{"id":15129,"date":"2026-06-15T16:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15129"},"modified":"2026-06-15T16:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T16:01:35","slug":"foundations-are-emphasizing-their-community-services-to-counter-narratives-of-fraud-and-partisanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15129","title":{"rendered":"Foundations are emphasizing their community services to counter narratives of fraud and partisanship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By JAMES POLLARD<\/strong><\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A nationwide network of charitable foundations is encouraging its members to emphasize their positive contributions to American life, a 250th anniversary campaign aimed at quelling what it calls the \u201cgreater intensity\u201d of scrutiny felt from the federal government and populist movements.<\/p>\n

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Popular notions of philanthropy as merely a game for the ultrawealthy to fund partisan projects and commit fraud have left the sector vulnerable to political attacks, as the Council on Foundations sees it, influencing policies that hamper essential community services. The advocacy group, which represents about 1,000 nonprofits, hopes to overcome what CEO Kathleen Enright calls the sector\u2019s \u201cperception gap\u201d with its \u201cGenerosity Builds\u201d campaign, launched Monday.<\/p>\n

Enright believes most Americans don\u2019t recognize their reliance on the charitable sector. Just about 1 in 20 adults said they or anyone in their immediate family received nonprofit services in the past year, according to a 2023 Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week, I got an MRI at Georgetown University Hospital, I participated in my church at St. Columba\u2019s, my daughter was inducted into National Junior Honor Society. Four or five nonprofits have been instrumental in my life this week,\u201d she said. \u201cFolks just aren\u2019t putting that tag on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that tag is growing increasingly important, Enright said. Last year, negotiations over President Donald Trump\u2019s tax and spending bill included proposals to levy new taxes on private foundations that Enright said would have taken resources from communities if they made it into the final law.<\/p>\n

The battle over defining what nonprofits actually do has recently been amplified from the highest rungs of the Trump administration, which has upended decades of partnerships built with nonprofits. Trump froze, cut or threatened a sweeping range of social service grants characterized by the White House as \u201cgovernment largesse that\u2019s often riddled with corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse.\u201d More recently, the Department of Justice charged the Southern Poverty Law Center \u2014 a civil rights nonprofit accused by Republicans of targeting conservatives in its work tracking extremists \u2014 with defrauding donors through payments to informants.<\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance described the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the Harvard University endowment as \u201ccancers on American society\u201d back as a 2021 U.S. Senate candidate, telling Tucker Carlson that \u201cwe are actively subsidizing the people who are destroying this country and they call it a charity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAll across our country, we have nonprofits \u2014 big foundations \u2014 that are effectively social-justice hedge funds,\u201d he said in a talk that year on \u201cwoke capital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narratives about nonprofits being \u201coverly politicized\u201d or wasteful are \u201cextreme minority stories\u201d that don\u2019t reflect how philanthropy operates, according to Enright.<\/p>\n

Across many surveys, trust in the nonprofit sector has remained higher than most others. But its impact is sometimes difficult to measure and explain. The sector hasn\u2019t faced an environment this challenging in almost six decades, according to Kathryn Thomas, the vice president of communications for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan.<\/p>\n

She cited the congressional effort to increases taxes on foundations\u2019 investment incomes and acknowledged the Trump administration\u2019s federal funding cuts.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIn an era when everything is under partisan attack and there\u2019s so much polarization, we really have to do a better job of emphasizing why we exist,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Enright said the story of philanthropy is not one where a rich person \u201csaves the day.\u201d She sees growing concerns about billionaires\u2019 influence fueling suspicion about philanthropists\u2019 motivations. Some argue the charitable sector allows moneyed interests to decide how tax dollars are spent rather than elected officials.<\/p>\n

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The campaign will emphasize that most donors \u201chave just a little bit more than they need and therefore want to give back,\u201d she said, especially at the local level.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney does not solve problems. It\u2019s a tool that creative people and institutions inside communities use to solve problems,\u201d she said. \u201cThe real heroes of most of these stories are nonprofit leaders, religious leaders, civic leaders who just roll up their sleeves and get something done \u2014 but do it with some financial underpinning by charitable foundations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the story told by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation in Sarasota, Florida. A 10-apartment affordable housing complex for military veterans opened last year with the foundation\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

The area has an \u201cembarrassingly high\u201d number of veterans without housing, according to Jon Thaxton, the foundation\u2019s director of policy and advocacy. Many are priced out in Sarasota, increasingly a luxury destination with high real estate prices.<\/p>\n

Local donors had been trying to build a similar project when they approached the foundation in 2020 for help. Thaxton secured land already vested for affordable housing, corralled $2.2 million in donations, got $800,000 from the city and won the backing of their U.S. representatives.<\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s leaders believe their track record made that possible. Phillip Lanham, the president and CEO, noted the project was completed across multiple election cycles and a pandemic, suggesting that community foundations are well situated to \u201cplay the long game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people think that foundations like us deal with money and donors. We really don\u2019t. We deal with relationships and trust,\u201d Thaxton said. \u201cThat\u2019s our commodity. That\u2019s what we earn. That\u2019s what we save. And that\u2019s what we contribute back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Council on Foundations will also elevate examples of early, ordinary philanthropists as part of its case for philanthropy as an integral \u201cpart of the American story.\u201d Enright credited a formerly enslaved man with donating land in North Carolina that became an African Methodist Episcopal church that endures as a pillar of the local community.<\/p>\n

Lillian Kuri, the president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation, welcomed the focus on everyday philanthropists. The Cleveland Foundation is considered the first community foundation, established in 1914 by lawyer Frederick Harris Goff as a way to fund durable change in the city.<\/p>\n

The foundation aims to find new ways to expand today\u2019s tent of philanthropists dedicated to improving their surrounding areas. It announced new investments this week in a fund dedicated to turn vacant industrial land into job-ready work sites. They\u2019ve also launched a fund that allows donors to invest in major Northeast Ohio companies, supporting local business growth while that money increases into a sizable amount that can be donated to nonprofits.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerosity cuts across everybody,\u201d she said, adding that community foundations offer \u201ca way for everyday people \u2014 not just the largest, wealthiest people \u2014 to participate in the change they want to see in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP\u2019s philanthropy coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/philanthropy.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The 250th anniversary campaign is aimed at quelling what the Council on Foundation calls the \u201cgreater intensity\u201d of scrutiny felt from the federal government and populist movements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFoundations are emphasizing their community services to counter narratives of fraud and partisanship - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15129\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Foundations are emphasizing their community services to counter narratives of fraud and partisanship - 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