I’ve been digging through advocacy copy I wrote in the early 1970s, when the country was in upheaval. Not exactly like today, but a frighteningly similar era of turmoil, media spectacle, and debates about victimhood and radicalization.

Back then, we witnessed a series of violent confrontations between government forces and protesters, prisoners, and activists. The National Guard killed students at Kent State. Mississippi State Police killed students at Jackson State. New York State Police killed prisoners at Attica. The FBI and U.S. Marshals killed activists at Wounded Knee.

These events unfolded under President Nixon’s “law and order” administration, which responded to antiwar, civil rights, and Native sovereignty movements with increased surveillance, crackdowns, and an IRS enemies list.

Meanwhile, the right wing was mobilizing politically and culturally—rallying the “silent majority,” opposing desegregation and affirmative action, building new business and religious networks that would shape conservative politics for decades.

In reaction to Vietnam and other Nixon administration actions, radical groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army were setting off bombs. In just 18 months between January 1971 and June 1972, the FBI recorded more than 2,500 bombings in the United States. Nearly five bombings a day. Most were low-casualty, symbolic attacks—timed at night or preceded by warning calls, hoping to smash windows, not bodies.

It was a fearful time. But also one filled with possibility.

The advocacy appeals we crafted weren’t hackneyed “help us reach our budget goal” pleas. They were calls to action to build something new. Out of that turmoil came organizations that are household names today: Common Cause, the National Organization for Women, NARAL [now Reproductive Freedom for All)], Greenpeace, NRDC, EDF, Public Citizen, Southern Poverty Law Center, and dozens more.

Those messages weren’t about keeping the lights on; they were about lighting a fire. Donors weren’t asked to maintain—they were asked to create. And they did, writing the checks that birthed institutions still shaping our civic life fifty years later.

The Echo of History

Now it’s 2025, and the times feel every bit as unsettled—perhaps more so.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk has thrown accelerant on an already volatile nation. Stephen Miller, Trump’s ghoul-in-residence, has said the quiet part out loud: “Take away their money. Take away their power.” “Their” being whatever Miller broadly defines as any group opposing the MAGA agenda.

Their strategy is plain: Target the platforms—ActBlue above all—that power grassroots giving. Target philanthropists like George Soros who bankroll progressive causes. Turn donors into suspects. Chill the act of giving itself.

It’s intimidation with a new face. The goal remains the same: stop the money, starve the movement.

What We Do in Such a Moment

First, I recommend reading, downloading, and sharing two excellent year-end guides by veteran progressive fundraiser Frank O’Brien.

For political and advocacy groups, check out Part One of “Year-End Messaging in a Year Like No Other.” His counsel rings true: Donors are tired of “existential threat” boilerplate. They know the threats are real. What they hunger for is action—tangible, urgent, specific. They want to see how their gift today becomes impact tomorrow.

If you’re not part of a political or advocacy organization, don’t think you can ignore the times and carry on as usual. Check out Frank’s Part Two for charities and nonpolitical groups. He wisely warns: “Even nonprofits whose work and mission remain untouched by Trump administration activities are communicating to audiences anything but immune from the overall climate in this year like no other.”

Bottom Line

Just as in the early ’70s, the opportunity is larger than many admit. Back then, out of chaos came the chance to create new institutions. Now, out of crisis, comes the opportunity/need  to strengthen and reinvent the organizations we have and the fundraising practices that fuel them.  We can’t go to donors with maintenance letters. We must go with building letters– building for 2026 and beyond. Building to resist authoritarian schemes. Building to secure rights and freedoms before they’re erased.

Year-end giving has always been more than a line item. It’s the period when the majority of nonprofits raise the bulk of their money.  In the early ’70s, it gave birth to organizations that endured. In 2025, it must give birth again—this time to resilience, to courage, to a refusal to let fear dictate our future.

The bell is tolling. We can hear it. History tells us the only way to answer is to raise hell and raise the money that keeps movements alive when everything else conspires against them.

Roger