Visionary Voices

Nonprofit board members sitting in a conference room - watercolor rendering

Nonprofit Boards Should Include Young People

Jonathan Hannah August 7, 2025

It’s time we stop thinking of young people as future leaders and start recognizing them as current ones. Boards are not clubs for years served but strategic bodies for stewarding the mission. Readiness isn’t about age—it’s about perspective, commitment, and passion. Including younger voices isn’t symbolic—it’s strategic. They bring energy, authenticity, and digital fluency. If your board makes decisions about youth, equity, or tech, their presence isn’t optional—it’s essential. Empower them, don’t just appoint them.

Concerned fundraising professional reading tax reform updates, reflecting nonprofit sector’s uncertainty after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed.

New Law, Same Panic

Scott Janney August 4, 2025

On July 4th, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) became law—prompting predictable panic in the nonprofit sector. Critics decried lower top-tier deductions and a new AGI floor. But pause. OBBB didn’t undercut charitable giving—it strengthened it. By making key reforms permanent, it created clarity: a 60% AGI limit for cash gifts, a new deduction for non-itemizers, and preserved estate exemptions. Just as important, it solidified long-term economic stability—an essential foundation for future generosity. This wasn’t a loss; it was a safeguard. The smart fundraiser sees the opportunity, not the noise. It’s time to stop reacting—and start leading.

Small boat charting rough waters and winning — symmetry with a small foundation that succeeded against all odds

Small and Mighty

Patrick O'Donnell August 1, 2025

The GOSUMEC Foundation proves you don’t need to be a big nonprofit to achieve sizable results. Drs. Sanjay and Archana Bindra turned their 25th wedding anniversary into a $1 million endowment for medical scholarships in India. With zero staff, full transparency, and a focus on legacy giving, their grassroots nonprofit offers a replicable model for small organizations everywhere. Visit gosumec.org or scan the QR code in GIVING magazine to learn more about their work—and the groundbreaking GIVE Study.

Guests mingle at an elegant nonprofit gala under warm string lights, embodying a spirit of connection and intentional hospitality. When nonprofit events lead with hospitality, we move from transactions to transformations; build relationships; and embrace missions.

Unreasonable Hospitality: Transforming Nonprofit Events from Fundraisers to Movement Builders

A.J. Steinberg July 9, 2025

In the nonprofit sector, events often feel formulaic. Hospitality is often mistaken for a gift bag, a good meal, and a smile. But when you lead with true hospitality, focus on the details, and ensure attendees feel welcomed and valued, nonprofits shift from transactional events to transformational experiences that foster belonging. This perspective changes events from simply meeting fundraising goals to building relationships, sharing stories, and advancing missions.

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.