For those who haven’t heard, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a sweeping freeze this week on all federal grants, loans, and assistance, accompanied by executive orders calling for an ”ideological review“ of federal funding. The directive from OMB was blocked by a federal judge minutes before it was to go into effect, but this stay is set to expire on February 3rd. OMB rescinded the memo but the administration still intends to go forward with the freeze.
State and local governments, along with charitable organizations, rely on these grants to fund aid programs for low-income people, the arts, and public services. Nonprofits are preparing for mass layoffs, especially those reliant on DEI grants, which are a primary target of the ideological review. If this funding freeze were to go into effect, it would have ripple effects that touch even the professional workforce and leave new swaths of people vulnerable to homelessness.
I really have no answers on what’s best to do and I’m hoping this doesn’t go through. I would say that you should still focus on trying to help people in your own community too because even in major metropolitan areas a lot of people are going to be unmoored.
With these funding sources at risk, it’s important to look at alternative ways to support vulnerable communities. Formal NGOs and charitable organizations may struggle to remain in operation, and I’m unsure how effective donations to them would be in staunching the bleeding; it would probably be a better use of your money to put it towards grassroots efforts. I’ll echo deardoveswings in her recent rec and suggest looking into mutual aid organizations; I’ve attached the link she shared to this post.
Feb 1, 2025
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i work at a nonprofit (FWIW lol but this is just my own perspective) and def would say the grants matter a lot to a lot of arts, science, and social cause orgs - donations def help but mutual aid orgs need them too so donating to both is always a good idea!! the “nonprofit industrial complex” is terrible but imo undeniably fills a lot of gaps the government creates, and mutual aid groups are so so so invaluable bc they have even less “strings attached“ to support
Feb 1, 2025
It’s so bleak. I’m a former Federal employee and freaking out from afar (used to live in DC). Thanks for concisely and clearly summing up the situation and suggesting we take care of us through mutual aid. I appreciate you ❤️🩹
Feb 1, 2025
salad_valet my heart goes out to the federal workforce and to the scientific community too this could be really devastating 😔 hang in there and don’t give up hope!!! We’re in this together ❤️🩹
taterhole likewise. I knew it was bad living in DC through the gov shutdown in 2019 and Jan. 6, but i couldn’t imagine how dark things would get. Sending love and light to you. It’s just been tough, hang in there. We got each other.
Feb 1, 2025
Related Recs
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There's been a numbing, sinking, unescaping feeling of dread at the pit of my stomach and the depths of my chest these days that continues to augment on the daily due to the current landscape of the world. Being in high school right now is such an experience in and of itself, I hear so much insensitive, immature, inaccurate, idiotic rhetoric, insults, and straight-up slurring left and right. Reading and any form of intellectual gain or self-actualization is immediately met with accusations of being a "nerd" or how it's some waste of time, which is influenced by the rapid consumption of social media in all of our daily lives. People in my circles are becoming radicalized and desensitized to really, really frightening ideologies that are facilitated through the lack of discernment and punishment for simply just wrong exclusionary statements that are said to attack people's integrity, race, gender, what have you. I am not hearing many positive things going on, and every insane headline I accidentally see, even when I avoid the news (not that that is the answer), is something straight out of a dystopian novel.
It hasn't been a month and a week if I'm correct. Left and right, I see exclusionary, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, racist, classist, chauvanistic, and outright outdated policies and rhetoric normalized and spreading like wildfire. We tried to tell ourselves it wouldn't be this bad. It is that bad. And pray to whatever you worship that it won't get worse. But don't leave it at that. Do your part. Please do your damn part.
Volunteer. Donate. Talk about it. Use your platforms. This post is not meant to catastrophize, but to shake you hard and wake you up. When tomorrow comes around, remember the plan. Please look up the "People's Union USA" for more information on the February 28th boycott, and try your hardest to do your part.
We are the people, the masses they fear. We have the power.
