Holding the Line for Civic Space in the U.S.
Recently in the U.S. we have seen an intensification of the government’s attacks on foundations and nonprofits. When authoritarians in other countries have targeted donors and the nonprofit organizations they fund, it hasn’t just been about eliminating support for policies the government opposes; it has been about restricting "civic space” -- the legal, practical, normative and institutional structures that enable citizens to associate, speak, assemble, fundraise, and participate in public life. When authoritarians consolidate power, they don't just go after vulnerable groups; they eventually target the entire civic sector, damaging the environment that enables nonprofits to work and even exist.
It’s important that foundations and nonprofits defend their constituencies from attack, but it’s also important that they band together to protect the operating environment for civil society.
Authoritarians and their supporters close civic space through legal, administrative, economic, informational, and coercive actions. Changes in registration and “foreign agent” rules, blocks on bank accounts and threats to tax status, labeling opponents as “terrorists” or “corrupt,” targeted policing, and strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP suits) are the most common tactics. The aim is to raise the costs of operating until nonprofits shut down, self-censor, or capitulate and serve the state’s policy goals rather than their constituents.
What lessons have we learned from other contexts that U.S. foundations and nonprofits can apply to protect the operating environment for civil society?
Legal advocacy and strategic litigation: lobbying against bills that harm the legal enabling environment for nonprofits, monitoring and publicizing new laws and regulations, challenging unconstitutional restrictions in court, and using legal defense funds to slow or reverse illiberal measures. Organizations with resources and influence can increase their support for field-wide legal defense, monitoring state legislation, and policy advocacy on freedom of expression and association that will protect neutral, predictable rules for nonprofit operations.
Broad coalition building: forming alliances across sectors (including faith groups, unions, professional bodies, and community organizations) and across partisan divides to defend democratic procedures and institutions, rather than partisan agendas. Pro-democracy coalitions and networks can focus on defending the enabling environment for civil society and fundamental freedoms. This might also be a way to bring people together who otherwise disagree on the administration’s policies.
Multi-level engagement: working simultaneously at federal, state, and local levels, pivoting advocacy to places where governments are more responsive. There is a need for frequently updated, state-level measures of associational rights, how protests are policed, administrative burdens on nonprofits, and so on. Advances in AI-assisted, human in the loop data collection methods means this can be done at a scale and speed that wasn’t possible before, but it needs coordination and support (which EIRP hopes to provide in the near future).
Adaptation for organizational resilience: developing contingency plans for different scenarios and investing in digital security, risk mitigation practices, psychosocial support, and continuity planning to withstand repression. For example, at a recent workshop I ran, we discussed a scenario where multiple states passed "Pecuniary Duty and Market Neutrality" laws that bar companies doing business with the state from considering environmental, social, and governance factors in their work. We talked about how to prevent such laws from passing and started to plan how to adapt when such laws do pass.
The United States’ civic infrastructure gives it a great advantage compared to other cases where civic space is closing, but defending it requires savvy strategy and broad-based collective action.
For a longer version of this article, see “Civic Space in the United States is Closing: what we need to understand — and do.”
