'NATO for nonprofits': Groups organize to band together if targeted by Trump

Source: NBC News

Oct. 2, 2025, 11:10 AM EDT


WASHINGTON — Nonprofit groups with disparate missions are banding together in an alliance aimed at protecting one another if they become targets of President Donald Trump’s ire, people involved in the initiative said.

Referring to the effort colloquially as a kind of “NATO for nonprofits,” the groups plan to rally behind an embattled nonprofit by offering strategic and legal support, issuing supportive statements and loaning staff who would help keep it afloat until the crisis passes.

Just as the NATO military alliance views an attack on one member state as an attack on all, the network of nonprofits would serve as a bulwark against Trump administration actions that disrupt the work of groups that are providing lawful services and exercising free speech, supporters of the effort said.

A leader of the initiative is Vanita Gupta, who served as a senior Justice Department official in the Obama and Biden administrations. She has also worked for a number of civil rights organizations, including as president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “The only way through this moment is with collective action,” Gupta told NBC News in an interview. “When you have an administration that tries to silence people through the cudgel of the federal government, the only way through is to work together.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/nato-nonprofits-groups-band-together-trump-rcna234954