a community-centric approach, supporting funders in re-evaluating their grantmaking practices and addressing underlying power imbalances.

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August 17, 2026


Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

Can philanthropy be liberatory? I feel like that’s a bit of an oxymoron, since philanthropy itself exists because of labor exploitation and wealth hoarding. Still, I think there are several ways we can push the envelope to make it more liberatory. That said, I’m preparing another reading list that centers liberatory-focused philanthropy, based on my essay “The Master’s Tools: How Traditional Grantmaking Blocks Liberation.” It will feature readings on topics such as abolition, mutual aid, embodied trauma, cooperative economics, and organizing practices that operate entirely outside the nonprofit industrial complex. Expect it in your inbox this Thursday, August 20!

ICYMI: Holding Grace in One Hand, Anger in the Other

CTA of the Week: Join the Nonprofits Get It Done Campaign for National Nonprofit Day

Today is National Nonprofit Day, and the National Council of Nonprofits is using it as a rallying date for its Nonprofits Get It Done campaign, a national effort to build public support strong enough to prompt lawmakers to protect the organizations that serve communities. The campaign offers three ways to get involved:

1. Free, customizable design assets for social media, print, and digital platforms to showcase local nonprofits.

2. A ready-to-send letter to Congress that you can complete in about two minutes at nonprofitsgetitdone.org.

3. A merchandise store if you’d like to wear your support.

A Win Worth Celebrating: Nonprofit Camp Inspires Girls to Learn Trades

Tools and Tiaras, founded by plumber Judaline Cassidy, hosted a weeklong camp in Midtown Manhattan where teenage girls learned about plumbing. Women make up only 2 to 3% of plumbers, and more than half a million plumbing positions may remain vacant next year. The girls received practical training, mentorship, and an authentic glimpse into a career that women aren’t traditionally encouraged to pursue. One camper is now interested in designing bathrooms. Learn more by watching the Eyewitness News ABC7NY clip.

In the News

• Who Will Raise the Money When the Money Raisers Are Gone?, SSIR

• This Journalist Says Tech Billionaires Are Trying to Take Over U.S. Democracy. Here’s What He Wants You to Know, Inc.

• ‘Sanctuary people’ redefine what it means to protect immigrants in uncertain times, The Conversation

• What’s driving the public trust gap between nonprofits and philanthropy?, Candid

• The Long Arc of Movement Making: A Conversation on the Democratic Principles of the Environmental Justice Movement with Three Movement Pioneers, Nonprofit Quarterly

• The Next Fight for Fair Housing Is Online, TIME

• We are US civil rights lawyers. Trump’s policies have driven us to seek justice internationally, The Guardian

• How Nonprofits Are Resisting Trump’s War on Immigration at the State Level, Alliance for Justice

• Why aren’t we in the same room?, Alliance Magazine

• The Forgotten History of the Civil Rights Movement’s Fight for Economic Justice, Hammer & Hope

• Three young activists on finding solutions to the issues that matter most to them, Amnesty International

• Researchers, advocates rail against government’s efforts to end workforce data collection, AP News

• What could stop Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians?, Al Jazeera

• New Research Shows DEI Policies Did Not Hurt Companies’ Bottom Line After Trump’s Executive Order, The Root

• Data centers are a political issue crossing party lines, driving voters to candidates, NPR

Listen + Watch

• Watch Selma Sisters March On, a documentary about Alice and Denise Thomas, who were 16 and 14 when they marched from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, were repeatedly jailed for their activism, and now share their story as the Voting Rights Act turns 61.

• Check out this episode of The Joy Reid Show, where activist Dreisen Heath exposes the tactics and falsehoods that delay reparations for African descendants of slavery and outlines a strategy to reignite the movement.

• Listen to this episode of NPR’s Code Switch podcast about Mahmoud Khalil’s lawsuit, which alleges a public-private conspiracy to punish his pro-Palestinian speech under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. Civil rights attorney Randolph McLaughlin, who used that same Reconstruction-era law to sue the Klan in the 1980s, is featured. It traces how the law has been wielded against the KKK and Unite the Right, and perhaps next against ICE.

Tools + Resources

• This report from Brookings and the American Indian College Fund highlights how federal funding for Tribal nations increased after COVID but declined again starting in 2025, breaching trust and treaty commitments. Meanwhile, philanthropy contributes less than 1% of all U.S. giving to Native-serving causes. The report also suggests actions for policymakers and funders to address this disparity.

• Listen to Community is a free hub, supported by seven philanthropy-serving organizations, that provides practical tools for empowering communities, a listening assessment to evaluate your foundation’s current position, a participatory philanthropy toolkit, and a guide to including impacted community members on your governing board.

• Candid and the Rockefeller Archive Center announced a partnership on August 10 to permanently house Issue Lab’s twenty-year archive of more than 36,000 nonprofit and philanthropic reports, case studies, and toolkits, making two decades of the sector’s documented successes and failures freely accessible.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Forward Together is a national reproductive justice organization that centers the peoples, families, and communities experiencing reproductive oppression. It prioritizes queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color and uses a cultural strategy to shift how society thinks about family and to build power and movements.

• Where Is My Land helps Black families reclaim land stolen through violence and legal fraud by combining research and public advocacy to pursue restitution when the land itself cannot be returned and to press institutions and government bodies to acknowledge how the theft occurred.

• The Community Justice Exchange is a national hub for developing and testing tactical interventions and innovative organizing tools to advance the abolition of the prison-industrial complex. It supports community-based organizations experimenting with bottom-up, power-building strategies within the criminal legal and immigration detention systems.

Professional Development Opps

• Applications are now open for the Change Collective, a six-month leadership fellowship designed for local changemakers committed to bridging divides and tackling issues in their communities. Fellows participate in both national and local in-person gatherings, receive expert-led training in civic leadership and community building, and create a Civic Action Plan focused on a specific local challenge. Upon completing the fellowship, members gain access to a national network with ongoing opportunities for advanced training, events, and mentorship.

• Registration is now open for Race Forward’s Choosing Racial Equity in Challenging Times, a six-session online program for those working to sustain racial equity efforts amid policy and legal challenges. Running from mid-September to early December, it combines six 2.5-hour group sessions in which participants identify a real challenge, develop a targeted action plan, and gain practical skills in impact assessment and framing. Open to individuals from nonprofits, philanthropy, government, law, education, health, and the private sector. The sliding-scale fee ranges from $445 to $785, with a 10% group discount.

• The Bipartisan Policy Center and the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders will host a free virtual panel on September 9, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET, to discuss the future of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Panelists will review the law’s reforms, address questions about federal agency implementation, and explore potential impacts on housing supply across states and communities.

From Me to You

I recently watched a YouTube interview in which Oprah spoke with Dr. Jay Van Bavel, a psychology and neuroscience professor at NYU and head of the Center for Conflict and Cooperation. They discussed why people have become increasingly unkind. A recent study found that 53% of Americans feel society has become less civil, and more than a third often encounter rudeness in public. It was a strong reminder to always show kindness, especially because this level of collective meanness goes beyond character flaws. We live in a world where people are scared and overwhelmed. This moment seems designed to make us see each other as threats and forget to be kind and compassionate.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

However, the tendency to dismiss someone who’s caused harm doesn’t arise out of nowhere, and cancel culture has made full-blown dismissal feel routine despite its ineffectiveness. adrienne maree brown explains this in her book We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice. Cancel culture often functions as a punitive, disposable tool that mimics carceral systems rather than fostering true accountability, healing, or systemic change. 

And yet, this week I found myself angry about Rashad Robinson’s “second chance” and the lack of cancellation following his 2024 resignation from Color Of Change, which ended “an era of toxic leadership and lack of accountability” during his tenure as President. Color Of Change has a history of ineffective leadership that has undermined its advocacy work, as I’ve noted before, based on my experiences while employed there from 2021-2022. There were also allegations of sexual assault and bullying, along with deep layoffs during his tenure as President.

But none of this has stopped him from being a USA Today bestselling author, which I learned while scrolling on LinkedIn. After clicking his page, I also saw that he’s still speaking at events and consulting with organizations as a strategist. He’s still touting himself as a changemaker and leader committed to justice and change. Is this what extended grace looks like? Being allowed to hold your place on the social ladder despite acting as a complete antithesis of a social justice leader, with no public apology for your actions? Should I and others learn to be okay and not give in to cancel culture despite facing real harm?

Rashad is just one example of someone who still has social and relational capital despite his actions. There are so many more examples I could name. Martin Luther King Jr. was an adulterer, yet he still has a national holiday we observe annually. Should federal fraud indictments against regional Black Lives Matter chapter leaders, like the one in Oklahoma, delegitimize the whole BLM movement? César Chávez was exposed this year over allegations of sexually abusing women and minors decades earlier, yet many people and organizations still chose to celebrate him on César Chávez Day.

This is a tension and a complexity I’ve been pondering. I’ve read Brown’s arguments that cancel culture devolves into a reactive, destructive cycle rather than a healing one, even though it stems from a valid desire to address real harm. I understand that social justice movements can and should address conflict and harm without replicating the systems they seek to dismantle. Anyone navigating the nonprofit-industrial complex should have the skills for principled struggle and collective care.

But I found it hard to operate within and practice that mindset this week. At what point is enough, enough? What happens when people aren’t held accountable, or don’t hold themselves accountable, for the harm they’ve caused? Do we let it go and walk away, sitting in the discomfort and frustration of not knowing whether or when they might act harmfully again?

I don’t want to be in a space where my closure comes from someone’s downfall or cancellation. That’s not productive or helpful to anyone. And it took me writing this to realize the root of my anger and where to place it, and that’s in the systems that make harm possible and perpetuate it. There will always be individual bad actors or good actors who make poor choices in fights for justice. That’s being human.

I used to believe we needed to become better people to build better systems. Now I see we need both: people willing to grow and systems intentionally designed to support us amid our imperfections and mistakes.

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August 10, 2026


Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

Up next in the queue is…to be determined. In the meantime, check out last week’s Builders of Justice profile featuring Nourbese Flint!

ICYMI: Nourbese Flint Is Playing the Long Game for Repro Justice

CTA of the Week: Participate in the Block the Bombs and Deadly Merger Phone Bank Event

Congress is in August recess, giving us a brief window before the Senate resumes work on the National Defense Authorization Act in September. On Wednesday, August 12, at 7 p.m. ET, the Adalah Justice Project, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action, and Democratic Socialists of America are hosting a phone bank to reach constituents in key Senate districts. Volunteers will connect constituents directly with their senators’ offices, focusing on members of the conference committee, which reconciles the House and Senate versions of the bill. This committee can still remove the Deadly Merger provision, which would link U.S. and Israeli military technology and data. RSVP to volunteer, or, if you can't attend, use the campaign’s tool to call your representatives. 

A Win Worth Celebrating: A Philly Occupational Therapist is Making Disability Inclusion Her Mission

Amanda Parezo, an occupational therapist and professor at Thomas Jefferson University, became paralyzed in 2021 after a stray bullet struck her at a park in a Philadelphia neighborhood. Drawing on her experience with spinal cord injuries from her work with patients, she has used that knowledge to advocate for local disability inclusion. In Old City, her efforts include pushing for accessible walkways during construction, ramps at business entrances, and wheelchair sports programs for children. She also organizes adaptive sports events, such as the Life Rolls On surfing event in Wildwood, where Jefferson Health volunteers help participants ride waves. These events attract hundreds of spectators each year and aim to shift perceptions through direct exposure to accessibility needs. Learn more from Whyy.

In the News

• Opinion: Ms. Rachel’s Stand for Racial Justice Reveals a Brutal History of Policing White Allies, The Root

• How much more will the Supreme Court harm our civil & voting rights?, LGBTQ Nation

• What to watch as legal battle over birthright citizenship heats up again, The Hill

• How Coordinated Action Helped Shape the Bipartisan Senate Continuing Resolution, National Council of Nonprofits

• Data Centers, AI and the Fight for Control, The Understory

• Slow Philanthropy, SSIR

• Trust in public health institutions is eroding. What can officials do?, NPR

• Bipartisan bill aims to boost paid family leave, KFOR

• ACLU launches nationwide legal challenge over alleged ICE abuses, Salon

• Beyond ‘filling the gap’: Rethinking global philanthropy in a changing aid landscape, Alliance Magazine

• What do Black-led nonprofits and their leaders need right now?, Candid

• Trump administration is withholding more than $1B in Medicaid funds from California and Minnesota, in latest example of weaponizing real and imagined fraud, The Conversation

• What If Effective Philanthropy Requires More Than Strategy?, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

• ‘We Can’t Build a System on Luck’, Civil Eats

• Is Americans’ declining trust in media driven by political messaging?, Nieman Lab

Listen + Watch

• In this recorded webinar, the National Council of Nonprofits outlines four principles for ethical online fundraising platforms, developed in collaboration with 52 state and regional associations representing nearly 40,000 nonprofits. You’ll learn to recognize unethical platform practices and understand what transparency and timely payment should look like in online charitable giving.

• In this episode of Block & Build, Convergence Magazine’s weekly movement politics podcast, Shanelle Matthews and Yewande Addie discuss their new report, Rising Narratives for Radical Futures: Talking Across Difference for a Multi-Racial Democracy, published by the Radical Communicators Network and Rising Majority. They argue that organizers fighting authoritarianism should develop narrative strategies tailored to specific audiences and issues.

• This Democracy Docket documentary highlights Troost Avenue in Kansas City, a street that has long served as the city’s racial dividing line, to underscore the importance of voting rights. It argues that representation shapes decisions about street repairs, school closures, and the prioritization of concerns at City Hall. The urgency of this issue stems from the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Tools + Resources

• Enhance your knowledge of nonprofit governance and leadership with free, on-demand videos from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. These videos are ideal for current and prospective nonprofit board members and executive directors, providing practical tools and insights to improve board effectiveness.

• This field paper from Grumpy Lemon Enterprises, commissioned by Detroit Excellence in Youth Arts, argues that youth arts should be treated as civic and developmental infrastructure and that Detroit should recognize, measure, fund, and coordinate youth arts to expand access.

• This one-pager and checklist from the National Council of Nonprofits highlight that the August recess is a prime opportunity for nonprofits to influence federal funding decisions. They explain how to prepare and engage effectively through site visits, community roundtables, in-district meetings, and leave-behind materials that combine impact data with constituent stories.

• The 50th edition of the National Urban League’s State of Black America report reviews the state of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for Black Americans as the nation marks its 250th anniversary. It highlights significant job losses, approximately $87 billion in lost income, and civil rights challenges. The report’s response focuses on combating poverty, defending democracy, and advocating for diversity.

• Aligning Efforts to Grow Our Economy: Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream is a field assessment conducted by Beloved Economies, BLIS Collective, and Imperative 21. It’s based on 74 interviews with practitioners across the U.S. inclusive economies ecosystem, as well as an analysis of their communications materials. The study examines which narratives currently shape the space and identifies opportunities to unify and strengthen them to catalyze transformative change.

Social Justice Spotlights

• The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) works to hold social media and AI companies legally accountable for harm they cause to vulnerable users. SMVLC seeks to apply product liability principles to compel social media companies to place consumer safety at the forefront of their economic analysis and to design safer platforms that protect users from foreseeable harm.

• The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities is a political platform for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, united in defending Mother Earth for the benefit of all humanity, now and in the future. It represents 35 million people living in forest territories across 24 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

• Check out this teach-in from Kinfolk Tech and the Black Memory Collective, where archivist Melissa J. Nelson draws on Saidiya Hartman’s critical fabulation, Camille Turner’s Afronautic methodology, and Tina Campt’s listening to images to reframe Black imagination and Afrofuturism within the archives. It explores gaps and silences rooted in colonial imaginaries.

• Inside Story is a groundbreaking video series from The Marshall Project, created by formerly incarcerated individuals. The newest episode explores what prison looks like when it isn’t focused solely on punishment. Bartley, who spent 27 years behind bars, visits Hamelin, Germany, where inmates wear their own clothes, live in cell blocks that resemble apartments, and can earn 12-hour passes to visit loved ones. Evidence indicates that rehabilitation is effective, yet the U.S. has chosen to prioritize punishment.

• The Healers of Harlem: The Black Women Who Changed Medicine Forever, by science writer and illustrator Nina Chhita, being released on August 25, draws on extensive archival research and unpublished sources to tell the story of the Black women at Harlem Hospital whose contributions revolutionized American medicine. It also highlights the hospital’s role in the Civil Rights Movement and in the 1958 surgery that saved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after he was stabbed in Harlem.

Professional Development Opps

• Apply to the Local Leader Lab, a six-week virtual program hosted by She Should Run for women ready to build power. You’ll meet weekly on Zoom, receive 1:1 coaching, and work through a framework that begins by mapping who makes decisions in your community and ends with you launching a civic project on an issue you care about. Costs range from $25 to $250, and the program connects you to a national alumnae network. Applications close on August 25 for the cohort starting September 16.

• Check out the Bold Ventures Repair Lab, an eight-month peer-learning cohort for donors built on the idea that reparative giving works best as a shared practice. It brings together participants with a range of experience for nine virtual group sessions, two 1:1 coaching sessions with a Bold Ventures advisor, and curated readings and reflection prompts in between. Participants leave with a defined philanthropic identity and giving mission, a practical roadmap, and relationships with other donors and advisors. Applications close on August 25, and the cohort begins in September 2026.

• Apply to the 2027 Movement Leader Fellowship, hosted by Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. This seven-month program is designed for experienced organizers leading power-building organizations. It combines two college-credit courses at CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies with two weeklong immersive retreats, individualized leadership coaching, and a national cohort of peers. Selected individual fellows are asked to contribute $500, and organizations contribute on a sliding scale. Priority applications are due September 21, and the final deadline is October 19.

