Nonprofit Resources of the Week curates timely articles, tools, and commentary to help nonprofit organizations, their leaders, and their advisors stay informed about legal developments, sector trends, and emerging issues affecting the nonprofit and philanthropic ecosystem, including those related to equity, climate change, and resilience. The series also seeks to share tools, perspectives, and sources of inspiration that support more effective, thoughtful, and sustainable nonprofit leadership, and that help those working for and with nonprofits carry out their roles with greater confidence, efficiency, and purpose.
Notable Nonprofit Posts, Articles, & Other Resources:
For most Americans, nonprofits are ‘invisible’ (Alex Daniels, Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Evolving Foundation Responses to a Sector in Crisis (Center for Effective Philanthropy) [Ed. CEP also provides a helpful 2-page board book insert here.]
- 93% of foundations made at least one change to the way they approach their work in response to the current context.
- 12% of foundation leaders rate their response as very effective, and only 8% say the same of foundation funders broadly.
- 58% of nonprofit leaders report holding back with funders and are less than completely honest about their challenges.
Gilded Giving 2026: Philanthropy Under Oligarchy (Institute for Policy Studies)
What Americans Think About Nonprofits & Philanthropy 2026 (Nguyen, Phuong Tran; Bergdoll, Jon; Ackerman, Jacqueline; Kou, Xiaonan; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, ScholarWorks Indianapolis)
New Laird Law Makes It Easier For Nonprofits To Receive Gifts Left By Donors (Sen. John Laird) [Ed. CalNonprofits was a co-sponsor of this bill – SB 1288.]
Why Philanthropy Must Invest in Narrative Power to End Gender Violence (Natalie A. Collier, Maheen Kaleem and Jody Myrum, NPQ)
Nonprofit Mergers Need More Than Mission Alignment (George M. Tsiatis, Christina Lowery & Tammy Tibbetts, SSIR)
AB 2084 Safeguards Nonprofits Against Federal Threats (CalNonprofits) [Ed. California Governor Newsom signed AB 2084 on September 30.]
CA Governor Vetoes Grantmaking-Reform Bills (Linda Rosenthal, For Purpose Law Group)
Honoring Rich Avanzino: A Legacy Of Compassion And Courage (SF SPCA) [Ed. Rich was my boss and mentor for two very important years in my life and in the course of the SF SPCA and Maddie’s Adoption Center. He was instrumental and inspirational in reshaping animal welfare in this country (which remains an ongoing task). May his memories be a blessing.]
Significant Events:
- “The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reasserted Tuesday that President Trump’s use of a “pocket rescission” to cancel $810 million in federal funding was unlawful. … Perez wrote that Trump’s withholding of appropriated funds beyond the expiration date “subverts both the constitutional process for enacting federal law and Congress’s constitutional power of the purse.”” The Hill
- “How the “Cornell Seven” Rape Case Became a National Scandal The dismal responses from both the D.A. and the university reveal a larger pattern of institutional carelessness.” New Yorker
- “‘The weaker he gets, the more dangerous he gets’: Trump lashes out as his power wanes Donald Trump stood before the United Nations on Tuesday and threatened to “annihilate” Iran. Yet even as the most powerful man on the planet flexed his military muscles, he was powerless to keep the gravitational pull of domestic politics at bay.” Guardian
Equity and Justice Related Articles & Resources:
Bill Clinton calls on leaders to fill gaps left by ‘retreating governments’ (Glenn Gamboa, AP)
Kadeem Hardison Can Tell You Some Stories About the ’80s (Jonathan Abrams, NY Times)
California expands Native American Day into paid holiday for state workers (Cecilio Padilla, CBS News)
Climate Change and Environment Articles & Resources:
Concern mounts over slow-moving, planetary-scale ‘Kelvin’ wave heading for California (Nick Visser, Guardian)
AI is dominating the conversation at Climate Week (Casey Crownhart, MIT Technology Review)
Can cities and counties sue oil companies over climate change? (Richard Lazarus, Harvard Law Today) [Ed. A preview of the upcoming Suncor Supreme Court case.]
Democracy Articles & Resources:
Opinion: Trump is disappearing refugees into the hands of torturers – and rewarding them handsomely (Tutu Alicante and Uzra Zeya, Guardian)
Across the Globe, People Increasingly Say Social Media Is Harming Democracy (Richard Wike, Maria Smerkovich, and Moira Fagan, Pew Research Center)
Opinion: Was Francis Fukuyama Right All Along? (Ezra Klein Show, NY Times)
A.I. Articles & Resources:
As A.I. Accelerates, Governments Are Increasingly Being Left Behind (Adam Satariano and Cecilia Kang, NY Times)
A.I. Groups Are Spending Millions to Influence the Midterms (Catie Edmondson, Matt Zdun and Daniel Wood, NY Times)
Inside the Scam (AP and FRONTLINE (PBS)) [Ed. Multimedia covering “The stories behind the AI scam industry and its thousands of victims”]
Good Vibes:
Tenzing (At the invitation of the American Himalayan Foundation, we attended an early screening of the Apple Original Film, and it was extraordinary. Read RogerEbert.com’s review here.)