I've spent the last five years consulting with nonprofits on fundraising strategy, after a decade working across government, family philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector itself. I call myself the Swiss Army knife of social impact work, because I've seen organizational challenges from just about every angle. And lately, one topic keeps coming up in almost every conversation I have with development staff, executive directors, and board members: donor-advised funds, or DAFs.

If that acronym makes you a little nervous, or if you've had a donor mention their DAF and you weren't quite sure how to respond, you're in good company. I recently led a session on this exact topic for a group of nonprofit leaders, and the questions in the room told me everything I needed to know: DAFs have become a massive part of the philanthropic landscape, and most organizations still don't have a clear strategy for engaging them.

Let's fix that.

Sector-wide guidance often suggests that nonprofits aim for at least four distinct revenue streams, with no single stream making up more than roughly 30% of overall revenue.* It's a useful benchmark, though not a hard rule, since the right mix depends entirely on what your organization does and who supports it. But the underlying principle holds regardless of your specific numbers: diversification is what gives an organization the ability to weather a funding disruption without everything else falling apart along with it.

Feeling stretched thin? Learn the three levels of fundraising, quick cash, scaling, and sustainability, and where small nonprofits should focus first.

There's a version of grant writing that lives in a lot of people's heads: you find the right opportunity, you write a compelling application, you hit submit, and the money shows up. If only! Anyone who has done this work knows the truth is a lot less transactional and a lot more relational.

Grants, like individual giving, are fundamentally about relationships. And once you start treating them that way, everything about your approach starts to shift, in a good way.

As you’re examining new ways to get funding pumping through the metaphorical veins of your nonprofit, the options are myriad. On the flip side, potential donors have many choices when it comes to methods of giving, and one increasingly popular selection, especially among older, high-income Americans, is a donor-advised fund (DAF).

Fundraising and development are part of the core work that makes nonprofits sustainable. Established nonprofits will consider a Capital Campaign to secure funding for a tangible goal at some point in their life cycle. Capital campaigns are fundraising plans to raise money for specific large ticket items like buildings, properties, remodels, and to start endowments. These campaigns are usually carried out over longer periods of time (think multiple years).