A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Wealthy philanthropists are grappling with a new landscape for giving, as government cuts create more funding needs but political battles make donations more fraught, according to several advisors. Whether it’s the legal battle at Harvard University, the cuts to foreign aid or sudden loss of research funding, major donors are facing shifting dynamics and are either holding back or staying under the radar as they seek to avoid getting caught in political crosshairs, donors and advisors said. Harvard last week received almost 4,000 gifts online totaling more than $1.1 million in the wake of its battle with the Trump administration, according to reporting from The Harvard Crimson. The gifts came after the White House froze more than $2 billion in federal funding when Harvard rebuffed its demands, which included an audit of the school’s student body for “viewpoint diversity.” Along with cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal funding sources for nonprofits, reports suggest the Trump administration is also considering broader scrutiny of the nonprofit sector, potentially targeting organizations with causes or positions that contradict the administration or are viewed as overly partisan. In response, nonprofits have launched their most aggressive fundraising efforts since the Covid pandemic, arguing that the very f …
