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2026 GUSA Webinar Recording — Transcript

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0:01Well, hello everyone. Thank you so much
0:03for joining us and we invite those of
0:06you who haven't had a chance yet to drop
0:08in the chat where you're joining us from
0:10and one word that captures your current
0:13outlook on the philanthropic
0:18sector.
0:19We are excited for you to be joining us
0:22and I'm happy to be leading off here. My
0:26name is Sharon Ticknas. I serve as the
0:28chief client experience officer for
0:30Alpha Group. I My pronouns are she, her.
0:33I'm a white woman with short brown hair
0:35wearing a lime green money green uh
0:39blouse in my home office with a
0:41bookshelf behind me. Um, as we get
0:44started, I wanted to um take a moment to
0:48acknowledge that while we're joining
0:50from across the country, Alpha Group's
0:52headquarters are in Chicago. And we want
0:54to take a moment to acknowledge the land
0:56on which we reside. Chicago is located
1:00in the traditional unseated homelands of
1:02the Council of the Three Fires, the
1:05Ojiway, Ottawa, and Podawatami nations.
1:09The region has long been the center for
1:11indigenous people to gather, trade, and
1:14maintain ketchup ties.
1:17Before we jump into the report, we just
1:19want to share some logistics with you.
1:21The webinar is being recorded and a link
1:23to the recording will be sent in an
1:25email tomorrow, so keep an eye out for
1:27that. Uh today's webinar is approved for
1:301.5 CFRE credits for anyone who is um
1:34seeking certification or reertification
1:36of their CFRE.
1:38Immediately at the conclusion of our
1:41webinar, you'll be prompted to take a
1:43short survey. I promise it's really
1:45short and we truly appreciate your
1:47feedback to help us um inform what we
1:50can uh continue to bring to you and
1:52thoughts and insights from your alpha
1:55group team. uh you'll receive an email
1:57with a link to the survey immediately
1:59following the the webinar. The chat's
2:02open as you can see and we encourage
2:04everyone to interact um throughout the
2:07webinar in the chat function and at the
2:09end of the uh panel discussion we'll
2:12have time for questions. So, if you have
2:14questions for the panel, please at any
2:16time during the webinar, um, click the A
2:19and the Q&A icon at the bottom of your
2:22screen and we'll answer as many
2:25questions um, either live or in in
2:28response in the Q&A function. With that,
2:31I'm so excited to in invite Brenda
2:34Assari to join me here on screen. She is
2:37the president and CEO of Alpha Group.
2:39She's a nationally recognized and
2:41sought-after philanthropy leader with
2:44over 30 years of dynamic social sector
2:47experience. She's helped to raise
2:49billions of dollars while advancing
2:51leadership, operational effectiveness,
2:55elevating generosity, and encouraging
2:58greater diversity across our nonprofit
3:01sector. Good morning, Brenda.
3:03>> Good morning, Sharon. Good afternoon,
3:05and thank you so much. Good afternoon,
3:08everyone. I am so excited for us to be
3:11together this afternoon and a very warm
3:14welcome to all of you. We are absolutely
3:17delighted to have over 600 nonprofit
3:20leaders, board members, and sector
3:22colleagues join us from across the
3:24country today. My name is Brenda Assari,
3:27president and CEO of Alfred Group. My
3:29pronouns are she, hers. I'm an
3:31African-American woman with black hair
3:33and wearing fancy gold rim glasses
3:36against a background with a philanthropy
3:38poster that defines philanthropy as
3:41voluntary action for the public good.
3:45For nearly 47 years, Alfred Group has
3:48had the immense privilege of partnering
3:51with thousands of nonprofits,
3:53foundations, and social impact
3:55organizations. Our mission is simple. We
3:58partner with leaders like you to build
4:01long-term organizational resilience and
4:04sustainability.
4:06Whether we're guiding organizations
4:08through transformational capital
4:10campaigns and feasibility studies,
4:13shaping agile strategic plans,
4:16activating boards and governance
4:18structures, or driving leadership
4:20coaching. Our services are designed to
4:23help our client partners navigate
4:25complexity and secure their future. As
4:29the immediate past chair of the Giving
4:31Institute, the organization that proudly
4:34publishes the Giving USA report, this
4:37annual moment holds a very special place
4:40in my heart. Each year, this data
4:42provides us with with a mirror
4:45reflecting not just where philanthropy
4:48has been, but more importantly, where it
4:51must go. This year, there's a historic
4:54headline. For the first time in American
4:57history, total charitable giving has
5:00crossed the $600 billion threshold.
5:05Well, while total capital is at an
5:07all-time high, household participation
5:10continues to shift. We are navigating a
5:13concentration of wealth, evolving
5:16corporate partnership models, changing
5:19government dynamics, and a rapid rise in
5:22plan giving and don.
5:24In short, the capital is there, but the
5:28old playbook for how we build broad
5:31communities of support, engage everyday
5:34donors, and sustain our organizations
5:38needs to be rewritten. Today is about
5:41how we rewrite that playbook together.
5:44Our goal for the next 85 minutes or so
5:47is to move beyond the passive data and
5:50give you actionable insights to take
5:52back to your board and leadership team
5:55to position your organization for
5:57long-term sustainability. As Sharon
6:00indicated, we will have time at the end
6:02for questions. So, please place them in
6:04the Q&A as the conversation unfolds.
6:08As I introduce the lead presenters for
6:11our given USA key finders findings, we
6:15want to hear directly from all of you in
6:18the audience. I believe we have our
6:20first poll question. So we'd like for
6:23you to go ahead and complete this poll.
6:25And while you are completing the poll,
6:27I'll go ahead and introduce our lead
6:29presenters for the given USA finder
6:32findings. to lead us through this
6:34conversation. I am pleased to be
6:35co-hosting today's session with my
6:38esteemed colleague Sharon Tickness, whom
6:40you've met. Sharon brings more than 35
6:43years of nonprofit leadership experience
6:46and has helped organizations across the
6:48country build capacity, strengthen
6:51cultures of generosity, and raise
6:53hundreds of millions of dollars. She
6:55will guide us through the key findings
6:57from this year's Giving USA report and
7:00what they mean for today's nonprofit
7:03landscape. Joining Sharon is Dr.
7:06Danielle Vance McMullen, associate
7:10professor in the school of public
7:12service at Depal University and
7:15co-founder of the donor advice fund
7:18research collaborative. Danielle is also
7:21an alpha group alum. Danielle is an
7:24expert in donor behavior, fundraising,
7:27donor adise funds, and emerging
7:30fundraising themes. She's pro she will
7:33provide additional context and
7:35researchbased insights to help us better
7:38understand this year's data and its
7:41implication for the future of
7:44philanthropy.
7:46Please join me in welcoming Sharon and
7:48Danielle.
7:50Thank you so much, Brenda and Danielle.
7:53I'm so excited to present the Giving USA
7:56data with you. It's the longestr
7:59running, most comprehensive report on
8:01philanthropy in the United States. It's
8:03researched and written by the Indiana
8:05University Lily School of Philanthropy.
8:09The Giving us report is released each
8:11year by the Giving Institute, as Brenda
8:13just mentioned. and Alpha Group is not
8:15only a longtime supporter of of funding
8:19the research but also um so excited
8:22about the insights that we get on an
8:24ongoing basis um through the Giving USA
8:27Foundation and Giving Institute which um
8:30Brenda was uh is the immediate past
8:32chair of. So as we think about the the
8:36data we really want to encourage you to
8:38look at this at how you can use this in
8:40your organization. We certainly know
8:42that this has been a very helpful um
8:46tool in setting fundraising strategies.
8:48So, as a friend of Alpha Group, we're
8:51delighted to extend a 30% discount on
8:54your order of the report. It comes in
8:56many different uh packages. And so, um
8:59just send us an email at [email protected]
9:01and we'll send you the the discount
9:04code. So, drum roll please. Uh in 2025,
9:09uh US giving reached $6.17.2
9:13billion, $617.2
9:16billion. Um it is the highest on record
9:20in current dollars and you can see it
9:22increased by 57%
9:25over 24 and in inflation adjusted
9:28dollars it reached 3 point uh uh 3 point
9:32uh 3% increase. Um, we use um adjusted
9:38uh for inflation reporting in this
9:40report because it helps to give a better
9:42year-over-year snapshot. And you can see
9:46here how uh philanthropy has grown in
9:49the last 40 years. If you were to put
9:52the um the stock market increases, you
9:56would see that it follows very care very
9:58closely to the increases in giving in
10:02year-over-year. We're going to look at
10:04trends um in a more dynamic way as it
10:07applies in both giving and distribution.
10:10But as we think about the economic
10:12conditions in 25 that affected giving,
10:16you can see here that personable
10:18personal income increased by 1.7%.
10:22Though if we can move to the next slide,
10:25um that the percentage of disposable
10:27personal income is largely tied to
10:30inflation. And as we think about the
10:33annual growth of the S&P 500, it
10:36typically hits about 10% per year,
10:38growth by 10% per year. But in 25, even
10:41though we had big swings high and low,
10:44it reached uh 13.4%
10:47in um increased um returns. And we want
10:51to take a minute to think about how the
10:53stock market um changes uh and impacts
10:57giving and and to think about how it uh
11:01has affected foundation giving because
11:04we know that in investment performance
11:07is the biggest driver of 24 and 25
11:10foundation giving and that most
11:12foundations are funded from investment
11:14portfolios. So when markets perform
11:17well, endowments grow, uh foundations
11:20have more assets and future uh
11:23distributions increase uh because of the
11:255% payout in based on asset values. Of
11:29course, the strong equity market
11:31performance in 2024 helped to increase
11:34assets and we continue to see larger
11:36grant budgets in 25 and anticipate that
11:40continuing reporting um from foundation
11:42giving in 2026 and beyond. um preunding
11:46in 2024 related to anticipated tax
11:50changes and therefore again increased uh
11:54contributions to foundations were seen
11:57um uh through that as a result of that.
12:00Um we want to take a second to think
12:03about GDP. We often um hope for an
12:06increase in giving us a total percent of
12:08GDP which has hovered around 2% for many
12:11years. And I found this um interesting
12:14data point so fascinating and it really
12:17provides some context as you think about
12:20venture capital in the United States. It
12:23it deploys roughly 170 to 200 billion uh
12:27in a normal year. So charitable giving
12:30as a percentage of GDP represents three
12:33to four times the amount of venture
12:36capital. We just need to figure out how
12:38to generate the same attention around
12:41philanthropy that venture philanthropy
12:43enjoys. And then finally, a factor that
12:46I've been giving a lot of thought to is
12:49that in 2025, consumer sentiment reached
12:52historic lows, dropping 20.9%
12:55from 2024.
