On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed dozens of Executive Orders (EOs) on a broad range issues affecting nonprofits and those we serve:
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs;
- Government grants and contracts;
- Civic engagement;
- Immigration;
- and specific nonprofit subsectors.
Some of these EOs will not take effect immediately and many are expected to be challenged in court.
The National Council of Nonprofits (NCN) has provided an informative overview of those EOs that may affect nonprofits directly or indirectly, briefly outlined below with more detail in this document.
Executive Orders Re: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
- Nonprofit Impact: Federal government DEI programs and trainings, often provided by or in partnership with nonprofits, will be eliminated. In addition, President Trump has signed EOs extending “anti-DEI” efforts to the private sector.
Executive Orders Re: Changes in the Federal Government
- Nonprofit Impact:
- Nonprofits partnering with federal government agencies or receiving federal funding, especially through government grants and contracts, may experience longer wait times and slower processing, loss of points of contact or difficulty reaching them, and increased strain on relationships
- Nonprofits will no longer have direct White House connections through the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Executive Orders Re: Immigration
- Nonprofit Impact: Nonprofits working with immigrant populations, providing legal assistance or training, or delivering humanitarian or other direct aid, may see the need for services increase, may lose funding, and could be targeted by law enforcement. Human services and social services could also be targeted.
Executive Orders Re: LGBTQ+
- Nonprofit Impact: Charitable nonprofits serving LGBTQ+ communities and/or providing gender-affirming care and other services may experience loss of federal funding, increase in demand for services, and strained relationships with government partners.
Executive Orders Re: The Environment
- Nonprofit Impact: Nonprofits receiving or expecting funding from Elective Pay (sometimes known as “Direct Pay”), Inflation Reduction Act, or other Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs may have programs and funds terminated.
Executive Orders Re: The Census
- Nonprofit Impact: Lays the groundwork for legislation and other actions to exclude noncitizens from future Censuses.
Executive Orders Re: Arts and Culture, Museums, Libraries and Those Providing Foreign Assistance
- Nonprofit Impact:
- Arts and culture nonprofits, museums, and libraries will no longer be “integrated into strategies, policies, and programs that advance the economic development, well-being, and resilience of all communities”, among other things, by the Trump Administration.
- Nonprofits that provide foreign assistance may be targeted.
Click here for more detail, and let us know what you are experiencing in your work that may/not be covered here.
Sharing resources within and between networks is more critical now than ever; and PANO is one place to share information that may not be widely available. We welcome information that you have and would be willing to share more broadly as we grow the library of “what is needed” in the days ahead; you can do so by emailing PANO’s Executive Director, Anne Gingerich, at anne@pano.org.
