A sudden shift in U.S. foreign aid policy earlier this year sent shockwaves through the global development community. For weeks, our team was tied up with phone calls and emails from our charities, inquiries from donors asking how they could help, and listening to brave stories of vulnerable communities sharing this immediate and tragic impact it would have on real human lives.
The freeze, which soon turned to be full blown cuts, has already had dramatic impacts on the world’s poorest communities and people in just 100 days. Without urgent action from individual donors and corporate philanthropy, decades of progress reducing global poverty will be erased.
The Scope of the Crisis
In 2024, the U.S. government allocated approximately $3.96 billion to health initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of this, roughly two-thirds were dedicated to basic health services, including infectious disease control programs targeting malaria and tuberculosis, as well as maternal and child health initiatives. The remaining one-third was allocated to HIV/AIDS programs. These sectors are now at significant risk due to the aid cuts.
The Human Toll
The fear, frustration, sadness and anger I hear from charities working on the ground is real. Women and children will die because of these cuts. Famine and disease will rise. Suffering will compound on suffering. The impact will be felt in every one of the 177 countries that receive American aid dollars.
A Rapid Response to the Crisis
To combat this, our team worked closely with Founder’s Pledge to set up a Rapid Response Fund to backfill the funding gap and reduce as much suffering and potential program closures as possible. In just under a month, we worked around the clock to launch the fund, which has already raised over 3.4 million in private donations, with 1.3 million already granted to high-impact programs and charities fighting extreme poverty.
But the work is not over.
There is a hard truth that many of us are wary of saying out loud: Government foreign aid – in nations across the world, not just in the United States– has never been enough to begin with.
Limitations of Government Aid
Something is better than nothing, but there are more efficient ways to solve this problem than the existing approach. Government aid programs often prioritize geopolitical interests over direct poverty alleviation goals.
Instead of funding evidence-based interventions that actually improve health, nutrition, education and human rights on the ground like the charities we recommend, US foreign aid dollars are an instrument of American foreign policy which has not, and likely never will be, focused solely on ending global poverty.
Right now, there is a need to direct resources to help sustain critical interventions that improve lives and prevent devastating setbacks. The choice before us is clear: we can take action and invest to protect evidence-based programs delivering critical services to millions, or stand by as years of progress unravel.
Supporting Effective Nonprofits
There are exceptional nonprofits and charities that are actively doing effective work on the ground to address the needs of those living in extreme poverty. Philanthropic dollars can support tangible progress on core areas like health, education and living standards if they’re funneled to organizations that have proven they achieve measurable, evidence-supported and sustainable improvements in the lives of the world’s poorest individuals.
If government dollars are going away, it is even more crucial that every dollar has the most impact possible. Even limited donations, targeted to high impact charities, can save lives and improve living conditions.
A Moral Obligation
For those of us steeped in the work of poverty eradication, funding basic health and preventive care in poor countries is not just morally right, but an obligation we have as a society that has enough to give.
Millions of people around the world are watching to see how Americans choose to act at this moment. A groundswell of donations to high-impact charities will demonstrate that the American people are still invested in a better world for all, not just some.
