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“We can only surmise that these tactics seek to silence us,” said one nonprofit that has been targeted by Trump.
The Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to reform of the criminal legal system, has revealed that Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) recently attempted to embed staff within the organization, citing Vera’s prior receipt of federal funds. According to DOGE officials, this was part of a broader plan to install government teams inside all nonprofits that receive federal funding.
“The attempted intrusion by DOGE — a temporary, un-elected and non-Congressionally approved agency — toward the Vera Institute should alarm every American,” Diane Yentel, president of the National Council of Nonprofits, said in a statement.
During a call with DOGE representatives, Vera’s legal team challenged the legitimacy of the request, noting that the U.S. Department of Justice had already terminated the nonprofit’s federal grants, which had totaled approximately $5 million over three years. While the Vera Institute successfully pushed back and DOGE ultimately withdrew the request, civil society advocates warn that the incident is part of a broader campaign to undermine nonprofit independence.
“This action by DOGE sets a dangerous precedent, leaving any recipient of federal funding — nonprofit, for-profit, and individuals alike — vulnerable to the whims of this destructive group. DOGE and The Trump Administration’s professed commitment to free speech and financial efficiency falls flat when their actions selectively target and weaken groups whose missions they may oppose,” Yentel said.
This tactic to control nonprofits could have far-reaching consequences. An Urban Institute analysis found that more than 103,000 nonprofit organizations received a combined $267 billion in government grants in 2021. These figures, based on IRS filings, excluded smaller organizations with limited reporting requirements — highlighting the vast scale of the nonprofit sector’s entanglement with public funding.
“The end goal is to destroy all of civil society. NGOs include everything from community clinics to civil rights orgs. It means the end of the ACLU, NAACP, and all advocacy orgs,” Harvard cyberlaw instructor Alejandra Caraballo wrote on Bluesky in February. “Elon is seeking to eliminate any and all independent sources of power outside of an [authoritarian] government he controls.
This is just the latest in a growing series of attacks by the Trump administration aimed at exerting control over the nonprofit sector. In one of its most dramatic moves, DOGE assumed control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) — an independent nonprofit created by Congress in 1984 — by firing its board and leadership, installing loyalists, and transferring ownership of its headquarters to the federal government. DOGE officials reportedly referenced this takeover in their conversations with Vera, citing USIP as an example of a successful federal intervention into nonprofit affairs.
Elon Musk has publicly accused nonprofit organizations receiving government contracts of widespread fraud, asserting without evidence that leaders of these “fake NGOs” should face imprisonment. In a post on X last month, Musk claimed, “The Democrat government-funded NGO scam might be the biggest theft of taxpayer money ever.”
Musk’s comments seem to support that targeting the Vera Institute is part of a broader effort to delegitimize civil society by portraying nonprofits as threats to government authority — a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a Princeton professor and board chair of the Vera Institute of Justice, warned on LinkedIn that Trump’s executive order empowering DOGE to target “waste, fraud, and abuse” is merely a “pretext for what amounts to a federal takeover” of nonprofit organizations.
“Fascists need to crush civil society orgs because they are a bulwark of liberalism. They democratize access to power and institutions while defending civil liberties,” Caraballo said on Bluesky. “That’s what all of this is about.”
Advocates like Caraballo are especially alarmed by the Trump administration’s mounting pressure on private universities — including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Northwestern and Brown, all of which are 501(c)(3) organizations. The Trump administration has frozen billions in funding from these institutions, demanding the elimination of DEI initiatives, imposing hiring and curriculum oversight, and pressuring universities to collaborate more closely with law enforcement and immigration authorities.
Advocates say the Trump administration is using these institutions as a testing ground before expanding its attacks to all nonprofit organizations. “Trump has to crush Harvard and all other civil society institutions to consolidate power,” Caraballo explained.
Harvard has refused to comply with Trump’s demands. In a recent statement, the university’s president declared that “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.” In response, Trump threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status, which Caraballo says will be used as a tactic against nonprofit organizations next.
Caraballo previously warned that the Trump administration will likely attempt to “gut the entire nonprofit sector” by using investigations into DEI, “antisemitism” — code for opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza — or “gender ideology” as a pretext to revoke the tax-exempt status of organizations that challenge Trump.
“This administration has systematically attacked every aspect of civil society, from academia to law firms and the media, and is now coming after the nonprofit sector. We can only surmise that these tactics seek to silence us,” the Vera Institute said in a statement. “It will not happen. We will not back down.”
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