Here's another side effect of the Trump anti-DEI campaign I didn't see coming, and certainly not from this angle - some San Francisco (of all places) non-governmental organizations (NGO) are losing healthy portions of formerly rock-solid funding thanks to their level of DEI-ness.

In San Francisco, I imagine it would be inordinately hard to be an NGO without being woke af, right? I mean, these are the people who practically wrote the 'how-to' book on the entire progressive movement. SF denizens are the living embodiment of woke ideological insanity, as it must always ratchet up from the latest outrage and designated victimhood class to create another, in a self-perpetuating grievance and special privilege-class cycle.

The city's NGOs' money troubles began shortly after Trump's inauguration, as the anticipated and formerly uninterrupted flow of federal largesse to organization coffers experienced a sudden ebb, slowing to a trickle if groups were lucky.

Last month, the San Francisco Tech Council received some good news: The nonprofit had won a federal grant worth tens of thousands of dollars to help its effort to boost digital literacy among The City’s older adults.

That was January 17th. Days later, a newly inaugurated President Donald Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on federal programs deemed to support diversity, equity and inclusion, and his administration broadly froze federal funding in part to screen out awards that would go to DEI efforts.

Although those actions have been blocked by the courts, they appear to have paused the Tech Council’s grant — and thrown into question whether the organization will ever receive the money.

The announcement of the grant award in January is the last time Tech Council co-director Karla Suomala heard from the federal agency behind the program, she said. Her organization hasn’t yet received the grant money, and in the face of radio silence, she’s resorted to checking online forums filled with postings from other anxious grant recipients.

“People from across the country are saying, ‘Is this part of the DEI stuff? Are they cutting this?’ — and nobody knows,” Suomala said.

It didn't help that SF has been in dire financial straits for some time and, at last under the helm of a new mayor, businessman Dan Lurie, was about to enter a cycle of painful fiscal restraint ordered by former mayor London Breed, to try to restore some semblance of balance to the massive hole in their city budget.

...For those leaders, the cloud of confusion surrounding federal funding support couldn’t come at a worse time. Local organizations were already bracing for cuts in funding from The City government, thanks to the across-the-board spending reductions ordered late last year by Mayor London Breed in response to San Francisco’s looming billion-dollar budget deficit.

Cuts to both federal and city funding could put a double financial squeeze on a sector The City relies on to provide a vast array of services for residents — everything from drug treatment to housing support to education programs.

“We don’t have specifics, but we are anticipating that there could be a perfect storm,” said Sherilyn Adams, who leads Larkin Street Youth Services.

The Trump federal cuts were going to smack SF especially hard, as gender ideology has become their stock-in-trade - it pervades nearly every aspect of the city's life.

...The San Francisco Community Health Center, for example, offers wide-ranging medical services to low- income residents. It focuses in particular on LGBTQ people of color and transgender people, said Lance Toma, the organization’s CEO. Those are among the groups who have benefited from DEI efforts.

The federal crackdown, “really touches on everything that we do,” Toma said.

In late January, Toma received two notices from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention directing his group to put an immediate halt to all programs related to DEI and “gender ideology,” he said.

The notices, he said, were “terrifying to my core.”

...Potential cuts to that funding would have a “devastating impact,” Toma said, that would “stop so much of our programming in its tracks.”

Coupled with losing federal funds for anything related to immigration due to their declared status as a Sanctuary City, these folks were looking at a significant hit to their operating funds. Ones that they knew the new city administration probably would not feel was a priority to try to relieve, as Lurie's stated goal was first and foremost getting the city's finances on track.

The NGOs were going to have to make do with what they could raise and depend on the donors they already had, corporate and otherwise.

For instance, in 2015, so flush with cash were they that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife gave the city's only public hospital a $75M gift - a gift. As part of the donation deal, they renamed the hospital for the couple. It became the 'Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.'

Holding true to progressive form, it only took the activists in the city five years to declare that the hospital's name was an anathema - they simply couldn't bear it. Of course, taking the name off the entrance would mean they'd have to give the $75M back, so they did what progressives do best - virtue signal while protecting their bottom line.

WE CONDEMN THEE, WE CONDEMN THEE, WE CONDEMN THEE

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s adopted hometown of San Francisco on Tuesday formally condemned the naming of a major hospital after him and his wife, the latest flashpoint in the debate over the proper role for billionaire philanthropy.

The city’s board of supervisors approved the condemnation, a move that reflects the new, increasingly controversial politics of both the tech industry and of its founders. Activists on both the left and the right have grown sharply critical of big tech companies like Facebook. And simultaneously, there is a building backlash movement to charitable gifts from the mega rich.

The 10-1 vote is a manifestation of each of those crosscurrents, which both run particularly strong in liberal San Francisco. The measure has no legal force and is merely symbolic.

Performance theater against the area tech giants, secure in the knowledge that their collective white-boy billionaire guilt would override being miffed at being condemned, and their companies would still cut big, fat checks whenever such were demanded.