12:58And this graph really tells the story.
13:00The University of Michigan has conducted
13:02its monthly survey of consumers for 64
13:05years. And you can see here where the
13:08dips occurred. In 1974, the oil embargo
13:11and wgate. In 1980, double-digit
13:15inflation, very high interest rates in a
13:17recession. In 1990, the Gulf War and the
13:21savings and loan crisis. In 2008, the
13:24housing crash and global financial
13:26crisis. In 2020, COVID. And in 2025, the
13:30lowest on record. We'd love to hear from
13:33you. and feel throw feel free to put it
13:35in the chat. What is your sense of why
13:38consumer sentiment was so the lowest
13:40ever in 2025?
13:43So Danielle, let's look at where the
13:45money came from in 2025.
13:49Thanks Sharon. Yeah, thanks for covering
13:50the big picture. So we know how much
13:52Americans gave. We know some of the
13:54economic forces shaping those totals.
13:56Let's shift our focus a little bit to
13:58where those charitable dollars came
14:00from, how much each source contributed
14:02to the overall giving. So this graph
14:05shows four main sources, individuals,
14:07foundations, bequests, and corporations.
14:10I'll note that most the giving that
14:11happens through DAFF is in that
14:13individuals bucket in this graph, but
14:16let's cover those four in a little more
14:17detail. So individuals comprise 64% of
14:22total giving. This is a 1.4% 4% growth
14:25accounting for inflation. And with a
14:27strong stock market, we'd often expect
14:29this growth to be even higher. But as
14:32Sharon said, the consumer sentiment may
14:34have dampened that a bit. Um, next we
14:37have in the light green foundations.
14:40And giving by foundations includes
14:42grants made by independent, community
14:44operating foundations, and family
14:46foundations. That amounted to about 19%
14:48of all gifts in 2025. And we do know
14:51that lots of people prefunded their
14:53foundations in 2024. Um, and Sharon
14:56talked more about that, but this is even
14:58a longer term trend. Foundation giving
15:00has increased year-over-year for the
15:02last 15 years. So, total foundation
15:05giving grew by about 3% adjusted for
15:07inflation in the last year, and that's
15:10where the largest of the large gifts are
15:11coming from. So, it's worth keeping an
15:14eye on this as a vehicle. Next, we have
15:17giving by request. And that's the
15:18chartreuse I suppose color in this graph
15:22giving by requests accounted for 10% of
15:24all gifts and interestingly enough it
15:27rose by about 20%
15:29um from 20 2024. So we'll return to this
15:33point in a minute because that's a
15:34really interesting point because we know
15:37that bequests are a form of individual
15:39giving just a delayed form and a lot of
15:41the foundations that we see here are
15:43family foundations. We're estimating
15:44that about 83% of all giving comes from
15:47individuals. And that's a number that's
15:49been quite similar year-over-year.
15:52Before we move on, I'll also note
15:54corporations. That's the orange.
15:56Corporations reach 7% of all giving in
16:002025. It's about a 3.1% growth, but once
16:04you account for inflation, it's roughly
16:06flat. corporate giving for the last many
16:09years has really been focused on um cash
16:12but also really inind contributions and
16:15we see this year even more of these kind
16:17of inkind pharma donations directly to
16:20patients. So a lot of that corporate
16:22giving seems like a big number but if
16:25you know there's very specific types of
16:27gifts that are coming from corporations.
16:30I'll take a little bit of an additional
16:32dive on the DAFF aspect just because um
16:35the DAFF research collaborative collects
16:37some of this data and we see an
16:40increasing percentage of individual
16:42giving making its first stop in DAFF
16:44accounts. So if we look at contributions
16:47to DAFF overall compared to that
16:49individual giving number um we can
16:52compare 20 2021 2022 2023 and in most of
16:56those years we do see an increase. We'll
16:58project that in 2025, although we don't
17:01have that data specifically yet because
17:03of IRS delays, we think that maybe even
17:0625% of individual giving will be making
17:09its first stop in a DAFF account. One
17:11important reason, especially in 2025, is
17:14the uptick of people preunding DAFFs
17:17because of the anticipated changes um
17:20with the one big beautiful bill. And so
17:23that pre-loading of deafs as well as
17:26family foundations in 24 and 25 is going
17:29to mean those vehicles are going to be
17:32showing up more and more on your donor
17:36roles in 2026 and beyond.
17:40One other way to look at the trends in
17:42giving is this sort of five-year bucket.
17:44So that's what this graph is showing
17:45you. And so on the far left you're
17:47seeing uh kind of giving in the late
17:5080s. on the far right. This is the
17:51postcoid years 21 to 25. And immediately
17:56you're going to see here a decrease in
17:58that dark green bar, the individual
18:00giving. And I don't want you to read too
18:02much into that because as we just
18:04discussed, it's not just it's not
18:06necessarily a decrease in kind of the
18:08role of individuals, it's just the
18:09different choices of the vehicles
18:10they're using. Um, and so we do see that
18:14uptick in foundation giving is part of
18:16that. The light green portion is
18:18increasing. Um, and then what I actually
18:22think I want to focus on with this graph
18:23is the increase in bequest giving. I
18:25mentioned it briefly earlier. Um, but
18:28giving by bequest grew 20% in 2025. A
18:32little bit less when adjusted for
18:33inflation 16.6.
18:36And I know that bequests are variable
18:37year-toear. You really don't know kind
18:39of everyone's uh life cycles, but it's
18:43been growing considerably recently with
18:45three of the last four years seeing a
18:4720% or more growth. Now, Giving USA is
18:50not ready to put a stake in this in the
18:53ground yet, saying this is the start of
18:54the great wealth transfer, but we do
18:56think that this is a sign the bequests
18:58are becoming increasingly important um
19:01because it just continues to outpace the
19:03overall growth in giving.
19:05Now, you might think this is all the
19:07very largest estates. And while 60% of
19:10the quest giving comes from estates of
19:1110 million or more, 40% comes from
19:14smaller and kind of average estates,
19:17right? average wealthy. So between 1 and
19:2110 million estate valued estates that's
19:24another 20% and even estates with values
19:27below a million are giving in bequest.
19:30So 20% of the total bequest value is
19:32coming from those estates with values of
19:34million or less. So very important to be
19:37thinking about planned giving as as this
19:39is continuing to grow over the next few
19:41years.
19:43>> I couldn't agree more Danielle. So, I
19:45know that you're all eager to see what
19:47happened related to um giving sources.
19:51So, who received the money? And as we
19:53look at that, we just want to call to
19:55your attention that there were 1.55
19:58million charitable organizations
20:00reported, a 2.3% increase over prior
20:04over the prior year. So, um there's a
20:07lot of organizations where the money
20:08goes and we want to break it down a bit.
20:11um eight of the nine types of recipient
20:13charities saw increased giving in 2025.
20:17Um foundations uh didn't increase in
20:20giving but it it obvious it increased in
20:22amount but not um in in percentage. Uh
20:26religion still leads despite receiving a
20:30smaller share of giving than in prior
20:31years. Um, human services also grow
20:35reaching 15% of giving an all-time high
20:38which is uh particularly since co has
20:41had a continuing growth in the
20:44percentage of all giving. Um,
20:46environment and animals didn't used to
20:48even show up on this chart many years
20:50ago and now includes 4% of all giving.
20:54Um, and it was a really strong year for
20:56giving to education uh, which grew by
20:588.2%.
21:00Giving to grantmaking uh foundations
21:02total 12% of all go giving and this
21:05includes independent operating and
21:08community foundations. It's the fourth
21:10largest share of charitable dollars in
21:122025
21:14and giving to public society benefit
21:16organizations grew by 11%. uh these are
21:19organizations like United Way, advocacy
21:22organizations, independent research
21:24organizations and it's also where
21:27national commercial drafts like Fidelity
21:29and Vanguard are reported. Um it's
21:32likely that in 2025 1/3 to a half of
21:36public society organization growth was
21:39um to donor advised funds. Giving into
21:43the health subse sub sector experienced
21:46a growth of 3.3%.
21:48Giving to international affairs
21:50organizations grew by 1.4%.
21:53Giving to the arts, culture, humanities
21:56um grew by 4.7%.
21:59And giving to individuals has increased
22:01over the last 5 years. And as Daniel
22:03just noted, um this shows up in in where
22:08in the total of corporate giving um but
22:11it shows up in individuals on this chart
22:13where the bulk of these donations are
22:15inind gifts of medications to patients
22:18in need made through patient assistance
22:20programs um from pharmaceutical
22:23companies and operating foundations. Um,
22:26we do just want to note that gifts to
22:29DAFFs are counted differently depending
22:31on the type of organization sponsoring
22:33the DAFF. Uh, gifts to national
22:35commercial institutions are in public
22:37society benefit which I just mentioned.
22:40Um gifts to DAFFs with community
22:42foundations shows up in foundations and
22:45gifts to single issue DAFFs such as you
22:48know a a trend um where for instance
22:51universities are creating their own DAFF
22:53program that would show up in that
22:56subsector. So where there are single
22:59issue DAFFs you'll see that in in the
23:02subsector specific to the type of
23:04organization that's there.
23:07So again, just taking a the long view,
23:10this graph shows the changes in giving
23:12in five-year increments. And you can see
23:15that giving to education, public society
23:17benefit, and environment and animals has
23:20um had the largest annualized rates of
23:22changed over the last five years.
23:25So Danielle, back to you for a deeper
23:28look at DAFF giving. We're getting a lot
23:30of questions about DAFFs in the chat,
23:32but I can I'm happy to do a little bit
23:34more right now on DAFFS. So, here we're
23:37seeing a graph of where
23:41gifts out grants out of donor advised
23:43funds land. So, this is 2023 data. It's
23:46sort of the latest data we have on this
23:48because of IRS delays. But one thing you
23:51want to think about overall is that
23:53grants from DAFFs tend to align well
23:55with the overall giving of high net
23:57worth and college educated donors. And
23:59so you're going to see that education is
24:02the most important subsector here in 20%
24:0627% of all gifts out of daffs. You also
24:10see um human services being a very
24:12important subsector. And in fact, if you
24:14look at kind of what the most popular I
24:17suppose subsector to give to um from
24:20your death, it actually is human
24:21services. We just see large gifts to
24:24education, which means that that that's
24:25how that gets a bigger percentage of the
24:27pie chart. The public society benefit
24:30slice. I want to sort of ignore that for
24:33a moment because we actually think a lot
24:34of that is either um transfers between
24:37daffs people move their money all the
24:39time or gifts to pulled funds at
24:42community foundations or sort of other
24:44kind of giving vehicles.