From Me to You

A close friend called me brave while we were catching up on the phone over the weekend. I may not always be sure of myself, but once I go for something, I go all in and make it happen. From starting this Substack to moving across the country, none of it felt like I was being deliberately brave in the moment. It just felt like the only way forward. Sometimes you just gotta do it, whatever that “it” is for you, rather than waiting until you “feel” ready to take action.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

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“I will never work at a nonprofit. I would never do this work because I saw how hard it was.”

That’s what Nourbese Flint believed as someone who grew up as a “legacy kid” in Los Angeles’s nonprofit sector. Surrounded by some of the most prominent founders of the reproductive justice movement, including her mother, she knew early on that dedicating your life to social justice comes with a heavy toll.

She held on to this thought process into her young adulthood, majoring in journalism at San José State University. However, she found it difficult to resist what felt like a clear calling. She regularly attended reproductive rights events and was regarded by her friends as the go-to source for information on birth control and sexual health.

She explains, “The work of repro justice has always been with me. That’s just where I grew up. Whether among friends or family, they never let me escape from it.”

She went on to work at university campus health clinics, spent ten years at her mother’s organization, and founded the nation’s first Black women’s reproductive justice 501(c)(4). Today, Nourbese serves as President of All* Above All and its Action Fund, directing nationwide efforts to advance abortion justice and strengthen the political influence of voters of color.

Not bad for someone who said she would never take on this type of work.

Big Dreams, Little Credentials

After undergrad, Nourbese worked at an organization dedicated to addressing health disparities. She recalls sitting in a room full of highly educated people discussing these disparities.

However, she wasn’t allowed to speak because she lacked the credentials (which is code for “you don’t have enough degrees, you have a junior-level job title, and the topic is above your pay grade”). During a break, she suggested a solution to one of her colleagues, who responded politely but dismissively: “Interesting idea. Go take notes.”

Sound familiar? It definitely does to me. I know I’ve had my fair share of being a notetaker while those with more credentials echoed my ideas.

Flint continued, “I was like, I could do this. I could do this in the real world. I’m running circles around some of these people with fancy degrees.”

Instead of leaving that room that day believing she wasn’t ready to lead, she left knowing she was. She went back to school for her master’s in women’s health at Suffolk University and fully began embracing her calling.

Homecoming: Extended

Flint came home to Los Angeles after completing grad school to help her mother at Black Women for Wellness (BWW), the organization Flint’s mom founded in 1997. The plan was to stay for three months before returning to the Bay Area.

However, three months quickly became a decade.

During that time, Trump took office for his first term, and BWW became an integral part of the community, largely serving as the place where people asked, “Who do we vote for?” As a 501(c)(3) organization, they weren’t allowed to endorse candidates. The legal constraints of a traditional nonprofit limited their ability to use their resources fully and to engage in highly partisan issues.

So, Flint handled the paperwork, assembled a board, and established Black Women for Wellness Action Project, the nation’s first Black women’s reproductive justice 501(c)(4).

The organization was formed for reasons that went beyond a single election cycle. It aimed to address the well-documented disparities that Black women face in California through political advocacy. Being a 501(c)(4) enabled the identification and support of candidates committed to Black women’s health and the holding of them accountable once in office.

“Although we were putting people in office, folks weren’t thinking about us and our health and our issues when it came to delivering on the policy objectives that would impact our lives,” she says. “We needed some more tools in the tool shed to be able to hold folks accountable to the lives of Black women and girls in California.”

Defining the Future

Flint frequently returns to the question of accountability when discussing her years of state work.

“Who am I accountable to, and why?”

Earlier in her career, she worked at a community organization where people could come into the office to share what was happening in their neighborhoods. She attended community events to stay informed and accessible. The open-door culture kept her connected to the community and honest about whether the policies she was pushing matched what her community said it needed.

She also has fond memories of a woman named Miss Barbara, an elder Flint met at a meeting who strongly believed in her team’s work. She would visit the office and contribute her pocket change, saying, “Just put this to the work.” This wasn’t for any specific program or campaign. She was supporting the work as Flint and her team saw fit.

“Knowing how valuable that was to her, her investment into the work that I did, it would make my heart very full,” Flint explains. “But it also just sat with me on why I am here.”

Around the same time, California hit several walls. Despite its significant efforts, federal policies continually hindered its progress. Achieving real change required federal participation, prompting Flint to transition to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she served as Senior Director of Black Leadership and Engagement. She joined at a challenging time, amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

She describes it as a hectic moment that revealed both the power of national work at that scale and the sheer devastation the decision inflicted on abortion access. It also underscored the importance of maintaining a sense of community while overseeing policy, narrative, cultural shifts, and strategy from a broad perspective.

“Many people who work in the national arena have never actually done local work,” she says. “There’s just something missing.”

She considers herself fortunate to have experienced both levels of advocacy. The years spent in community-centered organizations and events gave her experiences you don’t always get at the national level. She expresses gratitude for being able to apply those lessons in every national setting she’s in.

Impact Maintenance 101

With Flint being a founding member of Trust Black Women and the Black Women’s Democratic Club, I asked her what it takes to build lasting coalitions.

Her response wasn’t what I expected. She had been watching interviews with astronauts who orbited the moon. When asked about their experience in the small capsule, they described the preparation needed to maintain harmony among themselves. Flint sees the same pattern in movement work.

“What makes things last is holding the mission and vision of why we came together, while also understanding how to be in conflict with each other so we can get to where we need to go without it destroying the space itself or the relationships that we have in it,” she says. “A lot of broken spaces got to a moment and didn’t know how to be in integrity with each other, and that collapsed the actual movement.”

Her advice for new coalitions is to initiate those discussions early, while enthusiasm is high. What should we do if disagreements arise? How can we maintain communication and continue progressing?

“If you’re asking people to show up for you, what does it mean to show up for them?” she asks. “I try to show up for folks in the ways I would want somebody to show up for me.”

That’s not always easy, however. Flint is candid about her ongoing learning in coalition building, particularly on the East Coast. The DC culture can be overwhelming for her, and she explains that it is often a transactional, gossipy, and mean-spirited environment that seeks to undermine people’s integrity.

“That’s something that I’m still having to figure out how to reground myself in,” she admits. “Approaching conversations with grace, maintaining my integrity with the work.”

This is important for anyone involved in advocacy. Integrity is something you must actively uphold, practiced through small, intentional decisions.

Rights vs. Health vs. Justice

Flint emphasizes the importance of using the terms reproductive rights, reproductive health, and reproductive justice accurately, as they are often used interchangeably but have different contexts.

Reproductive rights are established through laws, court rulings, and legislation, involving court cases, bills, and organizations advocating on those issues. In contrast, reproductive health refers to the actual delivery of care, managed by clinicians and providers such as Planned Parenthood and women’s health specialists.

Reproductive justice is a distinct concept. It was first introduced in June 1994 by the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, who define it as the human right to bodily autonomy, to have children, not to have children, and to parent the children one has in safe and sustainable communities.

The framework takes a human rights approach and applies Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, which recognizes that social categories such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability are interconnected and that different forms of discrimination and privilege often overlap, creating unique challenges for people with multiple identities.

“You are not doing reproductive justice work if you are not looking at race, class, and gender,” Flint says. “There are people who do reproductive rights work that is not reproductive justice. Some people do reproductive health work that is not reproductive justice.”

Flint emphasizes that an intersectional perspective is essential given historical injustices against Black, brown, Indigenous, and trans women.

“There’s no world where I can look at repro justice and not have to look at the race and gender lens,” she says. “If you are not looking at the race, gender, and class lens while you are approaching your work, you’re actually not doing your job.”

Present Work

Currently, the campaign keeping Flint energized and excited about her work is For All Our Futures, which connects directly to her origin story and to the idea that the future isn’t just something that happens but something we shape through our actions.

“The notion that the future simply unfolds is a story used to disempower people.”

For All Our Futures aims to outline the full scope of reproductive justice by highlighting all aspects of having or not having children and of raising families with dignity. This includes everything from comprehensive maternal care and abortion access to paid leave and child care. Various states and local governments are already passing resolutions to support this cause, and the campaign is moving toward federal recognition.

“We’ll never be in the space where folks are just like, oh, we don’t know what you want, and undersell us,” Flint says. “We want to put out what the vision is so we can work towards it and declare it and be incredibly bold around it.”

She is also pragmatic about the political obstacles posed by politicians who argue that reproductive issues can be postponed, claiming that elections and living costs should take precedence, with women’s issues being sidelined.

“The asterisk in our name is a symbol of the people who always get left out of the conversation when people say they did something for ‘all’,” says Flint. “We are no longer going to be left out of the conversation. When we say for all our futures, it is for all of our futures.”

(Re)writing Wrongs

As a writer, I asked her where the media often gets it wrong in coverage of repro work. More newsrooms should take her answer to heart.

The anti-abortion movement’s image has evolved, but most coverage hasn’t reflected this shift.

“They’re still viewing it as a religious zealot issue or a theological debate,” she explains. “However, it’s really a struggle over power.”

She highlights a growing group of pronatalist tech advocates who support a modern eugenics movement, alongside cultural voices promoting the idea that some groups should have more children and that feminism should be reshaped to focus on increasing birth rates. Meanwhile, the media presents these issues as separate stories with no connection to one another.

“There’s a new villain, and this villain is intersectional in the way they are approaching the work,” she says. “We need to step up our game.”

Newsrooms continue to report on abortion, voting rights, health disparities, and environmental harm as separate issues, resulting in fragmented stories that readers struggle to piece together. Meanwhile, opponents are actively engaging in all three areas, but the coverage hasn’t yet reflected this interconnectedness.

Dreaming Forward

Near the end of our discussion, I asked Flint what advice she would offer to someone aspiring to work in this field. Her response: volunteer. Seek out someone involved in the work you desire, ask for mentorship, and if they can’t, request an introduction to someone who can help.

“Nothing can replace that mentorship,” she emphasizes. “It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have.”

I also asked about legacy, beyond just the policy campaigns and wins.

“I know this is cheesy, but I do want to be known as a good mom,” she says.

Raising a healthy, whole, and joyful child into adulthood is a responsibility she takes as seriously as anything in her career.

The second part of her response focuses on inheritance and gratitude to those who helped launch her career. As the daughter of a reproductive justice advocate, she is acutely aware of whose work underpins her success. She describes it as a relay race, where the true measure of a leg is how far you carry the baton before passing it on.

“I sit on a legacy of folks who hoped and dreamed and pushed when there was nothing to hope for. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was just really a lot of darkness, and they still worked and pushed and fought for me to be here today,” she says. “My piece is to grab and hold that mantle and run it as far as I can, so the next generation can see liberation and know that we fought as hard as possible for them to be free one day.”

She wants to be an ancestor generations after her can admire, embodying boldness and courage without becoming a martyr.

Finally, mission-driven work often rests on the idea that individuals fighting for social justice must be prepared to sacrifice everything. But Flint has kept her whimsy and joy throughout her journey, and still does.

“Being a leader and fighting for the right side of the work doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your joy.”

She has made significant progress in her work and has remained true to herself throughout. This is the legacy she’s creating, and it’s one worth passing on.

Nourbese Flint is President of All* Above All and the All* In Action Fund, where she directs efforts to achieve abortion justice and empower voters of color nationally. Previously, she served as Senior Director of Black Leadership and Engagement at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and was the founding Executive Director of Black Women for Wellness Action Project, the first Black women’s reproductive justice 501(c)(4) in the U.S. She is a founding member of Trust Black Women and the Black Women’s Democratic Club. Her work has been featured on MSNBC, CalMatters, Newsweek, and other outlets.

Learn more about All* Above All at allaboveall.org.

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August 3, 2026


Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

You may have noticed a new offering from philanthropy unfiltered last week: Reading Lists! I post book recs as Substack notes from time to time, and they always get great engagement. So I figured I’d start sending them to my subscribers so you can dive deeper into the topics I write about. Over the next few months, I’m going to take my more research-heavy articles and build and expand reading lists from them. Last week’s reading list focused on design justice, which complements my Substack article, “A New Blueprint: Design Justice as a Catalyst for Structural Change in Philanthropy.” I hope these readings prompt you to consider what you are ready to (re)design within your organization.

Additionally, a new Builders of Justice profile will go live this Thursday, August 6, featuring Nourbese Flint. This might be my favorite so far! She grew up among the women who founded reproductive justice and now leads All* Above All. She shares her journey from a reproductive health advocate in college to establishing the country’s first Black women’s reproductive justice 501(c)(4), emphasizing the importance of distinguishing among reproductive rights, health, and justice.

ICYMI: Introducing… On Media: A new column I’m writing for Proximate that examines narratives, visibility, and the media shaping how we think about philanthropy.

CTA of the Week: Support Black-Led Work During Black Philanthropy Month

Did you know August is Black Philanthropy Month? This global movement, established in 2011 by Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland, is now managed by BackBlack. It unites nonprofits, donors, foundations, and communities to highlight, support, and fund Black-led initiatives and change. Last August alone, it directed more than $11.5 million to Black-led organizations. This year’s theme is “Many Voices. One Movement.” August offers an ideal opportunity for the entire sector to focus and channel significant funding toward Black-led organizations and the communities they serve.

Here’s how you can participate in Black Philanthropy Month:

• Give directly to vetted Black-led nonprofits through the directory.

• Share the campaign using this year’s toolkit.

• Sign on as an official partner.

• And if you run a Black-led organization, there is over $100K in funding available right now, plus a directory that gets you in front of funders and unlocks opportunities open only to members.

A Win Worth Celebrating: This Black Woman is Behind the First Environmental Justice Encyclopedia

Dorceta Taylor has authored the world’s first encyclopedia on environmental justice, a three-volume, 800,000-word publication with over 360 entries from 26 countries. As an environmental sociologist, Taylor, who faced decades of the misconception that Black people weren’t interested in environmental issues, became the first Black woman to earn a doctorate from Yale’s School of Environment in 1991. She also helped establish one of the first environmental justice programs at Michigan. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice is now the premier global reference in a field that had no name until the 1990s, featuring contributions from figures such as Stacey Abrams and Benjamin Chavis, who coined the term. Despite concerns that the current administration might deter contributors, her students persisted with the project. Read more from The 19th.

In the News

• Every Member of Congress Who Funded ICE (So You Can Vote Them Out), The Contrarian

• Let’s End Philanthropy’s False Trichotomy, Resource & Rise (North Star Fund)

• Funders Need to Catch Up to the Anti-Data Center Movement, Common Dreams

• A year after Trump funding cuts, public media finds support from audiences, NPR

• The pro-Israel lobby has swayed US presidents since Truman. It must end with Trump, The Guardian

• The Myth that Youth Crime Is Out of Control, Governing

• Their Loved Ones Died to Give Us the Voting Rights Act. They Have a Message for the Supreme Court., Slate

• What Makes Philanthropic Impact Endure?, SSIR

• Federal Judges Chastise Trump’s Justice Department for “Unlawful,” “Unethical” and “Unseemly” Conduct, ProPublica

• Public opinion on abortion has shifted 4 years after Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, The Conversation

• Students Convene to Hammer Out AI Bill of Rights for Schools, The 74

• Local news should help Americans build healthy relationships with civic information, American Press Institute

• What It Means to Shape Your Own Space After Prison, Reasons to be Cheerful

• Philanthropy, Raise the Bar! Fund with Liberatory Practices as Your Compass, Nonprofit Quarterly

• What Disabled Artists Want Philanthropy to Know, Ford Foundation

Listen + Watch

• In the latest episode of The Bridgespan Group’s Dreaming in Color LIVE, host Darren Isom and the show’s guests explore what it means to build Black cultural production and community stewardship, and the investments required to build futures that extend far beyond our own lifetimes.

• Listen to the season seven premiere of The Social Change Diaries, which discusses philanthropy, democracy, storytelling, and movement work. With nearly three decades in social movements and 20 years in philanthropy, Supriya Lopez Pillai from Libra Foundation emphasizes understanding the origins of philanthropic wealth and the sector’s self-made narratives about wealth creation.

• Watch this video of Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., addressing a House Oversight subcommittee, where he said Black Americans are deeply upset by attempts to eliminate “the African American museum and all of the Smithsonian.” He emphasized his commitment to preventing the museum’s destruction, no matter the challenges.

Tools + Resources

• Check out the Brennan Center for Justice’s Vote Safely in 2026, a resource published in response to the Trump administration’s refusal to rule out sending federal agents to polling locations this fall. It outlines the federal statutes that prohibit deploying armed agents at polling places or intimidating voters, and it walks through practical steps to stay safe at the polls. It also lists the Election Protection hotline numbers available in multiple languages.

• Hurricane and fire seasons are becoming more intense and less predictable, and extreme heat is becoming routine rather than exceptional. Communities that are already marginalized, particularly Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, are bearing the brunt. To help communities better weather climate disasters, The Solutions Project offers a hub of resources and stories from grantee partners who are leading the way in community-led climate disaster preparedness and recovery.

• Check out this “Responding to Hate & Preventing Harm” guide developed by the SPLC in partnership with American University’s Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab. It aims to help trusted adults prevent radicalization to hate and extremism and respond effectively when harm occurs. The strategy emphasizes a public health approach, prioritizing community input and focusing on strengthening communities rather than just individuals.

• An oldie but a goodie: check out this analysis from Candid comparing foundation CEOs’ pay to their actual grant distributions. It reports a median of 4 cents in CEO compensation for every dollar awarded in grants, and one foundation paid its CEO more than its total grantmaking budget for that year.

