Dear friends, dear community,
It’s important to start this letter by clearly naming the moment we’re in. For one very long year, we’ve experienced a federal administration brazen in its authoritarian power grabs, fascist in its politics, and cruel and inhumane in its tactics and rhetoric. Threats to the social safety net cannot be overstated, already underway through the defunding of programs and stripping away of benefits and services, by any and every means.
In these truly unprecedented times, as individuals, families, organizations, and communities, we must constantly assess our safety, our vulnerabilities, our strengths, our convictions. We must look to each other for protection, mutual aid, courage, power, acts of kindness, and joyful breaks from willful inhumanity and deliberate chaos.
For us at the McGregor Fund, our path in 2025 felt clear. As an endowed foundation, we recognized our position of strength and power, and with that, our responsibility to give back more in grants — beginning with doubling our typical grantmaking budget. We must do more to support grant partners who are navigating treacherous funding and policy terrain, while sometimes under attack by a weaponized federal government and its allies. This support is determined with our partners and takes many forms.
We also saw the need to speak truth loudly to, and for, those who cannot. We joined others to push back on attempts to redefine who our federal government is and what it is for, so that one day public trust can be restored. We kept our focus on justice — in housing, in access to food, in how members of our community participate in an economy with exploding inequality and daily headwinds for most everyone. In short, we upped our game, expanding our team to do so.
Without question, our resolve is clearly informed by the work of our partners, as they’ve responded to emergencies, fought to preserve key capacities, defended vulnerable communities, and continued to build toward a better future, sometimes doing all these things at once. You may notice that, unlike in the past, our grants announcements are unspecified by partner and program — not because the work is short of remarkable, but to keep names out of circulation given the hostile environment some of our partners now live in. That’s an uncomfortable shift for us, but one we determined we needed to make. From all of us at the Fund, a big THANK YOU for just incredible work. Partners, you know who you are, and we are so grateful for all that you do, each and every day!
Like many, I had my share of down days this past year and am relieved it’s behind us. Most days still feel hard and heavy, but in these early days of 2026 I’m also feeling more reasons to be hopeful. Some brakes on the federal administration appear to be working. Across the country and here at home, we’re witnessing the emergence of growing, courageous, organized community resistance. Our most visionary community leaders are not retreating, but forging ahead towards better and more just systems, with community thriving as their North Star.
The McGregor team and our board remain attuned to both the dangers and the opportunities of these times, to both the attempts to break democracy and the need to support strong community defenses, well-being, and leadership, and to build power, nimbly and unequivocally. We will stay the course in the year ahead.
2026 also marks the centennial of our founding — a milestone that offers us an opportunity to step back and learn more about the origins of the McGregors’ wealth, to reflect on our larger purpose over time in dialogue with our partners, to celebrate their work, and to affirm our shared values and aspirations. Look for more communications throughout the year as we shape these conversations and gatherings.
In closing, please stay in touch. We all value your insights, ideas, questions, and feedback.
Take good care,
Kate Levin Markel
President
