We are seeing silencing and retaliation in real-time. Those who speak out—especially for Palestinian freedom—are punished. Humanitarian narratives are distorted. Repression has never been a quiet undercurrent; it is overt, systemic, and globally coordinated. The only difference is that it is now clearly visible.

When it comes to Palestine, philanthropy has always been a double-edged sword. Asaad reminds us that the pattern of contradictory aid has persisted since the Oslo Accords: aid comes out of endowments invested in weapons manufacturing, aid is dropped by the same parties as are dropping bombs, aid is couched in geographic clauses and extenuating conditions and accompanied by extensive surveillance.

The role of progressive philanthropy could not be clearer. As the aid industry reverts to business as usual, we have a unique role to play in moving resources at speed and scale to Palestinian society—to rebuild homes, schools, health centres, and civic infrastructure. To repair the land. To make music and art and to write words of poetry and prose again. To bury the dead and to find ways to heal from the unhealable. This should not be new work for any of us. This is precisely what human rights philanthropy does at its highest and best. Show up with the liberated resources that support communities to live lives of dignity, safety, and justice, on their own terms. 

As a mass movement for Palestine has been sparked and invigorated across the globe, people everywhere are making common cause with the Palestinian struggle and weaving connections with other calls for liberation. The global call for ceasefire is evolving into a united demand for justice that is transcending borders, remaking the political landscape and sparking an urgent call for a new order. 

For months, many movement organizations and some funders have sounded alarm bells to concerning funder behaviors or as a coalition of Jewish donors and philanthropy professionals have described it: “The harmful practice of withdrawing funding for and/or delaying payments to organizations that speak up for the lives and safety of the Palestinian people.” The undue pressure from philanthropy not only compromises the independence of nonprofits but also weakens our broader social justice movement by creating divisions, limiting the scope of advocacy and often working against the foundation’s own goals of strengthening our democracy.

Soheir Asaad is Director of Advocacy at Rawa, a Palestinian grassroots community fund using community-led participatory grantmaking across Palestine. Since 2018, over 60 grants have been awarded to grassroots community-based initiatives. Alliance digital editor, Charlotte Kilpatrick and executive editor, Charles Keidan talked to Soheir Asaad in July to discuss how Palestinian community philanthropy is navigating a path through the Genocide in Gaza.

Over the past three months, Naomi and her brother David, 33, have given roughly $250,000 to the In Our Name campaign, a fund launched to support pro-Palestinian organizations amid what organizers have decried as punitive defunding of charities for their pro-Palestinian stances.

An Instagram post in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza cost 18 Million Rising $250,000—a direct punishment from a former donor who decided the post violated their terms and stopped funding them. This signals an alarming trend of funders silencing social justice organizations showing solidarity with Palestine.

Philanthropists have quietly pulled funding from grassroots groups supporting Gaza, threatening broader social justice efforts. American donors have historically resisted funding Palestinian causes, as seen in 2003 when the Ford Foundation faced pressure over grants to Palestinian organizations highlighting Israel’s human rights abuses.

Some progressive groups say donor responses to their statements about the Israel-Gaza War are leading to painful choices between speaking out and preserving revenue needed to avoid layoffs and program cuts.

A group of philanthropic funders are publicly calling for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in Gaza and are demanding unimpeded access for humanitarian aid to reach the affected population, including food, water, medicine, and fuel, to address the catastrophic situation in the region.

Dozens of major funders and funding bodies, including some of the largest US and European foundations focused on human rights – have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In an open letter, they condemn what they describe as Israeli war crimes and collective punishment of Palestinians living in Gaza.

In the spring of 2025, Funding Freedom held a three part series on the political economy of the ongoing genocide. This booklet, co-produced with Funders4Palestine, summarizes what was covered, links to the presentations, and further readings.

This report builds on Funding Freedom’s report from 2022, looking at the new conditions facing movements and philanthropy after a year of Genocide. It looks at the political context of genocide and repression, includes five case studies of organizations who have faced cuts or threatened cuts, and ends with recommendations to funders about navigating the current political moment.

Funding Freedom outlines the increasingly severe attacks on organizations that support Palestinian rights and offers human rights funders a roadmap for creating the conditions to give sustainably, consistently, and without doing harm. This report calls for our philanthropic partners to meet the moment and take an ethical stand on the side of human rights.

Universities, cities, unions, philanthropy, and all institutions should withdraw their support for Israeli human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Learn how to divest and explore a key divestment list developed by the Action Center on Corporate Accountability of the American Friends Service Committee.

The Philanthropy Open Letter for Humanity and Justice calls for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine; safe, unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid; stopping US and European funding and weapons for the Israeli military; and adherence to international humanitarian and human rights laws.

Seeking to correct the increasingly common misperception that Jews in philanthropy are uniformly aligned behind the false binary of Jewish versus Palestinian safety, this open letter signed by more than 200 Jewish donors and Jews who work in philanthropy calls upon colleagues in philanthropy to cease the harmful practice of withdrawing funding for and/or delaying payments to organizations that speak up for the lives and safety of the Palestinian people.