Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, we look at year-end fundraising campaigns for nonprofits across the country. Plus, we dig into 2024’s biggest charitable donations.

I’m Jie Jenny Zou, fundraising reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

Fundraising Update will be taking a hiatus for the holidays. We wish you a happy New Year and will return to your inbox on January 8, 2025.

Thanks to our sponsor Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Managementfor supporting Fundraising Update.

As 2024 draws to a close, nonprofits across the country are hoping to end the year on a high note following a robust GivingTuesday, I reported this week. Despite ongoing concerns about the strength of the U.S. economy, donors gave $3.6 billion this GivingTuesday — a 16 percent increase from 2023.

Many nonprofits are wondering if that GivingTuesday success will carry over to the rest of their year-end. The Chronicle spoke to a sampling of nonprofits of varying sizes and causes about the results of their GivingTuesday campaigns and how their overall year-end fundraising efforts are performing so far. Many reported they were on track to meet or even exceed their annual goals.

Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh

Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego has seen an increase in both major gifts and planned giving this year, says chief philanthropy officer Jennifer June. “Things are terrific,” she says. “We have already exceeded our goal for 2024. Everything now is icing on the cake.”

The nonprofit, which is the largest provider of homeless services in San Diego, has exceeded its fundraising goal by $5 million and expects that number to grow as more end-of-year gifts pour in. Donations made in the last quarter of the year typically account for over 40 percent of Father Joe’s overall fundraising.

June credits a united messaging campaign, increased visibility from media hits, and ongoing efforts to boost planned giving for a successful fundraising year. “A lot of these donors have been with Father Joe’s for decades,” she says. “They’re now thinking about their estate plans.”

Next year, the nonprofit will celebrate its 75th anniversary and open a new 45-bed, $1.5 million detox center for unhoused individuals struggling with substance abuse.

Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a sold-out celebration in May. The nonprofit’s anniversary has featured prominently in its appeals throughout the year, including custom donor letters from board members.

For more on year-end fundraising, read my full story.

— Sum of the biggest charitable donations from individuals and their foundations in 2024

The Chronicle’s annual list of the biggest charitable donations from individuals or their foundations totaled nearly $6 billion in 2024, writes my colleague Maria Di Mento.

Half of that came from three contributions of $1 billion or more each. Two of those three gifts went to medical schools to provide financial aid. Altogether, four of the top donations on the list, totaling $2.3 billion, went to support financial aid.

Three contributions were made to donors’ own foundations, and those gifts totaled $2.3 billion as well. Three other donations supported medical research or treatment, and one gift each went to support civic engagement and arts and culture.

The list has 12 gifts, rather than 10, because of ties. Six of the donors are multibillionaires, and their combined net worth is an estimated $365 billion.

Topping the list is a gift from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, whose net worth Forbes estimates at more than $5 billion. Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, gave 2 million shares of Netflix stock valued at $1.1 billion in January to their Hastings Fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The couple started their fund in 2016 and have primarily supported education organizations, a special focus for Hastings, who taught high-school math when he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s and served as president of the California State Board of Education in the early 2000s.

For more on 2024’s largest gifts, read the full story.

The Baltimore Banner Finds Its Fundraising. As more news organizations opt for a nonprofit model, fundraising takes on a different tenor, reports my colleague Rasheeda Childress.

The Baltimore Banner launched in 2022 as one of the country’s latest nonprofit newsrooms and has sought to find its footing with the right mix of traditional media revenue — such as advertising and subscriptions — and philanthropic dollars.

At its launch, it relied primarily on philanthropy, with more than 90 percent of its funding coming from donations, according to its most recent 990. Philanthropist Stewart Bainum Jr. helped launch the news site with a $50 million pledge.

The organization would like to shift to a model that relies more on earned revenue, according to CEO Bob Cohn. To make that shift, the Banner’s fundraisers are trying to build on the rapport they have with the foundations that support the news organization, attract more individual donors, and educate the newsroom on how they do business.

For more on the Baltimore Banner’s fundraising strategy, read the full story.

James Lewis pledged $25 million to the American Library Association to support scholarships for students working toward master’s degrees in library and information science. Lewis is a financial and wealth advisor who leads the Lewis Group in the Washington office of the investment-management giant Merrill Lynch.

He is also a longtime library volunteer and spent 10 years on the Board of Trustees of the District of Columbia Public Library. He recalled in a news release vivid childhood memories of regular visits to his local library in New Bern, N.C., and added that he considers today’s libraries among the country’s “most democratic institutions.”

For other notable gifts this week, read my colleague Maria Di Mento’s 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.

How to Boost Planned Giving and Build a Healthy Future for Your Nonprofit.Cultivating legacy donors helps strengthen ties with loyal supporters and increase revenue in the near term.

Fundraisers Need to Speak Up About Their Challenges and Funders Need to Listen (Opinion). Addressing drops in giving starts by giving fundraisers enough support to excel in their jobs.

Housing Nonprofit Gets Second Gift from MacKenzie Scott. Just four years after receiving a game-changing $50 million donation from MacKenzie Scott, a housing nonprofit based in Maryland learned it would receive another $65 million from the mega philanthropist.

Enterprise Community Partners works nationwide on affordable housing projects and is one of the largest nonprofit developers, operating 116 apartment communities across the mid-Atlantic region. Scott is estimated to be worth at least $32 billion and has promised to give away at least half of her wealth during her lifetime. To date, her foundation has gifted over $17 billion to over 2,300 nonprofits. (The Baltimore Banner)