24:46I'd like to actually mostly mention next
24:48the religious subsector here because
24:51religious giving out of deafs varies a
24:53lot based on where that deaf is housed.
24:55So we already mentioned national
24:57commercial and community foundations
24:59hold deafs. There are also a lot of
25:01religiously affiliated deafs in that
25:03single issue group and so Jewish
25:07organizations
25:09uh Catholic organizations all different
25:10types of um religiously affiliated DAFFs
25:13exist and so from those daffS religious
25:17giving is actually the number one
25:18subsector it just is a smaller
25:21percentage at the national and community
25:23foundation deaths. So that's the one
25:25difference among the different types. We
25:27also do see of course health,
25:29international giving and giving to the
25:30arts being very important with
25:32environment and animals coming up last.
25:34Some of the gifts that we see out of
25:35those are a little bit hard to classify
25:37because of the way that these are
25:38reported. Um so you'll also see an
25:40unknown subsector here.
25:46The other interesting trend that we're
25:48seeing is an increase in mega gifts.
25:51Now, mega gifts are defined by Giving
25:54USA as any gift that's more than 0.1% of
25:58the overall total. So, since we had 600
26:01billion in overall giving in 2025,
26:06that means a mega gift is going to be
26:08anything above 600 million. So, I'm
26:11curious. We've all heard about Mackenzie
26:14Scott's giving, but for all the mega
26:16gifts together, what percentage of
26:18individual giving do you think mega
26:19gifts make up? You can just drop your
26:22guess in the chat. What percentage of
26:25individual giving do you think mega
26:27gifts make up?
26:30Any guesses?
26:37A big range.
26:41Okay. The number in 2025 was 3.1%.
26:46Uh, so that's up from 1.98% in 2024. Um,
26:51with Mackenzie Scott's giving being the
26:54kind of the largest of the bunch. Um,
26:56her giving in 2025 was 7.1 billion to
27:01186 nonprofits. Since making her kind of
27:04debut doing this type of work in 2019,
27:07her cumulative giving has exceeded 26
27:09billion to more than 2,700
27:11organizations. Um she does not operate a
27:15large private foundation and gives
27:17primarily through yield giving her
27:18philanthropic organizations.
27:21Okay. Um
27:24I think we have one more poll. Is that
27:25right Sharon? Yeah. So everyone jump in
27:28here. We want to know what you're
27:29experiencing. Is your active donor base
27:33going up, down, or about even with last
27:36year? We know there's always um efforts
27:40to uh acquire donors, to retain donors.
27:44We're curious to know what you're
27:46experiencing in in your giving.
27:54I saw the poll, but I don't see it
27:55anymore. Oh, here it is. Okay. So, up
27:58from last year is um a little bit ahead
28:02even with last year next. Um, but we're
28:05excited to see those of you who have
28:07been able to see increased giving. And
28:10as we think about um, everyday donors
28:14and what the giving landscape looks
28:16like, we want to take a look at this
28:18next slide to show you um, you know what
28:21the trends are related to dollars up and
28:24yet donors are down. Um, revenue grew by
28:275% but the donor base is continuing to
28:30shrink with fewer everyday do donors. We
28:34wanted to demonstrate that here by
28:36showing that 90% of individual gifts are
28:39from donors who contribute $5,000 or
28:43below. And according to the fundraising
28:45effectiveness project, a wonderful body
28:48of work that we encourage everyone to
28:50pay attention to um their findings and
28:52trends, for the fifth straight year, the
28:56overall number of donors has declined by
28:58approximately
29:003.6%.
29:03So, we encourage you to double down on
29:05your everyday donor relationship
29:07building. Continue to work toward higher
29:09retention rates um while growing your
29:12donor base from the inside out. Think
29:14about how you're inviting your donors to
29:16feel like they're a part of your
29:19community and that their identity is
29:22part of your identity. Danielle, let's
29:25jump ahead and share our calls to
29:27action.
29:29>> The first call to action is pretty
29:31simple here. Use the report as a mirror.
29:33Take a look at how your data is tracking
29:36um to this data that we've seen
29:38nationally.
29:39It can be a benchmark. It might diverge.
29:42You know, not everyone is going to see
29:44the same trends year-over-year, but if
29:46not, kind of look into what contextual
29:47factors are driving those changes that
29:50you're seeing and try to kind of see
29:53what the longer term trends are as well.
29:55Are you seeing an increase in requests?
29:57Are you seeing an increase in DAFF money
30:00coming into your organization?
30:02Secondly,
30:05I mentioned DAFFs and I can't help but
30:07having a call to action related to DAFFs
30:09here. One thing we see in the DAFF
30:11research collaborative is that the sense
30:13of urgency for DAFF donors no longer
30:16comes from that December 31st tax
30:18deadline. They have the money set aside.
30:20So that means they are making gifts year
30:22round. We see a much lower seasonality
30:26among DAFF donors than kind of general
30:28donor population. So we see them making
30:30gifts in the summer. We see them making
30:32recurring and repeat gifts from those
30:35DAFF accounts that kind of fund
30:36organizations year round. So you could
30:38be asking for those types of gifts from
30:41DAFF donors.
30:43Well, we'll bring this up again, but
30:45consider asking them to be name you as a
30:48successor beneficiary of the DAFF.
30:51That's something that's available as
30:52well. And then third, make sure your
30:54gift processing allows you to track and
30:56steward deaf donors. Remember, you're
30:58getting the money from the deaf
31:00institution, but the donor is the one
31:02directing it. So that's the person you
31:04should be stewarding like you steward
31:06other gifts of that size.
31:09You're here. And just quickly, you know,
31:12we want to call to your attention that
31:14we know that our Alpha Group clients who
31:16share and use the data with their board
31:19and staff see how that really helps to
31:21create shared understanding of the
31:23philanthropic landscape. This is an
31:25amazing tool to level set and create
31:27alignment around fundraising strategy
31:30and setting goals. And finally, just a a
31:33call out to recognize that your donors
31:35and funders are becoming more
31:37intentional and seeking transparency on
31:40measurable impact and want to see the
31:42correlation of how their giving matters
31:44and demonstrates their partnership in
31:46creating impact. So, Brenda, we turn it
31:49over to you.
31:54Thank you, Sharon, and thank you,
31:55Danielle, so very much for anchoring us
31:59in these critical key findings.
32:01Danielle, before we turn to our panel,
32:03I'd like to ask you a question.
32:05Something that really stood out to me as
32:07you were going through one of the slides
32:09in terms of the call to action. uh you
32:12talked about successor
32:15advisors and during our prep session
32:18what really struck a chord with me was
32:20you shared a stat that roughly 70%
32:25of death designate family members as
32:29successor advisors
32:31while only 30% named charitable
32:35organizations directly. So, what should
32:38nonprofits take away from that
32:42trend?
32:42>> Thanks, Brenda. Yeah, happy to chat
32:44about that. Um, I think that one of the
32:47reasons that deaf advisers, deaf donor
32:51adviserss are mainly naming family
32:54members is because it sort of is the
32:55default, right? We asked them in a
32:57survey what they would um if they would
33:00consider naming organizations as their
33:02successors, right? basically a version
33:04of planned giving where they transfer
33:06the funds to a nonprofit at their death
33:08and actually 30% said they'd be very
33:10open to that conversation. 30% said
33:12they'd be neutral and 30% said no, I
33:15definitely want to leave it to my next
33:16generation heirs. So I think that
33:18there's a big openness and that daff
33:21planned giving conversation. You can ask
33:23folks if they've set aside any assets
33:25for charity already and that could lead
33:27to a conversation about their daff. The
33:29other obvious part of that is making a
33:32relationship with the nextgen. Um, and I
33:34think you'll be talking about that with
33:35some of the panelists soon.
33:37>> Thank you so much, Danielle. So, to help
33:40us unpack these findings from every
33:42angle, we are joined by an extraordinary
33:46panel of sector innovators. I am so
33:49pleased to welcome back again from last
33:51year. We we have Laura Koy who's a
33:54partner head of philanthropy and
33:56sustainability at William Blair and
33:58Company. Um Laura works closely with
34:01clients, key stakeholders, and
34:03colleagues around the world uh to
34:05develop and optimize their
34:06sustainability efforts in charitable
34:08giving. For the past nine years, Laura
34:11has overseen William Blair's growing
34:13global community engagement initiatives
34:16with a mission to inspire the next
34:19generation of philanthropists.
34:21Welcome, Laura. We're so glad to have
34:23you back again this year.
34:25Joining us is again is Stephanie Ellis
34:28Smith, founder and CEO of Fila Engage
34:31Giving. Stephanie works with donors who
34:34are ready to activate their assets for
34:37social change. As an advisor and social
34:40impact specialist, she works toward a
34:43world where philanthropy is nurturing an
34:46equity centered practice that connects
34:49wealth to the people and communities who
34:51need it most. Her diverse background and
34:55deep knowledge make her uniquely well
34:58positioned to be a trusted advisor to
35:00the world's most generous families and
35:02institutions.
35:04Welcome, Stephanie.
35:07Joining us next, we're so pleased to
35:09have Dr. Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever
35:13for Change and senior advisor at the
35:15MacArthur Foundation. Through Lever for
35:18Change, Dr. Conrad has helped unlock
35:22over $1.7
35:24billion for high impact solutions
35:27worldwide by re-imagining open call
35:31challenge competitions.
35:33Cecilia brings an unmatched perspective
35:36on shifting philanthropic power
35:39dynamics, fostering trustbased grant
35:42making, and building sustainable
35:44broad-based communities of givers.
35:47Welcome. We're so glad to have you join
35:49us this afternoon. I'm going to start a
35:52with a question to all of the panelists.
35:55So, we've heard from the report out,
35:58Giving USA tells two stories at once.
36:02Total giving continues to rise, yet
36:05fewer everyday Americans are
36:07participating in charitable giving. What
36:10should nonprofits do differently to
36:13broaden participation and build a
36:16stronger base of everyday supporters
36:19while still engaging major donors who
36:22would like to kick us off this
36:24afternoon?
36:26>> I'll start.
