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On July 31, 2021, the extended federal moratorium on housing evictions due to COVID-19 will end. The eviction ban, which offers renters protection if they cannot pay rent, has been in place since September 2020 by the Department of Health and Human Services and was extended through July in March 2020. While some states have extended their own eviction moratoriums beyond July 2021, many have not, and those living in states that have may only qualify for relief if they are already in the process of seeking support.

What will the end of the ban mean for individuals and families who are struggling to afford rising rent costs and are at-risk of being evicted? What impacts will be had on the operational capacity and fundraising needs of organizations that address homelessness and housing stability who will be called upon to step up and provide resources for safe, stable housing and rental assistance?

According to the Census Bureau, roughly 3.6 million people claim they face eviction in the next two months and 7 million people are behind on their rent in the U.S. Based on past and recent experiences, nonprofit organizations in the homeless and housing space are already bracing for a significant spike in demand as was seen following the housing market crash of 2008 and throughout 2020 as public spaces closed and quarantines were established.

Across all nonprofits, fundraising is a critical lifeline for sustaining and growing program and service capacity. In addition to prioritizing the fortification of operations and program capacity, as well as exploring new partnerships to meet an anticipated rise in demand, housing-based organizations must also actively respond through their communications, community engagement, and fundraising efforts.

Your best donors are those who are informed and engaged. CCS Fundraising recommends assessing and updating your communications plan and fundraising materials to elevate the visibility of this emergent need, and focus on engaging the new donors who stepped up and joined you during COVID-19 as well as those donors loyal to the organization over the years.

Communications and Case

With regards to assessing and updating communications and fundraising collateral, your newsletters, annual appeals, major gift proposals, stewardship reports, and sharable social media content will be strengthened by including the following:

The ongoing impact that your organization had on homelessness since the start of the pandemic and eviction ban, as well as how demand and service delivery have evolved
Information about the policy change and the broader context of the state of homelessness both nationally and locally
Emphasis on the importance of stable housing and the incredibly damaging impacts of eviction as it relates to fighting chronic homelessness, holding down a job, pursuing career and education goals, supporting families, and providing safety in a pandemic
Elevated and amplified client stories and experiences
Your mission’s alignment to broader policy changes, whether that is agile service delivery, public advocacy, or other
Your steadfast commitment to serve your community during times of change

Intuitively, different constituencies of donors are motivated to give for a variety of reasons. Tailored messaging for different types of donors will only further strengthen your communications and fundraising materials as you seek support in FY21 and beyond.

Strategic Donor Engagement

Donor retention is central to a strong base of annual support and the cultivation of major gifts. New donors that contributed to your organization for the first time during COVID-19 should receive messaging that communicates the value proposition of your organization. Many of these new donors joined you out of a sense of duty to support their community in a time of urgent need. As this urgent need remains, thanking these new donors for stepping up and asking for their continued support is essential. Consider answering: What were you able to do with their support? How big is your addressable population? How dire is the need? What is your measurable impact on the community?

Repeat donors and major donors are often your greatest sources of significant gifts and multi-year pledges. These donors, especially those considered your nearest and dearest, should receive personalized messaging that underscores the continued importance of their support and the very specific impact of their generosity. In addition to sharing impact, offer them specific action steps that they can take to support your plan in response to the policy change. Appreciating the impacts of ending the eviction ban may have long term implications, seeking special two-to-three-year pledges can help provide reliable support you can count on in an uncertain and ever-evolving environment.

Other Thoughts and Considerations for Nonprofits

In addition to seeing the need for and impact of their support, donors want to know what else can be done to address homelessness and housing stability. Beyond raising awareness through communications and publicity, and strategically engaging donors, all nonprofits in this space should explore how new or stronger partnerships with other public, nonprofit, and corporate entities can be used to address homelessness and housing insecurity within their community. At the state and local level, nonprofits should also explore how donors can tap into grassroots advocacy efforts to change the system and ensure access to stable housing which is paramount to ending the cycle of homelessness for individuals and families.

