We invite you to explore one or more of these resources aligned with the Spring 2026 Member Meeting themes:

Why Minnesota Matters

• Why Minnesota Matters More than Iran for America's Future (gift link for non-NYTimes subscribers) by Thomas Friedman, personal perspective as a native Minnesotan who has been a foreign affairs correspondent. Includes stories about regular people - including schools, a family foundation, small businesses, etc.
• The Women Holding Minneapolis Together
  In Minnesota, a community is coming together to push back against ICE and support their neighbors. It should surprise no one that much of this work is being led by women. Glamour reports from the front lines.

Impact of Funding Cuts on State Budgets

• Federal funding cuts shift state budgets, Kansas Reflector (includes data on CO, KS, NM, TN, VA) impacting state budgets.
• SNAP Cuts Mitigation Hub: Responding to H.R. 1, Food Research and Action Center
• HR1 Resource Hub and Medicaid Hub, Georgetown Center for Children and Families
• Tracking the Fallout from State Budget Cuts, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
• Candid is offering insights to demonstrate the real impact of federal funding cuts on nonprofits.

Affordability

• You can’t talk about affordability in America without talking about child care, First Five Years Fund, top five takeaways from the Politico Economy Summit
• The PN-3 Squeeze: Reaching Young & Anxious Families Where They Are, National Collaborative for Infants and Toddlers & Economic Security Project, March 17 Webinar

Immigrant Children and Families

• Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, 1 in 4 Immigrant Children and Families Project, and Funder Messaging Toolkit: Making the Case for Supporting Immigrants in Your Grantmaking (2025)

Philanthropy & Democracy

• A Framework for Democracy Philanthropy, Center for Effective Philanthropy (August 2024)
• The philanthropic strategies and networks attacking our democracy, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (Fall 2024)
• Philanthropy in the Crosshairs — Confronting the Perpetual Backlash Against Justice and Democracy, CLASP webinar archive featuring Carmen Rojas, Edgar Villanueva
• The power of collaborative philanthropy: Giving together to strengthen American democracy, Gates Foundation, Funders Committee for Civic Participation, and The Bridgespan Group (August 2024)

Meeting the Moment

• ACT NOW: Take Part in All by April: There is still time to show up to support 2026 elections. With primary elections already underway, this work needs to happen now. Democracy Fund urges all 501(c)3 funders to take part in All by April by providing early support to the organizations that help uphold, revitalize, and reimagine our democracy. Move election funds faster wherever possible and encourage your networks to do the same.
• Level Up Pledge: Change Philanthropy invites funders to embrace courage over fear, action over inaction, and long-term commitments to communities over reactive backsliding. Learn more and sign the pledge.
• Hope in the Dark: A New Nonprofit Quarterly Series with Democracy Fund's Joe Goldman, lifts up hope and bright spots—drawing attention to forward movement and the tangible signs of progress being made toward a democracy that enables all people to thrive. In the first installment, Four Tests for the Pro-Democracy Movement in 2026, Joe outlines four tests to determine the viability of democracy.
• ECFC’s February 2026 briefing on the child care funding freeze and fraud narrative urged funder actions that also apply to other scenarios in this moment—fund organizing and rapid response capacity for advocates and community organizations leading on response to the crisis; staying in relationship with grantees, especially those in communities under attack or most at risk; and communicating responsibly and resource grantees to do the same. 
• Four Ways Philanthropy Can Support the Movement for a Third Reconstruction. Rich Besser, President and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Carmen Rojas, President and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation call on philanthropy to speak boldly, use its full power, invest in community organizing, and fund a future we all deserve.   
• Foundation for Child Development President and CEO, Vivian Tseng, co-authored two op-eds with philanthropic colleagues on how philanthropy can better rise to this moment, when our grantee partners and civil society more broadly face such grave threats. Four Traps for Foundation Leaders to Escape (Inside Philanthropy), and Now is When Nonprofits Need Philanthropy the Most (Center for Effective Philanthropy).