Upon the election of Donald Trump to a second presidency, many nonprofits became wary about how they talk about their work, even their mission statement. Even before the election, many nonprofits rushed to remove any mention of the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI, or ANY of those words on their own, from their web sites. Now, as the Trump administration threatens to revoke tax-exempt status from nonprofits supporting racial justice efforts, it’s made it further difficult for many nonprofits to communicate at all about their work. This article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy focuses on specific nonprofits who are having to significantly alter their messaging – or put a pause on public communications altogether (note that you must register on the site to read it, but registraiton is free).
Make no mistake: in addition to trying to purge the nonprofit world of work regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, racial justice, economic justice and climate change, they are focusing on the use of the word empathy, and any work regarding such.
This is an issue I’ve been researching, talking about and training about long before the current presidency. Because this campaign against nonprofits has been a long time coming.
I first wrote about the political right’s desire to undermine the credibility and support for nonprofit organizations in 2011, in my blog Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?, where I showed examples of how any cause can become politicized, and any organization can become a political target. My favorite example of this is the successful and horrifying elimination of the wonderful Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), per right-wing misinformation via doctored videos.
I wrote about it again in Growing misconceptions about the role of nonprofits in the USA in 2018. I wrote about it AGAIN in Your nonprofit WILL be targeted with misinformation; prepare now at the start of 2025. And when I watched a nonprofit consultant on an online community advise nonprofits to not just soften their language but to bend the knee to the current administration, I wrote a strategy for myself, in my own work, and it became Your Nonprofit CAN Resist. Here’s how.
I hope your nonprofit won’t back off of its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. I hope your nonprofit won’t alter its mission statement. I do hope your nonprofit will:
- Talk to your board of directors, staff and lead volunteers regularly, repeatedly, about why your nonprofit exists, why it does what it does, and why it has the values or commitments it does. Make sure they know how to talk about all of that from a place of confidence.
- Prepare now for handling public criticism. It may come in an online forum. It may come at a public meeting. But your nonprofit WILL face this.
- Read up on how folklore, rumors, urban myths and organized misinformation campaigns interfere with development and aid/relief efforts, and government initiatives, and how to prevent and address such. For decades, I researched this topic and offered up resources that I regularly updated. I no longer update these pages, but I hope think remain helpful.
If this hasn’t been on a staff agenda or a board meeting agenda yet, then get it on there ASAP. If you had a meeting about it last year, you’re overdue to have one this year. Get busy.
Also see
Governments cracking down on nonprofits & NGOs
