Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, we look at how fundraisers can respond to drops in online giving in the wake of higher tariffs. Plus, we dig into ways you can raise money and reduce polarization.

I’m Rasheeda Childress, senior editor for fundraising at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

Thanks to our sponsor GoFundMePro for supporting Fundraising Update.

Online donors are pulling back in the wake of President Trump’s tariff announcements and the accompanying stock-market volatility, according to several big fundraising companies, reports my colleague Ben Gose.

Experts disagree on how fundraisers should proceed, with some urging caution and others saying charities need to push ahead with ambitious campaigns — a strategy choice reminiscent of what groups faced in the pandemic’s early days.

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Zeffy, a company whose fee-free online platform is used by about 50,000 charities, reported the most severe downturn in giving. Donated dollars were largely flat for the year until Trump announced a host of tariffs in early April. After that, Zeffy saw donations drop precipitously. For the week ending April 14, donations declined by about a quarter. The next week, they plunged by 37 percent, from about $29 million in 2024 to $18 million.

“People are feeling worried and more risk averse,” says CEO François de Kerret. “They’re probably postponing their donations for later in the year.”

At Donorbox, which works with 35,000 charities, 2025 was shaping up to be a banner year. Donations were up 30 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago. But in April, the amount of money raised dropped nearly 11 percent, says Sara Guappone, the company’s marketing director.

Bloomerang, which about 26,000 charities use, saw mixed performance in April, said Ann Fellman, the charity’s chief marketing officer. Speaking after a session of the AFP Icon conference for fundraisers in Seattle, Fellman said she was hearing from others that many donors are holding off on making large gifts.

De Kerret says a decline in large gifts drove the plunge in Zeffy fundraising. In the two weeks of sharp declines that started April 7 — donations under $500 declined by only about 30 percent in total dollars, while those of $500 or more were cut in half.

“If they can delay, and they don’t have any reason to do it now, I would wait a few months,” he says.

But others say it’s always a good time to ask, if you do it in the right way. GivingTuesday’s preliminary first-quarter data shows that donors are more receptive to solicitations than normal, while charities are making fewer asks.

“If we don’t see donations go up, it’s going to be because nonprofits have retreated from the marketplace,” says Woodrow Rosenbaum, GivingTuesday’s chief data officer and head of its GivingPulse survey of Americans. “They don’t engage because they think things are going to be bad. Then when it doesn’t work out well, they validate the choice they’ve made.”

For more advice on how fundraisers can respond, read the rest of Ben’s story.

$3.6 billion
— Amount nonprofits raised last year on GivingTuesday

What if GivingTuesday campaigns could raise more money — and tap generosity to fix polarization?

Those are the twin goals of a new effort by GivingTuesday, the nonprofit behind the annual post-Thanksgiving giving spree that last year raised $3.6 billion, a record for the event. In June, the organization will start an “accelerator” to help create community-wide giving and volunteering campaigns through which it believes nonprofits can raise more money, bring people together, and earn trust, reports my colleague Drew Lindsay.

The accelerator initially will target states in the South, and particularly rural areas that lack the big organizations or philanthropic machinery to organize such campaigns. Ultimately GivingTuesday wants to ensure that community-wide giving events touch every county.

“There is generosity in every county of this nation,” CEO Asha Curran says. “There’s no doubt about that, but there is not adequate infrastructure” to create the campaigns to connect people and build the events.

With the accelerator, GivingTuesday aims to build upon the success of about 300 community campaigns that have come together organically in its 13-year history. Such fundraising drives remain digitally focused — a GivingTuesday trademark — but depart from the traditional script, in which organizations run individual campaigns.

Instead, businesses, houses of worship, nonprofits, and government entities mount a joint effort. Curran describes them as “philanthropic county fairs” — not because they have cotton candy and Ferris wheels, but because they aim to celebrate a community, its people, and its generosity.

These celebrations raise 90 percent more money and attract 85 percent more donors than what communities see when individual groups go it alone, according to GivingTuesday data. With federal cuts hitting nonprofits hard, local groups need the additional cash and support, Curran says.

For more on this initiative, read the rest of Drew’s story.

• AFP ICON Is a Wrap. I was at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual ICON conference last week. Lots of good data in the books, and we tried something new this year, discussing hot topics on LinkedIn.

  My colleague Krista Niles kindly edited and posted videos I made from the conference. If you missed what was happening, here’s the skinny on AI discussion at the conference, along with tips from a nonprofit that uses personas to boost its digital fundraising game. Other posts looked at how to improve fundraising through digital storytelling and bolstering branding to make fundraising easier.

  On the last day of the conference, I was pleasantly surprised to see Beth Hatcher, CEO of Beth Interactive, use a chart from my story on midlevel giving, in her session, “It’s Time to Pay Attention to Gen X and Millennials.” At that session, Hatcher and other panelists discussed how Gen X and millennials will benefit from the Great Wealth Transfer, so it’s important to get them connected to your charity now.

Sima Needleman and her family gave $20 million to the National Academy of Sciences. The gift will launch the Philip and Sima Needleman Family Legacy Fund, which will support two of the foundation’s programs.

The first program is the existing NAS Frontiers of Science program, which brings together young scientists to learn about research in disciplines outside their own and build a network of colleagues from a variety of worldwide institutions. The second is a new effort that aims to address national and global challenges in science, engineering, and medicine.

Philip Needleman is Sima Needleman’s late husband, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 and died last year at 85.

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.

7 Tips to Kickstart Monthly Giving and Boost Your Nonprofit’s Financial Health. Expert advice to help you build a monthly giving program that delivers, from setting up the systems and tools you’ll need to finding potential donors and ensuring they stick around.

Why We Stopped Asking for General Operating Support (Opinion).When a financially stable nonprofit vacuums up precious dollars, smaller organizations lose out.

States sue to preserve nonprofit funding. Ever since the Trump administration announced cuts to already allocated funding, some of it contractual, nonprofits have stepped in to sue for funding they were owed. States are getting into the act, too.

Twenty-one states won an injunction to stop the administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency which provides federal funding to libraries and museums across the country, reports NPR.

“When the Trump Administration attempts to dismantle these agencies, it is making a targeted, concerted effort to prohibit everyday people from accessing their full potential,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.

The IMLS has a $294 million budget, and many museums and libraries saw funding cut after Trump issued the executive order the federal judge just halted. (NPR)