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President's Letters

President’s Letter: 2025 — A Year in Reflection

Dear Friends,

Over this past year, I’ve found myself thinking back to an exchange from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. As the forces of evil reemerge, Frodo, the book’s hero, laments the situation to the wise wizard Gandalf. 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” he says. 

“So do I,” replies Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

The attacks on fundamental freedoms over the past 12 months have tested all of us. The harms to families, communities, and institutions have been vast and heartbreaking. At the beginning of the year, we were staring down the very real possibility of rapid authoritarian consolidation and the demise of democracy as we knew it. Thanks to the courage, hard work, and moral clarity of leaders across the country, we are ending the year in a far better place than we started. The path forward won’t be easy, but a diverse, broad based pro-democracy movement has already started to come together and altered our country’s trajectory for the better.

As we close out 2025, I want to take a moment to celebrate those who have chosen to answer the call of conscience with courage. Like Frodo and Gandalf, they stepped forward when the stakes were high and the road ahead was perilous. If freedom endures, it will be because millions of everyday people — workers, parents, and neighbors, from every political persuasion and walk of life — made the choice, sometimes at great personal risk, to do the right thing together.

It mattered that people showed up at enormous peaceful protests in record numbers.

It mattered that people of faith organized, resulting in major rebukes to the administration’s immigration policies from Catholic and other religious leadership.

It mattered that citizens and local civic leaders came together to peacefully resist the occupations of major American cities by ICE, the military and national guard.

It mattered that consumers chose to use their economic power to boycott companies that acceded to government censorship.

It mattered that community organizations reached into new places and organized new people being hurt by cuts to education, food, and health programs, and that tens of thousands of people were trained in the proud lineage of nonviolence.

It mattered that people in nearly every pillar of civil society — from veterans and military families, to higher education, law, the arts, public service, and journalism — stood up for the rule of law and fundamental freedoms.

As a country, we’re relearning the lesson that democracy isn’t something given to us by elites, but something we do and make real by organizing with our neighbors.

And we should celebrate those leaders of major institutions who bucked the tide and stood on principle, like the university leaders who rejected the so called “compact” proposed by the administration, the news outlets that walked out of the Pentagon rather than comply with rules compromising journalistic freedoms, and judges who put the rule of law over politics. From local funders to national foundations, I also have been heartened by our sector’s response. Since April, when many other institutions were capitulating, more than 735 funders took a stand, committing to Unite in Advance of attacks on our freedom to give according to our values. 

***

The Freedom Together Foundation team is proud to support people raising their voices and standing up for democracy. Every day, my inspiring colleagues bring courage, rigor, and community to our work, to help everyday people build power to achieve a better future. They have taken on big challenges and delivered. 

This year, we gave over $400 million across more than 530 grants — meeting our commitment to increase our payout rate to 10% or above. More than seventy percent of our grants advanced proven pro-democracy strategies, which I wrote about in June in The Guardian. Since the beginning of 2024, we’ve welcomed 310 new grantees — that’s 42% of the organizations we support.

And because critical work at this moment can’t wait, we have continued to streamline our operations to make things easier for grantees. Since 2023, the percentage of general operating support grants we gave jumped from 15% to 37%. And, thanks to our team’s efforts last year, grantees filling out a project application this year only had to answer eight questions (down from 43!). This and other improvements shrank the average turnaround time from inviting a proposal to approving a grant by 40%.

We also strengthened our senior team this year, welcoming new leaders whose experiences will shape our next chapter. We were fortunate to bring on Chief Operations Officer Russatta Buford, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Rodney McKenzie Jr., Vice President of Communications Diana Lee, Senior Fellow Jenny Lawson, and Senior Fellow Felicia Wong.  And I’m pleased to announce Venus Phillips has joined us as Chief Investment Officer. Venus brings deep experience from her career spanning philanthropy, higher education, and the private sector. 

***

The end of 2025 marks nearly two years as President of the Freedom Together Foundation. My tenure straddles the political equivalent of a meteor strike that has disrupted the work of nearly every sector and institution in American life in some way, affected the lives of millions of people, and inflicted grievous harms on many of the most vulnerable people in this country. There are many days when, as Frodo put it, I wish this had not happened in my time. 

I have been sometimes surprised by which leaders and institutions recognized the scale of the disruption and moved quickly to adapt with the speed and scale required, and which ones clung to old ways of operating even though they clearly no longer worked. I’ve been disturbed to see some leaders discard values they once professed fervently once those views carried a potential cost. This year has been a revealing test of character.

I have learned that there are a set of virtues that matter in times like these, and I’ve been inspired to see them put into action by many everyday people and some powerful ones, in every part of this country: courage, fortitude, compassion, justice, and faith. 

My faith has nourished my spirit in dark times. And I’ve been uplifted by community — inspired by all the people who made the choice to do the right thing this year. Whether I know them personally or not, I feel connected to them. 

The authoritarian threat remains undeniable. And the year ahead presents fresh challenges, including the importance of ensuring a free and fair election and the potential of escalating attacks on our sector and repression against communities.

But thanks to millions of people who organized and spoke up, democracy in the United States is very much alive. 

In solidarity (and with warm holiday wishes), 

Deepak Bhargava

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