Presented by International Monetary Fund
The U.S. Justice Department is weighing terrorism and racketeering charges against George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, while the White House ordered a broad crackdown on nonprofits. OSF called the moves “politically motivated attacks on civil society.” Nearly 200 major funders pushed back, warning democracy itself is at risk.
Also in today’s edition: How the Packard Foundation is handling the new way of funding, powering African health clinics in the wake of USAID pullout, and an icon passes away.
OSF under fire
Two bombshell moves out of Washington, D.C., have philanthropies on edge. The New York Times revealed that Justice Department leaders ordered U.S. attorneys to draft plans to investigate George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, with charges ranging from terrorism to racketeering. On the same day, the White House rolled out a sweeping directive telling law enforcement to “disband and uproot” networks it links to domestic terrorism — nonprofits included.
OSF fired back: “The Open Society Foundations unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law.” The group warned the crackdown is “politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech.”
Others echoed the alarm, writes my colleague Ayenat Mersie. “Those making these accusations have presented no evidence linking 501(c)(3) organizations to acts of recent political violence,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits.
Nearly 200 major funders — from the Ford to MacArthur foundations — quickly rallied with a joint letter rejecting “attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms, like freedom of speech and the freedom to give.”
OSF President Binaifer Nowrojee put it bluntly: “This is not about George Soros. This is about the United States slowly losing its democracy bit by bit in ways that we've seen elsewhere in the world.”
Read: Trump’s scrutiny of nonprofits escalates, with Soros’ OSF at the center
Defending the freedom to give
Nancy Lindborg, CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, isn’t holding back. Speaking at Devex Impact House during the 80th United Nations General Assembly last week, she defended what she called the “freedom to give” and described 2025 with “a deep, deep sense of sadness and loss” as aid cuts crippled institutions she once led.
“I feel survivor’s guilt,” she admitted, watching colleagues lose their jobs while food and contraceptives rotted in warehouses. Lindborg signed a public letter to defend the freedom to give — one she calls “core and precious” to U.S. democracy.
With years spent in fragile states, she warned that America now shows the same cracks: “dissolution of social cohesion, falling trust in institutions, concentration of wealth, factionalized elites, economic inequality.”
But she also sees momentum: The Packard Foundation now directs half of its international funding to local organizations, far surpassing the 25% pledge made in 2016. “Never waste a crisis,” she said, urging collaboration and creativity to reimagine development systems.
“We’re hearing a lot of energy and ideas coming from around the world,” she said. “We all need to figure out how to lock arms and move that forward.”
Read: How the Packard Foundation is responding to a new funding environment
Related: How can philanthropy fund development better? (Pro)
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Legacy that will live on
Jane Goodall, the pioneering primatologist and conservationist who revolutionized how the world understands chimpanzees, died yesterday in her sleep at her home in California. She was 91.
Her decades of field research in Tanzania, beginning in 1960, overturned assumptions about the divide between humans and animals — including her groundbreaking observation that chimpanzees use and fashion tools, Ayenat writes.
Her work was pioneering not just for its discoveries but for who she was: A young woman without a university degree conducting field science in an overwhelmingly male profession. Her success opened doors for other women in primatology and beyond, inspiring generations of researchers.
Her decades-long commitment to environmental advocacy also served as an inspiration to her legions of fans. She had been scheduled to speak at a sold-out event at the University of California, Los Angeles tomorrow, and just last week, she appeared at a Bloomberg forum in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
There, she spoke about biodiversity, maintaining hope, and drew laughter from the crowd with her sharp critique of humanity’s failure to protect the Earth: “We’re clearly the most intellectual creatures to ever walk the planet. But we’re not very intelligent. Intellectual, yes, but intelligent beings do not destroy their only home. Unless you want to go with Elon Musk to some far-off planet, this is our only home.”
Read: Jane Goodall, primatologist turned global environmental icon, dies at 91
From cuts to scale
When USAID pulled out of a major health electrification program in Africa, most thought the effort was doomed. But in Tanzania, one project not only survived — it’s now the backbone of a private sector push to electrify 50,000 clinics across 10 countries.
At Devex Impact House during UNGA80, Zola Intelligence CEO Bill Lenihan recalled how a local win in Tanzania proved the model’s potential. When the Health Electrification and Telecommunication Alliance collapsed, U.S. engineering and construction firm Bechtel stepped in with Zola to take it private. “In a perverse way, the decline of USAID was the catalyst that was needed in order to drive private investment into what we're doing,” Lenihan said.
Nancy Pfund, founder of DBL Partners, said persistence and trust were key: “There’s just a pattern of trust building and experimentation that led you to this ability to scale.”
But Lenihan warned that emerging markets face steep hurdles: “What’s the biggest impediment to emerging market investment? It’s currency risk.”
María Fernanda Espinosa, former U.N. General Assembly president, welcomed the surge of private capital into renewable energy and food systems but urged accountability. “We really need to have proper tracking mechanisms, to have proper accounting, especially in the climate space,” she said. “We need a common cause and a vision of where we’re going.”
Read: How a USAID exit sparked a private drive to power Africa’s health clinics
Related: How African communities are responding to the aid cuts (Pro)
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At a breaking point
The Danish Refugee Council knows forced displacement better than most — and right now, that expertise is being tested. “In Gaza City, which is being bombarded now quite heavily, we have around half a million people staying there, with no possibility of going anywhere,” said Charlotte Slente, DRC’s secretary-general, calling it an “extremely dire situation.” Overcrowded sites, scarce aid, skyrocketing prices, and sheer exhaustion are leaving people saying, “Let us stay here and die.”
Slente slammed the Israel- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as “deeply politicized, deeply militarized,” warning it’s “not a model that is impartial, neutral, and with full access.” Meanwhile, record numbers of aid workers are being killed and international humanitarian law is under siege. “We need humanitarian access, we need a ceasefire,” she said bluntly.
But Gaza isn’t the only crisis, writes Managing Editor Anna Gawel. Slente had just come from Afghanistan, where over 2 million people have been deported from Iran and Pakistan this year. Many, like a 25-year-old woman born in Iran with no ties to Afghanistan, are left with nothing. And while the global north frets about migration, nearly 75% of refugees are hosted by poorer neighbors now facing shrinking aid.
To stay ahead of these shocks, DRC and IBM have built a predictive system to forecast refugee flows up to three years out. “Let’s invest more in prevention, in anticipatory action,” Slente urged. “Maybe this financial crisis … could be the moment where we actually do try to make that shift more deliberate.”
Read: Danish Refugee Council chief decries the loss of humanitarian norms
In other news
Israel has intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla on its way to deliver humanitarian aid in Gaza. [Reuters]
The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation board has backed off its plans to spend $420 million on a critical sewage treatment plant in East Timor. [New York Times]
The U.K. government plans to make refugees wait longer than five years to apply for permanent settlement and will permanently end their automatic right to bring close family members, as part of wider efforts to tighten asylum rules and reduce migration. [BBC]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
