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Notes -
I’m not sure I believe that.
Every foundation that has a press release about the cuts claims they pursued substitute funding. Here is a summary of some of the big players’ actions. Those make up a big fraction of philanthropy.
I know individual giving is up, as might be expected from a year with reasonable economic growth. I don’t know where that increase is going; it’s hard to find granular stats. If somebody here has access to the full Giving USA Report which just came out, maybe they can give more details. In lieu of that, the best I can offer are pieces applauding some of the efforts to minimize the damage.
There are a lot of people out there who really, truly believe what they’re saying. I don’t think you can dismiss them out of hand.
A big fraction of philanthropy is not concurrent with a big fraction of people complaining about USAID.
Perhaps I'm overindexing on personal encounters, but knowing a lot of Elon sucks, TDS, woo Mamdani types- none of them have changed their behavior beyond posting increasingly stupid instagram stories. I like the look when I ask if they're doing anything for Africa to replace USAID but I also don't want to abuse that; I know I'm a hot potato to be dropped.
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