• Check out this toolkit from the Council on Foundations and Hattaway Communications on how to talk about bridging differences. It is based on a national survey of 1,000 American adults, interviews, and a landscape analysis. It includes proof points, messaging guidance, and research-backed language to help funders make the case to skeptics.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Fire in the Heart of the City by David Conrad-Pérez reexamines the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire, arguing that the disaster reshaped not only labor protections but also the rise of modern American charity. The book traces how the New York Times and its philanthropic allies advanced the idea that elite, self-described scientific institutions should manage social crises rather than those closest to the harm.

• Check out this scorecard that rates eight hyperscaler tech and AI companies with U.S. data centers on whether their facilities use clean energy or rely on gas, oil, and coal. Each company receives a score from 0 to 100, calculated using Cleanview and EPA’s eGrid data on the number of on-site gas-burning projects and the pollution level of the local grid where they build.

• The Media 2070 project calls on media companies, the government, philanthropy, and the broader public to reckon with and repair the historical and ongoing harm our nation’s media system has inflicted on Black people. It advocates media reparations to achieve a future in which Black people can own and control their stories.

• The Power & Protect Operations Network is a coalition of five capacity-building organizations, including Bolder Advocacy and the Center for Empowered Politics, that helps power-building groups navigate operations, compliance, and multi-entity c3/c4 infrastructure. It offers rapid-response technical assistance, a resource hub for operations staff, and longer-term infrastructure support for state and national work.

• NOVA is a Black Repro Ecosystem Hub for Innovation, Alignment, and Collective Action, building long-term infrastructure for the Black reproductive health, rights, and justice ecosystem through political education, strategy, collaboration, and collective movement building. Consider joining if you’re a Black repro practitioner, organizer, advocate, cultural worker, or a similar role.

Professional Development Opps

• Apply to the UpTide Accelerator, hosted by 92NY’s Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact in partnership with SEED SPOT, which supports US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits with replicable models to strengthen community ties. Participants receive a $5,000 grant, a tailored three-year strategic plan, 1:1 mentorship, and the opportunity to participate in Showcase Day. You must be the full-time ED, President, or CEO of an organization serving at least 500 people and with over a year of positive impact data. Applications are due August 31, 2026.

• The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) invites advocates, organizers, graphic designers, and illustrators to collaborate on its next series of Making Policy Public projects. Advocates and organizers propose a complex policy, process, or system that affects social justice, and designers and illustrators partner with them to turn it into an accessible print resource. Applications are due Monday, September 14, at 12:00 p.m. ET, with separate guidelines for advocates and organizers and for designers and illustrators.

• University students and recent graduates ages 18 to 29 can apply to the Aspire Leaders Program offered by the Aspire Institute. The deadline for Cohort 4 submissions is October 15, and the program runs from October 21 to November 30, 2026. This six-week program is free and accessible worldwide, focusing on leadership, negotiation, systems thinking, and cross-cultural communication.

From Me to You

Currently reading Propaganda by Edward Bernays (and it’s so insightful). One quote that has stood out to me so far is:

“Nowadays, the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no longer do what they want without the approval of the masses; they find in propaganda a tool which is increasingly powerful in gaining that approval.”

Perhaps that’s why the right has become so adept at making a billionaire’s agenda sound as if it were crafted for working people.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

This list complements my Substack article, “A New Blueprint: Design Justice as a Catalyst for Structural Change in Philanthropy,” in which I discuss how philanthropy has adopted design thinking as a programmatic toolkit while preserving existing power structures. Design justice challenges us to consider who creates our systems and who bears their burdens. The readings here expand on the article’s references, tracing the framework to Black feminist thought and community-led design, and further critiquing philanthropy. I hope these readings prompt you to consider what you are ready to (re)design within your organization.

Foundations (from the original essay)

• Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the New Jim Code. Polity Press.

  • An analysis of how discrimination is built into seemingly neutral but actually biased technologies.

• Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press. https://design-justice.pubpub.org

  • The defining text of the design justice framework, available in full open access via the provided link.

• Crenshaw, K. (2019). On intersectionality: Essential writings. The New Press.

  • A compilation of legal scholarship that introduced the term “intersectionality” and its analytical power.

• Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the pluriverse: Radical interdependence, autonomy, and the making of worlds. Duke University Press.

  • An argument advocating for design as a form of world-making that allows many worlds to thrive, rather than a single world imposed on everyone.

• Liedtka, J., Salzman, R., & Azer, D. (2017). Design thinking for the greater good: Innovation in the social sector. Columbia Business School Publishing.

  • Ten case studies demonstrating the potential of design thinking in the social sector, serving as a baseline for this list’s further exploration.

Articles and essays

• Ackermann, R. (2023, February 9). Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong? MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/09/1067821/design-thinking-retrospective-what-went-wrong/

  • A thoroughly researched reflection on the rise of design thinking as an industry and how it diverged from its original purpose.

• Aye, G. (2017, June 2). Design education’s big gap: Understanding the role of power. Greater Good Studio. https://medium.com/greater-good-studio/design-educations-big-gap-understanding-the-role-of-power-1ee1756b7f08

  • A practicing designer’s critique of design education, arguing that it focuses on techniques while overlooking issues of power, aimed at practitioners.

• Buzon, D. (2020). Design thinking is a rebrand for white supremacy. Medium. https://dabuzon.medium.com/design-thinking-is-a-rebrand-for-white-supremacy-b3d31aa55831

  • A critique examining how design thinking rebrands mainstream cultural assumptions as a universal method.

• Costanza-Chock, S. (2018). Design justice, A.I., and escape from the matrix of domination. Journal of Design and Science. https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/costanza-chock

  • A brief open-access introduction to the design justice framework for those who don’t want to read the entire book.

• Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139–167. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8/

  • The original article that first discussed single-axis thinking and highlighted what it overlooks, available for free through Chicago Unbound.

• Francis, M. M. (2019). The price of civil rights: Black lives, white funding, and movement capture. Law & Society Review, 53(1), 275–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12384

  • An archival study examining how philanthropic funding shifted the NAACP’s agenda, highlighting that funder influence is a longstanding design feature.

• Irani, L. (2018). “Design thinking”: Defending Silicon Valley at the apex of global labor hierarchies. Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v4i1.29638

  • An open-access academic critique examining design thinking as a status project that privileges certain types of workers and knowledge over others.

• Iskander, N. (2018, September 5). Design thinking is fundamentally conservative and preserves the status quo. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/09/design-thinking-is-fundamentally-conservative-and-preserves-the-status-quo

  • A clear argument that design thinking places interpretive authority primarily with the designer instead of the community.

Design and power

• Creative Reaction Lab. (2018). Equity-centered community design field guide. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e3b20447d777f2b32c1bc1c/t/5e667103feb2830f1b1b68d4/1583771908636/ECCD+FIELD+GUIDE+-+DOWNLOAD.pdf

  • A free digital facilitation guide that applies equity-centered design principles in practice.

• Holmes, K. (2018). Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design. The MIT Press.

  • A clear explanation of how exclusion naturally arises in designed systems and what is needed to change that.

• McKercher, K. A. (2020). Beyond sticky notes: Doing co-design for real: Mindsets, methods, and movements. Beyond Sticky Notes.

  • An accessible guide on truly empowering participants in co-design, moving beyond mere consultation.

• Papanek, V. (1971). Design for the real world: Human ecology and social change. Pantheon Books.

  • A timeless critique of prioritizing market needs over people in design.

• Tunstall, E. (2023). Decolonizing design: A cultural justice guidebook. The MIT Press.

  • A guidebook for challenging colonial norms within design institutions, based on lived leadership experience.

Black feminist foundations

• Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). Routledge.

  • The framework of the matrix of domination that design justice is based on directly.

• Taylor, K.-Y. (Ed.). (2017). How we get free: Black feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Haymarket Books.

  • The Combahee River Collective statement along with interviews of the women who authored it.

Data, technology, and encoded inequality

• D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2020). Data feminism. The MIT Press. https://data-feminism.mitpress.mit.edu/

  • A comprehensive framework for questioning authority in data practices, available via open access at the provided link.

• Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. New York University Press.

  • Supports the idea that design perpetuates domination within daily information systems.

Philanthropy’s own design flaws

• brown, a. m. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.

  • A relational, iterative method of change that provides practitioners with a practical alternative to control-based models.

• Giridharadas, A. (2018). Winners take all: The elite charade of changing the world. Alfred A. Knopf.

  • The argument that elite-led social change aims to defend the very systems that create the problems.

• INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Ed.). (2017). The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Duke University Press.

  • The foundational critique of the nonprofit industrial complex and the clearest bridge between this list and the rest of the newsletter.

• Villanueva, E. (2021). Decolonizing wealth: Indigenous wisdom to heal divides and restore balance (2nd ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

  • The most straightforward philosophy partner to the design justice argument, questioning whom wealth systems were created to serve.

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July 27, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

For nearly a decade, I’ve written the stories philanthropy wants told about itself as a comms and PR professional. Now, I get to ask who those stories actually serve. That being said, I’m excited to announce that I have my own column with Proximate Press!

This column, On Media, will explore how philanthropy and nonprofit work are represented—by funders, journalists, and grassroots organizations themselves—and how those narratives shape what ultimately gets funded.

Voice belongs to the people on the ground who lead movements through their own ways of organizing and are accountable to their communities. Yet, visibility is granted on the philanthropic media ecosystem’s terms. Until this misconception is corrected, every time you read a story, I want you to ask: who edited the story, and what was left out in the process? Read the first piece here.

ICYMI: Fighting Back Means Looking Beneath the Surface

CTA of the Week: Demand Justice for Lives Taken by ICE

On July 25, over 330 communities nationwide held vigils for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Johan Sebastian Guerrero, and all others lost to ICE. Since the Trump administration took office, there have been 53 deaths in ICE custody. This past weekend’s vigils may be over, but the fight for accountability continues. You can find ongoing actions through the Disappeared in America campaign, urge your local and state officials to stop all cooperation with ICE, and support organizations leading this effort, such as NDLON, Detention Watch Network, The Workers Circle, and LULAC. Learn more from Public Citizen.

A Win Worth Celebrating: California Makes a Historic Investment in Identifying and Supporting Homeless Students

California's new state budget allocates $116 million to help schools identify and support students without stable housing, marking the largest state investment of its kind in the country. This funding focuses on identifying students, a task previously managed by goodwill and volunteers in most districts. Once identified, students can enroll without documents, remain at their current school even if they move, and access meals, counseling, and a dedicated liaison. Last school year, districts reported over 298,000 homeless students, and prior short-term funding has shown that with proper resources, absenteeism decreases and graduation rates improve. Learn more from the Citrus County Chronicle.

In the News

• Amid a big hiring push, police experts question ICE officer vetting, NPR

• Data centers are booming. Indigenous leaders want help protecting their lands., Grist

• On Keeping Sanity and Purpose While Higher Ed and DEI Are Under Attack, Inside Higher Ed

• Public transit is a lifeline for countless Americans. Trump is derailing our protections, The Guardian

• Saving Black Mothers Starts Outside the Hospital, Word In Black

• Disability Rights and Inclusion by Design: Built In, Not Bolted On, Save the Children

• Beyond Captive Care: Philanthropy, Revolutionary Love, and the Risk of Solidarity, Nonprofit Quarterly

• The UN’s Black Agenda Is Growing. That’s Exactly Why It Is Being Attacked, Amnesty International

• Advocates Welcome Inclusive Democracy Act as Congress Debates New Voting Restrictions, The Sentencing Project

• ​​New Polling: 56% of Americans Highly Trust Nonprofits as Trust in Government, Corporations Remains Much Lower, Independent Sector

• State Court Judges Can Protect the Rights the Supreme Court Won’t, Balls and Strikes

• Trump Administration Moves to Stop Collecting Demographic Data on U.S. Workers After 60 Years, TIME

• The Need For Reproductive Rights Funding Is More Urgent Than Ever, Inside Philanthropy

• My Maddening Quest to Find Out if Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed, ProPublica

• Democrats Lack a Unified Plan to Counter a Republican Refusal to Seat Midterm Winners, Glass Empires

Listen + Watch

• In the premiere episode of The Giving Habit, host Hannes Schmid tells the origin story of Smiling Gecko, a 1,500-hectare social enterprise in Cambodia that houses a school, a farm, fish farms, carpentry workshops, and 34 small businesses. Schmid argues that traditional NGO approaches create dependency rather than lasting change. The conversation examines how Gecko’s alternative model holds up, from financial sustainability to trust, and the tension between philanthropy and social enterprise.

• Check out The Invite, a Black-led documentary film series inviting artists and community leaders across music, film, dance, theater, poetry, culinary arts, and more to share their recipes for liberation. The series is modeled after Soul, one of the first Black television shows in the US, which aired on public television from 1968 to 1973 and blended uncensored music, dance, poetry, and conversation.

• In this episode of Highly Visible & A Little Misunderstood, Jonathan talks with Amity Paye, VP of Narrative Change at Liberation Ventures, about why reparations are about far more than money and what building a culture of repair requires. Paye breaks down the four components of reparations under international frameworks, where the U.S. movement stands today, and why narrative change matters as much as legislation in shaping what people believe is possible.

Tools + Resources

• The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer finds a world retreating into insularity. As economic anxiety, geopolitical tension, and technological disruption intensify, people are narrowing their lives to smaller, like-minded circles. The report argues that this retreat undermines economic and societal progress and charts a path to restore trust and rebuild collaboration across society.

• This case study documents the impact campaign behind Silky Shah’s Unbuild Walls, a book arguing for the abolition of immigrant detention, which adapted tactics from documentary impact production and launched in 2024 as anti-immigrant rhetoric escalated ahead of the election. It offers an introduction to impact production, a walkthrough of the campaign’s strategy, and recommendations for organizers, cultural workers, and funders interested in using books to build narrative power.

• Interrupting Criminalization has released Don’t Be a Copagandist: Health Care Workers Edition, a guide for challenging pro-police, pro-ICE, and anti-migrant propaganda in how we talk about criminalization in hospitals and health care spaces. The guide arrives amid an unprecedented surge in ICE and Border Patrol presence around hospitals and schools, which expands policing and surveillance into spaces meant for care and risks deputizing care workers as agents of criminalization.

• The Partnership Toolkit from the Center for Partnership Systems is a free guide that offers research-based questions to examine existing winner-take-all constructs and discover new possibilities for moving forward differently. The values-based framework applies to raising a family, finding purposeful work, or building resilient communities, guiding readers toward a more partnership-based future.

• ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer lets you browse millions of annual returns filed by tax-exempt organizations, including details such as executive compensation, revenue, and expenses. You can search for an organization or a person, search the full text of filings, and download Form 990 documents going back as far as 2001. The database also links to federal audits for nonprofits that spent $750,000 or more in federal grant money in a single year, making it a go-to tool for anyone researching where money moves in the sector.

Social Justice Spotlights

• The Economic Body is a five-week series from The Labora Collective that traces the economic forces behind the women’s health crisis, from the destruction of the Black middle class to the ACA subsidy cliff, childcare costs, housing, and domestic violence, with maternal health as the throughline. Each week unfolds in three registers: a data Signal, a policy Briefing, and a first-person Viva Voce. Week 1 is live now, with new installments publishing weekly.

• IRIS, the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling, is building narrative infrastructure for social change through its partnership with the Skoll Foundation, funding storytellers and field builders across Latin America, MENA, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Its Narrative Change Hub and Narrative Directory will relaunch in 2026 as a global knowledge platform for narrative practitioners.

• On Courage by Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer is a practical manual for defying authoritarianism, drawing on interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across five continents to show how ordinary people have taken serious risks to resist repression and how anyone can do the same.

• LANDBACK Action Network is an Indigenous-led organizing and narrative framework, powered by NDN Collective, that advances collective liberation by reclaiming stolen lands and all that colonization took, exercising Indigenous sovereignty, and restoring just relationships with Mother Earth and one another.

• The Oxygen Project is a nonprofit that protects the natural systems that produce Earth’s oxygen through bold campaigns, education, and storytelling, working toward a regenerative and climate-resilient future.

Professional Development Opps

• On Wednesday, July 29, at 12 p.m. PT, JustFund is hosting a free workshop on what reparative philanthropy looks like in practice. The session features Bold Ventures, which will walk through the two threads of reparative practice, building trust with historically disenfranchised communities and redistributing resources in direct response to their needs, alongside Jonathan Jayes-Green of the Black Migrant Power Fund, who will share how his organization moves money with trust and accountability at the center. This is a working session rather than a lecture, designed for funders rethinking how power and resources flow.

• The Interaction Institute for Social Change is now accepting applications for the Fall 2026 cohort of Gathering to Rise, a leadership program designed for Black, Indigenous, Latine, Arab, Middle Eastern, North African, Asian, and Pacific Islander women and gender-expansive individuals. This program provides an opportunity to reconnect with yourself, align more deeply with your purpose, and develop liberatory leadership skills within a community. It will be held online from September to November. Applications close on Sunday, August 9, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

• Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice is hosting a free online study group series exploring how social movements have fought authoritarianism and won. Organizers can join one or both six-week groups, each anchored by a different book. The first group reads Charles Payne’s I’ve Got the Light of Freedom and meets on Fridays from September 11 through October 16. The second group reads Jonny Steinberg’s Winnie and Nelson and meets on Fridays from October 30 through December 11. Applications are due August 10, 2026.

From Me to You

A little Monday motivation: “A winner is just a loser that tried one more time.”

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

In the workshop, titled “Changing Ourselves and Organizations: Transformative Professional Development for Social Justice Professionals,” we focused on internal issues that social justice organizations often overlook. The VOL, inspired by Grace Lee Boggs, emphasizes that personal change is essential to transforming the world. Their message encourages us to live differently, fostering self-reliant communities and dignity-affirming organizations that value non-material needs—such as love, identity, recognition, and community—just as much as the needs for physical survival.

