Fundraising & Communications

In Abundance: An Analysis of the Thriving Landscape of Collective Giving in the U.S.

In Abundance: An Analysis of the Thriving Landscape of Collective Giving in the U.S. explores the transformative impact of collective giving on philanthropy. Practiced in cultures all around the world, collective giving brings people together to pool their resources, including time, talent, treasure, testimony, and ties — often referred to as the 5Ts. Groups like giving circles, SVP chapters, giving projects, and nonprofit-led circles have long served as democratic and philanthropic learning hubs — bringing historically marginalized voices into philanthropic decision-making spaces, challenging preconceived notions of who is considered a philanthropist, and elevating members as integral actors in the sector’s efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in giving. Data were gathered and the report prepared by a partnership between the Johnson Center, Colmena-Consulting, and Philanthropy Together, and findings underscore collective giving groups’ role in reshaping philanthropic practices, fostering social connections, and amplifying the voices of marginalized communities.

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Five Signs Your Nonprofit is Ready to Reach a Bigger Community

Five Signs Your Nonprofit is Ready to Reach a Bigger Community highlights the different ways nonprofit leaders can improve and expand their organization’s reach and impact through marketing activities. This article for Blue Avocado by Danny Burke and Lauren Kobylarz describes five signs that a nonprofit is ready for a more intensive marketing effort (and also ways to begin brainstorming about how to do so) – it has inspirational stories, it has already developed some initial capacity for marketing, the nonprofit is attracting attention, marketing appears in the organization’s strategic plan, and there is some awareness of how such an effort can benefit the community a nonprofit serves.

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7 Things Nonprofit Leaders Can Say To Funders To Effectively Manage Limited Resources

Many nonprofit executives have difficulty setting boundaries with funders, such as saying no to requests for activities that cannot be adequately supported by the amount of funding provided. Nonprofit leaders are encouraged in this article to assert their expertise and knowledge of their area of work, demanding what is now called “trust-based philanthropy” from funders. Seven specific statements nonprofit executives can make to funders are described, including “we’re allowed to say no” and “we are the experts, and you need to trust us.” By asserting themselves in these ways, nonprofit executives can shift power dynamics and reduce the burden of unrealistic expectations from funders.

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BNY Mellon Charitable Gift Report 2022

BNY Mellon Charitable Gift Report 2022 assesses the philanthropic landscape, levels of giving over the past five years and donor behavior to provide insights, context, and benchmarks. This report provides analytics and observations on the charitable gift annuity (CGA) and charitable remainder trust (CRT) activity during the calendar year 2021 for 101 nonprofit organizations and the BNY Mellon Charitable Gift Fund. It includes statistics related to life income or planned gifts. Organizations represented included education (56%); faith-based (20%); social services/other (14%); cultural (6%); and healthcare (4%). Data for the report is based on completed gift records in BNY Mellon’s database as of March 30, 2022.

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Financing and Evaluating Nonprofits: Mapping the Knowledge Base of Nonprofit Management in the Human Services

This article reviews the literature on two critical aspects of nonprofit management – financing a nonprofit’s operations and evaluating its impact. It is based on an assessment of 328 journal article abstracts derived from a total sample of 2013 articles from the entire publication history of three major U.S. journals of
nonprofit management. To survive and thrive in a changing political and economic environment, nonprofits have had to develop and sustain a diversified financial base. At the same time, the increasing demands from funding sources and constituents for accountability have required nonprofits to develop systems to evaluate their service delivery and financial performance. The dual challenges and the rapid development of technology have pressured nonprofits to adopt mechanisms to integrate and evaluate service and financial and data. The review concludes with the beginnings of a research agenda related to revenue generation, resource allocation, and performance improvement.

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Trust in Civil Society: Understanding the factors driving trust in nonprofits and philanthropy

Public trust is the currency of the nonprofit sector. The public’s belief that nonprofits will “do the right thing” is one of the central reasons the sector exists. Communities have relied upon nonprofits to provide trusted sources of information, life-sustaining services, environmental stewardship, and places of refuge for centuries. In today’s highly polarized environment, understanding and managing trust has never been more important for organizations to own their license to operate, lead, and succeed. Given the outsized importance of trust, it is imperative to assess the status of that trust and how the sector can strengthen its most valuable asset. Independent Sector, in partnership with Edelman Data & Intelligence, is releasing this second annual report of survey findings that explore the nuances of trust in American nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

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