This year has brought extraordinary disruptions to the nonprofit sector. While this conversation may be approached from many different angles and viewed through many different lenses, one thing that most can agree on is that federal funding cuts have created immediate, profound impacts on many nonprofits across the Pacific Northwest and the communities they serve.
For philanthropic funders, moments like this demand clarity about who we are and how we can best serve. To achieve our vision of “human flourishing for the common good,” the Murdock Trust’s focus is to build capacity in nonprofits driving innovative and sustainable outcomes in the Pacific Northwest, with a grantmaking approach prioritizing capacity-building projects that position organizations for long-term success. In 2024, the Trust demonstrated this commitment by going above its required minimum distribution of 5%, giving 6.8% of qualified charitable distributions to nonprofits serving the common good. The challenge in moments like these is how to meet the urgency of this moment without abandoning the essential role of long-term capacity building that the Trust plays in the philanthropy ecosystem. Our current approach includes the following key steps:
Strategic Action: Five Key Steps
1. Listening sessions across the region. In 2025, the Trust hosted listening sessions in every state it serves, inviting critical, honest assessments of needs across the Pacific Northwest. Our CEO, Romanita Hairston, shared high-level learnings in October, and more updates about how these learnings are shaping our grantmaking are coming in early 2026. These listening sessions have shaped and will continue to shape what follows.
2. The Social Impact Fund Initiative. This rapid-response effort provides focused, one-time grants to a small group of existing Trust grantees navigating historic shifts in funding and practice, with the objective of supporting transitions towards the future. The initiative operates at two levels:
Enterprise investments support the infrastructure organizations that serve the broader nonprofit sector and philanthropy sector. Grants were given for general operating support to state nonprofit associations and philanthropy support organizations to assist in providing essential tracking, data, and support to nonprofits as the landscape shifts.
Mission investments target specific areas of acute need. In 2025, there has been a critical need for legal services for immigrants and refugees seeking citizenship. This fund supported 12 nonprofits across the Trust region providing these services.
3. Food Security Rapid Response Grants: In recent months, food security has become a critical issue for many Pacific Northwest communities. The Trust recently approved a series of rapid response grants to food banks and food security organizations across the 5-state Trust region, including a contribution to the reactivated WA Food Fund by Philanthropy Northwest.
4. Alaska Flooding Disaster Relief Fund. When weather-related catastrophic flooding struck Western Alaska on top of existing pressures, the Trust contributed to the Western Alaska Disaster Relief 2025 Fund, housed at the Alaska Community Foundation.
5. Maintaining capacity-building commitments. Even as emergency funding streams were created, core grantmaking continues to focus on long-term organizational development so that when the state of emergency passes, the infrastructure is ready.
Learning Together
The Murdock Trust does not have all the answers, or even all the questions. This approach represents our best thinking, for the moment, about how to honor both the urgency of the situation and the long-term health of the nonprofit sector. This isn’t the first time foundations have needed to balance immediate crisis response with long-term capacity building; in 2020, we rapidly mobilized support for nonprofits navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, and those experiences continue to inform our approach today. Our learning happens alongside nonprofit partners, listening closely to what works and what doesn't, and continuing to monitor and adjust as the landscape evolves and changes – practicing the agility we admire in our nonprofit partners. We are committed to continuous learning and appropriate actions aligned with our mission and vision in the days ahead.
When the Trust team looks to the future of the nonprofit sector, it has hope because of the commitment and creativity we see across the sector. We see this in nonprofit leaders finding new paths forward and community members showing up for one another. That work deserves investment, not just admiration. It is our aim that some of the responses outlined above can contribute to supporting the sector in this moment of need, while we continue to learn alongside nonprofits about the next steps needed to transition to the future.
Together with you,
Pauline Fong, Chief Program & Impact Officer