How Nonprofits and Churches Can Combat Authoritarianism: A Practical Guide for Faith and Service Leaders
If you lead a nonprofit organization or faith community in America right now, you're facing a question that many hoped we'd never have to ask: What do we do when our government begins targeting vulnerable people?
The answer isn't found in policy papers or grant applications. It's found in history—in the choices made by ordinary institutions that refused to become instruments of oppression.
If you’re an executive director, pastor, board member, or community organizer who understands that silence is complicityand you want to know what concrete actions you can take right now, this is for you.
Why Your Organization Matters
Authoritarian movements don't succeed through military force alone. They succeed by co-opting trusted institutions—schools, hospitals, social services, and churches—to do their sorting, reporting, and enforcement.
Your organization is either a firewall or a gateway. There is no neutral ground.
When nonprofits and faith communities stand together and refuse to participate in dehumanization, they create what historians call "ungovernable space"—places where unjust laws simply cannot be enforced because the community will not cooperate.
The Three Phases of Authoritarian Progression (And Where We Are Now)
Phase 1: Testing Boundaries
What it looks like: Raids, threats, demands for client data
Response needed: Legal resistance + institutional non-compliance
Phase 2: Normalizing Violence
What it looks like: Mass detention, family separation, denial of services
What’s needed: Shadow infrastructure + public defiance
Phase 3: Total Control
What it looks like: Criminalization of helpers, closure of dissenting organizations
What’s needed: Underground networks
The United States is currently in Phase One. That means we still have institutional power, legal protections, and public attention. Now is the time to act.
Five Concrete Actions Your Organization Can Take This Month
1. Establish Data Sovereignty: Protect Your People
Authoritarian governments rely on lists. If they don't know who people are or where they are, enforcement becomes nearly impossible.
What to do:
Conduct a data audit. What information do you collect that isn't absolutely necessary for service delivery?
Stop asking for immigration status, country of birth, or other identifiers that could be used for targeting.
Move client databases to encrypted, decentralized servers. Consult with organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation for technical guidance.
Train your staff: "We don't keep those records" should become organizational policy.
History to learn from: In Le Chambon, France, when Nazi officials demanded lists of Jews, Pastor André Trocmé responded: "We do not know what a Jew is. We know only men." The village saved 5,000 lives through institutional silence.
2. Form Professional Solidarity Networks
The Trump administration will absolutely attempt to co-opt professionals—social workers, healthcare providers, educators—to give their actions legitimacy.
What to do:
Work with your professional association to issue an ethics declaration stating that members will not participate in human rights violations.
Create a rapid response network of attorneys, mental health providers, and advocates who can mobilize within hours.
Establish a "professional defense fund" to support staff members who face retaliation for refusing unethical orders.
History to learn from: During Bulgaria's WWII alliance with Nazi Germany, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church threatened to physically block deportations. The government backed down rather than risk a national uprising.
3. Declare Sanctuary (And Mean It)
In the 1980s, over 500 U.S. congregations declared themselves sanctuaries for Central American refugees—openly defying federal law. The movement worked because it made enforcement politically toxic.
What to do:
Pass a formal resolution declaring your space a sanctuary. Post it publicly.
Train your congregation or staff in "what to do if ICE arrives" protocols.
Partner with legal organizations like the Immigrant Defense Project to understand your rights and risks.
Document everything. Public witness makes violence harder to justify.
The goal: Force the government to choose between backing down or creating a public spectacle that galvanizes opposition.
4. Build a Shadow Safety Net
When the state begins denying services to targeted groups, they are more vulnerable. Extended vulnerability leads to desperation. And when those people become desperate, they’re easier to coerce. Your organization can help prevent desperate by filling the gaps left.
What to do:
Create "no-questions-asked" food pantries, health clinics, and mutual aid hubs.
Establish bail and bond funds to keep people out of detention.
Offer "off-the-books" childcare, English classes, and job training.
Use cash and in-person networks rather than digital tracking systems.
