Benjamin Soskis

Trump’s Ballroom Donors Blow Off Senator’s Questions About How Much They Gave Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked for dollar amounts and Trump contacts. Donors responded by boasting about their philanthropy and love of America.

NEW: I got a hold of letters from nearly 20 of Trump's ballroom donors, sent to a senator who requested details on how much they gave + who solicited money from them.

Most ignored the actual Qs and instead boasted of their philanthropy and love of America.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Hybrid entities on the Nonprofit-Government Continuum Editors’ Note: Ellen Aprill introduces her research on governmental and semi-governmental federal charitable entities. A version of this post appeared on Notice & Comment, a blog from the…

Here's a place to start, tho @ellenaprill.bsky.social has written at greater length on these cong chartered orgs elsewhere:
histphil.org/2022/02/24/h...

Bessant sketches out a future in which individuals can contribute to a street, a school, a neighborhood through these accounts.

Scott Bessant at WH event announcing Dells $6.2B pledge toward the Fed Savings Accounts for Children: it will usher in a "new age of capitalism and market interest for the whole country..." and of philanthropy, providing an inspiring platform. “Every Tuesday can become Giving Tuesday.”

The Muslim Social: Neoliberalism, Charity, and Poverty in Turkey Editors’ Note: Gizem Zencirci introduces her book, The Muslim Social: Neoliberalism, Charity, and Poverty (Syracuse, 2024), which recently received the 2025 Outstanding Book Prize from ARNOVA…

New HistPhil post: Gizem Zircirci on her book, The Muslim Social: Neoliberalism, Charity, and Poverty, which recently received ARNOVA's 2025 Outstanding Book Prize.

histphil.org/2025/11/24/t...

From Chocolate to ChatGPT: What Hershey’s Century-Old Philanthropy Reveals About OpenAI’s New $130 Billion Foundation Editors’ Note: Peter Kurie discusses the parallels between two American nonprofits that control major for-profit corporations: the OpenAI Foundation, on paper now the wealthiest private found…

New HistPhil post: Peter Kurie on what the history of the Hershey Trust--the OG U.S. nonprofit with controlling stakes in a major for-profit corporation--can tell us about the OpenAI Foundation, on paper now the wealthiest private foundation in the U.S.

histphil.org/2025/11/13/f...

As an avowed Skocpolian, it's definitely forcing me to do some thinking (tho I am not entirely sure abt the distinction btw "volunteers," big and small donors here).

It’s the focus on the challenge posed by small donors that’s striking here, given both how much criticism has been directed to big donor power over The Groups & attn to reinvigorating a membership ethos of prog civil society as opposed to checkbook participation aligned w professionalization of NPs.

Wyden Introduces Bill to Support SNAP Recipients During Trump Government Shutdown | U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon

This is obv a clash abt a very particular political moment, w/ implications touching on shutdown politics. But it likely has implications as well relating to philanthropy's ability to target pub benefit recipients & to the politics of voluntarism more generally.
www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-r...

Prediction: if MTG runs, she will tap into the dormant conservative tradition of voluntarism that MAGA (& really Trump) has up till now shown little sympathy for. You could see it bubbling up in inchoate form in some of the recent congressional hearings she chaired on nonprofits...

One of the least remarked parts of Mamdani's speech yesterday was its strong implication that he wants his army of 100k volunteers to stick around and do stuff.

Call it political Skocpolianism or what you will--but this is going to be a major focus of progressive philanthropy in the coming year.

The long quote is from Jared Abbott, director of the Center for Working-Class Politics, from his recent interview on the Ezra Klein podcast.

This morning, more convergence btw 2 discourses: recognition of a real appetite for participation in civic & political life as a way to address disconnection; & an appreciation that in investing in infrastructure to support that civic life, prog philanthropy is presented with a real opportunity.

Now it’s @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social, declaring civil society to be a “horrifying disappointment.” He’d like to see leaders of civil society “not be cowards”.

At the Center for Effective Philanthropy conference, @feliciawong.bsky.social discusses the Beyond Neoliberalism initiative, its successes & failures & cites the Garland Fund as historical inspiration (as chronicled by @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social). Garland Fund met the moment…is philanthropy today?

Could a Garland Fund 2.0 Upend the United States Today? Editors’ Note: David Pozen continues HistPhil’s book forum on John Witt’s The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America (Simon & Schuster, …

New HistPhil post: David Pozen continues our book forum on @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social' s The Radical Fund, questioning whether, given evolution in nonprofit law since the fund's heydey, it can serve as a model for contemporary philanthropy seeing to "upend America."

histphil.org/2025/11/03/c...

Reporting from NYT there were other donors to the WH ballroom not cited by the administration, including several that have business before the admin. The admin's use of a nonprofit as a receptacle for the funds allows them to maintain discretionary anonymity.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/u...

Legal historians: how novel is this claim?

One striking element of lawsuit that coalition of nonprofits filed in RI district court to challenge Trump admin's suspension of SNAP benefits, which highlights damage that will be done to nonprofits bc of massive increase in demand for their services.
www.councilofnonprofits.org/pressrelease...

In Emma Green's recent NYer piece on Trump's war on higher ed, she reports she heard a version of this from multiple admin officials:
"[I]f the endangered research is truly vital, universities can figure out other ways to fund it, such as donor dollars."
Market infallibility applied to philanthropy.

When the Tax Code (and Private Foundations) Nudged Americans Toward Nonviolence Editors’ Note: This post, from John Witt, inaugurates HistPhil’s book forum on Witt’s recently published The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended …

New HistPhil post from John Witt, inaugurating a book forum on his recently published "The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America," which chronicles the influence of the American Fund for Public Service (the Garland Fund, est 1922). histphil.org/2025/10/27/w...

Not a parody.

Besides assessing how large conditional donations to fed agencies might violate the Antideficiency Act, another policy consideration must involve questions of transparency. It seems to me that over a certain dollar threshold, these sorts of gifts should not be allowed to be made anonymously.

Keep in mind as well that Congressional Republicans have directed lots of attention recently to the dangers of foreign philanthropy into US, w/ calls to restrict funding & for greater transparency.

Is there any evidence that those "panting about mutual aid" are in some way distracted from the need to restore (& increase) state welfare provision? Especially w/ civil society under attack, those Reagan-era dichotomies of pub vs. private don't hold & are themselves a distraction.

Trump: "It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself. But I was damaged very greatly and any money I would get I would give to charity."

Benioff Apologizes for Saying Trump Should Send Troops to San Francisco

The whole recent Benioff saga--the about-face, the push back from Powell Jobs & Conway, and then the quasi-apology, w/ the lure of govt contracts & social ostracism as likely motives, is a perfect illustration of liabilities of reliance on engaged living mega-donors.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

For those seeking to promote civil society, good to know who's marching under its banner. NYT reports that Nigel Farage led "Civil Society Round Table" at Westminster, attended by delegation from House Judiciary Comm, to discuss threats to free speech in UK, w/ help from Alliance to Defend Freedom.