36:28>> Thank you.
36:28>> Hello uh everyone. I'm Cecilia Conrad.
36:31Um, I am an African-American woman,
36:35white hair, curly hair, rosecolored
36:38glasses, which may show up in in how I
36:40talk today. Um, and standing in front of
36:42books in my home office. Um,
36:46well, the first thing I just want to
36:47note, I'm no longer a senior adviser at
36:49MacArthur because we became independent.
36:51Liver for Change became independent and
36:54in January. And as Brenda said, we're
36:56sort of known for doing these open calls
36:59for very, very large gifts, large
37:02amounts of money, and we've worked with
37:04some of the people who showed up on your
37:05mega gift list a moment ago. But I think
37:08we're less well known for the fact that
37:09after each open call, we go out and we
37:12try to help organizations who've done
37:14well match and up with other donors to
37:17help fund them, help to support their
37:18work. And many of those donors are not
37:22the ultra high netw worth, but they're
37:25giving more than what you've described
37:27in terms of the everyday donor donor.
37:29And so one of the things I think it's
37:31important is not to neglect that
37:34spectrum in between
37:36>> uh where I think there are opportunities
37:38particularly for some of the individuals
37:40who are newly experiencing wealth events
37:43and so on to begin help be be part of
37:46their philanthropic journey. uh what
37:48we've observed is that they they want to
37:51be recognized. They like
37:52acknowledgement, but they also are have
37:53a tendency to want to give as part of a
37:55community. And so you seeing some growth
37:57in donor advice and not donor advice
37:59funds, I'm sorry, donor collaboratives
38:02and also in giving circles as part of
38:04that.
38:05>> Thank you so much, Laura.
38:08>> I mean, I I would add on top of that,
38:10you know, we we talked about a lot of
38:11statistics about Giving USA, but we
38:13mentioned the wealth transfer. So it's
38:15$124 trillion that is going to change
38:18hands between now and 2048.
38:22Um so that that's major. Um 10% has been
38:26earmarked already to philanthropy
38:28through the estates which you're seeing
38:29in the giving USA numbers and a 100
38:32trillion of that is going to go from one
38:35generation to the next. So I think the
38:37first thing is to engage. And to much of
38:40Cecilia's point, the wealth out there
38:43might not even be obvious to people, but
38:46um engagement is not just a theme for
38:48public charities and thinking about
38:50cultivation strategies. It's a theme
38:52amongst families. Uh so you know
38:55families want that next generation who
38:57is inheriting the wealth to not just
39:00write checks but to be engaged. And
39:02whether that looks like impact, whether
39:04that looks like on a advisory board or a
39:06governing board or conducting site
39:08visits, they want that inheriting wealth
39:11generation to be engaged. So I think
39:13that's number one. Number two, and I'll
39:15talk about this a little bit through the
39:17context of plan giving, is public
39:20charities have a huge opportunity to
39:22become more and more sophisticated
39:24around the types of assets that they're
39:27receiving. So, we talked a little bit
39:29about bequests. Um, but you're going to
39:32see more and more donations from IAS if
39:36you know for populations that are 70 and
39:37a half or older. We that's one of the
39:39biggest trends we've been seeing is
39:42making the required minimum distribution
39:44from IAS to charitable organizations to
39:48um alleviate or avoid a tax uh income uh
39:53situation. um we're looking at complex
39:56assets, privately held securities versus
39:58public securities, um art and complex
40:02assets. So, so the two things I think um
40:06one is engagement and two is becoming
40:08more and more sophisticated in the types
40:10of philanthropy that you're able to
40:13attract and you're ready to attract as
40:15part of this wealth transfer.
40:19Yes, Stephanie. Would you like to add
40:21anything about what nonprofits should be
40:24doing differently to broaden
40:26participation?
40:27>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, um first of all, um
40:29thank you for having me. Uh Stephanie
40:31Ellis Smith from Fila Engaged Giving.
40:34So, I do 100% believe uh in engagement.
40:38Um which is one of the main reasons why
40:40I did not name the firm that I founded
40:43after myself, but really around this
40:44love of humanity and the importance of
40:46engagement. Um, but to to answer your
40:49question, uh, Brenda, um, not to be
40:52cheeky at all, but 52% in your poll of
40:56the attendees here raised more money,
40:58uh, this year or 2025 than they did the
41:00year before. So, I feel like those folks
41:03should also have have a say in answering
41:05this this question, not just us, because
41:07clearly they've done a um a great job.
41:10That's delayed.
41:11>> We've we've seen that the the the giving
41:14USA um information told us that overall
41:17giving is growing and the number of
41:19participation uh folks who are
41:20participating is shrinking.
41:23I think this group of savvy nonprofit
41:25leaders here know that they are not
41:27choosing between major donors and
41:29everyday supporters that the need there
41:31is for both.
41:33>> Um I think this opportunity is building
41:36two tracks at one time. It's continuing
41:39investing in uh major gifts and the
41:42major donor relationships while at the
41:44same time making it easier and more
41:46meaningful for the everyday giver to
41:48participate through a number of
41:50different ways. Monthly giving,
41:51volunteering, advocacy, which is going
41:53to be a big thing I may want to bring up
41:55a little bit later.
41:56>> Peer outreach and just, you know, the
41:58smaller gifts. This key, and this maybe
42:01taps into what Laura is talking about,
42:03the key to me is giving people a real
42:06sense of belonging. I think, you know,
42:09we looked at this uh data around
42:10consumer sentiment and while that's
42:12really tied very much to economic
42:15uh uh ideas and thoughts and feelings
42:18from individuals, it's also, I would
42:20argue, tied also closely to this
42:22fracturing that we're seeing in our
42:24society. And I think this is also a way
42:26that nonprofits can really tap into that
42:30um by creating the sense of belonging
42:32with the communities that you that you
42:34actually already have. And that is not
42:36just sort of taking the sort of the
42:37major donor playbook and message and
42:39lowering the ask down to $25, but
42:42showing people what they are joining,
42:45why their participation matters, what
42:47the community looks like when they are
42:49all accomplishing something together.
42:52Um, and then you're measuring more than
42:54dollars. You're tracking uh you talked
42:56about this earlier, you're tracking
42:58retention, secondary gifts, recurring
43:01donors, volunteers, all of those things.
43:03So the goal becomes
43:06more than just raising money which is
43:08equally important but long-term making a
43:10long-term investment into sustainability
43:12of the organizations by building this
43:15broader more durable constituency around
43:18a shared cause around a mission around
43:21being together for something.
43:24>> Thank you so much Stephanie. I I I love
43:27when you talk about building this sense
43:29of belonging building community. I think
43:32early on in in one of Sharon's data
43:34points, she talked about um donor
43:37identity and I think that is so right.
43:40We forget about the fact that there are
43:42identities if you're giving $25 or if
43:45you're giving$25 million and beyond and
43:48we forget about that sometimes in this
43:50work because we're so busy trying to
43:52make the goal.
43:53>> Yeah.
43:54>> And we forget the why of of of why we're
43:56doing this work in the in in the in the
43:59first place, right? We're trying to
44:00build a greater culture of generosity.
44:03You know, Stephanie, I'd like to stay on
44:05with the donor expectations and how they
44:07are changing. We know day in and day out
44:11what you focus on is working with
44:13families on their philanthropy. And
44:16oftent times when we look at what's
44:18happening with high impact um
44:21philanthropists and their families, it
44:24can often look like a delicate tugof-war
44:27between legacy and evolution when we
44:30think about traditional philanthropists
44:33and what we kind of put [clears throat]
44:34into a category of nextgen.
44:37um when a family sits down at the table,
44:41how do you help families rewrite the
44:44playbook so the past doesn't trap the
44:46future?
44:47>> Yeah, that's a that's a great question
44:49and it's tricky. I um
44:53sometimes I I may preface some of my
44:56comments by saying that really um
44:58unsatisfying
44:59uh opening. It depends. Um but a lot of
45:02it does sort of depend. It depends on uh
45:05the age of the donor or the family that
45:08we're working with. It depends on what
45:10kind of vehicle frankly that they're
45:12using. For example, if they are with a
45:15private foundation, if they have a
45:16private foundation, um the idea of
45:19legacy plays a much bigger role in that
45:22discussion than they would if they are
45:25uh DAFF families or even multi-vehicle
45:28families. And that's just another thing
45:29that I'll say a lot of our families have
45:32multiple levers that they're pulling for
45:34all sort of different reasons. But if
45:37you know to narrow this down um if
45:39they're if they're working with a
45:40private foundation that takes a lot of
45:44discussion and um time frankly because
45:49you're you are in indeed navigating what
45:52grandma or grandpa initially wanted
45:54trying to look at well how does how can
45:57we honor them
45:59>> and be me be present for what today
46:04requires because Maybe when this was set
46:06up in 1968 or 1980, it looks com the
46:10world is completely different now. And I
46:13will I will also say that even for
46:15foundations and we have seen this
46:17foundations that were set up in 95 are
46:21having trouble looking at legacy things
46:23because how do you how do you be uh
46:26present and serving the needs of today
46:28when no one could have imagined what
46:30today looked like 10 years ago. So that
46:33takes time and that takes a concerted
46:36effort to tease apart um past and future
46:40to make it kind of real. I think the
46:42donors who were doing it right will
46:45actually spend that time and knowing
46:47that if they feel that they can come to
46:50an agreement that everyone can can get
46:53behind the money moves I think faster
46:56with greater integrity
46:58um and towards the causes and I think
47:00actually no faster greater integrity and
47:02actually more because they feel good and
47:05they're sitting they're feeling good
47:06about their own mission and how that
47:08they are deploying those resources. So
47:11we talk to our clients about this mantra
47:13sort of you go slow to go fast.
47:14Sometimes you got to slow down to have
47:16these conversations so that you can
47:19really land where you need to be for the
47:22capital to to move in ways that are
47:24going to make everyone the beneficiary
47:26the the nonprofits as well as the family
47:28feel really good about what they're
47:30doing. So, um, that's just one example.
47:32I could I won't go on, but there's
47:34different ways that you can, um,
47:36structure those kinds of conversations,
47:38I think, depending on the the age of the
47:40family and also the type of um, uh,
47:44vehicles that they're using.
47:45>> Yeah. Stephanie, are are those
47:47conversations typically started around
47:50values? Because I and you talk about the
47:53push and pull, where where do values
47:55come into play as a part of this whole
47:58dynamic? Yeah, they they values are
48:01definitely there. They typically are
48:02started around succession.
