Policy and Advocacy

The Tide is Surging: The No King Protests and the Beginning of the End of Fascism in the US

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Vu

[Image description: Protestors on the streets of Seattle, holding various signs, including ones that say “Defend Democracy,” “When cruelty becomes normal, compassion looks radical,” “True Americans love and support our immigrant friends and family,” “Education not deportation,” and a few American flags. Image taken by Vu]

Hi everyone. Thank you for all your support when I announced the publication date of my new book last week. I really appreciate it, especially as I was overwhelmed with a feeling of inadequacy upon submitting the manuscript to my editor. Apparently, self-doubt and even dread are common in the book-writing-and-promoting process, but all your encouraging messages and pre-orders have been very helpful, so thank you.

This weekend, I attended Seattle’s No King protest. I went because I felt terrible about everything. Over the past few months, there has been one crisis after another. The ICE raids in LA and everywhere, the assault of Senator Padilla, the assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, the continued attacks on trans people, the ongoing support of genocide. Right before the protest, I had read about the deportation of 160 Southeast Asians, including 93 to Vietnam, where I grew up. Many of these people have been in the US since they were children or have never even set foot in Southeast Asia.

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Resistance Is Working! A Roundup of Recent Wins!

Posted on May 20, 2025 by Vu

[Image description: A dandelion growing out of some dried, cracked mud. Image by klimkin on Pixabay]

Hi everyone, happy AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander) month. If you’re free this Wednesday May 21^st at 9am Pacific Time, here’s a great free virtual panel featuring Asian women entrepreneurs discussing the intersection of business and social justice.

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I hope you are hanging in there despite the daily bouts of chaos and cruelty. With everything going on, it’s easy and understandable to fall into despair. But we need to remind ourselves that amazing things are happening daily. There are stories of hope, community, and resistance. Good people are fighting back against injustice every day. Here are a few good things that have taken place recently. Thank you to colleagues and to Zann Zsuzsannika (on Facebook), who let me know of them:

Omaha Nebraska has its first Black mayor, as Democratic candidate John Ewing Jr. defeating a transphobic three-term Republican candidate. He won by double digits.
In Montana, 17 Republicans crossed party lines to join Democrats in defeating a horrible Anti-Trans bill that would have criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender youth, including classifying doctors, nurses, and parents as felons.
In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul signs a bill that would force fossil fuel companies to pay for the damage they cause to the environment.
The Supreme Court rules 7-2 against Trump in the Alien Enemies Act case, preventing the administration from deporting Venezuelan nationals with little notice.
A federal judge orders ICE to restore the legal status of the 133 students whose visas they revoked.
Maine Governor Janet Mills, who told Trump she would “see you in court,” successfully sued the administration after it froze funds as punishment for the state not complying with Trump’s orders to ban transgender athletes on girls’ sports teams. And she’s getting an award for it!
Ranked-choice voting is making progress, including in Boston, Multnomah County Oregon, and in Maine.
In Alabama, Trump-appointed federal judges ruled that Alabama’s 2023 congressional map is racially discriminatory and is in violation of both the Voting Rights Act and the 14^th Amendment.
In Seattle, 63% of voters voted to support social housing, despite tech giants spending big money to oppose it.
In Michigan, a judge struck down three of the state’s remaining abortion restrictions, ruling that they are unconstitutional.
In Australia, center-left prime minister Anthony Albanese won reelection over Trump-like Peter Dutton, who also lost his own seat!
That follows Canada, where Trump-like Pierre Poilievre, who had be poised to win as prime minister, also lost that election and lost his own seat.
In Tarrant County, Texas, several right-wing-backed candidates lost elections, including conservative Julie Short, who was defeated by Michael Evans, Mansfield’s first Black mayor. Right-wing Tammy Nakamura got ousted from the school board; she had helped passed a policy to allow schools to ignore kids’ preferred pronouns, even when their parents approved.
In Naples, a judge granted a preliminary injunction against the City when it tried to prohibit drag shows at the Napes Pride Fest.
In Columbus, Ohio, the City is taking a stand in support of local LGBTQ+ youth, unanimously passing an ordinance to provide 100K in funding to Kaleidoscope Youth Center.
Washington State became the first state to pass a law to increase access to hormone therapies, an important protection for trans people.
Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri has been released from ICE detention. He was taken as part of Trump’s targeting of pro-Palestine activists. A US district court judge ordered the Trump administration to release him.
Chicago’s city council passes “Green Social Housing” plan, which will create more affordable housing in the city.
The Episcopal Church takes a stand against racial injustice, calling out the government for its preferential treatment of white Afrikaners from South Africa.
Salt Lake City and Boise leaders, in response to Republicans passing laws to prohibit the Pride flag from being flown on government property, creatively found ways to fly the flags anyway, by redesigning the flags and voting them in as official flags. Brilliant.

