Last week, I learned that the IRS is planning to propose regulations that would give it the power to strip nonprofit status from organizations for noncompliance with the administration’s anti-DEAI positions. (You can read the story for yourself in this week’s Dispatches from the Future of Museums.)

For me, this was a “bang head against keyboard” moment, and I had to take some time (to be honest, most of an hour) to bring my stress levels down, starting with some reflection on what, exactly, made this story particularly distressing, in a year marked by so much disturbing news.

I realized that this story sent me into overdrive because it punched all three buttons on my stress-induction board. It made me feel:

• Uncertain, because it’s not clear what exactly will be in the still-unpublished proposal.
• Helpless,because it’s not clear what I can do about it.
• Pessimistic, because I start obsessing about the worst possible outcome.

Frankly, I come across a piece of news nearly every week that hits those triggers, and I’ve developed a ritual to bolster my mental health and rebuild my resilience, which I’m sharing here in case it can help you manage your own stress in the face of current events.

• To ease uncertainty, I identify sources of information that I’m confident will keep me up to date on evolving issues.
• To combat helplessness, I line up tools, guidelines, or resources that will help me take action at the right time.
• To foster optimism, I make time to bolster my resilience. This might be through connecting with others, revisiting practices that are good for my mental health, or consuming content that helps me remember the bright side.

In the case of the proposed IRS regulations, I assembled the following list:

Resources to keep abreast of our rapidly shifting policy landscape

In this case, I want to know when the draft regulations are published and opened to public comment. For this and similar updates, I monitor:

• AAM Advocacy Alerts
• The National Council of Nonprofits’ running summary of Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits (last updated April 2026)
• The NonProfit Times, particularly articles & reports tagged “legal”

Tools that can help me (and museums) navigate pressures to censor content

These regulations are a signal of a potential future in which nonprofit museums might lose their nonprofit status if they stand up for what they believe in (whether that is exhibiting art that is critical of ICE, exploring painful aspects of history, or creating a women’s-only exhibit to make a point about sexism). Equally concerning is the prospect of museums self-censoring in the face of this risk. Here are some tools that help organizations stand firm in the face of such pressures:

• The National Coalition Against Censorship’s Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy.
• The 11^th edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual from the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association. Some of the information, guidance, briefings, and advice in this manual are applicable to museums as well.
• The Censorship Horizon, a report based on a 2024 survey of directors of AAMD institutions, which provides a snapshot of art museums’ experiences with censorship and how directors have responded.

Boosting morale and supporting resilience

I can’t write enough about the need to care for yourself and your own mental health, in order to retain your capacity to respond. For example, you could:

• Connect with others and know you are not alone. This might be via social media, if you have a safe space where you can avoid trolls and hate. For this particular issue, you might check out the Censorpedia Wiki hosted by the National Coalition Against Censorship—an online database of censorship cases within arts and culture. You can browse by keywords (for example, “museum”) and add your own case.
• Consume news strategically and draw healthy boundaries. (See this CFM blog essay for advice.)
• Find things to read or listen to that help you bring practical skills to thinking about the future with an optimistic mindset. Three of my favorites are:
  • Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything, Even Things that Seem Impossible Today by Dr. Jane McGonigal (2021), which lives on my nightstand. Dr. McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable.
  • The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World by Roman Krznaric (2020), which I’m currently rereading. Krznaric celebrates time rebels who are “reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.”
  • Rob Hopkin’s marvelous podcast From What If to What Next, which shares provocative, optimistic challenges such as, “What if we loved politicians?” and, “What if we decolonized economics?” (Sadly, the podcast came to a close in 2024, but I highly recommend the archived episodes, which you can find on any major podcast app.)

Lastly, I would love the opportunity to help you bolster your resilience through a workshop I created on How to Face the Future, Cultivate Optimism, and Defy Dystopia. Let me know if you would be interested in bringing me to your museum or conference to share that with your staff or attendees.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I see a story popping up in my news feed about the US Interior Department making it radically harder to protect endangered species. Here we go again.