The purpose of the workshop was to recognize that before we can transform systems, we must be willing to transform ourselves and the organizations we work in. Our goals that day were to collectively develop a vision for our organization, use empowering tools to navigate conflict, reflect on what our organizational culture would look like if it truly aligned with our organizational vision, and articulate our personal purpose in our work.

Seven years have passed since I sat in that workshop, and what those years taught me is that the gap between how well we talk about internal transformation and how seldom we practice it is not an accident of busy calendars. It’s a habit, and crises deepen it. Right now, our organizations are consumed with bracing for whatever Trump has up his sleeve next, and the inward work understandably keeps sliding down the priority list, exactly when it matters most.

Entering Hard Conversations

The facilitators introduced us to the Courageous Conversations Compass, which maps four ways people enter hard conversations:

1. Moral, through what we believe in our soul.

2. Intellectual, through what we think in our head.

3. Emotional, through what we feel in our heart.

4. Relational, through how we act with our body.

The nonprofit and philanthropic sectors favor an intellectual approach, as evidenced by the constant need to produce research reports, host webinars, and recycle data, all of which keep us informed but rarely translate into significant shifts in power. Yet the political and cultural moment we’re in challenges every aspect of this compass, touching the moral, emotional, and relational realms as well. We cannot simply lunch-and-learn our way through a landscape that requires us to feel, believe, and act.

Four Agreements for a Sector in Crisis

The workshop provided us with four agreements for courageous conversations, which I now share here as guiding principles to navigate this era:

1. Stay engaged. Burnout is driving many to leave this work, and I get why. Unlivable wages and unsustainable conditions make it understandable. That’s where VOL’s framework resonates deeply with me. Our sector has let workers down financially and emotionally, denying us the basic means to survive and the dignity, recognition, and community that make the work worthwhile. Remaining engaged shouldn’t mean exhausting ourselves but finding ways to maintain our connection to the work.

2. Experience discomfort. Real redistribution of power, wealth, and control will challenge those who currently hold all three. Philanthropy, in particular, has prioritized its own comfort as a prerequisite for action, but it cannot continue to operate this way if we’re going to survive and thrive in this era and beyond.

3. Speak your truth. For years, I kept critiques and questions to myself because, in the nonprofit industrial complex, honesty can jeopardize your job. Only after being laid off nearly two years ago, losing my financial stability and a job title I once valued, did I begin writing and speaking openly. This platform was created because I no longer needed to protect a paycheck. I found my voice through loss and separation from the echo chamber. But imagine a world where we don’t have to lose everything first. Imagine workplace cultures that promote open and honest communication without the fear of negatively impacting careers.

4. Expect and accept non-closure. This principle feels like the most important right now. The war-on-nonprofits argument suggests a definitive conclusion, hopefully one that leads to a day when we win. But organizing isn’t linear, and there’s a real possibility that things will get much worse before they improve. We’re asked to keep working without guaranteed closure, sowing seeds we may not see flourish. Embracing that lack of resolution requires discipline and commitment to the long haul.

Looking Beneath the Surface

My notes also included the Iceberg Model as a tool to encourage systemic thinking and contextualize an issue within a broader system. An event, or a single incident, appears above the waterline. Below, there are patterns and trends, followed by underlying structures, and then the mental models that support it all. Ninety percent of the iceberg remains unseen beneath the surface. Therefore, effective solutions should focus on the entire system, not just the visible parts.

Every attack on nonprofits right now is like the tip of the iceberg we can see. The funding cuts, the investigations, the intimidation tactics, and all the other “events” we’ve endured are designed to pressure us into submission. Nonprofits and philanthropy keep responding at this level because it’s what’s visible and provokes immediate reactions.

But look one level down, and the internal patterns predate this administration. Chronic underfunding of the organizations and a lack of resources for the people closest to the work. Burnout being mistaken for personal failures rather than a systemic problem. Workers struggling financially, living paycheck to paycheck while foundation endowments continue to grow.

Beneath those patterns lie the structures that produce them. Labor exploitation and wealth extraction, the overinfluence of boards, and the professionalization of movement work and grassroots organizing, all maintained by the people who hold the money and therefore the power.

At the deepest level lie the mental models that hold everything above them in place. The intellectual quadrant of the compass is judged solely by measurable wins and tangible impact, while the moral, emotional, and relational dimensions of the work are seldom considered because they’re not as easily measured (or valued, to be honest). Scarcity mindsets limit our capacity to take risks, innovate, and imagine beyond the crisis in front of us. Power resides with those closest to wealth rather than those closest to the issues we aim to address.

Trump did not create that iceberg, but he’s using it to his advantage by steering us into it, hoping to crash and sink all the progress we’ve made toward becoming a country where the systemic barriers that marginalize oppressed communities are removed rather than reinforced. If all we do is temporarily patch the leaks after each collision, we will spend the next several years reacting rather than doing the deeper work of confronting the structures and mental models that made us so easy to sink in the first place.

Working to Be Free

The workshop ended with each of us individually defining our purpose in social justice work. In 2019, mine was to prioritize working toward freedom rather than remaining blissfully ignorant. Back then, this meant rejecting the comfort of ignoring how power operates within the institutions I was part of. Today, it involves using the insights gained from that awareness to speak boldly and honestly and to create spaces where other social justice workers can share their truths and exercise their full humanity.

The war on nonprofits aims to drain us until we can focus only on survival. This is why internal work must happen now, even amid the crisis, rather than waiting for calmer conditions (which probably won’t arrive any time soon). Purpose formed amid chaos can still serve as a north star. The organizations that endure this period and the individuals who remain resilient are those who understand their true social justice purpose.

As Grace Lee Boggs and her successors have emphasized, our task is never solely to fight the opposition. Instead, we must also choose to live differently and recognize the power of our full humanity, with our needs for love, identity, recognition, and community treated as central to the work rather than distractions from it.

So, I will leave you with the question:

What’s your personal social justice purpose, and what does it require of you during Trump’s war on nonprofits?

“Be grateful for what pain made possible.”

I saw that quote on an Instagram reel this morning from a band called 19 Miles Per Hour. It inspired me to take a completely different approach to writing this essay. After reading “Trump Is Winning the War on Nonprofits” by Phil Buchanan and Elisha Smith Arrillaga in Common Dreams earlier this week, I was prepared to share my usual in-depth, research-driven insights on shifting the focus from this narrative to solutions.

But as I write this reflection, I’m realizing that’s just not the headspace I’m in. To be honest, I haven’t been in a solutions-centered headspace in a long time. Living in a capitalist society, we’re conditioned to move faster, want more, dream bigger, and never feel like enough. Working in movement and social justice spaces compounds that pressure, where fighting wars until you win is the norm and worth is measured by wins and the impact those wins have. Operating within these conditions has made me so accustomed to running on empty that I forget to take my own advice. I forget to make space to slow down and reflect on realistic ways I can show up for myself and others in times of crisis.

And we are in a crisis—a war that we are losing.

The article mentioned burnout due to the following reasons:

• new worries about the safety of their staff and those they serve,

• financial distress as more organizations book deficits,

• increased difficulty raising funds from foundations (which are facing unprecedented demand as nonprofits look to replace lost government funding), and

• cutbacks to programs and staff in order to keep their doors open.

To add fuel to the fire, all of these factors make it not only harder to do this work but also to want to do it. It’s no wonder that Trump is winning the war. The lack of sustainability and unlivable wages alone are enough to make anyone wave the white flag. Even as I try to seek opportunities with higher pay, or at least contractual/gig work, so I’m not stressing about living check to check and not feeling guilty about treating myself to a vacation—or something as small as an iced matcha latte—my optimism and imaginative thinking often fall short against systems designed to kill hope.

Optimism only gets you so far. If conditions are unsustainable, no amount of dreaming and imagining a more just future can pay the rent or refill the well once it runs dry. Thinking of solutions is important and part of the deeper work, but what good are they if the people meant to carry them forward are too depleted to do so, with systems constantly working against our good rather than for it?

Yes, having honest conversations about what comes next is necessary because staying quiet and hoping things will magically shift on their own is not an option. And structural solutions need to go beyond individual actions because you can’t expect change at the individual level when most people are just trying to survive under conditions that leave us in never-ending mental cycles of impending doom.

But I keep coming back to that quote. Be grateful for what pain made possible. Even though losing everything financially after being laid off from my last nonprofit job almost two years ago broke me in ways I’m still recovering from, it planted something new in me that’s still growing.

If I hadn’t been laid off, I wouldn’t have started building this platform that reaches thousands of people. Thousands. I wouldn’t have taken the leap to move from DC to LA. I wouldn’t have found my voice, once buried beneath the echo chamber of the nonprofit industrial complex. I wouldn’t have learned to stop tying my worth to a job title and instead to place it in the lives I impact, in big and small ways, by boldly and courageously speaking truth to power about how we can show up more humanly for social justice.

It’s not the solution I had in mind to write about today, but after further thought, I can’t honestly say we don’t know how to not only survive this era but also thrive in it and win. We know exactly what to do. There have been enough webinars, conference sessions, and blog posts to serve as a blueprint for building what’s next, rather than just hearing ourselves talk, as we love to do.

I know that I, and so many of us, are too tired to even think about tomorrow, let alone the next chapter for nonprofits and philanthropy and how to move forward during and after Trump 2.0. Not only are we not ready for a full upheaval and the work it would require, but we’re also simply not ready to reckon with ourselves and take concrete steps to redistribute the power, wealth, and decision-making needed to see real change.

So maybe, for now, we can start small and be grateful instead for what the pain of this time is making possible right now. For you and your life. For your organizations. For your campaigns and for the movements you fight in.

Pain tilled my own ground and planted seeds I’m still watching grow. Sometimes soil that has been packed too hard for too long must be broken up completely before it can hold new life. Maybe that’s where we are as a sector…in the tilling.

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June 29, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

I often encounter articles like Phil Buchanan and Elisha Smith Arrillaga’s “Trump Is Winning the War on Nonprofits” in Common Dreams that leave me with more questions than answers. While billions of dollars in Congress-allocated funds have been cut, organizations face investigations and threats to their tax-exempt status, especially when their missions clash with this administration’s agenda. I continually ask myself what actions we can take—not in the long run or during rebuilding phases—but right now, while the situation remains volatile.

I don’t have a definitive answer yet, but constantly focusing on the issue and on solutions that rely solely on individual actions, without considering structural changes, is tiring. We need to have more discussions about future directions. More to come on Thursday, July 2, 2026.

ICYMI from last week: Joy is the Engine: Stephán O’Shea on What Comes After the Fire

CTA of the Week: Defend the 14th Amendment

Birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and no president has the authority to change who qualifies for citizenship. President Trump’s attempt to terminate birthright citizenship is a clear misuse of executive power and reflects an effort to decide who belongs in the country. This matters because the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, has safeguarded birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law for more than 150 years. Trump’s executive orders threaten to dismantle this legacy, exploiting fear and division.

You can act now by signing Popular Democracy’s petition urging leaders and the Supreme Court to oppose any efforts to end birthright citizenship and to uphold the 14th Amendment. You can also text DEFEND to 25463 to join the movement.

A Win Worth Celebrating: Oakland Nonprofit, Youth Radio, Has Reopened!

Youth Radio, a nonprofit in Oakland that has trained young people in media, music, and storytelling since 1993, has reopened. After closing in 2024 due to financial difficulties, it reopened its downtown Oakland office this week, appointed new executive director Maeven McGovern (daughter of founder Ellin O’Leary), and welcomed its first two youth groups. The reopening was supported by alumni, community funders such as Community Vision and the California Wellness Foundation, and a deliberate growth strategy. This time, leadership is intentionally maintaining a small scale, focusing on sustainability rather than the rapid growth that led to the previous closure. Read the full story from The Oaklandside.

In the News

• Voting Rights Groups Applaud Ruling Declaring 2026 Executive Order Interference with Voter Rolls and Mail-In Ballots Unconstitutional and Unlawful, ACLU

• ‘Still hurting, still healing’: Trayvon Martin’s mom shares message of hope during Gun Violence Awareness Month, News4Jax

• Congress passes the largest housing affordability bill in decades — and Trump cancels the signing, NPR

• Senate for first time approves a war powers resolution in a rebuke to Trump over Iran conflict, AP News

• The Invisible Infrastructure of Climate Resilience, Inside Climate News

• How local communities are challenging Big Tech data centers’ noise, pollution and rising electricity bills, The Conversation

• Trump Designated Antifa “Domestic Terrorists” — New Prosecutions Follow His Lead, Truthout

• ​​Philanthropy is having the wrong conversation about its future, Alliance Magazine

• As Supreme Court expands Trump’s immigration power, experts warn of steeper U.S. population decline, NPR

• When Disruption Hits: Making Hidden Risks Visible to Meet the Moment and Move Our Missions Forward, Nonprofit Quarterly

• Some paid the ultimate price to enact voting rights. Their survivors see America turning backward, AP News

• Why Are Humanists So Bad at Defending the Humanities?, The Chronicle of Higher Education

• Personifying AI Harms People and Protects Companies, Tech Policy Press

• How Mission Hijacking Undermines the Fight for American Democracy, TIME

• The Case for Co-Governance: Our Foundational Argument, Colorlines

Listen + Watch

• Watch this video featuring Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, as he discusses the importance of fully memorializing America’s history. Stevenson shares his decades-long experiences transforming Montgomery, Alabama, into what he calls “the most truthful space in America” for confronting slavery and lynching.

• Public Speak is a monthly civics podcast hosted by Felicia, an Easthampton city councilmember, and Rachel, a member of her San Diego neighborhood planning committee. They explain how local government works, highlighting its impact on daily life. The latest episode features Beth Santos, founder of Wanderful and co-owner of Ula Cafe in Boston, who shares her experience as a public advocate for the White Stadium Project. Her main message is that everyone is involved in politics, knowingly or not.

• Lisa Hurley’s podcast, Space To Exhale, kicked off season 2 with an episode featuring her sister, Sharon Hurley Hall, author of I’m Tired of Racism and creator of The Unsilenced Method™. The discussion highlights the creation of safe spaces, including Sharon’s Still and Sovereign Retreat in Barbados and her Quiet Queens gatherings in London. These spaces emphasize softness and sovereignty as ongoing practices rather than rewards.

Tools + Resources

• Check out this research report from Forthright Advising about breaking the habits that stall child and family advocacy. Based on interviews and surveys with 25+ nonprofit and foundation leaders nationwide, the report names three field-wide habits getting in the way of real progress: failing to choose between short-term crisis response and long-term systems change, internal competition and overcomplicated messaging that turns allies into “frenemies,” and a tendency to lead with jargon instead of the shared values that actually move people.

• Global Narrative Hive’s “Imagining the Otherwise” curriculum offers a free, downloadable guide to help you start a narrative-writing group focused on reimagining safety beyond punishment. Developed from a five-month pilot with eight storytellers and organizers from Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and SWANA, it features five modules with readings and exercises on indigenous resistance and abolitionist theory.

• PolicyLink’s Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit is a resource for advocates and storytellers advancing housing justice, offering a “story platform,” core values, guidance on audience and tone, and digital strategy tips to help the housing justice movement tell consistent, emotionally resonant stories about housing as a basic need.

• This resource library from the Principles for Trusted Elections is a nonpartisan collection of toolkits, reports, workshops, and websites focused on voter education and civic dialogue. It aims to help people understand how elections work and to encourage action through tools such as voter ID guidance and resources that foster dialogue to bridge political divides.

• This report from the Aspen Institute introduces “essential wealth” as a standard for household financial security that considers asset poverty, emergent wealth, and overall well-being. Only 26% of U.S. households meet this benchmark; 43% have moved out of poverty but lack a solid foundation. This metric helps funders, policymakers, and program leaders develop more effective wealth strategies and track progress in reducing economic gaps.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Her Haq is a youth-powered nonprofit operating across six states and centering the lived experiences of women and girls. It does so through digital advocacy and public dialogue, co-creating more inclusive and accountable systems alongside the communities most affected.

• The Indigenous Leadership Initiative is dedicated to strengthening Indigenous Nationhood to fulfill the Indigenous cultural responsibility to the lands and to support the emergence of new generations of Indigenous leaders through capacity building.

• The Building Movement Project helps nonprofits and movements align their practices with their core values. It does so through research, practical tools, training sessions, and convenings that examine how race, leadership, and power shape the nonprofit sector.

• For the Record, an archive from Capital B (in partnership with PushBlack), collects firsthand audio, video, and written stories from Black Americans across generations and regions, including civil rights activists and everyday neighbors, to preserve a fuller record of Black life and history.

• The Center for Compassionate Leadership advocates for compassionate leadership approaches grounded in neuroscience and contemporary leadership practices. It advances this mission through training and community-building efforts to transform cultures and systems.

Professional Development Opps

• Race Forward launched DemocracyIs: (Re)Imagining the Next 250 Years, a campaign tied to the country’s 250th anniversary that asks what a racially just, multiracial democracy should look like. At its center is a free 5-part webinar series, #RaceAnd Democracy, running through July 30, 2026. Register to access recordings from previous webinars and the remaining sessions.

• The online program for the Interfaith Action for Palestine (IAP), taking place July 5-7, 2026, in D.C, is still open, and you can be part of it. IAP is a coalition of faith-rooted organizations coming together to counter Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest pro-Israel organization in the country, at CUFI’s Annual Summit this summer. The coalition brings together Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and interfaith groups united in opposing Christian Zionist theology and its role in fueling U.S. support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

• Noor, a global feminist think-and-do tank that monitors and opposes far-right movements, is hosting its “Know Your Enemy” five-week online educational program for organizers actively resisting far-right initiatives. Priority is given to applicants based in or working within the Global South. The program runs from August 7 to October 16, 2026, and includes five biweekly sessions. It aims to deepen understanding of the far right as a transnational phenomenon. Applications are due by Sunday, July 6, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. ET.

