Benjamin Soskis

Just to develop the tax / nonprofit angle a bit more, the last sentence (allowing donors to claw back donations) would violate every 501(c)(3) organization's governing documents, and make them ineligible for deductible contributions. State orgs a little more complicated but likely same result.

The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities

That rare initiative in which excessive philanthropic power and state power are exquisitely intertwined.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...

Is this populism? [Butterfly meme]

Conservative Philanthropy CEO to Trump: Don’t Attack Liberal Nonprofits Any revenge by the Trump administration against liberal foundations and other groups “is going to come back to haunt us,” Lawson Bader of DonorsTrust tells @gekaminsky.

CEO of DonorsTrust, the conservative DAF supporting org, warns Free Press against "weaponiz[ing] philanthropy in a way that is antithetical to philanthropic freedom.” Key to stress that defense of civil society extends across ideological & partisan spectrum.
www.thefp.com/p/conservati...

I want to flag an exchange in Ross Douthat's recent NYT interview with May Mailman, "the Harvard-Trained Layer Behind Trump's Fight Against Top Universities," as the Times put it, in which Mailman directly discusses the relationship btw govt funding and philanthropy.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

NGO Attacks Gone Wild and the Stirrings of MAGA Voluntarism Editors’ Note: HistPhil co-editor Benjamin Soskis reflects on two Congressional hearings held this summer scrutinizing federal funding of nonprofits and on the ways they helped to delineate r…

New HistPhil post: I gave close watch to two cong. hearings this summer on fed funding of nonprofits to get a better sense of scope of the right's antagonism to nonprofits. One striking dimension: stirrings of MAGA voluntarism premised on split btw good & bad nonprofits.
histphil.org/2025/09/25/n...

Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation

This is very bad.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...

Coming to a US near you soon.

A New Democratic Think Tank Wants to Curb the Influence of Liberal Groups

In one sense, Searchlight is the institutional embodiment of the "Groups" critique that Jentleson has championed. But it's the popularist variety of critique & not the more powerful Skocpolian one, since it seems to rely on a funding model dependent on big donors.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/u...

White House Plans Broad Crackdown on Liberal Groups

"They praised Mr. Kirk’s commitment to free speech while threatening to exact a price against the “far left” that they accused of fomenting political violence in America."

A crack down on civil society & associational rights under the banner of free speech...

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

The bar is pretty low for what constitutes an act of political bravery from conservatives now in defending civil society, but still, good to see.

Mr. Twitter Philanthropy, no less.

Here we go. Trump just made it unmistakably clear that it will now be absolutely open season on whoever they decide to label "the left," and that this will be pursued with the full force of the government. This could get very, very bad.

@mattyglesias.bsky.social flagged this exchange elsewhere and he's exactly right. The attack on Kirk was obscene. Full stop. There's also a good chance that it will be used as pretext for a massive crackdown on progressive nonprofits and philanthropy.

Confederate school name violates Virginia students' First Amendment rights, judge rules The judge said naming the high school after Stonewall Jackson turned students into “mobile billboards” for a message they may not support.

This seems like a case that could have some definite implications for philanthropy and the politics of naming rights, abt the 1st Amend rights of students at schools that have been turned into "mobile billboards" for messages they do not endorse.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Taking the Long View: Gauging the Impact of Residential Fellowships in Art History over the Decades Editors’ Note: Nancy Um and Matthew Westerby introduce findings from the Scholars Data Project, hosted by the Association of Research Institutes in Art History, on residential fellowships spo…

New HistPhil post: Nancy Um & Matthew Westerby introduce findings from Scholars Data Project, hosted by the Association of Research Institutes in Art History, on residential fellowships sponsored by 4 leading research institutions in art history over last six decades.
histphil.org/2025/09/08/t...

What?

I do agree on the red lines.

the idea that EK is encouraging or legitimizing Trump by promoting Abundance, given his outspokenness to that peril, just isn't convincing. Can just as easily spin it other way--it's notable some on the Right are now willing to associate w/ Klein, given his prominence as Trump critique.

I don't think this is particular persuasive. I don't see a contradiction in thinking this is a moment of authoritarian peril and trying to work w/ a broad coalition on some program you think can mobilize voters away from the enticements of authoritarianism. You can disagree w/ that prognosis, but...

What ties are you referring to Mark?

FOX: Are these protesters actually being financed from the outside, and is that something Homeland is looking at -- the financing of how these so-called organic protests are happening?

HOMAN: Absolutely ... they will be prosecuted too

This will be one of the more significant books on the history of philanthropy in quite a while! I’ve read parts of it. It’s a phenomenal read—and more timely than ever.

DHS moves to bar aid groups from serving undocumented immigrants Disaster-aid groups said the new contracts would make it harder for nonprofits to help the most vulnerable Americans in the aftermath of a disaster.

“We see this as a Free Exercise issue under our First Amendment rights,” said Peter Gudaitis, the exec director of New York Disaster Interfaith Services. “...[T]he federal government has never attempted to tell the nonprofit sector who we can and cannot serve."
www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...

Trump calls for racketeering charges against top Democratic donor, son The president accused George and Alex Soros of supporting “Violent Protests,” an accusation their organization called “outrageous and false.”

We've maybe inured to attacks on Soros & conspiratorialism that undergirds them but important to insist this isn't ok. Those on right who stepped forward to defend interests of Harvard against Trump's attack need to do same here, in defense of civil society.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

A case study on corporate campaigns for farm animal welfare | Open Philanthropy In recent decades, the farm animal welfare movement has improved conditions for hundreds of millions of animals through corporate campaigns. A new case study, commissioned by Open Philanthropy as part...

The latest case study has just been published in the Urban Institute's History of Philanthropy initiative, supported by Open Philanthropy. It's on the farm animal welfare movement's corporate campaigns, by @shamilto.bsky.social at University of York.

www.openphilanthropy.org/research/a-c...

Most college and universities and mainstream media and prof orgs already function as venues for social life for young progs has obscured need for distinct movements to support that sort of social life. But differing financial incentives, esp w crumbling of higher ed & journalism, are also a big deal

I don’t think the difference, at least wrt funding, relates to a different propensity to fund ideas btw conservative and prog. donors but the way in which those ideas are embedded in an actual *social* movement. EA has done a pretty good job at this, which ZB doesn’t cite. The fact that most…

3: And part of that is promoting and disseminating a clear *political* narrative about *loss*, why the public funds were cut and who cut them, and what needs to change *politically* for the funding to be restored. Private funding needs to have this as its politics so it doesnt license retrenchment.

2: Not only is there irreparable harm to be avoided--stations closing, etc. The act of philanthropic support can be a way of making the case for public funding in the future. But for that to happen, that case-making needs to be incorporated into the philanthropic funding itself.