But that climate has changed, too. Silicon Valley is a shell of what it once was. Downtown buildings who were once hubs for tech start-ups and established giants are empty, companies are consolidating for profits, lay-offs are common, and the Golden Give Away Goose which had led to huge, lush campuses with insane on-site benefits for workers and massive checks written for charities and 'causes' without thought is pretty much cooked.

Tech moguls are beginning to behave like businessmen instead of invading marauders, and at last, they are evincing concern about what a different regulatory atmosphere in Washington might do to their company should they continue with their formerly wild, woolly, and autocratic behavior.  

Instead of ignoring Washington as they have for decades, they seem to have come to the realization that this current president can be their best friend or truly their worst enemy, and the former buccaneers are moving with extreme caution.

The newer, more 'mature'(?) tech behemoth is also swiftly readjusting its corporate posture so as not to draw undue attention from the Trump administration's all-seeing eye.

This is impacting the groups they used to support without a second thought, particularly in as DEI-woke-soaked a place as San Francisco.

The money river on which these NGO's depended has been diverted to other ponds.

‘Devastating’: Chan Zuckerberg charity slashes funding for more Bay Area nonprofits

“They are making sure to cut anything that would sound or even be construed as DEI-esque,” one former employee said.

Earlier this year, Juan Hernandez was having exciting conversations with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative about what to do with his next round of funding. Hernandez, the CEO of Creser Capital Fund, had received $500,000 two years earlier from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s mammoth philanthropic organization for his nonprofit, which provides loans to Latino entrepreneurs. Hernandez says his understanding was that the grants would be ongoing, allowing Creser Capital to build out infrastructure and expand deeper into the community. 

But two days after another promising conversation, he learned that his program officer at CZI had been laid off. A month later, on April 15, the organization told him his grant would not be renewed. “That was it: ‘Over, thank you, bye,’” he said. “That was a third of our funding.”

It was a process repeated over and over this spring as CZI — one of the largest philanthropies in the Bay Area, with more than $6.3 billion in assets in 2023 — suspended funding to nonprofits across California, and the country. For nonprofit leaders, there was uncertainty, as CZI signaled a change in its priorities; then panic, as some of its grantmaking staff was laid off; and finally fury, as grants were canceled and plans went up in smoke.

CZI has publicly described this shift as part of a long-planned transition to a more science-focused philanthropy. But internally, employees say, leaders have made clear that the change is a reaction to the Trump administration and a desire to avoid undue attention from Washington.

The NGOs are big mad. They expected the money to keep coming in perpetuity, as it always had.

The Hernandez guy they quote above, who loans out the money given to him, is all torqued because Zuckerberg is only thinking of himself and his bottom line - the nerve.

According to the article, though, the CZI had been warning for years that it was winding down its 'social advocacy programs' to turn more resources towards science-based organizations and causes. Either the NGOs didn't get the message or just didn't want to hear it.

And, really, who could blame them? The Zuckerbergs had been extraordinarily generous over the ten years since the founding of the CZI.

...The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded in 2015 with the mission of “advancing human potential and promoting equal opportunity,” quickly became one of the largest single donors in the Bay Area, giving almost $7 billion in the form of more than 5,500 grants. Under its three core focus areas — science, education, and community — it has seeded millions of dollars to nonprofits in San Mateo County, where Zuckerberg’s Meta is headquartered, and contributed substantially to movements for criminal justice reform, housing equity, and educational advancement.

Whatever the reason, it appears that Trump's election gave the Zuckerbergs the impetus they needed to complete the transition, and so their 'Initiative' did.

...But on Feb. 18, CZI quietly posted to its website a letter from COO Marc Malandro saying the organization had wound down its social advocacy work entirely, and had “discontinued that funding.”

CZI has since scrubbed all mention of housing affordability and economic inclusion from its website, along with a section on its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Members of its internal DEI team have been “transitioned to new roles and responsibilities,” according to Malandro’s letter. CZI also removed a line from its mission statement saying it wants to “build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone,” as well as mentions of “improving education” and “addressing the needs of our local communities.”

Employees have anonymously told the Standard that CZI wants to 'de-DEI-ify.' 

The non-profits that have lost funding are furious. 

...“I just got a call from our program officer, who didn’t have any control over it at all. She just had a directive from the powers that be that said, ‘This does not align with the mandate to not do racially preferential programming,’” she [Catherine Bracey] said. “Which of course is bulls**t. … They’re just trying to kiss up to Trump.”

Calling it 'censorship' among other things.

...“We’re saddened that CZI is moving toward censoring nonprofits, penalizing organizations that recommit to racial justice and social advocacy during these critical times,” Farooq said. “We hope that CZI reconsiders its role in the local nonprofit ecosystem and returns to partnering with the sector in an authentic, courageous, and thoughtful way.”

Everyone's in a meltdown.

...“I’m disgusted,” said Urrutia. “Organizations that are providing incredible value to communities all of a sudden having the rug pulled out from under them is ludicrous.”

Then again, if it's not your money, value is in the eye of the guy paying the bills, right?

That is yet another foreign concept to progressives.