July 24, 2025
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f rom the desk of
Sandra K. Kidd
Senior Partner
Talk Like Your Fundraising Depends on It…Because it Does
It’s 97 degrees outside, and the air conditioning is running full blast. Needless to say, no one in my neighborhood is porch-sitting, at least not before the sun begins to set and it cools down to 80 degrees.
Remember porches? Depending on where and when you grew up, the porch might have been wide and welcoming, with a swing (of course), rockers, and comfortable chairs with lots of room for family and friends to stop by. Or you might have had a stoop and steps, small but still a place to sit and say ‘hi’ to the neighbors. Or maybe your porch was a balcony or terrace, where you could wave to the people who lived across from you.
In this age of screens and smartphones, tablets and TVs that deliver endless entertainment into your home, the pleasure of porch-sitting feels like a nostalgic exercise. I am reminded of it, though, as I consider the importance of connections and conversations. The porch was a place where you talked to others, whether it was a long, perhaps lively, conversation of some importance, or a quick inquiry about the health of their Aunt Mae. You talked to these people, and they talked to you.
So, here in the heat of this summer day, I took a brief self-inventory of how many people I have talked with (not texted, emailed, or “socialed”) in the past week. All told, I counted up about 12 hours of personal conversation, about 10 percent of the hours not spent sleeping:
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I was in two in-person meetings for an organization where I volunteer.
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I had several phone calls with family members because they like to talk and I like to check in on them.
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I chatted a few minutes with a friend about an upcoming trip.
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I had a call with a mid-career professional to help her think through her next career steps.
With the exception of my older relatives, every conversation I had this past week could have been handled more efficiently through text, email, or remote conferencing. But they would not have been as effective or satisfying to me personally. I learned something new about my volunteer and professional peers, felt reassured after touching base with family, and enjoyed the pleasure of hearing the familiar voice of a long-time friend.
Why am I writing about this in our latest fundraising newsletter? Because fundraising success is rooted in the power of building relationships.
AI, CRMs, and analytics can assist our fundraisers in deciding where to focus their time and identify which individuals might be most interested in and receptive to supporting the causes we represent. Then, once they have some potential prospects, the most effective fundraisers go out or pick up the phone to actually engage with these people.
I have a “Sandra rule” that I often quote to my clients: You can only talk ABOUT your prospect three times, and then you have to talk TO them.
If you’re lucky, one of them will invite you to sit on their porch someday.
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Philanthropy’s Trigger Words
You say ‘equity.’ They hear ‘exclusion.’ Strategies for getting everyone on the same page. Conversations today are often derailed by distortion triggers — words that have stopped functioning as tools and started functioning as tests. A phrase like “equity” might inspire hope and a sense of justice in one room while sparking feelings of exclusion or blame in another. “Civility” may feel like a call for dialogue in some spaces and a demand for silence in others.
These are six recurring moral communication styles that show up across the nonprofit and philanthropic world.
Moral traditionalists value duty, responsibility, and order. They hear the word “equity” not as inclusion but as a challenge to the norms they were raised to uphold.
Social justice activists communication is clear, urgent, and moral. When they hear calls for “civility,” they may interpret them as efforts to suppress accountability.
Institutional moderates seek process, predictability, and durable change. These communicators support equity in principle but hesitate when the language feels polarizing.
Cultural libertarians value individual autonomy and open debate. They may hear “inclusive language” as a mandate rather than an invitation.
Left economic populists focus on material conditions such as wages, housing, fairness, and survival. They are deeply skeptical of rhetoric.
Right economic populists also speak from class experience. They don’t reject public investment or equity, but they want to know if it includes them.
Treat language as infrastructure, not ornament. Your message isn’t just what you write. It’s what your audience hears. Before releasing reports, launching campaigns, or submitting proposals, test how your language lands with communities that don’t already share your worldview.
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How the Newly Signed Tax Law Will Impact Fundraising
The new domestic-policy bill signed into law includes revamping giving incentives. And nonprofits advocates won on the item they had invested in the most — a charitable incentive for everyday donors.
Here are some of the major provisions affecting charities and foundations in what was originally called the Big Beautiful Bill. It will:
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Enable everyone to take a charitable deduction. Only about 10% of taxpayers itemize their taxes — which means most of the remaining 90% get no tax benefit from their giving. The law will allow all taxpayers to deduct a portion of their charitable giving, up to $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for married couples.
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It limits the value of tax write-offs for the wealthiest donors. Itemizers will receive no tax benefit until their gifts exceed 0.5% of adjusted gross income. And the wealthiest donors — who pay tax at the top marginal rate of 37%— will be limited to a deduction of 35%, meaning that a $100,000 gift will yield a deduction of just $35,000, down from $37,000 under current law.
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Companies will have to give at least 1% of their taxable income to charity before they can begin taking any deduction for charitable giving. The median company gave under 1% of pre-tax profits in 2023, according to Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose.
COP, 7-9
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The DAF Ask That Led Donors to Double Their Gifts
A new report shows that when supporters were encouraged to give through their donor-advised fund, many donated twice as much. Some donors who had previously given only $100 increased their contributions to $5,000. DAF Fundraising Report 2025 demonstrates that organizations focused on improving their engagement with DAF donors collected a significant amount of useful data for nonprofits.
The volume of DAF donations within the survey group exceeds $1 billion. For example, 30,349 individuals were repeat donors who switched from giving by check or credit card to a DAF, and the majority of these donors increased their giving when using their DAF. The median increase in giving after switching to a DAF was 100%, meaning half of the converted DAF donors are doubling their support.
Other findings from the research:
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In 2024, the median size of non-DAF gifts for the organizations in the study was $25, compared with $300 for DAF gifts.
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85% of people who switched to DAF giving either increased or maintained their giving to that same organization.
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20% of DAF donors gave two or more gifts a year.
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DAF gifts ranged in size, so they weren’t all from major donors. Seven-in-10 gifts in the analysis were less than $1,000.
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DAF donor retention was on average 13% higher than for non-DAF donors.
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The median revenue growth coming from DAFs in 2024 was 30% among participating nonprofits, while median revenue from non-DAF sources decreased 1%.
COP, 7-9
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