Insights
There's a lot of noise in the fundraising world at the moment. AI announcements, digital strategy debates, the perennial argument about whether emotional appeals are "manipulative" - it can be hard to know what's worth your attention. So here's our honest read on the ideas and research that are genuinely worth sitting with this month.
Let's start with something that should be obvious but clearly isn't, because it keeps needing to be said: not all donors are the same, and communicating with them as if they are is leaving money on the table.
The Agitator makes the case for RFM segmentation brilliantly in The Donor Hunger Games: May the Highest RFM Score Win. Recency, Frequency, Monetary value - these three dimensions of giving behaviour tell you vastly more about what a donor needs to hear than any demographic profile. A lapsed donor who once gave generously needs a completely different conversation from a loyal monthly giver. Treating them the same is a missed opportunity at best, and alienating at worst.
This connects neatly to what Nonprofit Tech for Good's round-up of 19 digital marketing and fundraising research reports tells us about the current landscape. Email continues to punch above its weight, monthly giving is growing, and organic social reach is increasingly unreliable. The organisations winning on digital aren't necessarily doing the flashiest things - they're being more deliberate about who they're talking to and how.
There's an interesting parallel here in the membership world. Colleen Dilenschneider's research at Know Your Own Bone shows that members increasingly value direct access to organisational experts and leaders above more traditional transactional perks. That's a meaningful signal. People want relationships and genuine insight, not just discounts and newsletters. Fundraisers would do well to take note - the currency of real access and authentic connection is rising.
AI adoption in the nonprofit sector is accelerating - that much is clear from the 2026 Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, which surveyed 826 nonprofit professionals on everything from websites and email to social media and AI. Adoption is up, but so is the anxiety about what it means for the sector.
Which is exactly why the framing in this Nonprofit Hub podcast on AI without the hype feels so refreshing. The question worth asking isn't "how much can AI do for us?" - it's "where does efficiency end and donor trust begin?" Those aren't the same boundary for every organisation, and the most thoughtful fundraisers are the ones figuring out their own answer rather than following a trend.
Our honest view? AI can absolutely support fundraising teams - helping with drafting, research, training, segmentation logic - but it doesn't replace the human instinct for when to say something difficult, when to show vulnerability, or when a donor just needs to feel genuinely heard. More on that in the next section.
This is where the most interesting thinking lives right now, and there's a pleasing coherence across several pieces this month.
Start with Real Deal Fundraising's expansion of the classic Know, Like, Trust framework to include Give and Advocate. It's a small addition but an important one - particularly for higher education and alumni fundraising, where the journey from awareness to passionate advocacy is long and non-linear. If your board only understands "get donations," they're missing four-fifths of the picture.
The Agitator's piece on the failed ask that raised money makes a related point with real elegance. When you measure fundraising success purely by whether a specific ask converted, you miss all the relationship-building that makes future giving possible. Some of the most important fundraising work looks like failure in the short term. That's a hard case to make internally, but it's the right one.
On the question of emotional appeals - if you've ever been told your fundraising is "too emotional," Future Fundraising Now has the rebuttal you need. Emotion isn't manipulation. It's the mechanism by which people connect a cause to something they care about deeply enough to act on. Strip that out in the name of appearing measured or professional, and you've stripped out the reason anyone gives at all.
Alongside that, there's a genuinely brave piece on admitting a financial crisis to your donors. The instinct to protect your organisation's image by staying silent about real difficulties is understandable - but donors who feel genuinely needed respond. Transparency, handled with care, is a fundraising strategy. Hiding the truth isn't protecting your mission; it's just postponing a harder conversation.
Clairification brings a lovely literary lens to all of this, applying Marianne Moore's three elements of persuasive writing - humility, concentration, and gusto - to fundraising communications in How to Inspire Passionate Philanthropy. Humility means acknowledging the donor's role honestly. Concentration means saying one thing well rather than ten things weakly. Gusto means meaning it. Read it if you're working on any major appeals right now - it's a useful reset.
Finally, for organisations with a membership model or community-based following, Nonprofit Hub's piece on the benefits of a strong online member community is worth bookmarking. The argument isn't just about engagement for its own sake - it's about building the kind of sustained, recurring relationship that drives retention and long-term revenue. That connects back to everything above: when donors and members feel they belong to something real, they stay.
The thread running through all of this? The fundamentals - knowing your audience, being honest, making people feel something genuine - haven't changed. What's changing is the sophistication with which the best fundraisers are approaching them.
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