48:04>> A new a a young young generation's
48:08coming in. We want you to get involved
48:10in the in the family foundation. You
48:12you're old enough now. Come and join us.
48:14>> And then you know some someone who's 25,
48:17they're looking and they're like what
48:18are you guys doing like this? Like
48:20really? And and so the usually it kind
48:23of starts there around typically
48:25succession planning or some sort of
48:28major in inflection point the one that I
48:31just mentioned succession or also some
48:34sort of new influx of capital whether
48:37it's from an IPO uh a death um new money
48:42coming into the foundation and so
48:43perhaps the way that they've been
48:45looking at doing things in the past it
48:48was just very easy for legacy you know
48:50we're kind of just kind of moving things
48:51right along. Well, if all of a sudden
48:53your assets have increased by 35%
48:57or 100% or more,
49:00>> you've got to completely rethink what
49:03you're doing. And it's a wonderful
49:04opportunity to actually re-evaluate what
49:07legacy means, what values mean for
49:10today, and how that or if it will tie to
49:14the origin story of the foundation
49:15because it may not. And then what do you
49:18make of that?
49:19>> Yeah. So Laura, continuing with this
49:21conversation about donors and you
49:23started um comments about the great
49:26wealth transfer, would love for you to
49:29lean into this further about what you're
49:32seeing in the trends and how people are
49:34planning their charitable legacies and
49:36how should nonprofits adapt?
49:39>> Yeah, it's a great question and you know
49:41we kind of sit at the epicenter of this
49:43as a at a financial services firm. So
49:45all the things that Stephanie mentioned
49:47are right in that process of what a
49:49family's going through. Um you know I
49:52will say this a lot of families are
49:54bringing their children to the table. Um
49:57not just because the intent is to be
49:59philanthropic of course because that's
50:01the value structure that is usually the
50:04line through multiple generations
50:06whether it's you know the grandparents
50:08or the parents or now the next
50:09generation. That's a commonality that
50:11that families can center around. but
50:14they're also using philanthropy as an
50:16opportunity to teach their children the
50:18value of wealth at large. Um, and if
50:21there is a foundation and even with
50:23donor adise funds, families are building
50:25out governance structures. We are
50:28educating families around their
50:30fiduciary responsibility. A lot of
50:33people talk about it through the lens of
50:34the other 95%. So 5% goes out, but
50:38there's still 95% there. that is the
50:40corpus of the philanthropic entity that
50:44um many families believe and want to
50:47live out in perpetuity. So there's a
50:49little bit of tension in what Stephanie
50:51mentioned. There's this very important
50:54serious conversation happening around
50:56the fiduciary responsibility of the
50:58wealth but then the immediacy a need to
51:02get the money out the door. Um, we see
51:04that a lot when we talk about de
51:06demystifying daff, right? People want to
51:08know, hey, if it's becoming a first
51:09stop, when does it when does it actually
51:11go to the community? We're constantly
51:13having conversations with families to
51:15honor the very important process of the
51:18fiduciary responsibility of the
51:20philanthropic wealth as well as
51:22remembering that that money has been put
51:25aside to make a difference and
51:28piloting,
51:30activating, um providing opportunities
51:33for the next generation to innovate, try
51:35new things that might not perfectly yet
51:37fit into the guidelines or the focus
51:40areas. But what's most important is that
51:43engagement piece I mentioned and getting
51:45the next generation to try new things to
51:48build those relationships to test and
51:50and it's okay fail fast. I mean you
51:53could make a donation and and maybe it's
51:55not the right fit but that experience is
51:57going to help them grow into such
52:00amazing philanthropists and and that's
52:02the one thing from a nextgen perspective
52:04I'm just so excited about. They want to
52:06be there. They want to be present. They
52:09want to use the capital for good. They
52:11want to honor the legacy of their
52:12families, but they're also really
52:14excited about like challenging the
52:16status quo. Um, we did a a piece on
52:19venture philanthropy. Um, a lot of our
52:22our next generation clients are saying,
52:24you know, how are nonprofits at the
52:26forefront of change and innovation and
52:29are there models that are actually
52:30investing in [snorts] forprofit
52:32opportunities? They see this they see
52:34social enterprise as an amalgamation of
52:38public charities, society,
52:41testimony and and and that was mentioned
52:44as well as well as impact. They don't
52:45they don't see the bifurcation that many
52:47of us were um inculcated right like we
52:51are a donor you are the public charity.
52:53They are excited about
52:55>> the interconnectivity of impact. So you
52:59know these convert and again that's a
53:01healthy tension. So it's it's the very
53:03important work of the fiduciary
53:04responsibility that they have and also
53:08um you know the activation of that
53:09capital into the communities.
53:12>> Thank you Laura. Cecilia, you work
53:15closely with both individual
53:17philanthropists, major foundations, and
53:20nonprofit leaders tackling complex
53:23challenges.
53:24How how do you how are you at lever for
53:28change and your partners thinking
53:30differently around their giving at this
53:34moment?
53:36So when you the you asked everyone to
53:39put into the chat uh what their view was
53:42of philanthropy and I would have put
53:44promising
53:46>> ah
53:46>> and and I think promising for some of
53:48the reasons we've already heard
53:51>> um the there is a group of people who
53:54have done well in the recent economy and
53:57seen their their wealth grow and what we
54:00are observing is that particularly in
54:03the past I'd say this first six months
54:05months of 2026,
54:07we're hearing from more who want to to
54:10give. They want to give fast. So,
54:14they're not necessarily following the
54:16slow paybook. Some of it because I think
54:19they have uh seen their wealth grow at a
54:22much faster pace than they expected.
54:25Um, and we're also seeing, it's not a
54:29ground swell yet, but we're seeing a
54:31growing openness to give unrestricted
54:35gifts, general operating support, or
54:38just generally to be more flexible about
54:41the giving, and to transfer more control
54:44over the work to the nonprofits and to
54:47the people who are doing the work. Uh
54:49we've also had some wonderful
54:51experiences recently with working with
54:55uh parent child pairs as using the open
55:00call as a way for them to kind of
55:02develop a relationship about what they
55:04think about giving. Uh so it it it
55:07echoes what we've heard from others as
55:09well.
55:11You know last year Cecilia um John
55:14Parfrey was with us with MacArthur and
55:18the sector was all above a buzz about
55:21the set it at six initiative where what
55:24he was challenging foundations and daffh
55:26holders to do was to release a higher
55:29percentage of their earnings. So based
55:33on what you're seeing across major grant
55:36making institutions,
55:38are we seeing a sustainable cultural
55:40shift toward you did I did hear you say
55:42faster capital deployment, but what are
55:45we seeing? So what happened as an
55:48outcome of sett at six?
55:50>> Yes. Um so set it at six was a pledge to
55:54increase payout from 5 to 6%.
55:58And there was a another kind of related
56:01the level up pledge.
56:03>> Those were two-year pledges. So we only
56:05have sort of preliminary things. It was
56:07over two years you were supposed to
56:08increase.
56:10>> Um we have of course the MacArthur
56:12Foundation, Mcnite Foundation that
56:14delivered on their 6%. Uh the Casey
56:17Foundation actually dipped into its
56:19endowment to do that. Um, but I think
56:24what's noteworthy is that there was a C
56:26study that found that it was only 30% of
56:29foundations who actually increase their
56:31payout in response to the financial
56:34crisis the sector. Um, but as I said
56:37earlier, I am seeing u a move among the
56:41individual donors, some of the ones who
56:43are not using the foundation structures,
56:46the LLC's to move more money. And as
56:49Laura mentioned earlier, sometimes it's
56:51to what they see as the continuum of
56:53capital to make social change happen.
56:56>> Yeah. You know, I I appreciate the
56:58conversation about the NextGen, the
57:00traditional philanthropist. Um I'm now
57:03sitting in the fundraiser seat and
57:05that's all great information to know um
57:09many of our clients and folks in the
57:10room, how should nonprofits be working
57:14with these individuals differently? How
57:16should we be thinking about messaging?
57:18How are we thinking about engaging? This
57:21is all great stuff that we can get from
57:23the research, but what I'm really
57:24looking for as takeaways for our
57:27audience is what are the strategies?
57:29What's missing? How should we think
57:31about the playbook now as we think about
57:33engaging these individuals?
57:35>> Yeah.
57:36>> Well, and I I would say [laughter]
57:38yeah, I very passion. I would say Brenda
57:40too like just keeping in mind that they
57:42are um a a lot of the nextgen they're
57:44they're working um you know they're
57:46they're not just inheritors that are um
57:49working at their family office or their
57:51businesses. I mean these are scientists
57:52these are engineers they're raising
57:54young families. So um you know that
57:57whole notion of doing good with what
57:58you're good at doing like employ their
58:00expertise you know um their family might
58:03have sold a business and they're
58:04entrepreneurs. So the more you can
58:06employ the expertise and and don't you
58:08know discount their ability to join a
58:11board or to give a major gift but I
58:12think the more you can apply their
58:14expertise into areas that could advance
58:17uh your mission. I mean that could be
58:18helping us adapt AI it could be you know
58:21so many skills. I think the skills-based
58:24movement is going to continue to be a
58:25trend on the corporate side. We'll talk
58:27about that in a bit but certainly with
58:28nextgen and sorry Cecilia if you you
58:31were gonna say something.
58:32>> No jump in. I yeah I just wanted I was
58:35Laura I was going to say I was going to
58:37say the exact same thing. Um so thank
58:40you for kind of giving me that um head
58:42start on that. So I just wanted to
58:44double down on that that um
58:46understanding that folks there is a time
58:48of life aspect to the the giving you
58:52know because we think you think a lot
58:53about you know the donors and they're
58:55older they're in their 70s. Well
58:56sometimes you might find that because
58:58they're retired and they have the time
59:00>> they can think a little bit more about
59:02that. But for donors who don't, one
59:04thing that I would say, and I'm gonna be
59:06I'm gonna give maybe a little bit more
59:08of a spicy um take here. So, you know,
59:11hold off your hat.
