Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, we dig into ways to retain small-dollar donors and make them feel valued. We also look at one youth-development nonprofit’s strategy of engaging their most committed donors when government funding evaporates.

I’m M.J. Prest, contributing editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write to me.

Thanks to our sponsor DonorPerfect for supporting Fundraising Update.

Small-Dollar Donors, Big-Picture Vision

Donors who give less than $500 annually don’t typically get the red-carpet treatment, but advances in technology make it easier to treat your small-dollar donors like royalty, writes Allison Fine, president of the online-giving nonprofit Every.org and a regular contributor to the Chronicle.

Fundraisers have always treated major donors well, Fine notes. After a big gift, they send donors personal updates, write handwritten thank-you notes, and take them out to lunch. What if there were a way to do relational fundraising at scale, and offer smaller donors the same personal touch?

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Scaling your relational fundraising prioritizes genuine connection and communications over efficiency. It enables organizations to build relationships with donors at every level and make each one feel like a valued partner in your mission work. This approach recognizes donors as not just financial supporters, but potential advocates, ambassadors, and collaborators.

The pivot to relational fundraising at scale involves three steps: mindset, reset, and practice.

Mindset. Organizational leadership must prioritize relational fundraising. Being relational means sharing stories with donors and asking them what they think and want, rather than making assumptions and broadcasting messages at them. A new fundraising mindset also embraces experimentation as a way to learn how to engage with donors in ways that land as more meaningful and personal.

Reset. After centering the interests and needs of donors, organizations must rethink their fundraising, which begins in the boardroom. Boards often drive transactional fundraising because of their focus on “cash-in-the-door.” Instead, organizations should be laser-focused on donor-retention rates. How many donors made a second gift? Why? The second question requires asking donors why they renewed, a habit that will be new to most organizations.

Practice. Becoming relational fundraisers requires practice. Organizations need to get in the habit of asking donors before acting. They need to learn how to speak “with” them, not “at” them. It requires holding the financial panic at bay and not asking for donations as often. And it means potentially hearing that donors do not like your current communications or don’t find your efforts compelling enough to give again.

Finally, technology holds the key to bringing relational fundraising to scale. Rewriting fundraisers’ habits and norms is made possible by the responsible use of artificial intelligence tools.

Used well, AI can make fundraising more personal — not less — by customizing outreach based on donor preferences and history; ensuring timely, thoughtful communication; and freeing up staff to engage in real conversations with donors.

For more ideas to make every donor feel like they matter, check out the rest of the article.

Need to Know

“It’s a scary period. Understand what your personal mission is. Where is your heart? And then, stick with it, and support the mission as much as you can. And get your colleagues and peers to do the same thing.”

— Georgia Wall, who has donated $12.6 million to the youth-development nonprofit Graham Windham over the past decade.

As many nonprofits see their federal funding disappear amid the Trump administration’s slashes to spending, securing more gifts from reliable supporters will be the ticket to keeping programs going, writes my colleague Rasheeda Childress.

Graham Windham was co-founded more than 200 years ago by Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, the widow of the Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, along with Isabella Graham and other friends. For the past 30 of those years, Georgia Wall and her husband, Don Gogel, have volunteered and donated millions to sustain its programs through many ups and downs.

The current political landscape poses myriad challenges to hitting your fundraising targets, but Wall and Gogel say leaders must communicate to their key donors what is at stake and identify the most crucial work they do.

“The important thing here is for each organization to say, look, if we’re going to have that much less money, what do we do best? How can we have the biggest impact?” Gogel says. “If you just put your head in the sand now, you’re not going to fulfill your mission.”

He encourages donors to take the initiative with their favorite causes through volunteering and talking to staff about key priorities.

“I’m an optimist. I think the pendulum will be coming back,” he says. “In the interim, we need a survival strategy. We’ve got to be resilient, keep the faith and importantly, concentrate on your philanthropy.”

For more on how to work with your biggest donors during difficult times, read the rest of Rasheeda’s story.

Plus …

• H. Art Taylor will take the helm of the Association of Fundraising Professionals on April 1. He has decades of experience with nonprofits and giving, having served as CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance for the past 23 years. Taylor follows Mike Geiger, who announced last May that he would depart after seven years leading AFP.

  Roger Ali, AFP Global Board chair, told my colleague Rasheeda Childress that Taylor’s knowledge of the sector and leadership skills make him a good fit for the role, which will start amid a period of uncertainty due to government cutbacks.

  “He understands the importance of innovation as we are tackling unusual times we have to navigate through,” Ali says. “The road — it’s not clear where we will go. Art brings that deep knowledge, but also the insights of how we can travel together as AFP collectively. Our members need that right now because they’re also looking for answers. What will their future hold? And how can AFP be a catalyst to support that change that will likely come?”

  Read more about Taylor’s appointment in Rasheeda’s article.

Gift of the Week

Three arts groups in Milwaukee received a combined $15 million from Ellen and Joe Checota to bolster their endowments. The couple will match up to $5 million in endowment gifts from other donors to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra through the end of 2026.

Ellen Checota is an artist and jewelry designer. Joe Checota is the founder and executive chairman of Landmark Healthcare Facilities, a national real-estate developer of medical facilities with headquarters in Milwaukee.

For other notable gifts this week, read more in my Gifts Roundup column. To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly and has data going back to 2000.

Advice & Opinion

Thomas Golisano Gave $500 Million to 125 Organizations in 2024. (Philanthropy 50) Philanthropists are eager to use their wealth for good, and fundraisers can paint a vivid picture for them by speaking with passion about their cause.

A Funder Trip to an Alaskan Native Community Shows a Better Way to Measure Impact. (Opinion) When funders take the time to go out and meet the communities they serve — to hear people’s stories, share their meals, and take part in their lives — the notion of “lived experiences” becomes more than a talking point.

What We’re Reading

Sesame Workshop is confronting a “perfect storm” of funding problems. The nonprofit group that produces the children’s television show Sesame Street has lost not only its 10-year contract with HBO, which paid $30 million to $35 million a year for rights to the show, but grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Trump administration’s distrust of public media could heap on additional cuts, reports the New York Times.

Sesame Workshop culled 20 percent of its staff a few weeks ago. Without cost cutting, the organization would face a deficit of nearly $40 million next year, according to internal documents reviewed by the newspaper. Even with the cuts, it has had to withdraw $6 million from its investment fund for the first time in more than 10 years to bridge the budget gap.

Sherrie Westin, who became its CEO last year, acknowledged that Sesame Workshop is facing economic headwinds but said she was “confident we will be able to sustain this work.”

“This is not a rejection of Sesame Street, and Sesame Street is not going away,” she said. “But we absolutely have a responsibility to change as the world around us is changing if we want to continue to deliver on our mission.”

Sesame Street, which has been a staple of children’s programming since 1969, is one of the longest-running programs in television. Its 56th season goes into production next month. (New York Times)