William Penn Foundation gives millions in emergency funds to counter Trump’s ‘unjust policies and actions’

Citing “a time of extraordinary uncertainty for our nation and the nonprofit sector,” the William Penn Foundation has awarded a special round of grants totaling nearly $10 million to groups “working to defend democratic values, respond to emerging federal actions, and support nonprofit organizations in crisis.”

In an announcement released Wednesday, foundation leaders wrote:

“For months, federal executive orders, legislation, and policy changes have threatened the independence of state and local governments, sown confusion about the integrity of future elections, destabilized programmatic and financial planning for many nonprofit organizations, and indiscriminately endangered members of our immigrant, LGBTQ, minority, and low-income communities.”

The Philadelphia foundation said it hoped the grants could “be a bridge to new solutions in the face of diminishing federal resources and the current uncertainty and unjust policies and actions,” according to the statement, signed by William Penn Foundation board chair Katherine H. Christiano and vice chair Peter Haas.

The grants are extraordinary in several ways. Groups were not awarded money through the normal process of responding to a request for proposals or submitting a grant application. Instead, each recipient was identified by foundation staff. The funding for the grants came from outside the normal channels, through a combination of an increase in the foundation’s overall grant budget, and via a new foundation program area called Civic Initiatives.

“It’s similar to our response to COVID when we made a lot of grants in response to what we saw as an emergency,” said William Penn executive director Shawn McCaney.

The money is going to 19 groups based or operating in Philadelphia or the surrounding areas whose work falls into various categories.

Some of the nonprofits are providing technical expertise to help organizations understand and adjust to the implications of federal actions, or are developing professional networks to share information, collaborate, or give each other support.

Others are groups helping individuals “survive the negative impacts of federal action” or are providing policy and legal support “to ensure that the voices of our communities and nonprofit organizations are well represented,” the foundation’s statement said.

Funding will also help organizations that might be forced to merge, close or “dramatically change operations in light of federal action.”

The money from William Penn is intended as a cue for additional support.

“We hope that others in the philanthropic community will look at this as a model and develop their own responsive strategies,” said Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, which received $100,000 over two years to advocate for public support for the arts, especially at the state and federal levels.

But donations to nonprofits can’t match the levels of public dollars.

“I don’t think there’s enough philanthropy in the region to replace federal funding,” said McCaney. He cites the proposed cap over the Vine Street Expressway known as the Chinatown Stitch, whose funding had been promised but not paid, and is now in doubt.

“We were providing design planning funding, but the federal government was providing $150 million for the actual project,” he said. “We can’t replace that, and I think there are other examples, maybe not at that scale, where it wouldn’t be possible even collectively for the philanthropic sector to replace huge federal funding.”

The $10 million in special grants will not reduce the amount of money the foundation grants through its established programs, officials said. William Penn expects to disburse a total of $155 million in grants this year.

One of the recent special grants, for $150,000, went to the Public Rights Project, which works with local government officials in Pennsylvania and across the country to help them “use their power to fight for civil rights and democracy,” says Public Rights Project founder Jill Habig.

The group is working with “dozens of cities in litigation against the administration’s attempts to cut funding from communities and to use federal funding as basically a political extortion tool to try to force local governments into adopting the federal government’s preferred policies on immigration, abortion, equity issues, LGBT rights, etc.,” she said.

The group is currently litigating about $22 billion worth of federal funding cuts to cities and other community organizations, she said.

“One of the reasons why we’re spending a lot of time on these federal funding cases and that people may not realize is local governments actually get 25% to 50% of their total budgets from federal dollars,” said Habig. “And so if the federal government can illegally withdraw those funds or use those funds as a political retaliation tool, that would just decimate services that communities rely on.”

Philadelphia’s JEVS Human Services received $180,000 from William Penn, not for its workforce development and social services, but to support an ad hoc umbrella group that formed to discuss the implications of the new presidential administration. What started with about 20 nonprofit leaders now has about 150 in human services, arts, education, and other areas who get updates on legal, governmental, advocacy, and public policy issues.

“When January 2025 hit and the very first directive came out of the presidential office around the OMB directive of freezing federal funds, it was a little bit like, ‘Oh, my God, what’s happening?’ And quickly we realized that we really needed a forum both for nonprofit and philanthropic leaders to come together to talk about the impact and strategize and make sure that we were vetting the best information,” said Cynthia F. Figueroa, president and CEO of JEVS Human Services.

Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First, said her organization received $100,000 from William Penn to help area early-childhood groups respond to federal changes. That work could include educating lawmakers about the ripple effects of funding cuts or policy changes, technical assistance for groups considering mergers or collaborating on resources, or a loan pool on which affected groups could draw.

In the region, there are potentially thousands of early childhood providers who could benefit from solutions to the current challenges, she said.

Among other groups receiving special grants are the Nonprofit Finance Fund, Elevate215, the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward Foundation, Environmental Protection Network, Lawyers for Good Government, and the Philadelphia Foundation (for support of food access).

The grants are meant to cover a two-year period, and the foundation is aware that more change awaits.

“I think we’re also concerned about what could happen to social services, for example, as a consequence of the new tax and spending bill that was just passed in Congress, which apparently will reduce support for things like SNAP, Medicaid, and things like that,” said McCaney. “So we are anticipating that there will be more impacts as time goes on.”

“The challenges before all of us are profound,” the William Penn announcement says. “This moment requires all of us to do what we can with resolve, decency, and courage to uphold truth, equity, and justice.”