59:12>> Bring it on. Um, you know, I think for
59:15folks who are in the nonprofit sector
59:17who have relationships with major donors
59:20and I you have you don't have as maybe
59:22as much visibility as say I would as an
59:24adviser or maybe Laura even especially
59:26someone like Laura at a financial
59:28services firm who can see across
59:29everything but you know you have a sense
59:31of what their capabilities are um what
59:34they could be doing and it's not moving
59:36fast enough. I think it's a great
59:39opportunity for you to talk to them and
59:41let them know that there are people out
59:43there. They can join poolled funds like
59:46Lever for Change. They can talk to
59:48philanthropic advisors. They can talk to
59:51savvy financial services folks like
59:54Laura and people like her who can really
59:57speak to them about how to do
59:59philanthropy well. Because one thing
1:00:02that I think that slows folks down is
1:00:05it's a lot to manage and who do you talk
1:00:08to about these kinds of conversations
1:00:10and who do you trust? So, if they have a
1:00:12a trusted advisor, um, and William
1:00:17Blair, I will say, and I because we've
1:00:18we've, um, not directly with you, uh,
1:00:21Laura, but with the firm, we've shared
1:00:23clients before. William Blair is a great
1:00:24financial services firm. Not all of them
1:00:27are kind of on our side about how to
1:00:30deploy philanthropic capital. There are
1:00:32quite a few gatekeepers in the financial
1:00:33services world that want to go against
1:00:36what we're saying in this webinar to
1:00:37slow things down, to hold on to your
1:00:40capital. You can do it later. And we're
1:00:41talking and encouraging people to give
1:00:44now. So if they have good people that
1:00:46they can talk to to help them figure out
1:00:49ways to unlock and go go past these
1:00:52bottlenecks that families and
1:00:54individuals just normally have because
1:00:56people are people
1:00:58>> that will actually really help
1:01:01>> this capital move a lot faster and like
1:01:04the slowdown and all of those things. We
1:01:06don't see it in our firm at all. People
1:01:09will come to us that way, but they end
1:01:11completely different because they've had
1:01:13an opportunity to really understand the
1:01:15impact of taking these chances, taking
1:01:18these risks. No one's going to die if
1:01:19you give a bad donation.
1:01:22>> Something bad's going to happen,
1:01:23>> but you need someone there to help them
1:01:26and to hold them to make these kinds of
1:01:28decisions. And I think that's something
1:01:29that nonprofit leaders and major donor
1:01:32uh adi uh development folks if you can't
1:01:35do it bring in and introduce them to the
1:01:38types of people who can help them
1:01:39because you will see a change.
1:01:42>> Here here
1:01:42>> that's great Cecilia.
1:01:44>> I just wanted to say here here on that I
1:01:46mean one of the things that that we
1:01:48frequently encounter is that donors are
1:01:52think they have to know everything
1:01:54>> correct
1:01:55>> before they make that first gift. and
1:01:57and there's an opportunity to learn by
1:01:59doing. Uh there's ways to learn by, you
1:02:03know, for example, if you're working
1:02:04with these collaboratives, if you're
1:02:06working with some of these groups of
1:02:08people, you learn from what other people
1:02:10have done and you can see a a scope of
1:02:13opportunities. And so just getting
1:02:15getting people to understand that there
1:02:20are opportunities to move now that
1:02:23there's learning by doing. And as
1:02:25Stephanie said,
1:02:27>> if you make an investment in an
1:02:30organization and it doesn't quite pan
1:02:32out the way you wanted it to, chances
1:02:33are there was still some good that came
1:02:35out of it.
1:02:35>> Yes.
1:02:36>> You'll learn from that process.
1:02:38>> Yeah. I I love that. And often times we
1:02:40advise our clients to think about a
1:02:42pilot and we're learning together. If
1:02:44it's the first time, it's okay because
1:02:47you're learning together and you're
1:02:48building that trust and confidence.
1:02:51Laura, we've explored the individual
1:02:54donors and we've talked about how
1:02:56foundations are evolving. I'd like to
1:02:58round out the picture um as we look at
1:03:01what's happening on the corporate
1:03:03philanthropy front. Corporate
1:03:05philanthropy as reported now represents
1:03:087% of all charitable giving, half of
1:03:10that in kind giving. So, how are
1:03:14corporations thinking differently about
1:03:16philanthropy today? And where do you see
1:03:18the biggest opportunities for nonprofits
1:03:21to build meaningful relationships?
1:03:23>> Yeah, I mean, I think I think that that
1:03:25inind statistic was actually very
1:03:27enlightening for for me and and if if
1:03:29you think about the field of
1:03:30philanthropy. If you take that out, I
1:03:33might sound a little bit like a broken
1:03:34record with Danielle and Sharon's great
1:03:36comments at the beginning. I mean, we're
1:03:37talking about individuals, right? I
1:03:39mean, you know, at William Blair, we it
1:03:43really truly is our mission to inspire
1:03:44the next generation of philanthropists,
1:03:45both our clients and also our people.
1:03:48So, 100% of our philanthropy is employee
1:03:50inspired. And it's matching. So, you
1:03:53know, there's you you've got to be an
1:03:54educated and informed and inspired
1:03:56philanthropist. you have to step up and
1:03:59we will follow you and we will support
1:04:01you. Um, but at the end of the day,
1:04:03human capital is what is going to make a
1:04:06difference in all of our workforces. But
1:04:07like five years ago, I might have said
1:04:09this was particularly true to
1:04:10professional services, but with the
1:04:12evolution of AI, I think human capital
1:04:14is just going to be more and more
1:04:15important across corporations. I think
1:04:18you might see corporations um becoming
1:04:21less rigid in their focus areas. there
1:04:24was a big movement 5 10 15 years ago to
1:04:27align philanthropy to your business and
1:04:30I don't think that's going away but I
1:04:32think what's going to um continue to
1:04:34eclipse that is the importance of the
1:04:36individuals in the workplace the
1:04:37skills-based volunteerism that they can
1:04:39provide the boards that they should be
1:04:41sitting on to provide that expertise
1:04:43that we talked about before. So engaging
1:04:46with the individual versus the
1:04:48corporation and building the
1:04:50relationship with the individual at the
1:04:52corporations versus the relationship is
1:04:54going to be monumental. Those
1:04:56individuals bear a lot of weight on our
1:04:58community engagement teams. Like when a
1:05:00leader comes to us, whether that's an
1:05:02emerging leader or an established leader
1:05:03at the firm and they're excited about
1:05:05something, our job is to be excited for
1:05:07them and support them. And you know,
1:05:10that's it's actually, you know, it's
1:05:11fantastic. I think for corporate
1:05:13philanthropy, it's less about we want a
1:05:15proposal and here's our rigid focus
1:05:17areas. It's more about when our
1:05:19employees come to us with things that
1:05:20they're excited about activating, our
1:05:22job is to um help make that happen. Um I
1:05:26I think more on the science side though,
1:05:28I will say because this statistic also
1:05:30shocks me, 90 more than 90% of companies
1:05:34have employee match programs similar to
1:05:36the ones that I mentioned. we're still
1:05:38hovering around 20% of employees
1:05:40participating in their employee employer
1:05:43match programs. Um, you know, there's
1:05:47every type of match program. There's
1:05:49there's employee match, there's board
1:05:51match, there's volunteer matching. We've
1:05:53got to get that statistic up. So, I
1:05:56think that's a communication opportunity
1:05:58on behalf of nonprofits as you build
1:06:01those relationships. I mean, I mean,
1:06:04we're going to talk about MacArthur,
1:06:05like they have an amazing match. And so,
1:06:07it's not even just corporations that
1:06:09have match programs. I mean, really, um,
1:06:11this is an opportunity that I I fear
1:06:14we're leaving some money on the table.
1:06:16Um,
1:06:16>> leaving a lot of money. We're leaving a
1:06:18lot of money on the table.
1:06:20>> Yeah. You know, Laura, I want I wanted
1:06:21to stay a few minutes on or a minute um
1:06:25on a lot of what we saw last year in the
1:06:30new administration
1:06:31with the, you know, legal challenges and
1:06:34shifting federal and state policies
1:06:36where we had, you know, a lot of our
1:06:40organizations in the social impact um
1:06:43sector be impacted by corporations to a
1:06:49large degree. and some individuals
1:06:51pulling back in response to DEI related
1:06:54challenges. I was in conversation with a
1:06:57client where um there are scholarship
1:07:00organizations funding um high potential
1:07:04students of color and a million dollars
1:07:06wiped away just like that. So what and
1:07:10again I know you can't represent the
1:07:11voice of all corporations but would love
1:07:13to have any thoughts that you might that
1:07:17you can share with our audience in terms
1:07:19of how how should we be approaching and
1:07:22working and messaging um because the
1:07:25needs don't go away. The students are
1:07:27still there as well as all the other
1:07:29needs that are on the table that that
1:07:31organizations are trying to to to fund.
1:07:33Well, and I was a little curious with
1:07:35the scholarship statistic around
1:07:36education if that was a precursor. One
1:07:39of the things that we have been
1:07:41encouraging nonprofits and institutions
1:07:43to do is to be very clear, create the
1:07:45business case for the funding deficits
1:07:49that you have because of the shifts in
1:07:52either governmental or other types of
1:07:55funders that have maybe stepped back. Do
1:07:57not be afraid to put that case for
1:07:58support together because this is
1:07:59fundable. So I'll just say that from
1:08:01representing clients perspective like we
1:08:04want to know what that deficit is
1:08:06because it can be filled and there's a
1:08:08desire to fill it. I think from a
1:08:09corporate perspective maybe this is my
1:08:11spicy answer. Um but did they believe in
1:08:13it to begin with? Right. So um you know
1:08:16we're about to produce our third annual
1:08:18sustainability report. Um I I use
1:08:21sustainability reports at large to take
1:08:23a look at the ethos of companies. Are
1:08:26they being transparent? Are they are are
1:08:30they shifting terminologies because they
1:08:32have to, right? Because there's some
1:08:34protectionism there that I think is
1:08:36valid as it relates to like we want to
1:08:38keep doing what we want to what we're
1:08:39going to do, but we don't want to be
1:08:41scrutinized for it. Like that's kind of
1:08:43a right. And I would put William Blair
1:08:45in that category of we have continued to
1:08:47build out our programs to support
1:08:49diverse and emerging entrepreneurs. We
1:08:51are continue continuing to advance
1:08:53conversations around women and wealth.
