Trump Restrictions on Immigrants Send Charities Scrambling for Donations

Paul Takeuchi

Charities that serve immigrants in the United States are scrambling to solicit donations and amass volunteers to fight what they say is the biggest federal assault on noncitizens in decades.

Social-service groups worry that federal dollars they rely on to support their work could dry up if Congress and the Trump White House restrict immigrant aid. They, along with advocacy groups, are also concerned they won’t have enough staff members to keep up services and fight new federal immigration restrictions that may be coming. Already news outlets are reporting that Mr. Trump may order that new standards be developed to determine whether immigrants — including those here legally — should be deported if they are too dependent on welfare programs and whether to restrict access to foreigners who might need public assistance, among other measures.

Although many nonprofits that aid immigrants have seen an influx of donations, some groups say they may face challenges maintaining and building on that support.

“Most of the immigrant-rights organizations, including us, don’t have very large staffs in development,” says Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which has two people working full-time and one part-time as fundraisers.

The organization has struggled to thank the hundreds of new supporters it’s gained since Mr. Trump’s election win and record their information in its database.

“Right now, we’re barely keeping up,” she says, adding that all employees have been working almost nonstop since Mr. Trump imposed a travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations last week.

As far as the growth in support, Ms. Salas says, “It’s a good problem to have.” But, she adds, “as we have more and more donors, we need more capacity.”

Keeping Up

Ms. Salas says she’d like to add at least two more fundraisers in the coming years but that the nonprofit also needs more staff to work on community outreach and advocacy. Whether she can hire more people will depend on whether the nonprofit can raise significant money, she says.

For now, she’s trying to ensure that new donors get action alerts on activities that the charity plans. She’s also calling people who make large gifts and sending notes to those who give smaller ones.

“What we don’t want to happen is the only time that we connected with them was when they gave us a donation.” she says. “We want to keep them in our movement.”

Foundation Support

Many immigrant-advocacy groups are calling on foundations to step up support, too.

Paula Fitzgerald, who heads Ayuda, fears the Trump administration and congressional Republicans will cut its funding and thus diminish her organization’s ability to provide legal services to immigrants. The Washington nonprofit receives 55 percent of its $4 million annual budget from the federal government.

“It is changing how we have to think about our funding resources and the work we do,” Ms. Fitzgerald says. “If the community of supporters isn’t able to make up for it, then you have an issue of immigrants who aren’t able to get representation.”

Make the Road New York, a group that serves Latinos and working-class communities, including immigrants, is in a similar position. About 60 percent of the group’s budget comes from government support for adult-literacy efforts, youth programs, and health counseling.

Only a small portion of that is direct federal funding, but a lot of local and state money it relies on originates at the federal level, says Julie Miles, the group’s development and communications director.

Fearing possible cuts, the group is focusing on raising more individual donations and is reaching out to grant makers, Ms. Miles said.

Since Mr. Trump’s win, the number of online donations to the group jumped almost 500 percent over the same period a year earlier. But like other organizations, its six development and communications staff members are struggling to keep up with thanking donors and responding to people who say they want information on how to help. “We are just scrambling on all levels,” Ms. Miles says.

Ms. Miles says a big challenge will be finding time to meet with new people who might support the organization — which will be critical in building the income it needs.

“We need to go beyond our existing donor pool and connect with donors who have capacity” to make big donations, she says.

Building a Movement

Ms. Miles says she does not think Meet the Road will be able to hire more people to take on those fundraising tasks, given all its other priorities. However, it may have more volunteer power to rely on.

In January, it launched a group called Aliados — Spanish for “allies.” The group of volunteers recruits people to participate in protests and rallies and help the organization build support. About 200 people showed up to the group’s first meeting last month, according to Ms. Miles, and many participants have helped organize protests since Mr. Trump announced his travel ban — including a rally and march that started in New York’s Battery Park on Sunday that attracted thousands of people.

Although the group will primarily help with political actions, Ms. Miles says Make the Road hopes to train a few volunteers to respond to supporters and enter information in the organization’s donor database. She also plans to ask the volunteers for donations and to plan fundraisers. “We’ve needed them a lot already,” she says.

Rapid Response

For CASA, which serves immigrants in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, one of the biggest challenges will be responding to Mr. Trump’s actions as they occur.

Its lawyers are figuring out what to do if Mr. Trump does seek to create new criteria for deporting immigrants on government assistance. “The concept of denying legal permanent residents who are eligible for certain benefits is really sad and not a smart move for the country or the economy or national security,” says Jennifer Freedman, chief development officer.

Officials with CASA said if the order is signed, the group would probably respond with protests, education campaigns, and legal actions.

Support for CASA has shot up since the election. The number of donations in November and December nearly doubled from the previous year and increased sevenfold in January over the same month in 2016.

Ms. Freedman is hoping the nonprofit can keep up the momentum. To do that, it’s sending its new supporters emails on actions that the organization is taking and inviting them to participate.

Although she’s worried that the group’s $1.2 million in direct federal funding and other government money might get cut, she is encouraged that many people are willing to support progressive groups such as hers and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ms. Freedman hopes people continue to realize it isn’t just the large, national groups that need support: “Groups like CASA are also fighting battles.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that after Mr. Trump’s win, donations to Make the Road New York jumped by almost 500 percent over the same period last year. That was true only of online donations.