Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Thursday, July 9, 2026
AI Alone Isn't Enough—Coordination Is What Really Matters
A new Blackbaud Institute survey of 1,400 nonprofit professionals finds that only 10 percent of charities have adopted a deep, systemic approach to artificial intelligence—and those that do are reaping significantly larger benefits. “AI adaptive” organizations save an average of $621 per employee weekly, compared to $503 for less-integrated peers, and report stronger revenue growth and donor retention. The majority—75 percent—describe their AI use as fragmented and individual. The report also reveals a gap between donor expectations and nonprofit practice: 56 percent of donors want clear AI disclosure in communications, but only 26 percent of nonprofits currently provide it.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Florida Shows How the Philanthropic Map Is Changing Amid the Great Wealth Transfer
Florida ranks third by population and fourth by economy, yet has long punched below its weight in philanthropy—until recently. Driven by the Great Wealth Transfer, nearly half of the state’s top 10 largest private foundations either did not exist or were too small to qualify just five years ago. New entrants include the Paul J. DiMare Foundation (market value exceeding $1 billion), the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation ($856 million endowment), and the John and Daria Barry Foundation ($741 million). The shift mirrors broader national trends, with similar reshuffling underway in Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia as boomer-generation wealth transfers accelerate.
Sources: Inside Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
How Black Churches Built the Civic Infrastructure That Kept the Nation Alive
As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, Nonprofit Quarterly examines the overlooked civic legacy of Black churches—institutions that served as democratic infrastructure for over two centuries before the modern nonprofit sector existed. From abolition through Reconstruction and the civil rights movement, Black congregations operated mutual aid networks, funded schools, provided healthcare, and organized voter registration, often filling roles government refused to play. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and countless other movements depended on organizational capacity built inside church networks. The article challenges philanthropy to finally resource these anchor institutions, which remain among the most trusted and active in Black communities today.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Mistrust Built the Network: What Informal Survival Systems Teach Us About American Democracy
Challenging the conventional view that institutional distrust signals democratic decay, Ayomide Samuel traces how informal survival networks have strengthened American democracy across two centuries. From the Free African Society, founded in 1787 by Black Philadelphians excluded from their church, to Indigenous kinship networks that predated the Constitution, immigrant mutual benefit societies that filled gaps before Social Security, and LGBTQ+ organizations formed during the AIDS crisis—each arose directly because official institutions failed to show up. COVID-19 neighborhood mutual aid pods continued the pattern. The article argues that American democracy’s resilience lies not in its formal architecture, but in communities that chose to trust each other instead.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
How DC Central Kitchen Keeps Expanding While Other Nonprofits Shrink
While many nonprofits retrench under funding pressure, DC Central Kitchen has continued to expand—serving up to 17,000 meals daily, training thousands for food-service careers, and operating with more than $40 million in annual revenue. Founded in Washington in 1989, DCCK built financial resilience by diversifying from grant dependency into earned income through school meal contracts, catering, cafés, and a Healthy Corners produce program now operating at 50 corner stores. Facing today’s 35 percent ingredient cost increases, the organization is expanding rather than contracting—adding summer school contracts and health-sector partnerships—while hosting roughly 100 delegation visits annually from nonprofits seeking to replicate its model.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
David I. Backer on the Hidden Politics of School Finance
Political theorist David I. Backer, author of “As Public as Possible: Radical Finance for America’s Public Schools,” argues that school funding disparities are not merely “inequitable”—they constitute deliberate theft, with wealthier districts winning political fights to direct public resources at the expense of poorer communities. In conversation with Nonprofit Quarterly, Backer spotlights the 1971 Minnesota Fiscal Disparities Act—which pools regional commercial property growth for redistribution—as a practical alternative to the fragmented status quo, and critiques how major banks simultaneously underwrite school bonds and finance the gun industry. He points to green banks as a promising path toward more democratic school infrastructure finance.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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