If the first two months of 2025 have a common thread, it’s uncertainty and upheaval. Each day brings a new set of executive orders, policies, and directives that will have immediate and cascading impacts on systems, communities, and individuals. While no doubt challenging, this upheaval can also be seen as a predictable “snap back” in response towards recent efforts aimed at building a more fair, just, and equitable society. Recognizing this tension, our partners have been asking: how do we respond to the immediate needs of the current moment while pursuing systems change and staying committed to our long-term mission?
We believe that responding to immediate needs and maintaining long-term impact are not mutually exclusive. In fact, effectively adapting to current circumstances is essential for philanthropies to achieve their long-term missions. And while there is a lot we can learn from how philanthropy responded in past times of turbulence, including the early months of COVID-19 and the 2008 recession, it is important to recognize the significant differences in the current context. The most effective approaches will lean on lessons from past moments of uncertainty and advances in philanthropic practice, while also recognizing and responding to what is uniquely challenging about this particular moment.
Here are three common questions that we have been hearing from our philanthropic partners, along with compiled recommendations across the FSG community to help guide funders in this moment.
1. How can we move forward responsibly in a moment of uncertainty?
For funders, overanalyzing or waiting for perfect clarity can limit action at a time when the opposite is needed. Rather, philanthropic actors can adopt an agile, responsive stance, rooted in learning and enabled by collaboration.
Listen to grantees and impacted communities: In a time of uncertainty and upheaval, funders can be intentional and proactive about how they listen and learn directly from grantees and impacted communities, as Melinda Tuan, Managing Director of the Fund for Shared Insight, describes in a recent episode of the Collective Impact Forum podcast. Ongoing listening can support immediate individual needs and inform other roles the foundation can play, such as research, advocacy, and impact investing.
Communicate with grantees: A recent CEP survey found that an overwhelming number of nonprofits are negatively impacted by the current political climate. Part of what is contributing to that negative impact is a lack of communication from their funders. Even if your organization is not willing to take a public stand at this moment, all foundations can communicate with their grantees about how they are interpreting the implications of the political climate, even if they are uncertain about their next steps.
Commit to ongoing and collaborative learning: Foundations can keep dollars flowing while also regularly pulling up to reflect on the implications of the changing context. You can keep these reflective moments action-oriented by identifying a clear set of strategic learning questions to guide internal decision-making and discussions with partners.
Be prepared, but don’t overreact: In the face of uncertainty, it can be tempting to retreat from strategies perceived as “high risk.” However, doing so can jeopardize the work of partners and undermine the relational trust a foundation has established. Rather, foundations can continuously examine how contextual changes affect strategic assumptions and engage in medium to long-term scenario planning.
2. How can we respond more flexibly and increase support for immediate needs?
The combination of program and funding cuts, policy changes, and cultural shifts are creating myriad immediate and longer term ripple effects for grantees and impacted communities. During past crises, including in both 2008 and 2020, many foundations stepped up by increasing giving and adopting more flexible approaches. While philanthropy cannot replace government funding for civil society, funders can take strategic actions to provide stability and address urgent needs: Rooted in listening to your partners, consider some of the following practices to provide stability in an evolving landscape:
Going above the 5% required payout: As Mark Kramer highlighted in 2020, any perceived limitations on going above the 5% payout (which is the floor, not the ceiling for giving) can be negotiated in real time to resource new initiatives or responsive funds. The MacArthur Foundation and the Freedom Together Foundation are just two high profile examples of foundations increasing their payout rates in their recently published decisions to establish 6% and 10% baselines, respectively.
Leverage your balance sheet: Even if there is a reluctance to increase payouts, foundations can also access the often overlooked resource of the collateral in their endowments. Low-cost loans can play a critical role in ensuring grantees can stay operational as they weather uncertainty.
Minimizing or eliminating grant restrictions: Providing unrestricted grants allows nonprofits to put dollars to shifting needs and ensuring they can stay operational. Even if current grants are project-based, foundations can work with their partners to convert to unrestricted, flexible support or provide multi-year grants.
Reducing asks of grantees: Consider what is truly needed from grantees in this moment, particularly in terms of reporting, convening, and other ancillary activities. Coordinate with other funders who may be supporting the same grantees to share information and reduce duplicative requests.
Contributing to and/or creating responsive funds: Alone, or in partnership with other funders, establish new rapid response grant mechanisms to respond to emergent immediate needs, or repurpose and amplify existing structures.
Providing needed guidance and technical assistance: Many nonprofits are asking for trusted information and support navigating a range of risks. Foundations can provide responsive grants or direct access to in-demand supports in areas including legal, HR, and communications reviews as well as physical safety.
3. How can we hold fast to a long-term vision of well-being for all?
While near-term uncertainty is top of mind for many nonprofits and funders, these immediate questions are inseparable from their long-term missions. Ultimately, responding to immediate needs and embracing a long-term view are not competing concepts, but rather are intrinsically linked. Funders can use this moment to:
Reconsider existing ways of working for the long term: During the pandemic and in light of the momentum of the trust-based philanthropy movement, practices such as unrestricted grantmaking and multi-year support have gained broader adoption. Funders who have embraced these practices as a part of their approach have found their systems well matched to the current moment. In today’s context, funders can continue to find ways to build responsiveness into their portfolio in support of long-term resilience.
Attend to infrastructure and ecosystems: As the policy and funding context casts uncertainty on the direction of specific strategies and programs, funders can attend to the resilience of the ecosystem of actors around the issues and places they are committed to. This involves not only supporting specific initiatives, but considering the strength of resources, relationships, information, and collaboration across the range of organizations working in a given focus area or community.
Ground in values: As funders confront the uncertainty of the moment, now is the time to reaffirm the organization’s values, and consider what it means to put them into action. Whether through scenario planning, making the case for increased payout, changing strategies or grantmaking practices, or increasing attentiveness to listening and responding, values should provide grounding when everything else feels unmoored. The recent Responding to Threats and Challenges Planning Tool from Collective Impact Forum advisor Paul Schmitz is one resource for starting this discussion at your foundation.
Ultimately, responding to immediate needs while holding a long-term vision isn’t just a balancing act. By acting boldly and with agility, funders can not only mitigate disruption but also spark innovation, strengthen networks, and lay the groundwork for a more just and resilient future. This moment calls for courage, creativity, and a steadfast commitment to our values—because the choices we make today will shape the systems and communities of tomorrow.
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