I am sure there are plenty more good news. Please list any additional ones I missed in the comment section. Let’s remind ourselves that good people are fighting against cruelty and injustice every day, and are winning!

What the heck is the Overton Window, and how can we use it to advance progressive goals?

Posted on May 12, 2025 by Vu

[A grey, white, and orange kitten, standing at a window, staring outside. Image by g3gg0 on Pixabay]

Hi everyone, before we get started, our friends at the National Council of Nonprofits are sounding the alarm about the Republicans’ proposed tax bill, which the hope to pass by summer. If it passes, it will be very bad for our sector and the people we serve. It includes allowing authority for Trump and his minions to revoke nonprofit status from any organization it doesn’t like, expand taxes on private foundations to make up for tax cuts on the corporations and wealthy individuals, cut funding for Medicaid and SNAP, among other horrible things. Please see NCN’s website for more information and actions we need to be taking. Let’s get ready for this battle.

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Over the past few months, you’ve probably heard the term Overton Window being tossed around. It’s a term coined by Joseph P. Overton, senior VP of the conservative think tank the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. I recommend this really great 7-minute clip on it, but basically it’s the range of ideas and policies that are politically acceptable to the general population at any given time. For instance, a few decades ago, marriage equality was unthinkable, and even popular Democratic presidents still opposed it. Now, the Window has widened to include LGBTQ rights so it’s not too controversial for politicians, even conservative ones, to say they support it.

I’m bringing it up because the right-wing, under Trump, has been masterful at shifting this Window on a variety of issues, to terrifying results. They propose a steady stream of abhorrent ideas, which then makes less loathsome ones seem reasonable by comparison. For instance, when they talk about sending US citizens to concentration camps in El Salvador without due process, it trains the public to think that sending non-US citizens to these camps without due process less horrifying in comparison (when it absolutely is still very horrifying).

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Funders, here’s the blueprint for saving democracy

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Vu

[Image description: A protestor in front of a tent, surrounded by several signs. One that stands out says “Stay the course, this will happen to YOU” accompanied by several pictures of war and suffering. Image by greyerbaby on Pixabay]

Two weeks ago, I met with a colleague who was invited to a convening of funders in Seattle. He reported that the funders present were wringing their hands, unsure of what their foundations should be doing to respond to the rapid dismantling of democracy and the exponential increase in suffering communities are facing.

This week, David Callahan of Inside Philanthropy wrote a post on LinkedIn reporting similar dynamics of tentativeness among funders across the sector. David suggests several possible reasons for the hesitation, including shellshock from the cruelty and chaos unleashed by this administration, as well as funders’ lack of knowledge and confidence as to what strategies would work to counter it. While David and I agree on a lot of things, it’s this last point he makes where we may differ in opinions:

“Third, there’s only so much that funders can or should do to lead. Philanthropy’s main role is to support civil society groups, who rightly should be out front in the pushback to Trump’s actions. If those organizations aren’t coalescing around a set of promising big strategies — and there’s no sign they are — funders have limited options. They can’t bankroll grand new plans to fight MAGA if such plans don’t yet exist.

“Or, as one foundation CEO told me, ‘People keep yelling at us to give out more money, but for what?’”

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National orgs must step up to help nonprofits and our communities as we face this fascist sh!tstorm

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Vu

[Image description: A street packed with protestors holding signs. One says “Capitalism kills our future” and another sign says “It IS an emergency.” Image by LeoSch on Pixabay]

About 15 years ago, I was invited to speak on a panel at a conference run by a large, well-funded national organization whose mission was to represent the entire nonprofit sector. The entry fee for this 3-day conference was $2200, which my org with a budget of $500K couldn’t afford. The panel organizer asked me to apply for a scholarship, which I did, but it wasn’t successful. “Sorry,” I said, “I can’t speak on the panel because my scholarship application got rejected.” She was able to convince the organization to let me in.

Those were three surreal days. I felt like an unwashed peasant who had sneaked into the royal ball. But that dissonance tapered off, and I was disappointed at how a space full of the most powerful nonprofit organizations and leaders were focused on some of the most banal topics possible (“Legal compliance for foundations” “How to lower overhead costs” “The art of keeping donors happy” “Signs someone from a small organization has crashed your conference”). I stuffed my tote bag with as many free swag items and snacks as I could get, consolation prizes for the disillusionment I felt at our sector’s leadership.

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