Giving days have multiplied for over a decade. Giving Tuesday launched in 2012, DAF Day joined the calendar a few years back, and corporate “vote for us” contests have run in some form even longer than that. The nonprofit sector didn’t just tolerate this growth; it built infrastructure around it: toolkits, playbooks, matching-gift platforms, a … Read more
Somewhere right now, an organization is twisting a program to fit a funder’s interest instead of a community’s need. A mentoring program starts calling itself workforce development, because that’s where the money moved this year. A food pantry adds a wellness component, because a health funder likes the word. Leadership calls this being flexible. It … Read more
The work being important is not a claim on anyone’s money. Many nonprofits believe, deep down, that a good cause is its own argument for support. The need is real. The money should follow — and when it doesn’t, the donor is the one who got it wrong. They’d never say it that plainly, but … Read more
The nonprofit sector calls it prudence, collegiality, not wanting to micromanage. Usually it is fear. A board can choose otherwise. The sector has a dozen words for it. Prudence. Collegiality. Respect for process. Not wanting to micromanage. They all describe the same behavior: a board declining to do the hard part of its own job. … Read more
The tax law changed the paperwork. It didn’t change why anyone gives. Somewhere right now, a development office is drafting an email that begins, “With the new tax law taking effect, we wanted to make sure you’re aware of how your 2026 giving may be affected.” It will explain the new floor. It will mention … Read more
The Q1 FEP report has a bright spot. Read one line further and it tells you why the sector keeps losing donors. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s Q1 2026 report landed this week, and the top line reads like relief. Dollars up 4.3% year over year. The donor count decline has shrunk from 2.3% a year … Read more
Your case for support is about you. It shouldn’t be. Somewhere on your shared drive there is a document called something like “Case for Support — FINAL v6.” Fourteen pages. It opens with the year you were founded. There’s a section on your theory of change, a paragraph on your executive director’s last three jobs, … Read more
You’re not in the relationship business. You’re in the transaction business. Fundraising is a relationship business. It’s in the training, the keynote, the white paper, the job posting, the opening slide, the board retreat icebreaker, and the exit interview of every development director who was just told she wasn’t the right fit. Nobody argues with … Read more
The nonprofit sector broadcasts belonging instead of building it. It lost a decade of donors that way, and now sells the same performance back to the fundraisers. Somewhere in the last ten years, “community” stopped being something you build and became something you broadcast. That broadcast is a business. There is now an industry built … Read more
The sector keeps rediscovering the same findings and calling it insight. Here’s how to tell the difference. This week, somewhere on LinkedIn, a consultant posted a hot take. It doesn’t matter which week. It is always this week. “Hot take: keeping the donors you already have matters more than chasing new ones.” Four hundred likes. … Read more