From Me to You

As the July 4th weekend approaches, it’s important to reflect on what this holiday truly signifies. While America250 is celebrating with fireworks and patriotic programming, these festivities obscure the struggles many communities still face. Amid grilled hot dogs, beer, and family gatherings, it’s important to remember that the same government celebrating its 250th birthday is also reducing nonprofit funding, gutting voting rights, targeting immigrant families, stripping rights from trans individuals, limiting access to reproductive healthcare, and blatantly destabilizing our democracy.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

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Stephán O'Shea recalls the year he lost his job and his community to the Eaton fires. He describes feeling overwhelmed, pushed onto an uncertain path he never saw coming. To him, moving forward meant rebuilding and finding a new way to hold his community together.

“I had no other choice,” he tells me. “Any alternative was removed from the journey.”

His full name is Stephán Gregory O’Shea McGrue. He developed a passion for acting and entertainment at age five, beginning with background and extra roles in 90s TV and movies, which landed him his SAG-AFTRA membership. This love expanded into theater, leading him to earn a degree in drama from San Francisco State University. There, he directed the university’s first show featuring an all-Black leading cast. His goal was to create main-stage opportunities that he and others who looked like him were not being given.

A career in education was never part of his original plan. It unexpectedly entered his life through a waiter job he took between roles, working with an education program that supports underrepresented students in accessing college. This led him to fall unexpectedly and wholeheartedly in love with young people. His passion was for the kids from the same communities he grew up in and for the opportunity to help them discover their own dreams, just as someone once helped him find his.

He balanced his creative work and youth work for 15 years, developing community-centered programs while gaining firsthand experience in the optics and politics of education as he advanced up the career ladder.

The Push

In 2025, the Eaton fires swept through Altadena, where his family had settled after leaving Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas during the Great Migration to escape the South. Generations had established their lives there, but the fire destroyed everything, including four family homes. For many, rebuilding was impossible, and they haven’t come back.

I ask him how he coped with losing his job and the physical space where his family had put down roots, both in the same season. He admits he was never able to make sense of it. But what he needed, more than answers, was something to hold on to.

“I just needed a project to make me feel like I was still needed. I felt like I wasn’t needed anymore after going through that.”

The PHÁN Collective emerged from that need. However, Stephán carefully chooses where to focus the story. While the fires and job loss are included, they are not the main focus. Joy remains the central theme. Grief is simply a part of the journey.

“I never really ever want the fires and the stuff I go through to become like a motivational poster. Some losses don’t necessarily resolve neatly. And that’s human.”

He believes his losses provided him with a clearer understanding of how fragile memory and community are, emphasizing that they must be documented before they fade. He views this as part of his purpose, feeling that the timing of his experiences wasn’t accidental. He was meant to be the one to carry the story forward so that others facing similar losses can realize they are not alone.

“It’s a heavy responsibility. But it’s also a test of my strength and creativity.”

Joy as the Engine

Ask Stephán what motivates him to get up in the morning, and he doesn’t mention outputs or impact metrics. Instead, he speaks of joy.

“Joy is the engine. Resilience is kind of like the oil you put in your engine to keep it going.”

Most people, he argues, often get it backward. They see resilience as the key trait, with joy as a reward only after overcoming difficulties. He experiences it differently. Joy is what makes enduring the struggle possible from the start. Resilience is simply what helps you push through when joy alone isn’t enough.

“You have to love what you do to do it for free, to do it without permission, to do it by yourself. There’s so many different things you need to make it through the job, the work, to make it worth the while. When you find joy in everything you do, you wake up in the morning wanting to do it.”

His identity has shaped far more than his career. Being an openly gay Black man has touched nearly every part of how he moves through the world. He’s often had to navigate spaces not designed to hold every part of who he is. Growing up in a full household with three sisters and both parents, he recalls that they accepted him completely. His Haitian mother, raised Catholic, was initially upset when he came out, believing it was a phase. His father’s reaction was more straightforward, as he always knew he was “unique.”

He still bears both reactions, with his mother’s grief alongside the joy of knowing he is loved despite it. That same duality shows up in the way he moves through the world now.

“I have to smile my way through niggas looking at me crazy because I like other men, or because of the way I walk, the way I dress. You just kill them with a smile. That’s what I’ve done all my life, no matter who, what, when, where, or why.”

And I don’t think any of this is rooted in naivety. It’s a practice honed over decades, a determination not to let others dictate what his joy should look like. He compares it to a filtering process that dismisses those who just don’t connect with his passion and purpose, and draws in those who specifically need what he’s offering.

Building Past Visibility

Over the past four years, Stephán has overseen the Young Kings Conference, a longstanding community organization in Altadena that began in 2009 under a local pastor and has since been led by various leaders. He took over leadership of the Conference after a community elder who had organized it entrusted it to Stephán, urging him to safeguard it closely because it held a history that others had fought to preserve before him.

Protecting that legacy has come with real challenges. He’s faced obstacles, including having to rename the conference from the Young Black Males Conference to the Young Kings Conference due to shifts in the political climate surrounding DEI. Introducing the idea to schools meant navigating a situation in which the initial name might prevent conversations from starting and offer limited support. He also encountered significant resistance from committee members who viewed the change as a sign of fragility.

But even with the name changed, the support remains strong. The Conference now reaches more than five hundred boys, many of whom are finding mentorship and community entirely outside the sports world, a space that he says almost never exists for young Black men elsewhere.

He is currently expanding his efforts beyond the conference, focusing on establishing a year-round pipeline that features ongoing workshops, a planned HBCU tour, and an app he’s creating called Crown. He describes Crown as akin to a therapy app, specifically designed to connect young men of color with mentors in their desired careers.

He largely operates without his own nonprofit status and instead depends on fiscal sponsors and building relationships one conversation at a time. He’s been candid about how navigating funding alone is like throwing himself into a pool of sharks. Fortunately, two Black male nonprofit founders helped him understand the process, despite his lack of formal training, including a connection through The Black Man Can, a major East Coast nonprofit that featured him after the fires and later sponsored his work.

“I need more Black men to be doing what he’s doing,” his sponsor told him.

Stephán doesn’t take this rare kind of faith in his work lightly.

Tell Your Story Before Someone Else Tells It Wrong

Through the PHÁN Collective, Stephán is assembling a unique catalog, one project at a time, often rooted in his personal experiences. Caribbean Night exemplifies this approach. It was inspired by a request from a West Hollywood social club for a DEI-focused event. Stephán drew the vision from his mother’s story. She arrived from Haiti at thirteen, spoke no English, and faced bullying for her language. To shield herself and improve her English, she spoke less Creole, which ultimately disrupted her children’s learning of the language. Stephán organized the recurring event voluntarily, prioritizing the story over compensation, and allocated part of the ticket sales to support students from immigrant backgrounds, echoing his mother’s journey.

His podcast, Under One Roof, focuses on a deeply personal story. He invited his former roommate, a straight man he lived with for six years, to join him on a couch and illustrate what a genuinely healthy friendship between a gay Black man and a straight Black man looks like. Since then, different guests have discussed the same topic from various angles, all emphasizing that such closeness is not unusual. The key distinction is that this kind of relationship is seldom captured on camera. It’s these types of experiences that inspire a lot of his creative work.

Preference, his first scripted series and what he calls his ‘first baby,’ is based on his own life. It centers on two Black men, one gay and one straight, who become roommates by chance and gradually come to understand each other rather than fear one another. He began writing it in 2017, inspired by a genuine friendship with a girlfriend’s boyfriend, who was open about a dynamic he felt wasn’t honestly portrayed elsewhere. The first season was made with minimal resources, which he describes as “hella gorilla shot,” yet it still succeeded. Currently, he’s working on a second season and hopes to have it featured in Mara Brock Akil’s Writers’ Colony.

“We need to see Black faces.”

He explicitly points out the gap, naming it directly. Queer visibility on screen has grown, with shows like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Rivalry cited, but he notes that those stories center on white men. He isn’t interested in waiting for others to close the gap. He wants Preference to achieve what those shows did for queer visibility, but without excluding Black faces or relegating queerness to a side story. Instead, he wants it to be an integrated and intentional part of the whole.

Inherited Strength

“Good job. Don’t second-guess yourself.”

That’s what Stephán would tell his younger self. His natural self-confidence extends beyond simple encouragement. In high school, he intentionally kept his sexuality private—not due to shame, but to ensure safety. Now, he’s at peace with that decision and appreciates waiting until college, when acceptance was more widespread. It was his choice, made on his own terms.

“No one can root for you the way you can. No one can fight for you the way that you can. No one can be hard on you the way that you can. Twenty-four hours a day, you’re with yourself and nobody else.”

He attributes his groundedness to his mother, whom he considers his greatest influence. Her life wasn’t easy, but she transformed her challenges into strength. She came to a country that mocked her native language and created a meaningful life, continuing to give back to Haiti through her nonprofit efforts.

“She lives, she loves, and she still gives back. No matter what.”

Watching her, he says, taught him to extend that same grace even to people who’ve hurt him.

“I’ve learned to love villains more when you understand the human side of them. They just weren’t born doing bad things. Some shit happened to them that made them who they are.”

Joy as Praxis

Stephán says the story isn’t finished yet. It’s still unfolding in real time, alongside him, in its own ongoing chapters.

Listening to him, I sensed he was articulating an idea I already intuitively understood, namely that the founding story and the ongoing work are intertwined. The fires and job loss became part of the daily practice of reaffirming a commitment to joy, rather than viewing it as a prize to be won at the end.

Stephán O’Shea’s work feels necessary because he refuses to let resilience overshadow the full story. The spaces he creates must hold it all, the loss alongside the joy, not just the parts that look good on a poster.

He also recognizes that joy, intentionally chosen each day, is essential to building the world and the reality that we want.

Joy is the engine. Everything else is just the oil that keeps it running.

Stephán O’Shea is an actor, writer, producer, and community builder, born and raised in Pasadena, California. After 15 years in education, mentoring students and building life-changing programs for Black and Brown youth, he founded PHÁN Collective Entertainment to declare that his story matters and so does yours.

PHÁN (pronounced fawn) is a love letter to the power of storytelling, to the resilience of Black roots, the rhythm of Black culture, and the joy that refuses to die. Whether he’s producing live events such as The Young Kings Conference, turning up the volume at Caribbean Night, or writing and starring in the digital series Preference, Stephán creates spaces that center Black, queer, and youth voices.

When he’s not filming, writing, or curating something for the culture, you’ll find him mentoring the next generation, dancing in the mirror to Beyoncé, with family, or watching reruns of classic Black sitcoms like Moesha, reminding himself that the blueprint was always within him.

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Hi, friends! Before diving into this week’s round-up, I’d like to request support and/or guidance.

I’m slated to start an EdD program in Organizational Change and Leadership at the University of Southern California this Fall. Unfortunately, the program offers very little financial support. I’ve applied for outside scholarships to no avail, the program doesn’t offer GA or TAships, and I don’t want to take out loans. Does anyone know of any fellowships, scholarships, or assistantships I could apply for that would help cover tuition?

I know I’m down to the wire. My research interests center on examining the nonprofit industrial complex and how organizations can move away from harmful cultural norms toward liberation-centered, justice-focused leadership and governance structures. I’m also willing to consider other doctoral programs that align with this focus and offer funding I can apply for, with a Fall 2027 start date, as most application deadlines have now passed. I appreciate any guidance or support anyone can lend. Please reach out to me at tirreab@gmail.com if you have any leads, connections, or advice to share.

June 22, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

I hope you had a liberating Juneteenth weekend, and happy second day of summer!

The next Builders of Justice profile will feature Stephán O’Shea. After spending 15 years working in education, mentoring students, and building life-changing programs for Black and Brown youth, life flipped the script: multiple family homes lost in the Eaton Fires, a job gone, and a gut feeling that it was time to bet on himself. That instinct led to the founding of PHÁN Collective Entertainment, a space built to center Black, queer, and youth voices through media. More to come on Thursday, June 25, 2026.

From the archive: What Juneteenth Can Teach Philanthropy About Freedom

CTA of the Week: Spread the Word About Men’s Mental Health

Did you know that June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month? While fitness and checkups often receive much attention, mental well-being is equally important because mental health is a vital part of overall health. There is a silent crisis in men’s mental health, one that is frequently ignored. Men are nearly four times more likely than women to die by suicide, and this stark fact highlights the urgency of addressing this issue openly.

Here’s how we show up for the men in our lives:

• Start a conversation. Check in with the men around you, whether that’s a father, a brother, a friend, or a coworker. You’d be surprised how much a simple “How are you really doing?” can open a door.

• Share what you know. If you’re aware of mental health resources, hotlines, or local support, pass that information along. Knowing that help exists and that it actually works can change everything for someone who’s struggling.

• Make space for honesty. Whether it’s at home, at work, at the gym, or at the barbershop, help build environments where men feel safe enough to be real without fear of judgment.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness created a flyer with additional information. Download it here to raise awareness of the importance of speaking up about mental health and to ensure the men in your life feel comfortable doing so.

A Win Worth Celebrating: Families Reunite Behind Bars for Father’s Day

Before Father’s Day, the Center for Restorative Justice Works organized its “Get on the Bus” initiative, transporting hundreds of families to visit loved ones incarcerated at California’s Correctional Training Facility and Salinas Valley Prison. For many, it was their first face-to-face visit in months or even years. Grandfathers reunited with their granddaughters, whom they see only twice a year. A father watched his stepson don his actual graduation cap and gown, made possible by advocacy from the program that overcame prison restrictions. Instead of limited 30-second videos and tablet messages, families shared genuine hugs, enjoyed meals together, and created new memories.

The program also provided transportation and food, sparing families the usual expense of overpriced vending-machine snacks just to spend a few hours together. It exemplifies remembering children and families affected by incarceration, even when they haven’t done anything wrong. This year, fourteen prisons across California hosted these reunions, showing that connection and dignity can still prevail behind prison walls. Read more from Prism.

In the News

• Juneteenth: The Freedom We Knew, the Truth They Couldn’t Handle, Word in Black

• Philanthropy Is Too Small to Save the World, SSIR

• The white working class knows the American project isn’t working. Here’s why that will never matter to them, The Guardian

• How Government Fines of $1 Million+ Are Increasingly Targeting Immigrants, The Marshall Project

• ICE’s Unseen Toll in Minneapolis: Suicide Helpline Calls More Than Doubled During Surge, The Intercept

• Trust in federal government at all-time low: Poll, The Hill

• Despite the State’s Attempts to Stamp Out Opposition, Our Movements Persevere, Truthout

• Why leaving red states isn’t so simple for LGBTQ Americans, Axios

• 5 Funders Backing Workforce Development for the Skilled Trades, Inside Philanthropy

• They Studied Nearly 14,000 People to See How Eviction Rates Are Linked to Gun Violence, The Trace

• States step into voting rights void left by federal rulings, News from the States

• Ableism Still Saturates the Abortion Rights Debate. It’s a Problem for Reproductive Justice—Opinion, Rewire News Group

• They Have Yet to Sign a Lease. But They’re Furious Over $3,100 Rents., The New York Times

• Before the State Showed Up: Black Mutual Aid as the Infrastructure of Our Democracy, Nonprofit Quarterly

• Trump is shifting special ed, civil rights out of Education Department. Here’s what we know, Los Angeles Times

Listen + Watch

• In partnership with the Transgender Law Center, this special episode of the Solidarity Is podcast features co-host Adaku Utah in conversation with Anna Castro of Transgender Law Center, Rinku Sen of Narrative Initiative, and Sharmin Hossain of 18 Million Rising about navigating the “solidarity wedges” and the opportunities shaping our movement ecosystems.

• Check out this episode of Peter Altman’s podcast, The Campaign Strategist, featuring Francesca Koe of Narrative Initiative. She breaks down the key differences among narrative, messaging, and communication strategy and uses a memorable Jaws-and-sharks analogy to argue that narrative work belongs to everyone, not just consultants.

• Check out this short documentary from The Water Hub about fifth-generation farmer Graham Christensen, who’s transitioning his family’s Nebraska farm to regenerative practices to address water contamination, soil erosion, and climate change while preserving the legacy of family farming.

Tools + Resources

• OnPurpose Careers is a career platform built on the idea that meaningful work and fair pay should go hand in hand, positioning purpose as a practical career compass rather than something workers have to sacrifice. They maintain a job board of social impact jobs that pay well, a direct response to a sector long known for underpaying those doing impact work.

• The Nonprofit Finance Fund’s The Heart of the Nonprofit Sector report draws on extensive research, survey data, case studies, and analysis to highlight practical strategies that promote worker well-being. Many government and philanthropic funders consistently underfund nonprofits and fail to cover their full costs. Consequently, underfunded organizations often struggle to pay workers a living wage, leading to burnout that jeopardizes service quality and harms employees and communities.

• This article from Nonprofit Quarterly notes that Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) help build trust and can expedite approvals by reducing delays from social license requirements. This tool helps communities negotiate with developers and corporations on projects such as data centers, mining, EV manufacturing, and housing. It aims to secure commitments to local hiring, labor standards, and environmental protections. Case studies from Montana, Alabama, and Tennessee illustrate how power-building campaigns shift development from conflict to negotiation. 

• Play to Learn is a humanitarian initiative led by Sesame Workshop, funded by the LEGO Foundation, and delivered with BRAC and the International Rescue Committee. It combines research-based educational media with direct early learning services for children affected by conflict and displacement.

