The budget reconciliation bill formerly known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” narrowly passed a House vote on Thursday, ending its monthslong trek to President Donald Trump’s desk, where it was signed into law on Independence Day. 

As the bill squeezed its way through narrow margins in both the House and Senate (with Vice President JD Vance acting as the tie-breaking vote in the latter) fault lines in national politics were on full display. That divide can also be observed within the philanthropic community, where some organizations — particularly those on the political right — are applauding the bill, many in the nonprofit sector are wary of its potential impact and others are denouncing it for its sweeping cuts to welfare and health programs, namely Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

According to Andres Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, while the bill’s specific impact on Jewish philanthropy will take time to emerge, funders already feel squeezed by the compounded pressure of multiple wars in Israel, national political divisions and other factors.

“It’s a quadruple whammy, or quintuple whammy, really,” Spokoiny told eJewishPhilanthropy, referring to his initial description of the bill as a potential “double whammy” to the philanthropic sector. 

“You have increased costs of living. You have services and federal programs being cut, which affect the 25% of Jews who live below the poverty line. You have restrictions on philanthropic activity. You have the crisis in Israel that demands a lot of resources, and you have somebody who is likely to be in charge of New York City, threatening both spiritually, morally and economically, the Jews of the city, among them many philanthropists. So these are difficult times,” Spokoiny said, referring to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor.

The bill has changed considerably since it was first proposed, with many shifts made over the course of the Senate’s “vote-a-rama” last week. Changes include the bill’s name, which was struck down by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) shortly before the Senate vote on Tuesday, and the removal of a proposed excise tax hike on nonprofit foundations, which could have impacted smaller grant-receiving organizations, experts say. 

Two provisions that remain in the bill — a 35% cap on itemized deductions and a new requirement for corporations to donate at least 1% of their profits to be eligible for tax benefits — are expected to pinch philanthropic giving, according to research by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. In total, the researchers estimated that these tax changes would result in an annual decrease of between $6.2 billion and $13 billion in charitable donations. 

But the bill’s most significant impact on private philanthropy could be in raising the level of need for it to meet, due to cutbacks on welfare programs including Medicaid and SNAP, experts say. For instance, while the original bill proposed $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid over 10 years, the newest iteration will see over $1 trillion in cuts. Over the same period, the bill will also cut over $200 billion from SNAP.

Private philanthropy might attempt to fill the gap left by a rollback in federal funding, but it would amount to a drop in the bucket, David Goldfarb, senior director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Strategic Health Resource Center, told eJP. 

“There is time before some of these major changes happen, but that doesn’t mean that the charitable sector in every city and every county across the United States can make up for that and help fill in the gaps,” Goldfarb said. “You really can’t compete with federal funding.”

Even with the bill signed into law, the full scope of changes to Medicaid and SNAP will not be felt immediately, Goldfarb continued. For Medicaid specifically, many of the key provisions won’t take effect until after the midterm elections, at which point there will likely be efforts to delay changes further, he added. 

“Those are the kinds of things that we’re going to have to be thinking about, you know, what is being imposed immediately and what is being imposed over time?” he said. “And therefore, in what ways does the charitable sector need to act now, versus prepare now and advocate later?”

Some progressive Jewish groups have denounced the sweeping tax bill for its cuts and new restrictions on welfare benefits. “As a Reform Movement committed to lifting up the most vulnerable — the orphan, the widow, and the stranger — this budget reconciliation bill is an immoral erosion of our socioeconomic fabric that will leave tens of thousands to needlessly suffer each year,” Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said in a statement. 

Darcy Hirsh, senior director of government relations and advocacy at the National Council of Jewish Women, noted that the bill includes less-discussed cuts to reproductive health care. 

“This budget will also end access to reproductive health care for millions of women by defunding and shuttering clinics across the country — which are, for many, the sole source of cancer screenings, STI testing, and prenatal care in their area. Buried in a massive bill filled with sweeping cuts, this attack on reproductive health care is intentional — designed to pass unnoticed as just another line item,” Hirsh said. 

Some Jewish groups have hailed the Educational Choice for Children Act, a provision that will provide a tax credit for donations to scholarship granting institutions — including religious schools — as a positive development for the broader Jewish community, if not the philanthropic sector specifically. 

In a statement on July 3, the Orthodox Union’s Advocacy & Teach Coalition commended the passage of this provision, noting that the bill is “complicated.” 

“The OBBB is big and complicated, but one thing is simple: The largest ever federal school choice program is about to be signed into law by President Trump,” said Nathan Diament, the executive director of OU Advocacy. “This has been an OU Advocacy goal for decades, and we will continue to work to make sure every Jewish child can access an affordable Jewish education.”

A provision raising the age required to receive SNAP benefits when unemployed by 10 years (to 64) took effect as soon as the bill was signed into law, David Greenfield, CEO of Met Council, told eJP. That decision could worsen conditions for older Americans, a demographic that struggles to find employment when faced with layoffs, Greenfield said. Other changes to SNAP will be implemented in stages, he added. 

“Honestly, that’s just one example of how I think that this is going to impact millions of people who did the right thing and tried their best,” Greenfield said.

According to Greenfield, organizations such as the Met Council that provide food to food pantries are set up as additional support for those who already have SNAP benefits. As fewer people are able to receive those benefits, the demand could increase dramatically. The bill will be the biggest cut to SNAP since the program began in 1939, according to The New York Times. 

“[The need is] impossible to absorb,” Greenfield said. “There’s no one who believes that suddenly we’re going to get $250 billion a year in new private philanthropic funding. So what this really means is that the social safety net in the United States is being significantly eroded for people at the lowest income.”

Though the bill is likely to further strain the philanthropic sector, it is expected be a boon to philanthropists. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the new tax cuts are estimated to save the top 1% of families more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years.