Will last year’s headline-grabbing donor revolts continue to convulse the philanthropic world in 2025? Maybe not, my colleague Rasheeda Childress reports, but charities ought to be prepared for possible flare-ups and fissures as they settle into what’s sure to be a politically charged year.
When megadonors like Bill Ackman and Jon Huntsman withdrew funding — and publicly condemned — institutions like Harvard last year for their responses to campus protests, it sent shockwaves through the nonprofit world, and fundraisers feared politics would bleed irreversibly into donor relationships.
While the temperature of those disagreements seems to have eased in recent months, writes Rasheeda, “the increased polarization nationwide is still there and is likely to spill over into relationships between donors and the organizations they support” in the year ahead.
Navigating those conflicts will require that nonprofits take steps to anticipate and — where possible — avoid the kind of friction that could compromise longstanding donor relationships and support. That’s easier said than done, but building genuine, open relationships with donors is a great place to start.
“Have those regular communications with donors, really tapping into what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling,” Carla Willis, a managing partner at Washburn & McGoldrick, told Rasheeda. That way, donors will feel comfortable having tough and inclusive conversations even when disagreements arise.
That doesn’t mean that charities need to bend to the whims of their donors when their values don’t align on a particular issue. Laura MacDonald, president of the fundraising consultancy Benefactor Group, told Rasheeda that she once had a client’s donors become skittish when the college’s athletes began kneeling during the national anthem.
Instead of avoiding the confrontation, “the institution, to its credit, really used that as a teachable moment, both with the students and also with donors — talking to them about the fact that we’re shaping 18- and 19-year-olds here, and it ended up in a very constructive conversation,” said MacDonald. “As a result, some of the donors leaned back into supporting the organization.”
For more on what charities and institutions ought to know about donor disagreements in 2025, read Rasheeda’s piece: The Donor Revolt May Be Behind Us, but Fundraisers Can Expect Tensions, Dust-Ups. You may also want to check out our previous coverage of what donor revolts mean for fundraising, advice for keeping tough conversations civil, and what experts say about nonprofits making political statements.
Have a lovely week,
Sara Herschander
Staff Reporter
