Well, the free ride is over, and Poland’s left-leaning NGOs are scrambling. With Washington pulling the plug on USAID funding, groups that spent years pushing “pro-democracy” campaigns, open-border policies, and identity politics are now crying to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government for a bailout.
For years, these organizations thrived on American taxpayer dollars, funneled through USAID under the Biden administration. Now, with Trump’s team reassessing whether any of this actually benefits US foreign policy, the money flow has stopped cold for at least 90 days—and the NGOs aren’t handling it well.
Turns out, USAID wasn’t just funding charities—it was bankrolling Poland’s liberal establishment. Conservative outlet Niezależna.pl reports that Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s leading liberal daily, raked in a whopping $20 million from 2016 to 2023, while leftist magazine Krytyka Polityczna pocketed another $5 million. Meanwhile, election watchdogs—cozy with Poland’s left—were using US cash to “educate” voters (or, as some call it, political manipulation).
One particularly bold beneficiary? The Tour de Constitution, a group of lawyers who toured Poland to attack the previous PiS government’s judicial reforms. The operation was due to receive another $20,000 in 2025, but with the funding freeze, that plan may be out the window.
The US Embassy in Warsaw confirms hundreds of thousands of dollars were flowing into pro-LGBT initiatives, including a $100,000 grant for the Campaign Against Homophobia. Meanwhile, groups assisting illegal migrants at the Poland-Belarus border also found themselves on the receiving end of Washington’s generosity. One such organization, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, admitted that some of their partners lost up to 80% of their budgets overnight.
Even heritage programs weren’t left out—$230,000 was earmarked for Jewish cultural projects, while another $175,000 supported the Ukrainian minority in Poland.
With the US cash pipeline drying up, these groups have turned to Tusk’s government, demanding millions in Polish taxpayer money to replace what they lost. NGO leader Katarzyna Batko-Tołuć insists that the government is “honor-bound” to step in, warning that without state funding, staff layoffs and project cancellations are inevitable.
But here’s the kicker—the Polish government admits it doesn’t even know how much USAID money was flowing into these organizations. Much of it came through international grantees like the UN and WHO, making it difficult to track. Now, Tusk’s cabinet has promised to discuss the issue, pointing to an extra €17 million in the 2025 budget for civil society—but will that be enough to satisfy the activist class?
And let’s not forget the political nature of this funding. Former US official Mike Benz spilled the beans on how the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)—a Cold War-era US tool—was funding groups that openly pushed for the prosecution of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. One such group boldly suggested that Tusk’s government should prioritize legal action against Kaczyński—convenient, right?
So, with US funding suddenly vanishing, left-wing NGOs are freaking out, liberal media is losing millions, and Tusk’s government is scrambling to pick up the tab. Maybe it’s time Poland started asking why so much foreign money was shaping its domestic politics in the first place.