Feb 28, 2025
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there’s a lot pointing toward it: the immigration enforcement raids and the border detainments which are all scary and inhumane. the further attacks on education and attempts to rewrite history (which was happening at state-level like Florida but are harder to fight at the federal level). the president is seriously talking about a 2028 term which is technically unconstitutional in the US (presidents can only serve for 2 terms). they have arrested a mayor and a judge for different reasons related to the immigration legal fights which is unheard of. the treatment of Gaza is even worse than under Biden (which was already evil). they’re straight up ignoring judges on certain decisions. DOGE funding cuts are destroying the public sector and they’ve repeatedly fired completely essential workers and had to re-hire them bc it “broke“ systems. ending funding for things like cancer research and HIV medication, attacking vaccines, banning so-called “DEI” and trans girls from sports, and so much more.
honestly in my opinion the US has been hardly a democracy forever, for marginalized folks, but this is like steps above that in that they’re reversing so much progress so quickly. we’re not even 6 months into Trump’s second term.
also i work in the ngo/nonprofit sector and something else scary is how much human rights workers are very concerned about the possibility of our organizations even being able to exist within the next few years (if not sooner) due to the administration which i also feel says so much. and this applies across issue areas from immigration legal support to climate action and many other types of orgs
from a historical standpoint we are actually an outlier in not having a new form of government since the country was founded - other countries have had changes but our system has been the same for 100s of years so we’re “overdue” in a sense.
one silver lining is how incompetent these leaders sometimes are but i still think it is going to take a very long time to reverse the damage being done. however i’ve been keeping up some hope! just yesterday i saw this video of a neighborhood successfully kicking ICE out simply through booing them and keeping a united front. so there are more things like that happening and i hope we continue to see it!
Jun 6, 2025
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it's something small but valuable in a time of digital censorship. use your judgment when looking at your news sources to find proper ones and keep a journal of the things happening in the country, whether it's big or small. I've been saving images and videos of things that I think will be suppressed and trying to keep a record of what's happening in case the information control gets even crazier in the future
something else I've been doing is downloading any (public domain) books I've been meaning to read (especially leftist theory) off of project gutenberg or the internet archive in case those sites get shut down.
also paying attention but trying to stay as calm as you can because they're trying overwhelm us and make us check out, which we can't afford to do right now. build community with the people around you, organize if you can, do mutual aid, start a garden, just to name a few more. there's so many ways to fight fascism, big and small
Jan 26, 2025
Top Recs from @taterhole
My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌
Feb 23, 2025
May 28, 2025
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I’ve been thinking about how much of social media is centered around curating our self-image. When selfies first became popular, they were dismissed as vain and vapid—a critique often rooted in misogyny—but now, the way we craft our online selves feels more like creating monuments.
We try to signal our individuality, hoping to be seen and understood, but ironically, I think this widens the gap between how others perceive us and who we really are. Instead of fostering connection, it can invite projection and misinterpretation—preconceived notions, prefab labels, and stereotypes. Worse, individuality has become branded and commodified, reducing our identities to products for others to consume.
On most platforms, validation often comes from how well you can curate and present your image—selfies, aesthetic branding, and lifestyle content tend to dominate. High engagement is tied to visibility, not necessarily depth or substance. But I think spaces like PI.FYI show that there’s another way: where connection is built on shared ideas, tastes, and interests rather than surface-level content. It’s refreshing to be part of a community that values thoughts over optics.
By sharing so few images of myself, I’ve found that it gives others room to focus on my ideas and voice. When I do share an image, it feels intentional—something that contributes to the story I want to tell rather than defining it. Sharing less allows me to express who I am beyond appearance.
For women, especially, sharing less can be a radical act in a world where the default is to objectify ourselves. It resists the pressure to center appearance, focusing instead on what truly matters: our thoughts, voices, and authenticity. I’ve posted a handful of pictures of myself in 2,500 posts because I care more about showing who I am than how I look.
In trying to be seen, are we making it harder for others to truly know us? It’s a question worth considering.
Dec 27, 2024