A strong major gifts program requires well-composed portfolios. While donor conversation is and will always be critical for confirming their inclination to give and gift capacity, many issues in constructing portfolios can be resolved ahead of time with data captured in a CRM system. These five tips will help your development department leverage the data in its donor database to ensure the right prospects are in gift officers’ portfolios.

1) Capture and update contacts within your database

Every year, the employees of your nonprofit come across hundreds, if not thousands, of potential donors, advocates, and supporters for your institution. To make the most of these relationships, it is critical to ensure their information is accurately captured at the relationship’s onset. Consider setting practices and processes around systematically adding new contacts into your donor database and storing relationship information not just within your gifts officers’ or program officers’ heads, in a notebook, or in Excel, but also within your current CRM.

What if one of your program coordinators regularly engages a volunteer who happens to be the significant other of a Fortune 500 CEO? What if you discover in passing that a new single ticket buyer is a board member of a community foundation on your target list? Capturing contacts within databases helps ensure your organization is not missing opportunities to identify and strategically engage fundraising and friend-building prospects.

As you enter contacts, basic database hygiene is key. Capture correct names, salutations, addresses, gift records, and contact information. If you have not already, you should also note the date of your last wealth screening activity.

2) Wealth screen regularly

As your organization adds potential supporters to its database, engage in a wealth screening at least every three years to gain insight into the overall giving capacity of your organization’s contacts. For higher education institutions, consider conducting a wealth screen with every new class of admitted students. For hospitals, which generally have a higher volume of face-to-face interactions with potential donors, consider completing wealth screens more frequently as part of a grateful patient program.

3) Conduct a segmentation analysis

It isn’t enough to simply add new contacts to your database, or regularly complete wealth screens. Good portfolios are created through segmentation.

Segment your donors with a recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM) analysis to help target which donors should be elevated to a gift officer’s portfolio and which may be a better fit within your annual fund communications pipeline. Recency considers the last gift a donor made to your institution, frequency considers how often gifts are made to your institution, and monetary value considers how much the donor has given to your institution. Combining RFM scores and wealth screening data can help define segments of donors to add or remove from a gift officer’s portfolio.

Depending on the size and complexity of your institution’s database, you may also consider undertaking predictive modeling to segment your donors. This approach entails looking at a broad swath of internal data points as well as wealth screening information to help optimize gift officer portfolios.

4) Monitor annual fund appeal responses for sudden or gradual gift amount lifts over time

Donors may signal readiness to be moved into a major gifts officer portfolio based on the trends of their giving. Keep a close eye on the average return for cyclical annual fund appeals. Are any donors generally giving significantly above the average for your appeals? Has a donor’s giving steadily increased year over year? Has there been a seemingly random four or five-figure gift from a donor unassigned to a gifts officer portfolio? These are all signs that the institution might consider engaging this donor on a more personal level.

5) Have candid conversations on moves management

Does a donor sparsely return calls, emails, or contact? Has a donor not responded to a gift appeal in the past few years? It might be time to remove these donors from a gifts officer portfolio. However, before this happens, be sure actions are being adequately tracked within your database and taken into consideration. Who was the last point of contact? Who is the primary solicitor? When was the last contact—and with what partners, materials, and talking points? These details are critical for diagnosing cause and effect and developing institutional knowledge rather than operating from anecdotal observations.

The journey to successfully collecting and using CRM data to make decisions on portfolio strategy can be complex and time-consuming. However, it is well worth the investment to elevate your major gifts program and scale your fundraising capacity.

Is your organization considering how to build an effective fundraising data and reporting structure? Learn more about CCS’s Systems and Change Management services.

CCS Fundraising is thrilled to share the tenth edition of Snapshot of Today’s Philanthropic Landscape. This report compiles and contextualizes research from across the field of philanthropy to help U.S. nonprofits wade through the available data and create informed fundraising strategies.

“For the past ten years, CCS has aggregated the latest research on the state of U.S. philanthropy in our Snapshot of Today’s Philanthropic Landscape report,” say the publication Co-Editors, Tom Kissane, Principal and Managing Director and Natalie Skinner, Senior Vice President. “It is heartening to see the resiliency of philanthropy reflected in this year’s edition, as Giving USA estimates that Americans gave a record-setting $471.44 billion in 2020. At the same time, we must recognize that this outpouring of generosity sits within a complex and turbulent landscape. It is more important than ever for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers to understand the philanthropic terrain and be diligent and intentional as they connect with donors. We are elated to share this tenth-edition report as a resource to help mission-driven organizations uncover philanthropic trends and develop data-informed fundraising strategies.”