• Support Alight, an organization that partners with displaced people to co-create high-quality services and programs that meet their needs. Alight continues to deliver lifesaving health care, support displaced families, and respond to growing humanitarian needs in Sudan, remaining Sudan’s largest humanitarian health care provider.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Mariame Kaba’s new zine, Black Study, explores how David Walker’s banned 1829 pamphlet sparked ongoing Black resistance and intellectual activism. Through archival photos and reflections, the zine links Walker’s legacy to later abolitionist, civil rights, and direct-action movements.

• This New America video features Sarah J. Jackson and Clint Smith discussing Jackson’s book, “A Second Sight.” The book explores how Black journalists, photographers, filmmakers, and other media creators use a unique “second sight” to uncover truths about America and push the country toward its democratic ideals.

• Data & Society is an independent, nonprofit research organization that believes empirical evidence should directly inform the development and governance of new technologies and that these technologies can and must be grounded in equity and human dignity, foregrounding the power of the people and communities most affected by technological change.

• The Center for Racial and Disability Justice, founded in Fall 2022 by Professor Jamelia Morgan at the UCLA School of Law, is a first-of-its-kind Disabled Person’s Organization that advances racial and disability justice through scholarly research and public advocacy at the intersection of race and disability.

• Founded in April 2024 by Brianne Patrice Cash after her own experience with depression, housing instability, and the family policing system, the Black Healing Collective supports Black women and femmes by providing therapy, rent relief, and abolitionist healing spaces rooted in community and love.

Professional Development Opps

• Join Hispanics in Philanthropy on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. PT for “Funding Beyond Survival: Infrastructure, Legal Defense, and What It Actually Takes to Thrive,” the second installment of the 2026 Good Ancestors series. The session draws on Octavia Butler’s “God is Change” to explore how nonprofits can build resilient infrastructure amid shifting funding priorities.

• Register for “Manufactured Threat: Criminalizing Data Center Resistance,” a MediaJustice-hosted webinar on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. PT. The session will examine how federal and state documents have labeled data center critics, including town hall attendees and peaceful protesters, as “domestic violent extremists.” Journalists who broke the story will join longtime organizers to unpack this surveillance playbook and its implications for communities resisting data center expansion.

• Check out the Democracy Stories Lab, an open call from People Powered and the Democracy Narratives Alliance inviting creators to submit visual content, short videos, illustrations, or graphics that tell stories about democracy, voice, fairness, and community power. The program will award visual storytellers who reimagine how these themes are discussed, with winners receiving cash prizes, network amplification, and a spot in a global screening event. Applications open on July 14, 2026, and are due by September 14, 2026.

From Me to You

“Find the whitespace nobody is covering, and add value faster than anyone expects. Even if you have to start at the bottom to do it.”

— Atlas Berry

Sometimes we have to start over. I built this platform as a place to begin again, filling the whitespace with honest critique and dialogue about the nonprofit industrial complex, its role in undermining liberation, and the unspoken realities of justice work that rarely get named outside of often-inaccessible conferences and private happy-hour conversations.

I wanted to create something different from the usual reverence or jargon that leaves the people actually doing the work behind. A space to openly and honestly name burnout, scarcity mindsets, risk aversion, and the contradictions we carry as we pursue justice, so we can do this work better together.

Nearly a decade in this field has taught me where the gaps are. Now, I’m aiming to fill them, one honest conversation at a time, in service of the people who want to do this work without it breaking them.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

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June 15, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

As mentioned last week, I’m still editing my manuscript, but a couple of new Builders of Justice profiles are coming soon. I’m also close to finalizing a partnership that I’m very excited to announce soon!

CTA of the Week: Become a Volunteer Donor Advisor with Movement Voter Project

Movement Voter Project operates like a “mutual fund” for political giving, raising money from donors, conducting research, and channeling funds to the most impactful local organizing and power-building work across the country. If you’re looking to maximize your giving without wading through endless fundraising asks, MVP streamlines the process.

Right now, the organization is seeking Volunteer Donor Advisors (VDAs) to help connect others in their networks to the work. VDAs maintain a portfolio of at least 10 donors and stay in regular contact to share updates, answer questions, and encourage continued giving. The time commitment is flexible, ranging from a few hours a month to more, depending on portfolio size. MVP provides full onboarding, talking points, and ongoing support. No fundraising experience required, just enthusiasm for the work! Fill out the volunteer intake form to get started.

A Win Worth Celebrating: A $25 Million Donation is Aimed at Solving Critical Physician Shortage in Native and Rural Communities

The Franke family has made what is believed to be the largest single donation to rural healthcare: $25 million to the University of Washington School of Medicine. This gift will cover half the tuition for about 30 medical students, support recruitment and retention initiatives, and create a rural medical education summit. The goal is to increase the number of physicians serving Native and rural communities across Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. This region, which ranks last in the nation for doctors per capita, is home to more than 500,000 Native residents who often travel long distances to access healthcare. Read more from Native News Online.

In the News

• Leading When Scared, Inside Philanthropy

• The Trump White House Is Tackling America’s Most Urgent Crisis: Upwardly Mobile Black People, Balls and Strikes

• Philanthropy’s defining test: From risk aversion to climate and gender justice, Alliance Magazine

• The ripple effects of organizing against data centers, Waging Nonviolence

• The first Indigenous women in Congress carry a legacy older than American democracy itself, The 19th News

• Plan to overhaul grantmaking shakes researchers, Axios

• Black and Latino voters face an affordability gap before the midterms, Brookings

• How Amazon workers made glamour a form of protest, The Conversation

• After years of declines, young students show gains in reading and math, NPR

• Ms. Rachel goes to Washington, carrying letters from children in ICE custody, The Washington Post

• When $10,000 Moves $200 Million: Why Funding Grassroots Organizing Creates Outsized Impact, Nonprofit Quarterly

• They never left Pulse behind. They just learned to carry it differently., The 19th News

• How Can Philanthropy Help the Arts? By Fully Supporting Innovators, Observer

• Why the Way We Understand the South Matters — Especially in Criminal Justice, The Marshall Project

• Federal judge strikes down Trump’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, NPR

Listen + Watch

• Check out this Substack live with Vic Mensa & Conscious Lee, a wide-ranging conversation about Black political thought, internationalism, and solidarity. They dig into the false binary between domestic Black issues and global struggles, such as Palestine and the Congo; the Democratic Party’s co-optation of Black identity; and patriarchy within Black communities and organized religion.

• Check out this video featuring Aaron Bastani and AI investigative journalist Karen Hao as they discuss the shifts in the AI empire, including leadership changes at OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Anthropic; the economic impacts of rapid AI rollout; emerging resistance movements; and what it all means for the rest of us. Their conversation draws on Hao’s book Empire of AI (2025).

• Listen to this NPR podcast episode featuring Dr. Khiara Bridges, the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley School of Law, who discusses why wealth and status can’t protect Black women from racist health outcomes and how the maternal health crisis affects Black Americans at every income level.

Tools + Resources

• A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation argues that futuring—the practice of collectively imagining possible futures—must be democratized so that communities most harmed by structural racism and health inequity have the resources and support to envision the futures they want.

• Impact Funding is a curated resource for nonprofits, social enterprises, and ecosystem builders working to solve the world’s toughest problems. Each month, they highlight ongoing funding opportunities, organized by sector and geography and tailored for purpose-driven actors across humanitarian aid, climate, gender justice, education, health, innovation, and more.

• Philanthropy Roundtable’s Free to Give Index for 2026 is a comprehensive, state-by-state assessment of the policy landscape that shapes charitable giving and nonprofit activity across the United States. Drawing on 33 variables from 2025 data, the Index evaluates the extent to which each state’s laws, tax policies, and institutions support or hinder a robust philanthropic sector.

• A new Race Forward report shares findings from the first Just Narratives for Multiracial Solidarity convening, which brought together more than 400 communications strategists and racial justice advocates to build narrative power across movements. The report outlines lessons on ecosystem and infrastructure building for multiracial solidarity and calls for coordinated change.

• What happens when formerly incarcerated individuals receive community, resources, and support to succeed? The Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), an international organization with over 1,300 members, including students, graduates, and professionals across 48 states, demonstrates this. It provides community, employment resources, educational assistance, and advocacy to dismantle barriers and empower justice-impacted individuals.

Social Justice Spotlights

• In The Extinction of Experience, Christine Rosen explores how technology reshapes human experience, including face-to-face communication, a sense of place, genuine emotion, and boredom. She examines cultural trends and political issues to reveal an unprecedented shift in the human condition that habituates us to alienation and control.

• Dear Community is a group of activists formed in response to anti-Asian hate violence, with the aim of boosting Asian small-business corridors harmed by COVID-19 and racism. They spotlight the Asian American experience and encourage community involvement in the movement.

• The Liberation Education Collective uses interdisciplinary curricula, participatory research, and skill development to empower young people to build liberatory frameworks and engage in collective action against political repression.

• Intersectional Environmentalist is an eco-media organization on a mission to deepen environmental awareness and inspire climate action through art, education, and storytelling. It produces resources, programs, and creative opportunities that connect people to the climate justice movement and support grassroots environmental solutions.

• Artists for Radical Imagination is an emerging network of graphic artists working within liberation movements. It is a space to celebrate and support artists and to share information, skills, resources, and opportunities. It is open to all visual artists who work with liberation movements and live on land claimed by the U.S.

Professional Development Opps

• Art.coop and multimedia journalist and Solidarity Economy organizer Jaylin Ward are hosting a free webinar on June 16 from 2-4 p.m. PT / 5-7 p.m. ET on ethnographic approaches to storytelling and reporting, helping movement folks translate what they’re witnessing in the field into content for the feed that makes the Solidarity Economy visible.

• The Disability Rising Fellowship, a yearlong program by Disability Culture Lab, supports multi-marginalized disabled leaders in building public media profiles to influence narratives on disability and social justice. No media experience is required, but fellows must have deep expertise in their field. Fellows receive media coaching and training and are expected to complete and publish at least three media pieces. Upon completing their obligations, fellows receive a $5,000 stipend. The Expression of Interest for 2026 is open until June 28. Applicants invited to move forward to the full application process will be notified by July 17, 2026, and will have until August 7, 2026, to complete the full application.

• Building Movement Project’s Solidarity Is Cohort is a 6-week virtual training program for emerging activists and organizers seeking to deepen their analysis and sharpen their skills for long-term movement work. The program features six live virtual sessions, group practice, and a curriculum with tools you can apply in your organization. Led by facilitators from the Building Movement Project, the program also fosters a community of practice with fellow cohort members working toward a just and equitable world. Applications are due Monday, July 20, at 1 p.m. ET.

From Me to You

I took my first vacation in almost two years since the layoff from my previous job at the end of 2024. All the consistency with my writing, showing up for myself, and investing in my craft paid off. This vacation was a testament to that. Keep going, keep growing, and say yes to you! Better days always follow our toughest battles!

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

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June 8, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

Happy Pride Month!

I’m still editing my manuscript, so no essays are in the pipeline right now. But as always, here’s another round-up of stories, tools, and resources to help drive your work. I am excited to share, though, that a couple of new Builders of Justice profiles are coming soon, and I’ve got an exciting partnership announcement in the works!

CTA of the Week: Pride Month Is Under Political Attack. Here’s How to Push Back.

Every June, LGBTQ+ communities across the U.S. celebrate Pride Month, a tradition that dates back to the 1969 Stonewall uprising, when queer individuals resisted police violence and fought for public recognition. Now, a coordinated effort by Republican governors aims to redefine the month. Governors in Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Utah, and Arkansas have issued proclamations renaming June as “Nuclear Family Month,” “Strong Families Month,” or “Fidelity Month,” celebrating homes led by “a father and mother,” with fathers as “the head of the household.” Supported by conservative groups in at least four other states are pushing legislation to make this shift permanent. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders even labeled it “counter-programming Pride Month” on her social media. Meanwhile, recent polls show that two decades of increasing acceptance of same-sex relationships have stalled, primarily due to rising opposition from Republicans. Read more from PBS News, and here’s what you can do to push back:

• Show up at local Pride events. Presence is power.

• Donate to LGBTQ+ organizations in red states that are holding Pride anyway, including Equality Utah, Central Alabama Pride, and Indy Pride.

• If you work in philanthropy, urge your organization to publicly reaffirm its LGBTQ+ funding commitments if applicable.

• Scrutinize the “family strengthening” or “fidelity” framing and ask hard questions about who that language includes and excludes.

• Amplify the history. Pride began as a rebellion against state violence, and framing it that way is important.

A Win Worth Celebrating: Nonprofit Rise Up Healing Collective Uses Yoga To Teach Younger Kids About Violence Prevention

Chicago-based nonprofit Rise Up Healing Collective is making waves by bringing yoga and social-emotional learning into elementary schools as a form of violence prevention, teaching second- and third-graders how to identify and regulate their emotions, build self-awareness, and develop leadership skills. After just 10 weeks at Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Calumet City, school staff are already seeing positive changes in student behavior, proving that holistic, community-centered approaches are a viable alternative to safety and policing. Read more from CBS News.

In the News

• Right in Our Backyard: Community-Based Organizations and the Potential to Build a New Democracy, Nonprofit Quarterly

• Timothy Snyder: We are watching the US attempt a superpower suicide, The Nerve

• Be Less WEIRD: What US Funders Can Learn from Global Majority Philanthropic Practice, Nonprofit Quarterly

• A Reparations Blueprint for a New Era of Civil Rights Rollbacks, Ms. Magazine

• Left and Right Join to Defend Nonprofit Rights, The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• State of Nonprofits 2026: 3 Dire Realities Facing the Sector Right Now, NonProfitPRO

• Postal Service moving forward with Trump’s attack on mail voting, Democracy Docket

• Philanthropy Needs to Pay More Attention to Data Centers, Inside Philanthropy

• For Gaza, Eid joy is now a form of resistance, Al Jazeera

• U.S. Lawmakers Demand Reforms to Immigration Officers’ Use of Tear Gas and Pepper Spray, ProPublica

• Trump’s cuts to intervention programs could increase violent crime, experts say, The Guardian

• We Need to Close the Hope Gap, SSIR

• America Is Going Backwards - and Falling Apart, Democracy Americana

• Congress at a Crossroads: What Kind of Legislature Is This?, Bipartisan Policy Center

• Resourcing the frontlines of climate justice, Alliance Magazine

Listen + Watch

• For Black Music Month, NPR’s Tiny Desk is dedicating all of June to celebrating BET’s legacy with a multigenerational lineup that includes Eve, Floetry, Joe, Ayra Starr, Shaboozey, Bow Wow, and more. The series is a love letter to BET programs, which gave Black artists a home when other networks wouldn’t. Watch all performances throughout the month on the Tiny Desk website, with the first concert featuring GENA.

• This episode of the Love in a F*cked Up World podcast with Dean Spade is the first in a multi-part series exploring how people maintain and repair relationships across prison walls. Through conversations with currently and formerly incarcerated people and longtime prison support advocates, the episode examines how incarceration strains relationships and creates unequal power dynamics, and what it takes to stay connected and rebuild when someone comes home.

• This episode of the Letters from an American podcast with Heather Cox Richardson unpacks how the Trump administration is actively weaponizing the Department of Justice, pursuing retaliatory investigations against perceived enemies like E. Jean Carroll, replacing career prosecutors with loyalists, and manipulating grand jury proceedings while simultaneously using the legal system to enrich Trump and his family through corrupt dealings.

Tools + Resources

• This issue brief from Funders for LGBTQ Issues maps the intersection of immigration and LGBTQ identity in the U.S., covering who LGBTQ immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are, what conditions they face, and where philanthropy currently stands in responding to their needs.

• Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has created a tool to map data centers across the country, along with a form for people to report data centers and their impacts on their communities.

• This new report from the Center for American Progress argues that the Trump administration’s rollback of DEI programs is systematically dismantling America’s public health infrastructure, including cuts to research, surveillance systems, and workforce programs, while raising costs and putting national health security at risk.

• Spitfire’s Replenishing Trust guide offers civil society organizations research-backed practices for rebuilding public trust in institutions, which it argues is foundational to democracy and collective problem-solving.

• New research from the National Homelessness Law Center exposes how the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank advocating against homelessness, is financially connected to industries such as private prisons, surveillance, and defense that benefit from criminalizing homelessness. It suggests this demonstrates billionaire-supported policy influence.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Library Freedom Project trains library workers to protect privacy, intellectual freedom, and information access as acts of democratic and social justice organizing.

• re:power exists to build a critical mass of social justice movements and their leaders who embody the ideology and practice of liberatory organizing, an organizing practice that is pro-Black and grounded in collective action.

• All of U.S. 250 is a movement in response to America’s 250th Independence Anniversary, centering the country's full, unwhitewashed history. The coalition is calling people to get involved in activations focused on repairing history, celebrating progress made through struggle, and committing to the ongoing work of ensuring true liberty for all.

• Common Future is an economic justice organization that breaks down barriers to systemic change by redirecting capital flows, strengthening the power of community-based organizations, and shifting public narratives toward an economy where all people have power, choice, and ownership.

• The Center for Empowered Politics builds movement ecosystems of people-of-color-led grassroots organizations, supporting working-class communities of color in developing governing power through movement infrastructure, leadership development, strategic partnerships, and field-building.

Professional Development Opps

• On Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. PT, Humanity in Action will host an exclusive fireside chat featuring Senior Fellow Brian Stout and Executive Director Azi Khalili, focusing on the politics of belonging. Stout’s approach combines civil resistance principles, the moral teachings of Gandhi and King, and indigenous and eco-philosophical insights to demonstrate that this era is primarily a crisis of belonging. He argues that authoritarianism addresses this through othering and dominance, while social justice movements should counter with an authentic, inclusive invitation to belong.