1:08:55Um, so I would I would kind of challenge
1:08:57to say did the company believe in it to
1:08:59begin with, right? And again, I think
1:09:01you can get that from a sustainability
1:09:03report. You can get a sense for are they
1:09:04still communicating in ways that are
1:09:06going to connect. Um, and then again, I
1:09:08think you've got to connect with the
1:09:10people at the company. So there's the
1:09:11brand, but then there's the people
1:09:13behind that brand and have
1:09:14conversations. You know, I know this
1:09:17isn't corporate specific, but when we
1:09:19were talking earlier about the nextgen,
1:09:21convene, you know, [clears throat] bring
1:09:23people together. This is one of the most
1:09:25powerful tools we have right now. Um
1:09:28we're hosting a session coming up on
1:09:30building financial resiliency for
1:09:31nonprofits. We're bringing this back
1:09:33again this year because the power of
1:09:35convening has been so powerful. Um in
1:09:38these types of conversations where you
1:09:40can ask someone one-off like what's
1:09:41going on in your company like what are
1:09:43you seeing? Or here's what's happening
1:09:45in my company. Um you know I might maybe
1:09:48a company is downsizing its community
1:09:50engagement teams or its DEI teams. It's
1:09:52like let's create spaces where people
1:09:54can have conversation and we can support
1:09:56each other. Um but I think it comes down
1:09:59to did the company really believe in it
1:10:00to begin with and if they do and they
1:10:04are still advancing create those
1:10:06conversations, those spaces to bring
1:10:08people together to talk about how
1:10:09collectively we can continue to advance
1:10:11DEI and equity. Um, and again, I I think
1:10:14if anyone is experiencing a deficit in
1:10:17these funding spaces, let's talk about
1:10:19how to put those business plans together
1:10:21um to get the word out because I think
1:10:23in those other blocks of individual and
1:10:25foundation funders,
1:10:27there is a pipeline of funding that can
1:10:29be filled and let's let's partner in
1:10:31that pursuit.
1:10:34Deafany, any perspective from you? I
1:10:36know your core value of your practice is
1:10:39equity centered um as relates to your
1:10:42work with your partners. Any perspective
1:10:45on what you observe from the families
1:10:47whom you're working with?
1:10:49>> Yeah, I think as as far as it relates to
1:10:53um the DEI focus and and all those types
1:10:56of um equity issues, uh we have not seen
1:11:00a pullback at all. Um granted we have um
1:11:04you know a a
1:11:06you know selected group of of folks
1:11:08who've you know wanted to work with our
1:11:10firm. So it's a a unique group. It's
1:11:13definitely not representative of the uh
1:11:15populace in general.
1:11:17>> But I will say that um increasingly I
1:11:21think folks are looking to find ways
1:11:24that work for their particular family or
1:11:28their foundation of how they can
1:11:30contribute. We have in we have seen a
1:11:32huge increase uh in the number of uh
1:11:35individuals and their affiliated
1:11:37institutions wanting to make um
1:11:40contributions towards uh democracy um
1:11:44race uh social justice type issues race
1:11:47and social justice as an umbrella
1:11:49through a number of different issue
1:11:51areas. So it may be through housing, it
1:11:53may be through um the environment, all
1:11:56these sorts of things. Um, we also lead
1:11:59a uh a cohort of family entity CEOs. And
1:12:04some of these family CEOs, these family
1:12:06entity CEOs are family members
1:12:08themselves or they may be non-family.
1:12:11And many of them almost every time we
1:12:14get together, we're talking about ways
1:12:16that um they are increasing their uh
1:12:20legal budgets. Um they are prepared and
1:12:24ready to uh fight on the behalf of their
1:12:27own foundation as well as their grantees
1:12:30>> if there are a sense that there may be
1:12:32any kinds of threats against them
1:12:34because of the work that they have been
1:12:36doing you know since since they've been
1:12:39founding but the environment has changed
1:12:41and so I think a lot of folks are
1:12:43starting I am seeing um folks feeling
1:12:46emboldened um ready to put their dollars
1:12:50to work in different ways And does that
1:12:52mean for some maybe their their grant
1:12:54making has shifted and it's not
1:12:55necessarily making grants but instead
1:12:58they are supporting their beneficiaries
1:13:00with hey use our legal team instead go
1:13:03ahead do what you want to do if you're
1:13:05worried we we have lawyered up you can
1:13:07use our we have supported and helped uh
1:13:11facilitate those kinds of relationships
1:13:13and sometimes these are equally if not
1:13:15more important than grant dollars
1:13:17because there's so many ways that we can
1:13:20leverage
1:13:21power influence
1:13:23um and real um you know real activation
1:13:27of change um using families because in a
1:13:31way they don't have they can move faster
1:13:34to your point Cecilia they can move
1:13:36faster and when they feel good and they
1:13:37know exactly where they're going they
1:13:39will move very very quickly because they
1:13:42can they don't have this big old board
1:13:44that they've got to get everybody you
1:13:46know
1:13:47>> um all in line for usually it's like
1:13:49three or four people and they've already
1:13:50been around the table anyway. Um, so
1:13:53they're ready to go. So, we're seeing a
1:13:54lot of that. And I'll just give one
1:13:56example.
1:13:57>> Um, when I'm done, I'll put it in the
1:13:59chat, but it's uh one family. They're
1:14:02based in Washington, and we have offices
1:14:04in Seattle and in Chicago. This happens
1:14:06to be a a Washington-based client. Uh,
1:14:09and they created an instit in
1:14:11institution called the Share Fund. And
1:14:13this is about sharing power, sharing
1:14:15influence, the sharf fun.org.
1:14:18and they have decided uh with and I work
1:14:21with them as well as with their finance
1:14:23team to basically kind of invert their
1:14:26estate planning. They want to draw down
1:14:28their estate, their entire estate, not
1:14:30their charitable estate,
1:14:32>> their entire estate while they're alive.
1:14:35>> They have put out uh they've put their
1:14:38their funds into the hands of a
1:14:41community group. So basically they have
1:14:43a an seven executives, people who are
1:14:46not um a part of their family to make
1:14:50grants uh around the state of Washington
1:14:52based on gender justice and racial
1:14:55justice.
1:14:56>> Um and it's a power sharing move and
1:14:58it's a way to really kind of fund this
1:15:01kind of work
1:15:03>> tax advantage group agnostic. So they
1:15:06give to political groups, they give to
1:15:08individuals, they give to C3s and C4s,
1:15:12and they use a number of different um uh
1:15:15vehicles to do that. So, I just I just
1:15:18wanted to sort of share that as an
1:15:19example of just the ways that I think
1:15:22when families can really see and when
1:15:24organizations getting back to our
1:15:26nonprofits here, when organizations can
1:15:29really kind of tell their story and what
1:15:31the need is, what they're seeing, um
1:15:34families can be very very creative, I
1:15:36think, with the right support on how on
1:15:39how they can help and actually really
1:15:42create this um broader community
1:15:44capacity. I love that, Stephanie. And I
1:15:46love, you know, sharerf fun.org. We will
1:15:48definitely take a look at that. I don't
1:15:50even want to open the door to talk about
1:15:52the giving pledge and everything that's
1:15:54been transpiring with that because that
1:15:57that could be a whole another webinar on
1:15:59its own in terms of really. But anyway,
1:16:03Cecilia, did you have anything else to
1:16:05to add relative to inclusivity, equity
1:16:09practices, and your partners?
1:16:15Oh, I think um I've seen the same
1:16:17patterns that others have discussed. I
1:16:20will note that um with the organizations
1:16:22in our network, uh what it really
1:16:25demonstrated for us was the importance
1:16:27of diversifying the sources of funding.
1:16:30uh because it was clear that the biggest
1:16:33hits were beyond the government, both
1:16:36state and local. Also corporate funders
1:16:39who felt like they would get targeted um
1:16:41if they continued to support
1:16:43organizations who said they were giving
1:16:46scholarships to African-American
1:16:47students, for example. Um we we did some
1:16:51small grants to many of those to kind of
1:16:53help with what we called stabilization.
1:16:56And I think many of them are now finding
1:16:58that they're finding other sources of
1:17:00funds or that some of the funding has
1:17:02come back that initially was withdrawn.
1:17:04So that's on the plus side and we we
1:17:07actually have a LinkedIn post today on
1:17:08Liver for Change where we report out on
1:17:10what we've been seeing from the
1:17:11organization side.
1:17:13>> Great. We will make sure to include that
1:17:15in our resources u when we report back
1:17:18out to this group. Um, I know that we
1:17:21have it's time for questions and if we
1:17:24have time at the end, I'll come back to
1:17:26a final wrap-up question. So, Sharon,
1:17:28I'm going to turn it over to you, you
1:17:30because I know you've been curating the
1:17:32questions from the chat. Yeah, just um
1:17:35one question was around uh whether or
1:17:38not Given USA distinguishes between cash
1:17:41versus inind donations from corporations
1:17:44and the report doesn't um doesn't
1:17:47distinguish that but Brenda my
1:17:49recollection that it's about 50% of all
1:17:51corporate giving is inind giving. Do you
1:17:53have a different understanding around
1:17:56that?
1:17:56>> That's that's exactly right.
1:17:58>> Yeah. Um, and then, uh, there there was
1:18:01also a question, uh, from Kate around,
1:18:05um, several high high-profile instances
1:18:07of mega donors shifting their gifts away
1:18:10from foundations or nonprofits to LLC's
1:18:12and other entities. And Danielle gave a
1:18:15a good response to that, but I I want to
1:18:18also invite the panelists if there's a
1:18:21perception of that becoming a trend or
1:18:23if that's kind of an isolated thing
1:18:25that's happening in certaini situations.
1:18:30I might just chime in to say that I
1:18:32would from where I sit I do see this as
1:18:34a trend um particularly um especially I
1:18:39think uh donors on well younger donors
1:18:43I'd say under 50 particularly techdriven
1:18:46so of course we see it a lot on the west
1:18:48coast
1:18:49>> um because they want to really kind of
1:18:51use as many levers as possible I I just
1:18:53mentioned this about the share fund part
1:18:55of the share fund is behind it as an LLC
1:18:57>> as well as staff s um but we have a
1:19:00number of our clients that have
1:19:01foundation staffs and LLC's and it
1:19:04allows people to give based on values
1:19:08that are tax agnostic. So if you're
1:19:11support if you're supporting you know
1:19:13gender gender justice you want to be
1:19:16able to give politically. You want to be
1:19:18able to give to an advocacy organization
1:19:19a C4 and then you want to also give to
1:19:22C3s. So, it's just a way for people. I
1:19:25think it's a I think it's a good thing
1:19:27because it I think more money moves and
1:19:29it's not just money that's set aside for
1:19:31charity and the and the and the C3
1:19:33giving bucket, but it really allows
1:19:35donors to uh lean more deeply into the
1:19:39issues that they care about by giving
1:19:40across the spectrum.
