Philanthropy Today

Nonprofit News From Elsewhere Online

Indiana’s Lilly Endowment has surpassed the Gates Foundation to become the country’s largest foundation, thanks to the soaring value of its major asset, stock in drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. The company’s new drugs for diabetes and weight loss have doubled the value of its stock, pushing the endowment’s assets up 29 percent during 2024, to $79.9 billion, compared with the $77.2 billion Gates Foundation. As a result, the endowment “will have to give away nearly $3.6 billion in 2025, up from $2.3 billion in actual charitable disbursements last year.” Launched in 1937, the foundation is a separate entity from the drug company. (Bloomberg — subscription)

The conservative Heritage Foundation nonprofit think tank wrote the blueprint for the Trump administration’s attacks on foreign students, universities, and others sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Its Project Esther, a strategy to fight antisemitism, casts critics of Israel as supporters of terrorism who should be “deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized, and otherwise excluded from what it considered ‘open society.’” Administration officials will not say if they are working from Project Esther’s recommendations, which include revocations of student visas and defunding universities. Noting that Project Esther ignores right-wing antisemitism, progressive groups and some Jewish organizations say it is really an effort to kill progressive activism. The project’s director said it deals with right-wing antisemitism by leading by example. (New York Times)

Big Philanthropy

• The Old Model of Billionaire Philanthropy Is Ending (Bloomberg)
• Quincy, Mass., Billionaire Rob Hale Gifts $1,000 to Newly Minted Bridgewater State University Graduates: ‘Take Chances’ (Boston Globe)
• Opinion: Trump’s All-Out Culture War Is Now Targeting Philanthropy (New Republic)

The Nonprofit Anti-Terrorism Measure

• Nonprofit Leaders Brace for Possible Targeting by the Trump Administration After Tax Measure Advances in Congress (CNN)
• The Real Threat of the Nonprofit “Terrorism” Provision in Trump’s Big Bill (Slate)
  
  • Background from the Chronicle: The ‘Nonprofit Killer Bill’ Seems Scary — but Current Law Is Worse

Cuts and Closures

• Humanities Groups Sue Trump Administration to Reverse Local Funding Cuts (Associated Press)
• New York Helped Thousands of Migrants With Legal Issues. That’s Ending. (New York Times)
• As Trump Targets DEI, Some Oklahoma Nonprofits Say Donors Are Backing Out (Oklahoman)
  
  • Background from the Chronicle: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• After Trump Gutted AmeriCorps, How Do Bay Area Nonprofits Move Forward? (KQED)
  
  • Background from the Chronicle: Nonprofits and the Trump Agenda

More News

• ‘Dumpster Fire’: In Leaked Email, S.F. Parks Alliance Admits Misusing at Least $3.8 Million (San Francisco Chronicle)
• More Than 134,000 Residents to Receive Notices of Medical Debt Relief From LA County, Nonprofit (ABC-7)
• ‘We’re in Deep ...’: Men Posing as Nonprofit Scam $1.5 Million From California County, Officials Say (Los Angeles Times)

Note: In the links in this section, we flag articles that only subscribers can access. But because some journalism outlets offer a limited number of free articles, readers may encounter barriers with other articles we highlight in this roundup.