Freezing federal grant funding, threats to challenge the tax-exempt status of our organizations, and many of the communities our organizations serve are under attack. The nonprofit sector is on high alert.
Welcome to the new Trump administration. It has already been a turbulent 2025.
Our guest is very proud to lead his organization. And yet, out of safety concerns he removed his own name and the names of all staff and board from his website. And he is not alone in making that decision. Thousands of nonprofit leaders are making this same choice.
Amol Sinha, the Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, shares with us how his organization has prepared for this moment and outlines the unique harms the nonprofit sector faces.
In this episode, we talk about the unique challenges and the unique harms to nonprofit organizations under the current administration. And most importantly, we share what every nonprofit can do at the organizational and state levels to safeguard and fight against it all.
We bring this conversation to you as a survival tool—and a beacon of inspiration—that nonprofit organizations are standing up to the attack and taking aim at the injustice.
Inside the conversation, we explore with Amol:
- What is actually happening now?
- What should we be worried about?
- How can we, as nonprofit leaders, be more proactive?
- And most importantly, where are our points of leverage?
TUNE IN TO LEARN:
NONPROFITS ARE UNDER ATTACK. How do nonprofits need to prepare for administration attacks? “Make contingency plans if your federal funding gets cut and understand how that impacts your program.” (Amol Sinha)
SOME ORGANIZATIONS ARE ADOPTING “ANTICIPATORY COMPLIANCE”. This includes organizations that Amol says are “scrubbing their websites of anything related to race or DEI.”
THE THREAT OF H.R.9495. It is not signed into law yet. But, what are the potential implications if it is? “So it was a bill that was being considered by Congress that would basically give the Secretary of the treasury unilateral power to determine that an organization is materially supporting terrorism and impose consequences, including ending that organization’s tax-exempt status.” (Amol Sinha)
TWO EXECUTIVE ORDERS YOU NEED TO WATCH. What are the two little-known executive orders that could have a big impact on nonprofits?
ABOUT GUEST:
Amol Sinha is a nationally recognized civil rights leader who has dedicated his career to advancing racial justice, holding institutions accountable, promoting and defending rights and liberties, and spearheading impactful work to protect our democracy.
As Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ), Amol guides the organization’s innovative integrated advocacy work, utilizing litigation, policy, public education, and strategic communications to build a more equitable society.
Since assuming leadership of the ACLU-NJ in 2017, Amol has driven the organization’s steady expansion, more than doubling its team of dedicated professionals and advocates, and growing its capacity to undertake critical advocacy campaigns, resulting in transformational change to New Jersey’s civil rights landscape. During Amol’s tenure, the ACLU-NJ has appeared before the New Jersey Supreme Court more times than any non-governmental party, deepened community partnerships across the state, and centered the experiences of directly impacted communities.
Amol’s dedication to protecting civil rights and liberties is exemplified in the ACLU-NJ’s years-long work around decarceration, providing new pathways for individuals to overcome the systemic injustices of our criminal justice system. The organization’s important work in this field has resulted in litigation and legislation that led to the early release of over 9,000 people from our state’s prisons and jails, leading the successful fight to legalize cannabis through a racial justice lens, and leading the charge on New Jersey’s recent landmark categorical clemency initiative.
Under his leadership, the ACLU-NJ has secured numerous wins across multiple issue areas, including access to driver’s licenses for all regardless of immigration status, preventing hundreds of deportations, securing the right to vote for people on probation and parole, and defending free speech for groups across a diverse array of viewpoints.
Prior to joining ACLU-NJ, Amol led state legislative campaigns at the Innocence Project, and prior to that, directed an office of the New York Civil Liberties Union. In 2024, Amol was elected by his fellow ACLU executive directors to serve as the Chair of the ACLU’s Nationwide Executive Director Council. He also is a Policy Fellow at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. He holds a B.A. from New York University and a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
RESOURCES:
- Amol Sinha LinkedIn
- ACLU New Jersey
- Nonprofit Leadership Lab
- Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership – 2nd Edition by Joan Garry
- FREE WORKSHOP: 3 Reasons You’re Not Raising More Money
- FREE WORKSHOP: Let’s Build the Nonprofit Board of Your Dreams!
- FREE WORKSHOP: The 5 Practices of Outstanding Nonprofit Leaders
- Music by Jukebox the Ghost
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