Strategies for Strength: Nonprofit Resources to Survive Hostile Government Actions

Last updated April 23, 2025

Legal Guidance about How U.S. Presidents (Can’t) Revoke an Organization’s Tax-Exempt Status

  1. Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can — and Cannot — Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status from Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum and the Nonprofit Alliance. A short, clearly-written summary.
  2. Threats to Tax Exempt Status from Sandler Reiff. A detailed memo.

Trackers: Executive Orders Affecting Nonprofits

  1. Chart of Executive Orders from the National Council of Nonprofits.
  2. Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions from Just Security.
  3. Response Center from Democracy 2025. To search for updated information by issue (like “Gender Identity” or “Immigration”), agency, etc., scroll down and click on “Filters.”
  4. Tracking the Policy Landscape for the Charitable Sector from Independent Sector.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Employment, Education, Funding, etc.

  1. FAQs on Responding to Recent DEI Executive Orders from Public Counsel. To access the resource, click on the blue text below “Downloads.”
  2. Multi-State Guidance Concerning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Employment Initiatives from the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
  3. Legal Assistance Intake Form for Organizations Protecting and Advancing DEI from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
  4. Pro Bono Legal Assistance Interest Form from The Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense (LEAD) for Racial Justice program, led and coordinated by the California Black Freedom Fund, a collaborative that includes The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, Public Counsel, and Adler & Colvin.

Immigration Law Resources for Nonprofits Engaged with Immigrants

  1. FAQs and Model Policies to Protect Nonprofits Responding to Immigration Attacks (including protections for employees, volunteers, contractors, and clients)
  2. Understanding U.S. laws about “harboring” immigrants. Under Section 1324 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), it’s illegal to smuggle, transport, or protect (“harbor”) certain immigrants.

Risk Assessment and Planning

  1. Brief guides:
  2. Detailed guides:

Strong and Strategic Messaging

  1. Making DEI Real: How Nonprofits Can Communicate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Meaningful and Accessible Ways from Bethany Snyder at Snyder Strategies.
  2. Do Not Comply: A Lesson from the Last Three Months of Anti-Trans Attacks from Erin Reed of Erin in the Morning.
  3. Messaging Guides from Anat Shenker-Osorio’s team at ASO Communications. Offers guides in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
  4. These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration from The New York Times (gift link).

Resource Collections for Nonprofit Resilience

  1. Nonprofit Resilience Under Trump 2.0: Resources from CalNonprofits.
  2. Resources to navigate uncertainty from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.
  3. The Impacts of the Recent Executive Orders on Nonprofits from the National Council of Nonprofits

Nonprofit Voter Engagement

  1. Electoral Safety Toolkit from Vision Change Win.
  2. Trump Executive Order on Voting and Elections is Likely Unconstitutional, Also Inaccurately Describes Law on Lobbying by Nonprofits with Federal Funds from Nonprofit VOTE.
  3. The President’s Executive Order on Elections, Explained from the Brennan Center for Justice.

Resources Specific to California Nonprofits

  1. FAQs: Immigrant Worker Protection Act (AB 450) from the California Department of Justice.

Thank you to the organizations and individuals who created these resources.
Special thanks to:

This collection provides general guidance for educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.

If your nonprofit needs legal assistance about your rights to advocate for community change, please contact Matlin Legal. If you have questions about information in these resources, please contact the organization that published the resource.

Matlin Legal does its best to update these resources, but the information on this page may change over time. Please contact Sara Matlin at Matlin Legal with any updates, suggestions, or corrections.

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