• On June 15 at 4:00 p.m. ET, the Center for Artistic Activism (CC4A) is hosting a free virtual workshop featuring Stacey Abrams, C4AA’s Steve Lambert, and narrative strategist Janelle Treibitz to help advocates, organizers, and communicators disrupt authoritarian narratives and build ones that win. Participants will learn how the Authoritarian Narrative Cycle drives attacks on people and institutions, hear Abrams’ framework for understanding this political moment, and walk away with tools to develop creative actions that strike at the root of authoritarian power rather than chasing each new crisis.

• Online 2 Offline (O2O) is offering a two-day virtual training on June 23-24 to help organizers and digital specialists in labor, community, and social justice movements develop short-form video skills, from scripting to publishing. No experience needed. The training emphasizes short videos as powerful tools, with users watching reels on Instagram and high engagement rates. Cost is $250 for organizations and $150 for individuals. Register here.

From Me to You

I came across a YouTube video featuring Abigail Disney discussing how philanthropy keeps solving problems without the people most directly affected by them. The obsession with measuring outcomes has pushed the field further from real impact. The communities being “helped” are the last to be asked what they need, even though it should be obvious that they should be included in the pathway to solutions and co-create better futures. Until philanthropy is willing to redistribute not just dollars but decision-making power, the cycle will keep repeating. Relationships are the connective tissue of real change and must be prioritized.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

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May 27, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

Nothing in the queue right now. But I want to plug this amazing piece by Nick O’Hara about my reflections on the framing of fatherhood. Lately, Nick has been writing specifically about “father exclusion,” parental inequality, and the ways fathers can disappear from their children’s lives despite desperately trying to remain present in them. He adopted the term “father exclusion” to describe the involuntary separation of fathers from meaningful participation in their children’s lives, driven by a combination of institutional, relational, and cultural factors. There are nonprofits and philanthropic organizations doing real work to support fatherhood through resources and advocacy. It’s stories like this one that are a reminder of why that work deserves more attention and investment from the sector.

ICYMI from last week: As a pillar of democracy, the Black press deserves more from philanthropy.

CTA of the Week: Defend HUD’s Equal Access Rule

HUD’s Equal Access Rule has long guaranteed that individuals experiencing homelessness can access shelter and housing without discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status. However, it’s now under threat. In January 2025, an executive order instructed HUD to revoke the updated 2016 rule. On April 28, HUD proposed a new rule that would significantly weaken protections for gender-expansive communities. The public can comment on this proposal until June 29, 2026. Use the public comment portal provided by Trans Advocates for Equality to submit your opposition as an individual or on behalf of your organization. You can also collect stories from those who have faced barriers to accessing shelter and connect with local allies to amplify your voice. Gender-expansive individuals already face homelessness at higher rates, and weakening this rule will only increase that disparity. Visit the National Alliance to End Homelessness website for resources and tools to help defend #HousingWithDignity.

A Win Worth Celebrating: Free Prison, Jail Calls Linked To Lower Costs, Better Outcomes

Over 330,000 incarcerated individuals now have free access to phone calls, video chats, and messaging. A new report from Worth Rises highlights the significant ripple effects, with families saving over $622 million, primarily benefiting Black and brown communities heavily affected by incarceration. Call frequency has nearly doubled in jails, and daily call time in prisons has increased from 25 to 45 minutes. Correctional staff notes that tensions have decreased and safety has improved. Importantly, the nature of the calls has shifted from rationed minutes for urgent issues to supporting child care, housing coordination, employment planning, and reentry preparation. Free communication not only reduces costs but also re-establishes vital connections. Read more from Stateline.

In the News

• Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization” Fund Is a Handout to His Hardcore Supporters, The Intercept

• Let’s Call A Thing A Thing: Trump’s $1.8B White Grievance Fund Is Reparations For His Loyalists, Newsone

• NAACP calls for boycott of Southern college sports programs over voting rights, PBS

• The Voting Rights Act Is Dead. Here’s a New Model for Black Politics., The New Republic

• After years fostering interfaith ties, San Diego mosque finds allies in grief, Religion News Service

• Political Education Is Essential for Real Change: Here’s What Funders Must Know, Nonprofit Quarterly

• U.N. General Assembly Embraces Court Opinion That Says Nations Have a Legal Obligation to Take Climate Action, Inside Climate News

• How the Tech Industry Made Eastern Congo the Most Dangerous Place to be a Woman, Decolonial Mind

• Why Effective Leaders Get Branded as Problems, Harvard Business Review

• Objectivity Was Never Neutral, The Palestine Connection

• The word ‘Black’ has disappeared from a set of bills aimed at addressing Black maternal health, The 19th News

• Pope calls for robust regulation of AI in manifesto that ponders the future of humanity, PBS

• Cuba Has a Rich History of International Solidarity. US Wants to Extinguish It., Truthout

• My problem with the TIME100 Philanthropy list, Alliance Magazine

• Can Philanthropy Deliver on Americans’ Desire for Disruption?, Inside Philanthropy

Listen + Watch

• This Democracy Now video discusses U.S. strikes on two Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, despite a ceasefire and ongoing peace talks. Meanwhile, Israel continues attacks in southern Lebanon. Journalist Negar Mortazavi suggests that these actions are deliberately intended to sabotage a final agreement, emphasizing that Netanyahu has no desire to end the conflict.

• This WCCO CBS Minnesota video commemorates six years since George Floyd’s murder, examining how the community has progressed and what residents and local business owners still envision for the neighborhood’s future.

• Watch this documentary, W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause, which explores the life and lasting impact of the pioneering Black scholar and civil rights leader. It covers his journey from his birth five years after the Emancipation Proclamation to his death just before the 1963 March on Washington.

Tools + Resources

• This explainer from the Detention Watch Network documents how the Trump administration is repurposing federal Bureau of Prisons facilities to expand ICE detention capacity, with facility-by-facility accounts of the resulting human rights abuses.

• Read this research-backed narrative toolkit, created by the Democracy Revival Center, FrameWorks Institute, and The Bloc, that provides communicators and organizers with a four-step framework to guide public frustration with the current political landscape. It also offers ideas for structural democratic reform.

• Check out this crowdsourced, growing list of counterprogramming to the official America250 celebration, featuring campaigns, exhibits, podcasts, and narrative projects that center Indigenous, Black, feminist, and other marginalized histories as alternatives to the administration’s whitewashed commemoration.

• The Center of Effective Philanthropy’s State of Nonprofits 2026 report explains how nonprofit leaders are adapting to compounding crises, including funding losses, increased service demand, and burnout.

• This Brookings-AEI research summary explores the increasing challenges facing rural health care infrastructure, including Medicaid reductions, workforce shortages, and the implementation of the Rural Health Transformation Program. It contends that lasting reform relies more on community-focused design and a unified vision of the care rural residents should receive locally.

Social Justice Spotlights

• The Maybe is an organization dedicated to shifting tech narratives away from industry-driven hype by connecting storytellers and organizers who focus on lived experiences and on the idea that technology is political.

• No ICE in the Cup is a national campaign demanding ICE-free spaces during the 2026 World Cup so immigrant communities can participate in the celebration without fear. It uses public art, community soccer matches, and volunteer “N.I.C.E. Brigades” to build protective networks across sectors.

• The AI Resist List is a resource compiled by AI researchers and scholars that catalogs organized resistance movements against large-scale GenAI development. It argues that AI depletes natural resources and serves the elite rather than humanity at large, and offers concrete actions people can take to pressure the systems and institutions that sustain what they call the “empires of AI.”

• Native Voices Rising offers general operating support grants to strengthen Native-led organizations through leadership development and collective action for social change. Eligible groups to apply are led by Native individuals, work to enhance Native communities through organizing and advocacy, and aim to influence policies affecting their communities. Applications are due July 3, 2026.

• In Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age, Ibram X. Kendi offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age and how we can free ourselves from it.

Professional Development Opps

• The READI Room Briefing, scheduled for May 29, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. PT, is a webinar for communication leaders in philanthropy and nonprofits. It addresses the current surge of legal challenges and political attacks on DEI and race-focused initiatives. The session will explore READI’s key activities, including legal support, philanthropic organizing, field education, and strategic messaging.

• “Skills for Inclusive Leadership: Building Your Advocacy Toolkit” is an interactive workshop hosted by Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy on June 9 from 10-11:30 a.m. PT. It will help philanthropy professionals across all roles develop the soft skills needed for “little a” advocacy, translating personal values into actionable social change work at the organizational, coalition, or field level. The cost is free for members and $35 for nonmembers.

• The HIP Líderes Fellowship is a leadership development program for mid-career Latine professionals in philanthropy and nonprofits that cultivates racial healing and systemic change through cohort-based learning and peer relationship-building. Now recruiting for its 11th cohort focused on the Southwest, the fellowship is open to Latine, Afrolatine, and Native leaders from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and the Navajo Nation. Fellows gain tools to navigate and transform systems from a racial justice lens, along with access to a national alumni network. Applications are due June 12, 2026.

From Me to You

An exciting announcement: My new personal website is now live!

This site reflects who I am as a writer, artivist, educator, and storyteller all in one place. When people go to my site, I want them to see the throughline that drives my work: approaching storytelling as both an art and a tool for liberation. Best viewed on a desktop: https://tirreab.com/

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

Barriers to traditional mainstream mass news media run deep, including the prioritization of commercial interests, the control of news values by corporate and political elites, and censorship—all of which go beyond what philanthropy alone can fix. These are the same obstacles that led to the emergence of the Black press.

Still, philanthropy can play a significant role in removing them. A 2023 report from Media Impact Funders highlights a substantial rise in philanthropic funding for American journalism over the past several years, with over half of funders increasing their grants and a growing share targeting communities of color. Given that the narratives we consume drive social, cultural, and political change in our communities, the importance of that investment cannot be overstated.

Per cultural and political sociologist Robert N. Jacobs, fundamental to a free, functioning democratic society is freedom of the press. The press has established a global civil society that influences public debates on common issues, and its consumers serve as a strong platform for shaping public opinion on societal matters. The Black press has played a crucial role in this by challenging dominant stereotypes and narratives about the Black experience and bringing to light stories that might otherwise go unheard.

For those reasons, there should be an even stronger priority for supporting the work of Black journalists and outlets, especially in this moment, when the Black Press is experiencing a critical financial crisis. Publishers are estimating an 80% decline in revenue. This decline is mainly due to widespread opposition to DEI efforts and heavy newsprint tariffs, which are straining the budgets of over 200 Black-owned newspapers nationwide.

Philanthropy cannot claim to care about narrative power and then remain silent as the institutions that produce it collapse. It has the resources to close that gap.

The Black Press As Community-Controlled Infrastructure

To understand what’s at stake for the Black press, you have to start with its origin. Since 1827, the Black press has provided an independent, culturally authentic, and accurate voice for Black communities while advocating for civil rights, social justice, and equality. It highlights stories neglected by mainstream media, which has historically been influenced by power structures that mainly serve white audiences. The Black press challenges this imbalance, serving as an educational and unifying force against racial injustice. Funding that work is one of the most tangible actions philanthropy can take to help preserve it.

As the United States marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence this July, the Black press is also approaching its own 200th anniversary next year. With the founding of Freedom’s Journal, the first African American-owned newspaper in the U.S., its inaugural editorial declared: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” Almost 200 years later, the work of pleading our own cause still continues.

The Black press exists because mainstream media often fails to accurately tell Black stories. For example, the 1968 Kerner Commission Report showed news outlets failed to portray race relations properly, lacking understanding of Black culture, thought, or history. Decades later, across academia and social institutions, several studies have revealed that Black people are still shown as more threatening and as suspects rather than victims in news media. The misrepresentation and erasure persist, with Black life being reduced to danger and defiance, while broader, more complex realities are ignored.

To combat this, the Black press has served as, and continues to serve as, a counternarrative. As Alicia Bell of the Racial Equity and Journalism Fund described at Harambee, it is “community-controlled infrastructure.” The Black press serves as a crucial source of information that communities rely on to stay informed, meeting a need that white-led media outlets have consistently failed to address. That infrastructure, which this moment cannot afford to lose, is struggling to survive.

A Legacy At Risk

Erasing history is how you maintain power and control. So, it’s no surprise that the Black press is at risk. The main difference now is the institutional authority behind it and the coordinated speed at which it’s happening. From dismantling DEI efforts to erasing Black history from public lands and attempts to end federal funding for public media, these coordinated efforts aim to reshape the official narrative of this country’s history and its key historical (and contemporary) figures. The Trump administration believes that controlling the narrative means controlling the outcome, and they’re not entirely mistaken.

But the Black press has consistently recognized this reality. When mainstream newspapers covered the 1919 Red Summer as isolated riots rather than a coordinated wave of white racial violence, the Chicago Defender presented a counternarrative that didn’t blame black people for the violence, unlike white-led outlets. Jet magazine first published Emmett Till’s open casket, “a move that historians say started the organized modern civil rights movement.” When mainstream outlets like Fox News led with George Floyd’s criminal record and footage of burning buildings, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a coalition of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers, from the New York Beacon to the Dallas Examiner, took it upon themselves to tell the fuller story about Floyd’s murder and the tipping point of the Black Lives Matter movement. They documented the grief, the demands, the families, and the people marching across the globe. Without them, that record would not exist.

And today, outlets like The Root, Capital B, TheGrio, and local Black press institutions are ensuring that state-sanctioned whitewashing doesn’t blatantly rewrite our history.

Nevertheless, the Black press faces this responsibility despite a flawed revenue model and an industry that continues to lose jobs and outlets.

Funders can do more to support journalism by providing sufficient financial support. At Harambee, Bell also stated that as little as $200 million annually could fully fund all newsrooms led by Black, Indigenous, Latina, Asian, and Arab communities in the U.S. This amount represents just 0.03% of the country’s total charitable donations each year. To put that into perspective, that’s also only 0.04% of annual venture capital investments, less than the valuation of a single NFL team, and less than ten hours of Pentagon spending.

Despite that very small percentage of the country’s total annual charitable donations, two to three BIPOC-led newsrooms close each week, according to Bell.

On Funding Journalism

Aside from Trump and his regime, Big Tech has gutted the economic foundation the Black press depended on. Platforms like Google and Meta dominate the digital advertising market that once sustained local newsrooms, while simultaneously training audiences to expect free content. This makes subscription models nearly impossible to sustain. At this critical moment, funders cannot be neutral on this issue. Every Black newsroom that closes takes with it the opportunity to challenge harmful, dominant narratives that circulate the public sphere, and leaves more room for those narratives to fill the spaces. This further emphasizes why the Black press matters right now. Who gets to shape our narratives and tell our stories? Us, or the same institutions that have tried to erase our existence since America’s founding?

The work being done by Black press institutions is extraordinary. The Sacramento Observer expanded to Stockton, spending six months doing community listening before writing a single story. Reporting from MLK50 about Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and debt collection in Tennessee has led to the forgiveness of $11.9 million in hospital debt for community members. The Jackson Advocate reported so persistently on the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, that the EPA moved toward intervention. Outlier Media in Detroit helped homeowners recover $5.9 million that the state had seized during the foreclosure crisis.

These stories flex the power of the Black press, created by newsrooms currently facing funding shortages, understaffing, and burnout. Yet they continue to show up and share the stories our communities need to know.

Additional research from ABFE and Candid reaffirms that while foundation funding for Black-led organizations increased post-2020, the proportion of these organizations that actually received grants did not grow in proportion. Although funding became more visible, access to it largely remained stagnant. As philanthropy cuts back on race-specific investments amid political pressures, Black press organizations are disproportionately bearing this reduction.

Larry Lee, President of The Sacramento Observer, expressed something at Harambee that I keep coming back to:

“No matter what your number one priority is…your number two priority should be funding journalism. Because you can be committed to Black maternal health, you can be committed to economic justice, you can be committed to all these issues, but if you’re not funding the organizations that are helping to tell that story, you’re doing a disservice to the work that you do.”

He’s correct. Narrative power is only as strong as its infrastructure. That means having newsrooms with reporters, editors, and publishers, along with sustainable financial support. It also requires that editorial decisions remain in the hands of Black journalists and storytellers, free from the influence of advertisers or government entities that have a stake in controlling the story.

A Legacy Worth Preserving

As the country prepares to celebrate 250 years of a “democracy” that has historically and systematically excluded Black people, and as the Trump administration attempts to erase our history, the Black press must endure in its role of speaking truth to power, by any means necessary.

America250 will flood the media landscape with celebratory content about the founders of this “democracy,” the same founders who profited from slavery while ironically drafting a document about freedom and independence. The Black press will tell a different story, one about who was left out of that founding, who built this country without credit, and who is still fighting for its promise of freedom and justice for all. That counternarrative only survives if the Black press does. This means fully investing in it, not investing incrementally or after another research report that confirms what we already know.

If philanthropy refuses to fund the Black press now, the dominant narratives will win by default, and we will have helped make that happen.

The Black press has been advocating for itself for nearly 200 years. At the very least, we should treat that legacy as something worth preserving and protecting.

Social preview image context and source: A member of the Chicago Defender staff shows a copy of the newspaper to students crowded around a table during Career Day, held at an unidentified school in Chicago, late 20th century. The newspaper headline reads, “Blacks To Move Up.” From The Abbott Sengstacke Family Papers/Robert Abbott Sengstacke via Getty Images.

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May 18, 2026

Upcoming for philanthropy unfiltered

I’ve been reflecting on the ABFE Harambee 2026 Conference I attended last month in San Francisco. One of the plenaries highlighted the Black press’s failure to secure adequate philanthropic funding despite its importance. Larry Lee, President of The Sacramento Observer, noted his father’s civic ties helped establish a major U.S. health foundation, but that legacy hasn’t led to substantial financial support. Additionally, just $200 million annually could support all ~500 BIPOC-led newsrooms—less than ten hours of Pentagon spending. Yet, two to three BIPOC outlets close weekly.

