Political Repression & Donor Courage: Dos and Don’ts
By Kathryn Snyder
Director of Movement Partnerships
We are in a critical moment, one where authoritarian forces are rising against our community partners, movements, and those who fund them. As the intensity of these threats escalates, organizations that have been at the forefront of advocating for Palestine, Black liberation, immigrant justice, and trans rights are especially vulnerable.
Some of this is legal attacks called lawfare, like frivolous lawsuits, Congressional inquiries, or threats to an organization’s charitable status like HR 9495. Some of it will be criminalization of movements or movement leaders, or using tools like grand juries or deportations. Some of it is reputational attacks and smear campaigns, from falsely associating people with terrorism to claiming that fraud is happening or other false accusations. We know from past periods – like the intense COINTELPRO repression of movements in the 1960s and 1970s – that spreading false rumors about groups and leaders, and intentionally causing conflict between groups, was a huge part of the strategy to dismantle movements.
Many attacks on movements and movement infrastructure are intended to reduce their access to funding – to make donors and funders scared or averse to funding social justice organizing and power-building, and to make progressives feel overwhelmed, disillusioned, and powerless. These attacks are also designed to pull organizations away from their core missions, erode their political base of support, demobilize people, and isolate people and groups from one another.
Last week, in collaboration with Resource Generation, Donors of Color Network, and Solidaire Network, WDN hosted Political Repression and Donor Courage to discuss what we can do to make sure we aren’t accidentally collaborating with their agenda (“anticipatory obedience”) and are actively resisting it. Here’s our list of Dos and Don’ts:
DOs
Get involved with WDN and invite a friend or family member. Join a Peer Community, an Impact Collective, or come to our annual conference. It’s easier to be both safe and brave in a collective. We have close relationships with movement leaders who are both facing the most repression and building the most powerful strategies to lead us out of this period. Being in a progressive donor organization like WDN will help you stay aligned with those forces.
Be ready to lose your tax deductions for at least some of your donations. Since many attacks will come on organizations’ nonprofit statuses, some organizations will be exploring starting alternative formations like LLCs or taxable non-profits, and they might even ask for gifts to individuals to sustain volunteer work. If you have a wealth manager, accountant, or family office, they may advise you against this. You will need to state your wishes clearly and tell them you are willing to pay “extra” taxes if necessary.
Proactively reach out to organizations to offer your support so they know they can count on you. Organizations may be hesitant or afraid to tell you about threats they are facing or preparing for because they worry about seeming vulnerable and losing funding, or they worry that the awful smear campaigns that are happening might be working. Let them know you’ll be continuing support, that you’re open to giving in ways that aren’t tax deductible, and that you’d like to do what’s most supportive to their organization. Ask them if there’s anything different they need about your gift this year.
Give now – and add extra if you can. Many organizations are needing to spend extra time and resources on legal defense or preparations. Giving now versus later in the year gives organizations time and resources to adequately prepare for threats. If you can, also move extra money through general operating support to support organizations’ legal protection and security.
Keep funding threatened organizations until/unless it becomes illegal to do so. If you’re part of a foundation, begin looking into Expenditure Responsibility (“ER”) Grants to fund charitable work with alternative infrastructures other than traditional 501(c)(3) organizations. An ER grant is a grant from a private foundation to an organization that is not a public charity, but will be used for a charitable purpose.
Organize other donors in your field of influence. Because everything is so extreme right now, many people are horrified by what Musk and the Trump administration are doing, but they don’t know what to do and are looking for leadership. There may be more people open to joining networks like ours than ever before. Talk to them! Help provide an entry point for them to enter organizations. Share what you’re doing, and invite them to do the same. Fundraise from them to match your movement donations.
Practice good baseline privacy and security practices to protect yourself and the groups that you contribute to. If you are or anticipate being in the public eye, consider a service like Delete.me that regularly scrubs your private information from the internet. If you give PAC donations that require an address, or have a business that shares your home address, consider getting a PO Box so people don’t have your home address. Provide secure ways of being in touch with you to the groups you fund, such as a Signal number.
Trust grassroots movement leaders. Trust that they are deeply reflecting on ways to build more power for a progressive agenda, and doing so where movements haven’t yet succeeded.
DON’TS
Don’t comply with any repression that isn’t actually passed into law by withdrawing funding or other support.
Don’t move all your giveable money into a DAF or foundation this year. They'll have way more limitations on what kinds of organizations you can support (i.e., only incorporated C3s/fiscally sponsored projects). If you need separation, consider opening a new bank account or sub-account.
Don’t believe or spread rumors about movement groups, especially about claims about incompetence, conflict, or illegal activity.
Don’t stop funding long term power-building work just because we are facing crises. As Dakota Hall shares, “This is precisely where our broader movement often struggles: in chasing quick headlines or urgent crises, we lose sight of the long-haul work needed to build lasting power.” Long-term power-building is the only thing that will get us out of these conditions.
Movements need us fully engaged—learning, strategizing, and taking risks right alongside them. Now is the time to increase funding where we can, to clearly articulate to groups the ways we will stick with them, to stay connected to our long term freedom visions, and to protect the organizations and communities who lead our visions for a much different world.