1:19:43>> I agree. And I and I think too, just to
1:19:46add on to that a little bit, I think the
1:19:47more education that we can provide um
1:19:51nonprofits because we're certainly doing
1:19:53this with families. Um you know, just
1:19:56because you're getting a donation from a
1:19:57DAFF a doesn't mean that's the only
1:19:59entity in several like I'm glad we
1:20:02talked about multiple entities. Um the
1:20:04other trend is um venture investing. So,
1:20:08um, you know, uh, looking at having a
1:20:11multitude of vehicles, um, if you're
1:20:14doing, uh, for-profit investing, if
1:20:16you're using taxable versus non-T
1:20:18taxable assets, DAFFs have a different,
1:20:22um, you know, capability than
1:20:24foundations. LLC's have a different
1:20:26capability than DAFFs. realize that
1:20:28these entities sometimes like there's a
1:20:31you know a broader like this is the
1:20:32family's philanthropies
1:20:34and underneath that there's several
1:20:36different ways that they do their grant
1:20:39making their venture philanthropy their
1:20:41advocacy work etc. So make sure you're
1:20:44taking time to get to know your donors
1:20:46and and not assume that there's just one
1:20:48or two entities that they're being
1:20:51philanthropic through.
1:20:54>> Thank you. And I wanted to uh share a
1:20:56question from Andrew and I think Laura
1:20:58it's in response to what you were
1:20:59sharing and he's asking what are ways
1:21:02for small nonprofits to participate in
1:21:04and benefit in the shift in giving for
1:21:07instance investing in pilots may be a
1:21:10good way to connect nextgen donors to
1:21:12smaller nonprofits who are consistently
1:21:15field leaders in terms of resourceful
1:21:18creative problem solving to important
1:21:20issues. and his point is, you know, what
1:21:23are the what are your ideas on how to
1:21:25help level the playing field for um
1:21:28nonprofits of all sizes to be um seen as
1:21:33um you know a a place for uh donors to
1:21:36invest.
1:21:38>> Yeah, I would say two things and we are
1:21:40seeing a it's not necessarily a shift
1:21:42but I think with NextGen in particular,
1:21:44they're they're they're looking at
1:21:45organizations that their impact can be
1:21:49seen. They they want to support
1:21:51organizations where a $10 $5,000 gift
1:21:54can have purpose and meaning. So there's
1:21:57a little bit of storytelling in there,
1:21:59right? Like this and impact means
1:22:01different things to different people.
1:22:02I'm talking about like does my $10,000
1:22:05gift matter, right? Like if that's if
1:22:07that's show me how that makes a
1:22:09difference. Um the second thing is
1:22:11adaptability um and being as
1:22:13contemporary as possible in your
1:22:15mission. So I think um looking less at
1:22:18this is our mission and this is what our
1:22:20mission must be and it is you know kind
1:22:23of on the hearth of everything that we
1:22:24do. What's the adaptability of your
1:22:26mission to serve now? Um we are finding
1:22:29next generation donors to be very
1:22:31episodic. Um they're responsive which is
1:22:34fantastic. Um at the same time they they
1:22:37want to see and I think especially for
1:22:39small smaller organizations that have
1:22:41more adaptability and agility um lean
1:22:44into that. Um and then I would say the
1:22:47last thing is you know don't assume
1:22:48because you're not a larger organization
1:22:50that you can't have a sophisticated plan
1:22:51giving program that you can't attract uh
1:22:54very complex type of assets. So um
1:22:58that's something we're launching a
1:22:59nonprofit practice at William Blair.
1:23:01happy to share more about that later.
1:23:03But um the whole point is to develop
1:23:05resiliency for all types and sizes of
1:23:07nonprofits. So just because you're small
1:23:10doesn't mean that you're not mighty and
1:23:12you can't attract the same type of
1:23:13capital as larger institutions.
1:23:16>> One of the things that we've been trying
1:23:18to educate donors a little bit about is
1:23:20to to focus more on the nature of the
1:23:23work and the size of the problem than on
1:23:25the size of the organization. From the
1:23:28nonprofit's perspective, that means that
1:23:30you should have a big vision, but you
1:23:32also need an engineering plan. How
1:23:34you're going to get from A to B in order
1:23:36to persuade the donor that indeed making
1:23:39a big investment in you makes sense.
1:23:44>> Great framing.
1:23:45>> Save time. Uh, Brenda, for your final
1:23:48question before we wrap up. Yeah, I I I
1:23:50love it, Cecilia, where this is an
1:23:53opportunity and a moment for
1:23:54organizations to really be bold in their
1:23:56thinking, right? And so my my wrap-up
1:23:59question for each of you is um as as our
1:24:03nonprofit leaders, you know, leave our
1:24:06meeting and time together today, what is
1:24:10one action
1:24:12that you would advise them to take to
1:24:15strengthen their organization over the
1:24:17next 12 months? What would you say the
1:24:20one thing that you think is going to be
1:24:22important to them? Unlocking
1:24:23opportunities, creating their
1:24:24sustainability and resiliency. Cecilia,
1:24:28>> well, I'm going to start because we
1:24:29haven't talked about AI and that is that
1:24:31you need to think about making your
1:24:33organization AI literate and ask
1:24:35yourself two big questions. The first is
1:24:37just what are ways we can make ourselves
1:24:39more efficient and do our current work
1:24:41better. But the other important one
1:24:43that's sometimes neglected is how is it
1:24:45going to change what the needs are in
1:24:47our community? How is it going to change
1:24:50the landscape in which we're operating?
1:24:52How do how do we need to think about
1:24:54doing our work differently, not just
1:24:55more efficiently?
1:24:58>> Thank you,
1:25:00Stephanie.
1:25:01>> Thank you, Cecilia, for bringing up AI
1:25:04because I was thinking in my head just
1:25:06one thing um and AI was on my list and
1:25:10just to tag on to yours, I I would just
1:25:12say making it discoverable in in AI.
1:25:14This is no long we're no longer in a SEO
1:25:16world.
1:25:17>> That's right. Um u so you can you can
1:25:20chat chat that up and seeing what that
1:25:23actually means. But being discoverable
1:25:25via AI I think is a really
1:25:27>> is a really important thing. But the the
1:25:30other two not one that I was going to
1:25:32say
1:25:32>> okay
1:25:33>> talk to your most loyal donors about
1:25:35investing in yourselves and in your
1:25:37staff. Um, and what I mean by that is
1:25:40succession planning, investing in
1:25:42leadership capacity, paying market rate
1:25:44salaries, you know, so you can reduce
1:25:45the turnover and attract top talent. And
1:25:48I say that because
1:25:50I think active and more sophisticated
1:25:52donors increasingly are starting to view
1:25:54them or want to view themselves and are
1:25:57more as partners than just financial
1:26:00contributors. So I think you can afford
1:26:04to be honest and transparent.
1:26:07um about the challenges that you're
1:26:10facing, what you're seeing coming that's
1:26:12coming ahead of you, while still also
1:26:14sharing some successes um because they
1:26:16want to understand the full picture of
1:26:18what your organization is going through.
1:26:21So, you want to try to guide these
1:26:22donors towards behaviors that you think
1:26:24are going to be the most helpful to you,
1:26:26focusing on authentic relationships and
1:26:29the kind of impact that I think they and
1:26:31you want. And a lot of that
1:26:33authenticity, I would say, comes from
1:26:35the young ones hiring Gen Z's um because
1:26:40they can do that really well. So that's
1:26:42I'll leave it.
1:26:43>> Thank you, Stephanie. Laura.
1:26:45>> Yeah, and I just I wanted to also just
1:26:47briefly mention one of the questions in
1:26:49the chat around um enterprise
1:26:51transformation. I just I think that ties
1:26:53to AI. I just want to double click on
1:26:54that because I thought it was a great
1:26:56question. How are you seeing
1:26:57sophisticated donors respond to the
1:26:59requests that focus on organizational
1:27:00transformation? My answer is just yes.
1:27:03Great question. Enterprise
1:27:04transformation, fundable, do it, let's
1:27:07go. Um, you know, I I think, you know,
1:27:10be bold. These are huge um exciting
1:27:13times as it relates to the types of
1:27:15problems that we both have and that we
1:27:17have the capability to solve. And I
1:27:19think philanthropy is proving to us that
1:27:21it will be there um as we solve these
1:27:24very complex problems that are surmount
1:27:26they're getting larger. Um so let's be
1:27:28bold. Let's let's let's let's go out
1:27:31there and fund raise and and empower
1:27:33ourselves to bring the expertise to the
1:27:36table to solve these problems. Um I say
1:27:38that then with my final which is take
1:27:41care of yourselves, right? like this is
1:27:43this this is um a very um emotional and
1:27:47passiondriven field. Um so you know take
1:27:50the time to rely on other people to all
1:27:52of us um each other um so we can keep
1:27:55moving but but be well and and realize
1:27:58that that this is difficult and also
1:28:00very exciting work that we're in.
1:28:02[clears throat]
1:28:03>> Thank you so much for such an enriching
1:28:06engaging conversation this afternoon.
1:28:09Laura, Stephanie, Cecilia, Sharon,
1:28:12Cecil, um, Danielle. I also want to
1:28:15acknowledge other team members who've
1:28:17been behind the scenes making this
1:28:19possible. Remy, Kaden, Alexis, thank you
1:28:23all for your great work and making this
1:28:25session possible. And most importantly,
1:28:27I want to thank all of you for taking
1:28:29time out to really be thought partners
1:28:32with us. Hopefully, you've picked up a
1:28:35number of great ideas that you can take
1:28:37back to try within your organization.
1:28:40Um, we're we're asking you to support
1:28:42our survey, which should be coming out
1:28:44shortly. And again, for nearly 47 years,
1:28:47Alpha Group has been honored to stand
1:28:49alongside um social impact leaders to
1:28:52help you build resilience, diversify
1:28:54your revenue, and secure your long-term
1:28:57sustainability. You don't have to
1:28:59rewrite this playbook alone. So again,
1:29:01take care of yourselves. Thank you all
1:29:03so very much. If you have any follow-up
1:29:05questions, please don't hesitate to
1:29:07reach out. Reach out. So again, all good
1:29:10things and we look forward to being in
1:29:12touch. Thank you everyone. Enjoy the
1:29:14rest of your day.
1:29:15>> Thank you, Brenda.
1:29:16>> You Thank you, Brenda Alfred Group.
1:29:18Thank you.
1:29:18>> Thank you.

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