Lee emphasized during the plenary: “No matter what your number one priority is…your number two priority should be funding journalism. Because you can be committed to Black maternal health, you can be committed to economic justice, you can be committed to all these issues, but if you're not funding the organizations that are helping to tell that story, you're doing a disservice to the work that you do.”

The Trump regime is rewriting history, from scrubbing archives to dismantling DEI and gutting the Voting Rights Act. As America approaches its 250th anniversary this July, the Black press remains the most important guardian of this nation’s true history. Today, that role is more vital than ever. However, philanthropy has yet to support it at the necessary scale this moment requires. More soon.

CTA of the Week: Tell Congress to Block Trump’s Mail Voting EO!

Trump’s executive order (EO) directs the Postal Service to implement his voter suppression plan, warning states they could lose federal funds or face criminal charges if they do not comply. Mail-in voting remains a secure and popular method relied on by millions, including seniors, individuals with disabilities, and those unable to vote in person because of work. This order aims to intimidate these voters into silence. Senator Alex Padilla has introduced the Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act to overturn the order, with advocates urging Congress to pass it before the 2026 elections. Visit Common Cause’s website to learn more and sign the petition.

A Win Worth Celebrating: Southern Ute Tribe Secures First-Ever Tribal Energy Resource Agreement with Interior Department

After nearly twenty years of development on paper, the Southern Ute Tribe achieved the first approved Tribal Energy Resource Agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior. This agreement grants them greater sovereignty to manage and develop energy resources without federal approval for each action. As a result, they can independently negotiate leases, rights-of-way, and business agreements on their terms and timeline. This reduces bureaucracy and boosts the tribe’s economic power. Such a victory now sets a precedent for other tribal nations to emulate. Read more from Native News Online.

In the News

• Reinventing Program Officers: What Makes Them Effective Today, The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• Supreme Court’s voting rights decision could erase Black representation across the ballot, Salon

• 5 Things We Need To Know About the New IRS “Form 990 Transparency Initiative”, Inside Philanthropy

• Shutting Down USAID Led to a Rise in Global Violence, Study Says, TIME

• House launches bipartisan push to combat sexual misconduct in Congress, The Washington Post

• What makes a good teacher? Ask a Republican and a Democrat, and they are likely to agree, The Conversation

• Children and Schools Should Be Off Limits to Immigration Enforcement, The 74

• As colleges defund campus newspapers, student journalists fight back, Prism

• Google subsidizing hate group’s anti-transgender and anti-diversity ads, SPLC

• It Was One of DOGE’s Most Absurd Abuses. A Court Finally Exposed It., Slate

• Low Wages, Empty Plates, Heavy Toll: Rethinking Suicide Prevention, KFF Health News

• Trump’s Appalling Racial Legacy, The American Prospect

• The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians, The New York Times

• The fight against AI datacenters isn’t just about tech – it’s about democracy, The Guardian

• Nonprofits say they are in a crisis, Axios

Listen + Watch

• In a Hard Knock Radio discussion, Steve Phillips linked recent attacks on multiracial democracy to Civil War-era tensions, arguing that voter suppression, Supreme Court rollbacks, and corporate DEI efforts aim to preserve white power. His book highlights “SWAMP” (Straight White American Male Preference) and advocates for audits of institutions to reveal biases.

• This episode of the Democracy Does podcast discusses what it takes to move from transactional to transformational advocacy, featuring RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris on building lasting civic power through relationship-based organizing and skills development.

• Watch episodes from Social Justice Origin Stories, a storytelling project that highlights the personal stories and defining moments that have inspired individuals and organizations to labor for equity and social justice.

Tools + Resources

• This research paper from the National Endowment for the Arts examines the link between arts participation and broader civic and community involvement, as measured by the NEA’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The report also finds that young adults’ participation rates have declined across most arts and civic categories.

• This New America and Trellis Strategies analysis draws on original survey data to examine how college students who are caregivers experience housing insecurity and offers concrete recommendations for federal, state, and institutional policymakers to close resource and awareness gaps for this largely uncounted population.

• The annual GLAAD Social Media Safety Index & Platform Scorecard evaluates six major social media platforms: TikTok, X, YouTube, and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, providing findings and recommendations for social media companies to improve LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression online.

• Check out Convergence Magazine’s Block and Build syllabus, a seven-session study guide advancing the case for blocking MAGA authoritarianism while simultaneously building independent progressive power toward a multiracial, gender-inclusive democracy.

• Progressive Multiplier is a philanthropic intermediary that funds and shares scalable revenue strategies across progressive nonprofits, arguing that independent revenue enhances readiness, agility, sustainability, and accountability beyond grants alone. Their case studies show how groups turn storytelling, peer-to-peer fundraising, and relational organizing into sustainable revenue.

Social Justice Spotlights

• Through programs and working groups, Eradicate Hate supports academics, professionals, students, parents, survivors, law enforcement, health care providers, and more in forging solutions to this global challenge.

• Search for Common Ground works to transform the way people deal with conflict, building healthy, safe, and just societies around the world by fostering trust and creating opportunities for adversaries to collaborate.

• The Power of Flowers Project shares hope and happiness by repurposing donated flowers into bouquets and delivering them to seniors and veterans, providing unexpected moments of joy and improving the well-being of vulnerable populations.

• Integrate for Good is a nonprofit organization that empowers students and adults of all abilities to share their talents through inclusive volunteerism, community leadership, and equitable employment.

• Haymarket Books is offering 40% off a curated Class War Reading List in honor of May Day, through the end of this month. Some titles include United and Win, The Communist Manifesto, and A Short History of the U.S. Working Class.

Professional Development Opps

• Interrupting Criminalization is hosting a free webinar, Resistance Lab: Making and Distributing Media Under Surveillance, on June 2, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. ET, uniting journalists and media workers to share skills in protecting sources, supporting communities under surveillance, digital security, ethical decision-making, and media responsibilities. Participation requires a brief application, welcoming both movement journalists and mainstream media workers who work with vulnerable communities.

• Nonprofit organizations play a vital legal role in civic engagement, strengthening communities and democracy. Join this free webinar, co-hosted by the National Council of Nonprofits and Democracy Forward, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. ET, for a discussion on the legal landscape of nonpartisan voter engagement during politicized times. It will offer guidance on nonprofit voter activities within the legal and policy context.

• Register for the Smash Authoritarianism Summer Camp, a free week-long virtual training intensive offered June 8-12, 2026. It will cover how to grow and strengthen community defense networks, fundamental organizing skills for expanding capacity, practical narrative and media engagement tools, campaign planning and strategic analysis, and a closing day of creative action training and movement leader panels.

From Me to You

I recently shared a note about how scary and depressing it is that everything is being consolidated, downsized, and completely stripped of its agency and originality. The human element of things is slowly disappearing. AI slop is replacing the whimsy of the creative process. Yet, we must continue navigating this new terrain, as disorienting as it feels, as writers and creators. We owe it to ourselves to keep writing our stories and safeguarding the integrity of our voices.

Got something to share?

If you come across a tool, story, opportunity, or call to action that should be on my radar (or if you’re working on something you’d like others to see), I’d love to include it in a future round-up! Send me a message on Substack or email me at tirreab@gmail.com.

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A student Luke Hostetter continues to think about is Shamar, a ninth-grader from southwest Philadelphia. He rarely attended class and had a reputation with teachers that preceded him. This changed when he began attending Hostetter’s U.S. history class.

“From first glance, you would never expect [the connection] to happen,” Hostetter tells me. “And you would see him walking the halls for every other kind of period of the day. But when U.S. history came around, he was in the front row and, like, loving it.”

It was Hostetter’s first year teaching, and he has kept that memory with him ever since.

Luke Hostetter, currently the Executive Director and Senior Vice President for City Year Bay Area, has nearly twenty years of experience navigating the education sector. His roles have included corps member, teacher, school principal, and executive leader, unlike many who stick to one path. His career demonstrates what is possible when someone deeply believes in young people and is ready to take risks to back that belief.

Driving Change From the Inside

Hostetter grew up in Richmond, Virginia, in a Quaker household where service was a core value. His mother spearheaded a grassroots campaign to desegregate Richmond’s public schools, which led to Hostetter being bused across the city from his predominantly white neighborhood to schools that looked very different from his community. When he was in third grade, a statue of Arthur Ashe, a Black tennis player and Richmond native, was finally installed on Monument Avenue. It stood among the Confederate generals who had lined the street for decades.

“It was like a real moment for the city,” he says.

He shares this to exemplify the deliberate common thread running from his mother’s activism through his corps service, his teaching career, his role as principal, and his role as ED and Senior VP. It shows how someone who recognizes early on that institutions aren’t neutral can choose to remain and drive change from the inside.

He graduated from college in 2008 into a tough job market, unsure of his direction and seeking stability. A contact within his Quaker network introduced him to City Year Philadelphia, and he decided to join. He was inspired by Barack Obama and the concept of collective change. He was looking for a solid base to start from, and his service experience provided that foundation.

He was surprised by what he learned. What caught him off guard was realizing, years later, how influential that year had been in ways he couldn’t understand at the time.

“It wasn’t until years later that I was like, oh, this really was such a formative moment,” he reflects. “You don’t always recognize the power that you have.”

The theme of choosing to work within institutions rather than around them recurs throughout all his roles. He didn’t pursue roles as an organizer or advocate outside the system. Instead, he first joined as a corps member, then became a teacher, a principal, and an ED and a Senior VP. In each position, he operated within the existing structures that influence young people’s lives, aiming to change what those structures can support and who they can support.

Wealthy Neighbors, Underfunded Schools

A few weeks prior to our conversation, City Year Bay Area held an event where alumni returned to mentor current corps members. One alum is now heading a community college admissions program. Many current corps members work in the schools they once attended as students. They often say that, back then, as students, they wished someone like them had been present in their classrooms.

“Those nuances are mission-oriented,” he acknowledges. “But they do motivate and continue to ground me in why this work is so important in this moment.”

Serving in one of the wealthiest areas in the country while supporting some of its most underfunded schools is a role that doesn’t get enough attention. It’s a part of the work that clearly costs him.

“In one of the schoolyards, we can see the Meta headquarters, one of the largest companies in the world,” he says. “Yet we don’t receive support from the most profitable companies in the world.”

He has held this role for over two years and is still adjusting to the fundraising environment, including the challenges of access and the complex negotiations needed to secure corporate funding with attached conditions.

“It feels performative to access some of the resources from these companies that are just so wealthy,” he says plainly.

He is aware of both the real positive impact City Year achieves and the structural frustration of needing to negotiate that good within systems built to safeguard the wealth that causes inequality.

He’s an optimist, a trait he credits to his Quaker upbringing. He always sees a light, believing in people’s inherent goodness. I trust his sincerity. However, I also sense that his optimism requires effort to maintain, especially when he looks up at the Meta building from the schoolyard.

Putting Equity First

Before joining City Year Bay Area, Hostetter managed a Philadelphia middle school with 1,600 students, mostly Black and brown, and achieved the highest student growth in the district. When discussing what contributed to this success, I questioned why similar results aren’t more easily replicated elsewhere.

He doesn’t credit any particular program or initiative for success. Instead, he highlights the importance of coaching.

“We developed a strong coaching system to address what we observed as being areas of focus to make that classroom more effective for students,” he explains. Each teacher received support from an instructional coach through regular observations and constructive feedback.

“It wasn’t, ‘I’m trying to catch you doing something wrong.’ It was coming from a place of like, ‘we can all grow, we can all improve.’”

He also explains that their efforts were focused not in the middle or at the top, but at the bottom, targeting the students who are most behind.

“When you focused on equity and what the students that are furthest behind needed, oh my gosh, all students benefited.”

It might seem obvious at first, but actions frequently contradict this. Schools tend to concentrate on the average student and focus on efforts that divert attention from individual needs. It’s claimed there is little time for targeted small-group lessons. Hostetter created systems designed specifically to address this issue.

He integrated those frameworks into City Year’s model, in which corps members are trained in targeted small-group interventions. As a result, students who work with City Year corps members are 2.5 times more likely to be on grade level by year’s end than their peers.

This approach isn’t more widespread mainly because it demands trust and the willingness to restructure classrooms to focus on students who are often overlooked. In most school systems, current incentives favor standard measures that highlight average progress rather than the challenging work of helping students two or three grade levels behind. It is simpler, and often more politically straightforward, to demonstrate small improvements across the entire school rather than to justify directing resources toward the students who are hardest to showcase in data.

What Funders Miss

When I inquire about what funders need to better understand, his reply highlights the importance of securing multi-year, unrestricted funding whenever feasible.

“If we’re going to build sustained change and impact, it needs to be thought of within a multi-year timeline.”

Last year, DOGE ordered a major cut to AmeriCorps funding, terminating nearly $400 million in grants. That’s about 41% of the agency’s total grant funding. This decision affected 1,031 organizations and 32,465 AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers nationwide. This upheaval forced the organization into survival mode rather than growth. When an organization is constantly struggling to stay afloat, it becomes challenging to concentrate on building a bold, forward-looking vision for the future.

He points to another shift that is making things harder. More corporate funders are moving away from foundation grants and toward employee-driven giving platforms, where employees choose which nonprofits to support from an approved list. In theory, that democratizes philanthropy. In practice, it means organizations like City Year receive funding only if employees already know they exist. And companies, he says, are not doing the work to ensure that.

“We need the support of, especially in our region, large companies to amplify the work that’s happening,” he says. “Whether it’s us, or if it’s folks that are working with unhoused people, or food insecure, like those need to be broadcast and built into a culture of giving back.”

This argument shifts focus from the typical call for bigger donations. It highlights a problem of accountability. Companies often rely on their employees’ generosity to justify cutting their own charitable contributions, without fostering a culture that makes employee involvement truly meaningful.

AI May Deepen the Equity Gap

Talking about education in the Bay Area naturally brings up AI. Hostetter discusses this with a measured outlook, steering clear of both hype and reflexive skepticism, and offering a balanced viewpoint.

City Year has collaborated with ClassGenius to train corps members in using AI to create highly personalized tutoring materials for students. This initiative is ongoing and effective. Additionally, he’s educating members on the ethical and responsible use of AI, aiming to prepare them for the workforce and provide a competitive edge, as entry-level job postings have decreased by 35%.

“I have a concern that under-resourced school districts are going to over-index on putting kids in front of laptops, and having individualized learning tracks, where the human aspect is removed from the learning cycle.”

He’s describing a future where the tech-equity divide doesn’t look like what we expect. It won’t be that wealthy schools have AI and poor schools don’t. It might be the opposite. Wealthy districts will hire humans and use technology as a supplement. Under-resourced districts will use technology as a replacement because it’s cheaper.

“It’s going to cause more harm than good,” he says.

This critique is seldom heard in the AI-in-education conversation because it challenges the hero narrative. Technology and its use are not neutral. How it’s used often reflects existing power dynamics unless we deliberately intervene.

City Year’s approach, focusing on human-centered, relationship-driven, and peer mentorship, exemplifies the type of intervention that risks losing funding when a tech solution appears more cost-effective on paper.

Young People Want to Lead

When Hostetter discusses leadership and the process of developing it in a generation that has seen institutional leadership repeatedly fail, he responds with honesty:

“I think there’s a fear to lead in 18 to 24-year-olds right now because they haven’t seen leadership that they can look to that’s inspiring to them.”

Here, he highlights a structural void. Young people want opportunities to take on leadership roles, but they fear repeating the patterns they’ve observed.

And they’ve witnessed a great deal.

City Year’s approach relies on peer team leaders. Hostetter, who served as one at age 22, considers it the most valuable leadership training he’s received. The key question is whether this model—entrusting young people with significant responsibility, mentoring them through errors, and allowing them to lead—is being expanded widely or limited to the program itself.

“I would love to see our region take more of that role in mentoring and shaping this next generation of leaders and doing it purposefully, intentionally, with the forethought of: ‘this is the future.’”

Relationships Are Key

At the end of our conversation, I reflect on what it means to have built a career like Luke Hostetter’s, not despite the tough and under-resourced school systems, but within them, for almost two decades.

Nonprofit leaders often focus on abstract ideas about governance structures. Nonetheless, Luke recognizes that relationships are the essence of the work, not merely a stepping stone to results. You can’t create them through an online module, replicate them with an algorithm, or fund them with so many restrictions that leave no time for slow, steady, and impactful growth.

What’s needed is a willingness to commit long-term, to stay humble enough to learn, to maintain idealism by recognizing what’s wrong, and to believe—despite much evidence—that people are inherently good and eager to help.

Shamar sat in the front row of Luke’s history class because he chose to keep attending. That’s the example. Seventeen years later, it remains the example Luke Hostetter continues to build toward.

Luke Hostetter is a dedicated leader with nearly two decades of experience in K-12 education, passionate about equity and community engagement. A former City Year corps member, he credits that experience with shaping his career. He served as principal of C.C.A. Baldi Middle School from 2015 to 2023, leading it to recognition as a Title 1 Distinguished School and the #1 Middle School in Philadelphia for student growth and achievement. Under his leadership, Baldi received the National Banner from Special Olympics in 2021, and Luke was awarded the Lindback Award in 2021, which funded an English Learner Welcome Center. His commitment stems from his own public school experiences in Virginia and his work as a teacher. Residing in the Bay Area with his family, Luke aims to build on City Year Bay Area’s legacy. Learn more about Luke Hostetter on his LinkedIn.