Visionary Voices

Illustration of a crouching nonprofit leader under a lightning-cracking storm cloud, symbolizing organizational fragility and looming Black Swan crises.

Built to Break: How Nonprofit Culture Creates Its Own Crises

Joe Garecht July 7, 2025

Many nonprofits operate like unsuspecting turkeys, assuming past stability guarantees future safety. Built on feel-good events, crisis-driven appeals and compliance-focused boards, they remain fragile when unpredictable Black Swans—economic shocks, political upheavals, shifting donor sentiment—strike. Reactivity replaces strategy, visibility trumps resilience, and metrics reward vulnerability over strength. True antifragility requires cultivating long-term donor relationships, endowments, dissent-welcome hiring, mission-anchored vision, and durable structures that absorb disruption and emerge stronger, turning inevitable crises into growth catalysts for mission-driven impact ahead.

Frustrated fundraiser overwhelmed at desk with coffee cup, laptop, and donor charts—reflecting burnout and job dissatisfaction in the nonprofit sector.

Why do Nonprofits Struggle to Retain Fundraising Staff?

Sanjukta Shams July 7, 2025

Fundraisers often leave nonprofits not because of money, but due to burnout and misalignment between mission and daily operations. Passion for the cause can be overshadowed by relentless financial pressures, lack of authenticity from leadership, and inconsistent internal messaging. When leadership fails to communicate transparently or support staff meaningfully, trust erodes. Organizations that retain fundraising talent foster mission-driven cultures, prioritize authentic leadership, and ensure that every team member feels genuinely connected to the work and valued in their role.

A cartoon image of three yellow figures standing on three green arrows pointing to a bullseye target. It illustrates the concept that financial advisors should form relationships with nonprofits.

Financial Advisors Should Befriend Nonprofits — Before Their Clients Do

Viken Mikaelian June 30, 2025

As $84 trillion transfers from Baby Boomers to younger generations, financial advisors risk losing both clients and assets to charitable giving—unless they act strategically. When donors establish charitable vehicles without advisor involvement, that wealth often moves permanently outside the advisor’s purview to competitors like Fidelity Charitable or nonprofit-referred planners. The solution? Build intentional relationships with nonprofits before clients do. This triangular alliance—advisor + donor + nonprofit—creates stronger outcomes for everyone while protecting assets under management and positioning advisors as indispensable partners in legacy planning conversations that matter most.

Financial advisor reading messages on smartphone disappointed at the news. Why should advisors embrace philanthropy? Because the Great Wealth Transfer is already happening.

Why Advisors Are About to Lose Their Best Clients

Geoffrey Close June 28, 2025

Advisors: You’re About to Get Fired: An $84 trillion wealth transfer is coming—and your name’s not on the guest list. The moment your client dies, retires, or checks into assisted living, their kids will hand everything to a friend from college or church. Unless you’ve built credibility with the next generation—and brought philanthropy into the conversation—you’re toast. Legacy is the new currency. Master it, or watch your book bleed out while someone else becomes the family’s trusted advisor.

African American volunteers working at a nonprofit

Legacies of Persistence: Reclaiming the Philanthropic Power of Black Nonprofits

Orletta Caldwell June 26, 2025

This is an urgent summons to funders, sector leaders, and scholars: The true story of American philanthropy remains buried, its most transformative chapters deliberately omitted. If we dare to understand the real legacy of American generosity, we must confront the systematic silencing of those whose radical acts of collective care built communities, funded freedom movements, and sustained hope against impossible odds. The reckoning is overdue.

QUIZ: Do You Know Enough to Lead?

Viken Mikaelian June 24, 2025

Most fundraisers assume they deserve a seat at the table; this tool reveals if you truly do. It tests your grasp of financial metrics, donor intelligence, and strategic priorities—core knowledge that separates respected leaders from the overlooked. You’ll identify gaps in your organizational awareness and uncover the skills that position you as a trusted, data-savvy partner. It’s more than a professional check-in—it’s a reality check on your readiness to lead.

Ethical dilemma illustration with angel and devil on shoulders representing tainted money decisions in philanthropy. It illustrates a blog post about taking controversial donations.

Take the Money. Save the Mission.

Viken Mikaelian June 23, 2025

Who is our enemy? The current administration or us? This explosive essay argues nonprofits are committing suicide through moral performance theater. While organizations obsess over donor ‘purity tests’ and Twitter tantrums, missions collapse and staff get laid off. The brutal truth: accepting ‘tainted’ money isn’t unethical—letting your cause die because you’re afraid of headlines is. Universities and government take questionable money daily. Stop letting reputation managers kill your mission. Take the controversial donation, keep the lights on, and help people instead of virtue signaling your way to bankruptcy

Two radiant figures walk a giving path, symbolizing shared identity, community, and philanthropy inspired by example and legacy.

People Like Me Make Gifts Like This! (Social Norms in Primal Fundraising)

Russell James III, Ph.D., J.D., CFP® June 14, 2025

Primal Fundraising” explores how identity, social norms, and storytelling drive charitable giving. Drawing from behavioral science, myth, and experiments, it shows that donors are most influenced by examples of “people like me” making gifts. These identity-aligned examples activate a donor’s sense of belonging, challenge, and transformation—mirroring the universal hero’s journey. Whether through small gifts or major donations, social proof and shared identity compel action. The takeaway: storytelling and similarity are powerful tools to inspire meaningful, lasting philanthropy.

You’re Ignoring the 10-Year-Old Who Will Fund Your Mission in 15 Years

Viken Mikaelian June 9, 2025

Today’s 10-year-olds will inherit and create more wealth than any generation before them—yet we wait until age 40 to talk to them about philanthropy. That’s a strategic mistake. Habits form early, and if we want generosity to be part of their identity, we must start now. Philanthropy isn’t a transaction—it’s a belief system. Waiting means forfeiting influence over the values of those who will soon control trillions. The future of giving starts younger than you think.