DEIA nonprofits doing more with less

In the May newsletter, we highlighted the push-back on accessibility. This month, we’d like to talk about the real financial pressures organizations that focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) or justice issues are facing.

A 2026 report by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) found that funding for DEIA- and justice-focused nonprofits in the U.S. has dropped from all sectors. That includes individual donations, foundations, government funding, and other revenue sources. Meanwhile, the demand for us to do more is increasing.

The CEP surveyed more than 880 nonprofit leaders across the country from nonprofits serving various types of missions about their experiences since January 2025. About half responded.

Like Equal Access Public Media, many nonprofits were under pressure to reframe how we talk about our work or have received backlash to mission. As founder Stacy Kess has mentioned, it’s part of the pushback on DEIA — and EAPM is “solidly in on the A.”

But more than that, EAPM also focuses on accessibility in journalism, when the field of journalism is also facing hostility. You can see this reflected in 38 percent of nonprofit leaders being concerned about staff and board safety or well-being, and 37 percent being affected by legal challenges related to their work. As you probably know, journalism organizations have faced increasing pressures to skew coverage, violence against reporters, investigations and arrests of reporters, and First Amendment violations since Jan. 2025.

Pressure compounds when nonprofits responded about funding.

This is where it becomes clear that not all nonprofits are struggling the same way. While funding a nonprofit is never easy, some nonprofits have either not seen a change, or found it actually become easier to get funding from foundations or individuals. But 57 percent report it’s harder to get money from foundations, and more than 40 percent report its harder to get local or state government funding. Even individual donations of all sizes are down for many nonprofits.

When the story reached the airwaves, NPR’s Jennifer Ludden connected the dots between the nonprofits who noted their funding struggles and DEIA.

Ludden paraphrased Elisha Smith Arrillaga from the Center for Effective Philanthropy: “President Trump has also called programs that support diversity or transgender rights radical, wasteful and illegal. Smith Arrillaga says groups working in those areas are more likely to have seen a hit to their budget.”

And that’s why we need you in this fight with us. Here’s a number of ways to help:

• Make an individual donation.
• Ask someone you know to make an individual donation.
• Tell friends, family, and colleagues about us.
• Encourage friends, family, and colleagues to sign up for our newsletter.
• Promote us in your email or social media. Start a fundraising group that supports us.
• Encourage businesses to support DEIA-focused nonprofits, including EAPM.

Organization for Accessible Journalism: new name, same mission

Since November 2023, you’ve known us as Equal Access Public Media, an organization with a mission to increase accessibility in the journalism industry and in public-facing news products. On Aug. 1, 2026, EAPM will become the Organization for Accessible Journalism.

Don’t worry. The mission remains the same. In fact, the new name simply reflects our mission better.

We’ll be making the transition as seamless as possible, with a web redirect to the new website, accessiblejournalism.org when it goes live on Aug. 1.

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