Fundraising Talks – June 2025

Welcome to the June edition of Fundraising Talks.

It’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the halfway point of the year. As we move into the beautiful summer season, I hope development professionals are planning time to rest and reset before heading into the latter part of 2025.

Higher education continues to face a number of challenges, including budget cuts, staffing shortages, and other uncertainties. During these difficult times, fundraising and philanthropy can play a critical role in supporting academic programs and operations.

The Blackbaud Institute’s report, Philanthropy Through Recession: How Savvy Organizations Weather Uncertain Times, offers insights into how past recessions have impacted the philanthropic sector. According to the report, only the Great Recession had lasting effects on charitable giving. Historical trends show that high-net-worth individuals tend to give the most to causes with the greatest need. The report outlines seven steps that can help recession-proof organizations: diversifying revenue, embracing digital transformation, identifying major donors, improving donor retention, investing in sustained giving programs, expanding donor pools, and leveraging peer-to-peer fundraising. These strategies, grounded in past experience, offer hope that today’s fundraisers are better equipped for the future.

Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) can be especially valuable in times of declining donor counts and reductions in federal funding. In 2023, there were approximately 1.8 million DAF accounts, holding over $250 billion in assets. A recent report from the DAF Research Collaborative, Reinventing the Cycle: Adapting Relationship Fundraising for Donors Who Use DAFs, highlights how fundraisers across the U.S. engage with DAF donors, the challenges they face, and opportunities to strengthen these relationships. According to the report, fundraisers overwhelmingly agreed that relationship-building is key to successfully securing support from DAF donors.

The report identifies six key challenges in DAF fundraising:

• Verifying the organization: DAF sponsors may require additional documentation to confirm grant eligibility.
• Investigating donations: DAF gifts may be anonymous, complicating donor recognition.
• Entering DAF grants: Proper data entry should include information from grant checks and correspondence, and accurately credit the donor and their sponsoring organization.
• Thanking the donor: Even though DAF sponsors issue tax receipts, donors still expect a thank-you from nonprofits.
• Understanding DAF regulations: Fundraisers must navigate IRS rules around DAF grants and multi-year pledges.
• Exchanging information: Gaps in communication can lead to errors or missed opportunities for stewardship.

Despite these challenges, DAF fundraising presents meaningful opportunities. DAF gifts indicate both affinity and capacity—suggesting that donors may be open to deeper, more strategic conversations. Fundraisers can feel confident when soliciting funds already earmarked for charitable purposes. By analyzing granting patterns, fundraisers may also gain insight into donor behavior, such as timing and giving capacity.

Fundraisers working with DAF donors often wear many hats—as investigators, strategists, educators, facilitators, and collaborators. These roles are all vital to aligning organizational priorities with donor intent.

To make the most of DAF opportunities, fundraisers should:

• Proactively identify and collect DAF-related information,
• Train teams on DAF grant processing and stewardship protocols, and
• Use CRMs effectively to track and segment DAF donors.

As DAFs continue to grow, organizations should adapt their relationship-building strategies to meet this evolving landscape. While DAFs add complexity to donor identification, acknowledgment, and data management, they also offer significant opportunities to deepen donor engagement and secure long-term philanthropic support.

As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or requests for assistance with fundraising research!

Best Regards,
Sapna and USM Advancement Research Team
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