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According to the Trump Administration, nonprofits and philanthropic foundations are “terror-supporting organizations.” Peaceful protestors are “terrorists.” Violent mobs are simply tourists having a picnic. And the masked gunmen they’ve deputized are hard-working joes just trying to do their jobs.

As we recall how Dr. King and his colleagues used non-violent civil disobedience to end legal segregation, host Rusty Stahl discusses how nonprofit workers, activists, and protestors, can challenge the reality-distorting propaganda we face today.

It’s a new year, and it’s a new season of your Fund the People Podcast! We’re glad you’re here. We’ve got tons of incredible guests, ideas, research, stories, and examples to inspire and help you invest in the nonprofit workforce in your sphere of influence.

We publish new episodes every Wednesday morning on all podcast platforms – so keep your eyes peeled and your ears open!

Links related to this episode:

• Dr. King, AmeriCorps, & Nonprofit Work - with Michael Smith, AmeriCorps" (Season 4 Bonus Episode, January 2023, 46 minutes)
• One Year of Trump. The Time to Act is Now. While We Still Can. M. Gessen, The New York Times, January 19, 2026. (Paywall).

Other exciting FTP announcements and podcast info:

• New Publications:

  • Article: New article by Rusty in The Nonprofit Quarterly: SOS - Nonprofits Need Funding for Staff Operating Support. Based on the new funding concept that we shared a few months back on LinkedIn. Take a look. We’d appreciate if you share it with your colleagues on linkedin or elsewhere, and tag Fund the People and Rusty Stahl. You can email him if you have feedback, questions, and ideas: [email protected].

  • Blog Post: New post by Betsy Leondar-Wright on the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog! It's about the FTP report she wrote called Long-Haul Grantmaking. Read the blog post. And find the report here. You can watch a recorded webinar about the report.

• Webinar Series:

  • This year we'll introduce a conversational webinar series about the power and potential of the nonprofit workforce - and how to address the existential crises confronting us.

    • February: We'll kick things off on Thurs., Feb. 12 at 1-2 pm ET / 10-11am PT. This free session will feature data from Mounting Pressure, the latest research from the Center for Effective Philanthropy on U.S. nonprofits and foundations in the current political context. Our guest will be Elisha Smith Arrillaga, CEP's Vice President of Research.

    • March: We'll continue in March with a discussion of the Staff Operating Support (S.O.S.) funding concept. Rusty will share the idea and invite your ideas, questions, concerns, hopes, and discussion. Data and additional speakers TBA.

    • To ensure you get the registration information, make sure you're on our mailing list. Go to fundthepeople.org and click on Connect in the main menu and sign-up!

• Podcast Updates:

  • Format of Episodes - This season we’re making an effort to make episodes in the public feed more compact and tightly edited, so you get the information you need faster and more easily. We're aiming for episodes on the public feed to average about 30 minutes (down from around 55 minutes).

  • Podcast Video - We are adding video to the show! A video version of our public episodes will be posted on all platforms that support video podcasts. This will be rolled-out gradually as we sort out the technical aspects of adding video.

  • Patreon:

    • Extended Episodes with full interviews AND bonus content are now published and available only on the "premium" version of the show on Patreon. These extended episodes will likely average closer to 55-60 minutes, and feature more discussion about our guest's lived experiences, more of their expertise on tangential topics, and more rants and responses from your host.

    • Video Versions of these extended episodes are already available on Patreon! There are four episodes already up on the patreon site, with lots more to come!