The Pandemic Changed Fundraising. A Year Later, What Lessons Can We Learn?

During the pandemic, the reliable gala dinner was suddenly off the table. a katz/shutterstock

The past year has been one of the most challenging on record for fundraisers. Rapidly shifting priorities, limits on in-person communication and uncertainty about just how much people can give forced many in the field to throw out their trusty playbooks. Even as the rollout of the vaccine promises a return to something that at least resembles normalcy, some of the changes brought on by the shockwave of the past year will almost certainly have a lasting presence.

Longtime Boston fundraiser Scott Nichols is watching nonprofits navigate the pandemic with great interest. “I am seeing some fascinating new things that dinosaurs like me have not seen before, things caused by the pandemic,” he says.

For example, “some donors are actually complaining that groups are not reaching out to them in the pandemic about making new philanthropic connections,” says Nichols, a fundraising consultant. During the health crisis, Nichols says, nonprofit groups tend to fall into two categories as they seek contributions: the brave versus the meek. Far better, he adds, to be among the brave by maintaining or even, in some cases, increasing solicitations.

It’s not just COVID shaking things up in fundraising these days. Last summer’s protests over racial justice resulted in “some big winners,” Nichols says. One of his consulting clients, he notes, “got a $10 million check for racial equity in the mail.” Some fundraisers in the LGBTQ space recently told Inside Philanthropy that they were also seeing strong returns, with donors recognizing heightened needs and understanding the intersectional nature of struggles for equity. These shifting priorities of donors in an era of rapid change will keep fundraisers on their toes for some time.

Many organizations, unable to meet with donors, have made changes to their communication strategies, some of which could stick around. For example, Nichols knows of one organization that now sends supporters a video featuring its executive director every three weeks. The Human Rights Campaign started sending care packages to its donors. Josh Pushkin, Lambda Legal’s chief development officer, recently told IP that when his team went totally virtual, they combined direct mail, email, individual video calls, virtual galas, cocktail parties and grassroots events to create a “Surround Sound effect,” in order to amplify messaging and keep donors engaged.

One fundraising channel that took on new importance during the past year was planned giving. As IP reported in December, a survey of charitable nonprofits with planned giving programs found that since the crisis began, supporters have expressed increased interest in all types of deferred gifts, with bequests generating the greatest interest, followed by donor-advised funds and charitable distributions from retirement plans. Fundraisers would be wise to continue cultivating these streams of revenue, even after the crisis abates.

Arts fundraisers, in particular, have faced unique challenges as the pandemic shut down some of their main revenue streams, such as box office and gift shop sales. Even as in-person attendance gradually comes back to life, adaptations that emerged from the past year will likely need to persist, including greater reliance on donors and a mix of in-person and online events.

Victoria Bailey, executive director of the Theater Development Fund, recently told IP, “My mantra is, ‘You can never go back to before,’” quoting a line from the musical “Ragtime.” Bailey said the past year presents an opportunity for nonprofits to rethink their roles and missions. She sees a mix of digital and in-person programming as a way to reach more people, for example, by potentially bringing in a new pool of younger, tech-savvy donors.

Arts fundraisers looking to tap into broader audiences will need to keep in mind that younger donors also care deeply about how the arts can address pressing community challenges. “It’s one thing to experience traditional works of art, but what are institutions doing to drive social change?” said Sean McManus, founder of Art Funders Forum, in a 2019 interview with IP. AFF is devoted to increasing private support for the arts, with an emphasis on young, impact-oriented philanthropists.

Speaking at last year’s virtual AFF Annual Summit, Sam Jacobs, co-director of JG3 Collaborative, a family philanthropy that funds grassroots social-justice initiatives, said that he and other like-minded philanthropists are drawn to programming that brings people together while also generating “struggle, conversation, politics, and most of all, collective action.” Fundraisers seeking to engage younger donors will want to emphasize how their organization’s programming addresses those types of goals.

Just as in-person performances were shut down, fundraising special events have been transformed by the coronavirus, and consultant Nichols similarly predicts that virtual events are here to stay. One United Way that had raised millions of dollars by holding live events across the nation transitioned to a 45-minute online presentation that generated $2.6 million, he says. Because of the high costs of holding the in-person event, Nichols explains, the online event generated a bigger net return for the United Way.

Don Hasseltine is another expert who sees virtual outreach as central to the future of fundraising, even in a post-pandemic world. As a vice president at the Aspen Leadership Group, an executive placement company specializing in filling fundraising and other nonprofit positions, Hasseltine believes that the pandemic is accelerating a trend away from in-person gatherings to increasingly digital encounters between donors and the organizations they support.

In a 2020 interview with IP, Hasseltine advised fundraisers to “lead with virtual experiences,” adding that he foresees new job titles such as digital advancement officer emerging in the fundraising profession. But for increasingly virtual fundraising to succeed, he warns, encounters between donors and the organizations they support must be meaningful. Hasseltine pointed to an effort by Colby College to persuade 400 alumni to provide job opportunities, a total of 600 new positions, for graduating seniors, providing a big boost in goodwill toward the college.

Other nonprofit experts such as Judith Rodin, former president of the Rockefeller Foundation, think it’s important for nonprofits to make it easier for people to access their work. As a board member for Miami’s New World Symphony, she made a $500,000 gift, part of which is helping the symphony bring performances to local neighborhoods by creating a traveling unit that can display symphony performances to socially distanced audiences in their own neighborhoods. The arts, she notes, are critical in helping people survive a crisis.

For all of these experts’ insights, however, there’s still plenty of uncertainty on the horizon. Scott Nichols has weathered multiple economic recessions and marvels that COVID has wrought more fundraising changes than other downturns over his long career. “When the pandemic is over,” he says, “I keep wondering what the next great chapter in fundraising will be.”