Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Monday, June 29, 2026
Nonprofit AI Survey Reveals Sharp Gaps Between Leaders and Laggards in Adoption and Outcomes
A new Blackbaud Institute report, “Bridging the Effectiveness Gap,” found that only 10 percent of surveyed nonprofits have moved beyond AI experimentation, with 75 percent reporting fragmented use across their organizations. The survey polled 1,389 social impact professionals and 1,034 donors in March 2026. A significant data-readiness gap emerged: fewer than 20 percent of AI-Emerging organizations have excellent access to real-time rate data, compared to 38 percent of AI-Adaptive organizations. On donor trust, 76 percent of donors want AI use disclosed while only 26 percent of organizations provide it. Nonprofits in the AI-Adaptive category were twice as likely to exceed revenue goals—34 percent versus 17 percent.
Sources: The NonProfit Times Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Organizers Launch Next250 Initiative Around Five-Point Declaration of Interdependence
Writing in Nonprofit Quarterly, organizers Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez-Jordan, and Saru Jayaraman announced the Next250 initiative, a coalition that has engaged more than 2,500 people across 40-plus base-building organizations. The initiative centers on a Declaration of Interdependence built around five principles: a living wage, climate justice, reproductive justice, voting rights, and gun safety. The authors called for a June 27 mobilization in Washington, D.C., framing the moment as one for building rather than celebrating. Next250 seeks to convert the energy of established social movements into durable organizing infrastructure capable of sustaining long-term change across interconnected justice issues.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Nonprofit Financial Crisis Linked to Heroic Leadership Culture, Analyst Argues
In Nonprofit Quarterly, author Brooke Richie-Babbage argues that the sector’s leadership culture—which rewards self-sacrifice and treats burnout as commitment—is not merely an operational problem but a justice issue. She cites data from the NFF 2025 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey: 36 percent of nonprofits ended 2024 with an operating deficit, the highest rate in a decade, and more than half reported fewer than three months of cash reserves. Richie-Babbage contends that board passivity transfers governance risk onto executive directors, and that multi-year unrestricted funding—the structural antidote—remains the exception rather than the norm in philanthropy.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Governance Expert Jan Masaoka Makes the Case for Board Involvement in Annual Budget Setting
Writing in Nonprofit Quarterly, governance consultant Jan Masaoka—former CEO of CalNonprofits and CompassPoint—argues that boards of all organizational sizes should be meaningfully involved in setting the annual budget. Masaoka grounds the argument in legal accountability: boards bear ultimate fiduciary responsibility and cannot discharge that duty through rubber-stamping staff proposals. She identifies four common tension points—micromanaging small line items, reflexive approval without scrutiny, fundraising targets disconnected from board commitment, and disagreements over budget components. Her prescription is to treat budget-making as a negotiation between staff and board, pairing every set of numbers with a narrative explanation of assumptions and tradeoffs.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Giving USA 2026 Reports Record $617 Billion in 2025 U.S. Charitable Contributions
The 2026 Giving USA report found that total U.S. charitable giving reached a record $617.20 billion in 2025—the first time the figure has surpassed $600 billion—a 5.7 percent increase in current dollars and 3.0 percent after inflation. Bequest giving grew 19.7 percent to $62.19 billion. Foundation giving rose 5.7 percent to $117.15 billion, its third consecutive year above $100 billion. Donor-advised fund assets reached $326.45 billion in 2024, nearly double the 2020 level, with more than 3.56 million accounts representing 15.1 percent of all contributions. The Association of Fundraising Professionals recommends organizations prioritize planned giving, donor-advised funds, qualified charitable distributions, and foundation relationships heading into year-end.
Sources: AFP Global Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
AFP Leader Connects Juneteenth to Black Philanthropy Traditions and Sector Mentorship
Writing for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Jarrod Williams MBLI CFRE reflects on Juneteenth as he assumes leadership of AFP’s African American/Black Affinity Group. Williams traces the history of Black philanthropy through churches and mutual aid societies that predated formal philanthropic institutions in the United States, arguing the tradition of community investment runs deep in Black American life. He frames mentorship as a critical form of philanthropic investment that compounds in value across generations. Williams envisions AFP’s affinity groups as spaces of belonging and peer exchange where Black fundraising professionals find community and a clear pathway to sector leadership.
Sources: AFP Global Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Political Scientist Argues U.S. Democracy Cannot Be Restored Without Confronting Caste Origins
Kelly Burton, CEO of the Black Innovation Alliance and a political scientist, argues in Nonprofit Quarterly that the current crisis of American democracy cannot be separated from the caste system that shaped its architecture. Burton traces the Three-Fifths Compromise as an instance in which enslaved Black people became “direct political and economic capital,” writing that “democracy and caste entered into a shared architecture.” She describes how post–Civil War Reconstruction was dismantled through segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial terror, and how the post–civil rights era substituted coded rhetoric and race-neutral frameworks for explicit exclusion. Burton concludes that restoring democracy requires confronting this structural history directly.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Dreilinden Redirects 30 Percent of Grant Budget to Emergency Funding as Anti-LGBTQ Legislation Spreads
Ise Bosch, CEO of Germany-based funder Dreilinden, writes in Alliance Magazine that the rollback of SOGIESC inclusion gains is not a pendulum swing but—citing Neil Datta of the European Parliamentary Forum—the “partial success of an authoritarian project.” Grantee partners are shrinking operations while absorbing heavier workloads. In response, Dreilinden has redirected 30 percent of its annual grants budget to emergency funding, including contributions to the Urgent Action Fund and a rapid-response window of opportunity stream. The foundation has also accelerated multi-year grant disbursements and launched queer impact investments. Its Home Fund supports property acquisition to give LGBTQ organizations long-term financial autonomy.
Sources: Alliance Magazine Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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