As the development sector still grapples with a post-USAID reality, speculation on the U.S. government’s plan to target the tax-exempt status of philanthropies working in the climate sector began circulating ahead of Earth Day celebration on April 22.
John Palfrey, the president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, was among the first to react, saying that the foundation is committed to exhausting all legal measures available should the U.S. government’s plan actually happen.
Nor was it the first time Palfrey had spoken out. Early in Donald Trump’s presidency, he promised an increase in giving, and he has since spoken of the need for the sector more widely to step up.