History to learn from: The Danish resistance moved 7,200 Jews to safety in only THREE weeks using a spontaneous network of hospitals (which admitted Jews under false diagnoses), fishermen (who ferried people to Sweden), and ordinary citizens (who funded the operation).
5. Pivot Your Funding to "Friction Funding"
If you're a foundation or major donor, traditional "systems change" philanthropy won't work fast enough. You need to fund immediate defense.
What to fund:
Legal defense funds to ensure every person in detention gets representation
Rapid response grants for organizations under threat
Physical and cybersecurity for frontline nonprofits
Communication infrastructure (encrypted platforms, emergency alert systems)
The goal: Make every single government action expensive, slow, and contested. Authoritarianism relies on speed and shock. Institutional friction breaks that momentum.
What If We Go "Underground"? A Guide to Extra-Legal Resistance
If we reach a point where legal resistance is no longer effective, nonprofits and churches will need to operate outside formal systems. Here's what that looks like:
Communication
Use Signal or WhatsApp with disappearing messages for coordination
Create neighborhood warning networks (text trees, phone chains) to alert communities of enforcement activity
Use physical drop boxes and in-person meetings for sensitive information
Logistics
Establish safe houses with trained "conductors" (learn from the Underground Railroad)
Create resource caches (cash, medical supplies, documents) in multiple locations
Use diversionary tactics—flash protests, decoys—to misdirect enforcement
Social Pressure
Publicly name officials who participate in human rights violations
Deny social space and services to enforcement agents (social ostracism)
Form "human walls" to physically protect neighbors during raids
History to learn from: Estonia's "Singing Revolution" used mass gatherings and refusal to cooperate to peacefully end Soviet occupation. When an entire community says "no," the state cannot govern.
The Three Lines in the Sand
If the government...Then we must...Demands client lists or dataRefuse and hide recordsOrders us to deny services to targeted groupsCreate parallel, private systems of careThreatens to shut down dissenting organizationsGo underground and continue the work
A Word About Fear
Leading with resistance is frightening. You might face legal consequences, loss of funding, or personal threats. That fear is legitimate.
But here's what history teaches us: Collective action distributes risk. When 500 churches declared sanctuary in the 1980s, the government couldn't prosecute them all. When the entire village of Le Chambon refused to cooperate, the Nazis couldn't identify collaborators because there were none.
You are not alone. And you are not powerless.
What Success Looks Like
We will know we've succeeded when:
ICE raids become logistically impossible because communities won't cooperate
Mass detention becomes politically toxic because institutions publicly refuse to participate
Targeted families have access to food, shelter, healthcare, and legal defense regardless of what the government does
The moral cost of authoritarianism becomes so high that the movement collapses from within
Your Next Steps
This week:
Call an emergency board or staff meeting to discuss your organization's response
Conduct a data audit and implement minimization protocols
Reach out to three peer organizations to begin forming a solidarity network
This month:
Pass a formal sanctuary or non-compliance resolution
Establish a rapid response fund and legal support network
Begin building your shadow infrastructure (mutual aid, off-the-books services)
This quarter:
Train your entire organization in resistance protocols
Document and publicize your work to inspire others
Build coalitions across sectors—faith, education, healthcare, legal services
Closing Thought: The Power of Moral Refusal
In 1943, the king of Denmark was asked why his country succeeded in saving its Jewish population when so many others failed. His answer was simple: "We didn't see them as Jews. We saw them as Danes."
People are not "illegals" or "aliens." They are your neighbors. Your congregants. Your community.
And when institutions choose to see people as human beings first, authoritarianism cannot function.
The question is not whether you have the power to resist. The question is whether you will use it.
The answer starts now.
Additional Resources
Legal Support: National Immigration Law Center, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, Immigrant Defense Project
Data Security: Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Access Now
Sanctuary Training: Church World Service, Sanctuary Not Deportation Campaign
Mutual Aid Networks: Mutual Aid Hub, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Philanthropic Guidance: Solidaire Network, Proteus Fund, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
