September 2025
The Chronicle of Philanthropy Volume 37, Issue 11Cover Stories
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LeadingA New Playbook: How Nonprofits Are Reinventing Themselves
Amid the chaos of 2025, organizations are adapting and innovating to survive. The new approaches might eventually make them stronger. -
Leading
Mergers Have Become a Lifeline for Nonprofits. Will Foundations Help Cover the Costs?
Charities are looking for strategic partners to survive a rough 2025, and they hope foundations — which have long pushed for consolidation — will help pay for the mergers. -
Leading
The DEI Dilemma: Double Down or Back Down?
In a year of tests for nonprofit leaders, one of the most challenging decisions is whether to take a public stand for diversity and inclusion.
The Tax Law and Giving
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The Tax Law and Giving
Will the New $2,000 Tax Break Bring Back Everyday Donors?
Some experts are optimistic that a deduction for people who don’t itemize can reverse a long-term decline in donors. -
The Tax Law and Giving
Big Gifts and the New Tax Law: Boom Now, Bust Later?
High-earners may make big gifts in 2025, but their giving may decline next year. -
The Tax Law and Giving
The Tax Law’s Big Win for Charities Makes DAF Giving Trickier
It may slow everyday donors’ adoption of DAFs — and lead some DAF donors to alternate between itemizing their taxes and taking the standard deduction.
Feature
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Philanthropy Impact
8 Things a Mega-Donor Did Right to Engineer a ‘Miracle’
How $160 million from Netscape pioneer Jim Barksdale — a newcomer to social-change philanthropy — helped make schools in his native Mississippi a source of pride, not shame.
Departments
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The Face of Philanthropy
Celebrating a Free-Flowing River
Indigenous youths kayaked the 310-mile length of the Klamath River in a monthlong descent organized by the nonprofit Ríos to Rivers. -
Careers
Sabbaticals Strengthen Leaders and Nonprofits: Here’s How to Recharge
Five nonprofit heads share insights about their recent sabbaticals. Here are their top tips on how and why to take time to recharge, even during challenging moments — and come back stronger. -
Case Study
How the Reeve Foundation Tripled Its Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Revenue
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, started by the late Superman actor and his wife, raises more than $1 million a year by coaching volunteers to throw uplifting events on its behalf.
Opinion
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Communities
How to Ditch Grand Strategies and Focus on How Change Really Happens
Philanthropy reflexively tries to solve problems with sweeping plans. Instead, fix what matters most to people — from a broken stoplight to education — to set off a chain reaction of community-driven action. -
Opinion
Adapt or Resist? How to Survive the Threat of Political Litmus Tests for Federal Grants
A new executive order gives presidential appointees the power to reward allies and punish opponents. Here are seven actions nonprofits can take to lessen the blow. -
Opinion
Philanthropy’s Road Forward: 6 Takeaways From Traveling the U.S. in Precarious Times
Over seven weeks, 22 book tour events, and discussions with thousands of funders, the message was clear: the structures of the past are damaging the sector and must change.
