Samwise Nonprofits and Charities Newsletter
Friday, July 10, 2026
Florida Overhauls Nonprofit Law, Aligning Chapter 617 With National Model Act
Florida’s sweeping rewrite of its nonprofit corporation statute (Chapter 617) took effect July 1, 2026, following passage of HB 797. Authored by attorneys at the Polsinelli law firm, the analysis details how the new law aligns Florida with the American Bar Association’s Model Nonprofit Corporation Act and introduces significant changes to governance, officer standards, and corporate transactions. Key updates include a codified “qualified director” concept, new fiduciary standards for officers, and expanded merger and domestication provisions. A narrow exemption now permits distributions in nonprofit-to-nonprofit transfers. Legal counsel urge boards to conduct governance reviews and update articles of incorporation and bylaws promptly.
Sources: The NonProfit Times Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
U.S. Fundraising Salaries Rose 0.9 Percent in 2025 While Benefits Costs Climb
U.S. fundraising salaries grew modestly in 2025, reaching an average of $97,280 — a 0.9 percent increase from the prior year — while Canadian salaries rebounded to $104,442, up 6.2 percent, according to the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy’s annual compensation study. Drawing on responses from approximately 2,700 AFP members, the report highlights rising benefit costs as a new pressure point: 43 percent of U.S. organizations reported healthcare premium increases. A persistent gender gap remains — women averaged $93,753 compared to $118,038 for men. Despite these pressures, just 18 percent of respondents reported actively seeking new employment.
Sources: AFP Global Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Summer Is the Season to Build Fall Gifts, Fundraiser Argues in NPQ Column
Fundraiser Rhea Wong, writing in her NPQ “Ask Rhea” column, challenges a common myth: donors do not disappear in summer — fundraisers do. Drawing on her experience at Breakthrough New York, Wong argues that July is when fall gifts are built, not when they close. She outlines three strategies: conduct a portfolio review, sort contacts into advancing and stalled, and cut those unlikely to give; book 15 to 20 donor meetings before September 1; and send stewardship communications with no strings attached — mid-year impact updates or handwritten notes. Major gifts committed in December are, in her telling, made in July.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
School Finance Is Driven by Political Theft, Not Passive Inequity, Author Argues
In a new NPQ interview, author David I. Backer explains why his book As Public as Possible argues that school finance is driven by deliberate political choices, not passive inequity. Using West Contra Costa Unified School District as a case study, Backer shows how racialized property markets and debt structures — not local mismanagement — create educational underfunding. He prefers the language of “theft” over “inequity,” and highlights Minnesota’s 1971 Fiscal Disparities Act as a model of redistributive school finance. He also traces how municipal bond financing links school construction to firearms industry lenders, creating a troubling structural contradiction.
Sources: Nonprofit Quarterly Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Philanthropy Is Losing the AI Governance Fight Because It Funds Adaptation, Not Action
Philanthropy is losing the race to govern artificial intelligence, argue Linda Saleh and Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The authors identify three funder failures: accepting the myth that AI expansion is inevitable; defining AI’s harms too narrowly, missing the environmental costs borne by frontline communities; and overlooking local permitting fights and procurement decisions where AI’s terms are actually set. With Big Tech investing aggressively in state political campaigns, the authors urge funders to support political and legal fights — not just technical adaptation — and to work across issue silos rather than in fragmented streams.
Sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
SVCF CEO Says AI Employee Philanthropy Wave Is Coming but Not Here Yet
SVCF President and CEO Nicole Taylor tells Inside Philanthropy that a wave of AI employee philanthropy may be forming — but it has not arrived yet. Most AI wealth remains on paper as pre-IPO equity, and historically new tech workers enter serious charitable giving only after a “sudden wealth event” such as an IPO or acquisition. Taylor draws on SVCF’s $2 billion in annual grantmaking to argue that nonprofits should connect now with local community foundations, which form a network of more than 800 institutions. She expressed skepticism about proposals to build a new philanthropic infrastructure layer from scratch.
Sources: Inside Philanthropy Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Women Inheritors Could Redirect the $100 Trillion Wealth Transfer Toward Racial Equity
The Great Wealth Transfer is poised to move approximately $100 trillion across generations over the next two decades — but roughly 80 percent of that wealth will transfer within white families, deepening the racial wealth gap. Writing in Alliance Magazine, Katherine Hayes of In Her Interest argues that women inheritors hold an outsized opportunity to redirect these flows. Because research shows women give at higher rates than men, she contends that justice-minded strategies — including trust-based philanthropy, impact investing in community loan funds, and deliberate estate planning — could meaningfully reduce structural inequality if widely adopted.
Sources: Alliance Magazine Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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