Private donors step up for U.S. foreign aid groups

Efforts to backfill what Trump froze raised more than $125 million in months.

- BY THALIA BEATY

When the Trump administration froze foreign assistance overnight, urgent efforts began to figure out how to continue critical aid programs that could be funded by private donors.

Multiple groups launched fundraisers in February and eventually, these emergency funds mobilized more than $125 million within eight months, a sum that while not nearly enough, was more than the organizers had imagined possible.

In those early days, even with needs piling up, wealthy donors and private foundations grappled with how to respond. Of the thousands of programs the U.S. funded abroad, which ones could be saved and which would have the biggest impact if they continued?

"We were fortunate enough to be in connection with and communication with some very strategic donors who understood quickly that the right answer for them was actually an answer for the field," said Sasha Gallant, who led a team at the U.S. Agency for International Development that specialized in identifying programs that were both cost-effective and impactful.

Working outside business hours or after they'd been fired, members of Gallant’s team and employees of USAID's chief economist’s office pulled together a list that eventually included 80 programs they recommended to private donors.

In September, Project Resource Optimization, or PRO, as their effort came to be called, announced all of the programs had been funded, with more than $110 million mobilized in charitable grants. Other emergency funds raised at least an additional $15 million.

Those funds are just the most visible that private donors mobilized in response to the unprecedented withdrawal of U.S. foreign aid, which totaled $64 billion in 2023, the last year with comprehensive figures available. It’s possible private foundations and individual donors gave much more, but those gifts won’t be reported for many months.