The Advocacy Penalty: The Systematic Defunding of Organizations Serving Girls and Gender-Expansive Youth

By Chantal Hildebrand, Executive Director, Alliance for Girls

A quiet but devastating crisis is unfolding within the American nonprofit sector. Organizations dedicated to supporting girls and gender-expansive youth—a demographic that encompasses cisgender girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, and gender-nonconforming individuals—are facing a dual-pronged assault. As federal support wanes under shifting political tides, the philanthropic community is increasingly retreating, leaving the most vulnerable populations in our society without a safety net.

This withdrawal of capital is not merely a budgetary inconvenience; it is an ideological shift. Data from the Alliance for Girls (AFG), representing over 120 member organizations across California, reveals that 84 percent of surveyed nonprofits reported significant funding losses over the past year. Most alarmingly, 14 percent of these organizations have openly considered shuttering their operations entirely. This is not just a California story; it is a microcosm of a national trend that threatens to erode decades of progress in gender equity.

The Anatomy of the "Advocacy Penalty"

The most striking finding in the 2026 data is the concentration of these losses. Of the $113 million in documented funding cuts reported by our network, a staggering $111 million—or 98 percent—impacted organizations engaged in advocacy for gender equity.

We have termed this phenomenon the "Advocacy Penalty." It describes a deliberate and systematic divestment from organizations that hold systems accountable. These are the groups training young people to testify before school boards, fighting for equitable municipal budget allocations, filing legal challenges to protect reproductive rights, and working to dismantle the systemic barriers that have historically marginalized youth of color.

The penalty is quantifiable. Advocacy organizations within the AFG network lost an average of $6.5 million between February 2025 and February 2026. In stark contrast, non-advocacy organizations serving similar demographics lost an average of $354,000. This 18-fold disparity suggests that funders are not just cutting budgets—they are selectively withdrawing support from the very organizations that challenge the status quo.

A Chronology of Retrenchment

To understand how we reached this inflection point, one must look at the last 24 months of shifting political and financial landscapes.

• Early 2025: The initial wave of federal funding cuts began to hit the nonprofit sector. As documented by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s 2025 Women & Girls Index, organizations serving this demographic rely on government grants for roughly 20 percent of their revenue—a rate twice as high as the general nonprofit average.
• Mid-2025: As federal dollars evaporated, many anticipated that the philanthropic sector would step in to fill the void. Instead, a trend of "risk aversion" took hold. Foundations, reacting to a heightened political climate characterized by rhetoric against reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care, began to pivot toward "safer," less overtly political causes.
• Late 2025: The ripple effects of this divestment began to manifest as operational instability. Organizations reported freezing staff hiring, cutting programming, and reducing outreach capacity.
• Early 2026: The crisis reached a boiling point. The UN Women report in July 2026 highlighted that 90 percent of surveyed women-led organizations globally could no longer meet the surge in demand for services. Locally, this translated to staff burnout and the shuttering of essential community programs.

Supporting Data: The Erosion of Infrastructure

The instability is not isolated to a single region or mission. The Women’s Funding Network’s 2025 landscape report paints a picture of a sector in distress, with nonprofit leaders describing high levels of anxiety, stress, and professional exhaustion.

The impact is most acutely felt in the communities that rely on these services the most. In Alameda County, 100 percent of organizations serving girls and gender-expansive youth reported being negatively impacted by funding cuts. When these organizations lose funding, they do not simply stop working; they absorb the cost. Staff members—many of whom share the identities of the youth they serve—are forced to navigate the trauma of their constituents while their own salaries are frozen and their organizations face insolvency.

Official Responses and Organizational Realities

The case of the EmpowHer Institute in Los Angeles serves as a harrowing example. Despite losing $1 million in federal, state, and corporate funding over the last year, the organization has pivoted toward youth-led advocacy.

"This is helping them feel like they have more power in a situation where they have felt powerless," says Dawn L. Brown, President and CEO of EmpowHer.

Yet, resilience should not be confused with sustainability. While EmpowHer continues to operate, the cost is immense. Staff are managing school-based ICE invasion drills while their own family members face deportation threats, all while struggling to keep the lights on.

Other organizations have faced even starker choices. A leader from a prominent reproductive health organization, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that their organization was intentionally defunded after they refused to cease providing abortion care. When the moral imperative to provide essential healthcare clashes with the requirements of government and corporate grants, the "advocacy penalty" forces a choice between mission and survival.

Implications for the Future of Equity

The implications of this funding retreat are profound and far-reaching. By withdrawing support from advocacy groups, the philanthropic sector is effectively silencing the voices of the next generation.

1. The Silencing of Youth Voices

Despite the funding drought, youth activism is on the rise, with 42 percent of our surveyed organizations reporting an increase in civic engagement among the young people they serve. However, without the structural support of advocacy nonprofits, this grassroots energy risks being misdirected or suppressed.

2. Widening Inequality

As nonprofits pull back from providing reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare due to fear of losing funding, marginalized communities are left without options. This particularly impacts Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth, as well as immigrant families, who already face significant systemic hurdles.

3. The "Safe" Funding Trap

The current trend of shifting funds toward "less controversial" organizations is a short-sighted strategy. True gender equity cannot be achieved by funding only the most palatable programs. It requires a commitment to systemic change and the protection of the most vulnerable.

A Call to Action for Philanthropy

The current crisis represents a defining test for the philanthropic sector. The question remains: Will funders continue to retreat into the safety of non-political giving, or will they align their resources with the communities most impacted by the current political climate?

To reverse this trend, we recommend the following shifts in philanthropic strategy:

• Multi-year General Support: Moving away from restrictive, project-based grants toward long-term, unrestricted funding that allows organizations to remain agile.
• Emergency Stabilization Funds: Providing immediate, non-competitive capital to groups at risk of closure.
• Resilience Funding: Investing in the mental health and leadership support of staff who are operating in high-trauma environments.
• Explicit Advocacy Support: Recognizing that funding advocacy is not a liability, but an essential investment in the infrastructure of democracy and human rights.

The erosion of the infrastructure supporting girls and gender-expansive youth is not inevitable. It is a policy and funding choice. We must work together to ensure that these young people can build the power necessary to demand and co-create a future where they are safe, supported, and collectively strong. The time for philanthropy to step out of the shadows and back into the fight is now.