Community foundations emerge even amid shrinking space in Hungary

The shrinking space for Hungarian civil society has gained considerable attention from our colleagues around the world. The government has cut funding to non-profits by one-quarter. What is left has been re-focused toward a narrower group of NGOs. The proposed law to force some NGOs to label themselves as “organizations with foreign support” has received scrutiny and criticism from across Europe and beyond. It is seen, rightly, to stigmatize organizations that are able to be free(r) to criticize the government. The story that has not yet been told is the response from civil society, and, from community foundations. While the shrinking of space for civil society can result in self-censorship and shutting down, we instead see new efforts to create unity in the sector, a phenomenon that is relatively new to Hungary.