The Trump Administration Is Coming for Nonprofits. They’re Getting Ready

Some organizations, says Stahl, envisage what it would mean to dissolve and start again as a limited liability company. In some respects, this would facilitate the movement of money, in particular for organizations that do international work. But that would also considerably reduce transparency around donations and how money is spent. To move the registered office of an organization – and its bank accounts – to another country could theoretically protect its finances, but there is no guarantee that it would be able to recover money in the United States to continue working in the field. (Shortly before the inauguration of Trump, a Canadian law firm organized a webinar for non -profit organizations planning to move their head office to the country.)

Reich says that several organizations are already talking about how an attack on the administration could be legally challenged. “Non-profit organizations will probably win in court and it will be in a year or two,” he said. But at that time, the administration will have had time to spread accounts like that shared by the NGO-as well as, perhaps, to link their resources by defending itself in court. “The point is destroyed [nonprofits’] Reputations “, explains Reich,” and have the power to dictate how and where money is spent. »»

In the meantime, uncertainty in the field means that foundations and donors now seek to move money faster – both to support organizations that can feel the pain of other donors behind and make sure that the sector is ready for an operational environment more difficult than ever.

“We are moving money to meet the needs and needs of beneficiaries in the communities,” explains John Palfrey, president of the John D. Foundation and Catherine T. MacArthur, who is a member of unit in advance. Palfrey noted other government financing reductions, including the American agency for international development and other federal subsidies, have meant that organizations like the MacArthur Foundation are already rushing to pay money to their beneficiaries to help fill the shortcomings.

“We say to the organizations with which we work to be categorical with the founders, that if they do not finance us now, there is no longer any sector,” explains Ashleigh Subramanian-Montgomery, acting director of the charity and the security network, which works with non-profit organizations that operate in difficult conditions.

Subramanian-Montgomery says that his organization has advised non-profit organizations with which they should not comply in advance, but that certain organizations “already delete things from their website which could make them more at risk”. She says that she is worried, however, that even threats of funding could lead people to “start really self-censorship, then completely change the programming,” she said. “Then there would not even be civil society to repel government policy.”

But what this civil society could look like is in the air. “The Trump administration will set fire to the sector,” says Reich. “It will be necessary to rebuild.”