Mike Scutari

1 week ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) walks out of the Capitol with the senior House leadership for a press conference. Credit: Philip Yabut/ShutterstockEvery piece of legislation passed by our friends in Washington, D.C., has ripple effects, and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” now under consideration by the Senate, is no exception.

2 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

A recurring question across the philanthrosphere these past five months has been the extent to which funders will — or won’t — publicly respond to the administration’s policies. Many funders have opted for silence. Others have signed a unity statement in defense of the sector, or responded more obliquely, such as by issuing affirmations of their values or announcing an increase in grantmaking.

2 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

Ever since the Trump administration began “flooding the zone” with a barrage of funding cuts and executive orders, a segment of funders has opted to wait and see how the myriad lawsuits played out in the courts. If rescinded funding was reinstated, the thinking went, there might not be a need to drum up emergency support for affected grantees. Five months into President Donald Trump’s second term, there have been some favorable court decisions.

3 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

Having spent the past couple of months digging into how the Trump administration has canceled or suspended federal grants, and what philanthropy’s doing about it, I’ve concluded that one reason large institutional foundations haven’t publicly thrown lifelines en masse is because many affected organizations weren’t on their radars to begin with.

3 weeks ago | insidephilanthropy.com | Mike Scutari

Our current political climate sure makes for strange bedfellows. For years, voices on the left have called on billionaires to pay higher taxes, pushed for philanthropic sector reform, and decried how taxpayer-subsidized conservative philanthropy wreaked havoc on the body politic.