Federal government language restrictions that ban the use of specific words don’t just constrain government; they muzzle nonprofit organizations that depend on federal funding. When organizations are prohibited from using accurate and accepted terms in grant proposals and on their websites, they face an impossible choice: self-censorship or losing resources.
The Mission Becomes Unspeakable
Federal funding could be compromised if community* health centers discuss mental health or vaccines on their website. Environmental justice groups cannot mention climate change or pollution. Housing nonprofits cannot request funds for affordable housing. LGBTQ organizations cannot discuss gender identity or transgender youth. Disability rights groups cannot advocate for accessibility.
How do you write a grant proposal or construct a website when the words defining your mission and programs are banned?
Erasing the People We Serve
When we cannot say transgender people, Native American families, Black or Hispanic communities, we erase them from official discourse. Victims of gender-based violence become invisible. Women facing discrimination cannot be named. The marginalized, the underserved, the vulnerable—all vanish.
Organizations cannot identify who they serve or document the disparities they address. Programs promoting inclusion, diversity, or equity cannot describe their goals. Anti-racism work becomes literally indescribable.
Science Without Words
Climate researchers cannot discuss emissions or renewable energy. Public health organizations cannot address opioids or COVID-19. Evidence-based programs cannot reference supporting research. Water quality groups cannot investigate safe drinking water or PFAS contamination.
Science-based organizations lose their ability to describe their research methods and findings.
The Advocacy Vacuum
Nonprofits serve a crucial function: they advocate for policy change based on frontline experience. How do activists push for clean water standards without mentioning water pollution? How do housing advocates discuss inequality in access? How do groups fighting injustice describe what they oppose?
Advocacy becomes impossible when the intent of this federal policy is to eliminate social change and social justice.
What’s at Stake
As philanthropy rarely replaces government funding, these restrictions force nonprofits to use vague, ineffective language, to stop seeking federal funding, and to shrink their capacity. If they pursue traditional grant funding, they risk noncompliance. Instead, many will reduce their programming or close their doors. Neither serves the public good.
Nonprofit organizations typically identify unmet needs, mobilize resources, and fill societal cracks that the government does not address or addresses through nonprofits. They work on health equity, environmental quality, social justice, and scores of issues that our government cannot address on its own. When we silence these organizations through language censorship, they lose their ability to name problems, describe solutions, and advocate for change.
Democracy depends on a robust nonprofit sector that can speak truth accurately and clearly. Language censorship threatens that independence and the health of our civic ecosystem. This is about power: who controls the right to define reality. An intent to defund research and assistance to at-risk humans domestically and abroad. It is laden with life-or-death consequences.
Solution?
A long-term solution involves a change in leadership in the halls of Congress and eventually the White House.
In the short term, you can train AI to identify (attach a file or URL) the verboten words in your copy and to offer alternatives that best capture your intent.
These suggestions are not very satisfying, but time, organizing, and AI can help us navigate these unfortunate circumstances.
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*The (non-title) bolded words above are banned.
Here is the complete list of Words Banned or Flagged by Federal Agencies
Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@brianwangenheim
