December 16, 2025
Dear Readers,
As 2025 wraps up as the clear candidate for worst year for the nonprofit sector in recent memory, the news isn’t all bad.
This year’s GivingTuesday showed that overall philanthropic giving, including from small grassroots donors, remains strong. People like and trust nonprofits and want to support them. That’s good news.
In other good news, some philanthropic organizations, like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (of which NPQ is a grantee), are standing up to attacks by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress against not just the boogeyman of “DEI” but, really, against the work of promoting equity and justice at all.
Philanthropic leaders Richard Besser and Carmen Rojas emphasize that philanthropy can and should deepen their role in the current moment, a societal inflection point profound enough to be considered our Third Reconstruction.
Then, as we wrap up budget season, we share thinking by Celina Su about the importance and growing prominence of “people’s budgets,” otherwise known as participatory budgeting. And Ana Valéria Araújo emphasizes the need for direct community funding and the power of community control over philanthropic funds in the global South.
As always, we love to hear from you. Email me at [email protected].
Isaiah Thompson
Editor
Leadership