The report discusses essential findings from across the field of philanthropic research, including:

Individuals, foundations, and corporations donated $471.44 billion in 2020, a new record and an incredible demonstration of generosity and resilience in a complex year.[1]
Donors are responding to the unique conditions of today’s world, making philanthropic gifts and pledges of more than $21 billion to U.S. COVID-19 relief and more than $14 billion to U.S. racial justice efforts in 2020 and 2021 to date.[2]
Donations in support of pandemic relief and racial justice did not diminish overall philanthropic giving in 2020; donations to eight of the ten charitable causes tracked by Giving USA increased in 2020.[1]
Individuals continue to drive U.S. philanthropy, contributing 69% of giving in 2020.[1] An increasingly large portion of giving comes from wealthier individuals: 80% of charitable dollars come from 20% of households.[3]
Foundation giving grew faster than any other source in 2020, at a rate of 17%.[1]
Though corporate giving decreased by 6.1% in 2020, [1] corporations stood out for significant philanthropic commitments to U.S. racial equity efforts and pandemic relief. [2]
The wealth of high net worth individuals grew in 2020, as did their giving; 2020’s top 53 donors gave a combined $24.7 billion.[4]
Nonprofits accepting non-cash donations grow nearly five times faster on average than organizations accepting only cash gifts.[5]
Digital giving increased by 21% to comprise 13% of all charitable giving in 2020, a new height.[6]

Read the full report for more findings and insights on the data from CCS’s fundraising experts. To download a copy of Snapshot of Today’s Philanthropic Landscape, 10th Edition, click here.

[1] Giving USA Foundation, Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2020 (2021).

[2] Candid, “Philanthropic response to coronavirus (COVID-19)” (Accessed July 16, 2021) and “Funding for racial equity” (Accessed July 16, 2021).

[3] Blackbaud, Vital Signs, Part 3: How Major Donors Are Shaping Philanthropy (2020).

[4] The Chronicle of Philanthropy, “The Philanthropy 50” (2021).

[5] Dr. Russell James III, Cash is Not King in Fundraising: Results from 1 Million Nonprofit Tax Returns (2018).

[6] Blackbaud, Charitable Giving Report (2021).

For nonprofits, customer relationship management (CRM) databases are libraries of donor information that enable essential activities like contacting donors, accounting for financial history, and noting primary relationships with an institution.

Your database only functions as well as the staff managing it. Building human-backed processes and systems for CRM maintenance will help your nonprofit strengthen its library of institutional knowledge on donors and empower fundraisers with the information they need to succeed.

DO educate your staff on the importance of tracking the information of friends and donors within a single platform.

Fundraising is a team sport. Whether you’re a frontline fundraiser or a program manager, a culture of philanthropy is important for identifying long-term relationships that lead to larger gifts for your institution. Tracking relationships within a central database is key to this success, and wards against losing knowledge over time with the natural transition of staff to new roles and responsibilities.

Train your fundraising staff to:

Understand the importance of inserting timely, accurate, and compliant information into the database
Engage in conversations with programmatic staff to identify and build knowledge on potential donors, referral sources, and partners for strategizing gift requests
Correctly input donor interests, actions, relationships, proposals, and other materials within your CRM

DON’T assume that database maintenance or usage is just one person’s job.

In high-functioning development offices, all staff members have basic knowledge of how to use the database to do their specific jobs. Whether you’re a frontline fundraiser, development assistant, prospect researcher, events coordinator, or administrative support staff member, all have a role to play in keeping institutional knowledge up to date.

Ensure all staff members are aware of basic information the institution gathers from donors, what to do when they learn a donor’s name and information are incorrect, and how to search for donors and pertinent information within the database.

DO develop a process for regularly updating and maintaining donor contact information.

As the adage goes, what gets measured gets managed. Become familiar with the percentage of donors within your database for which you have incorrect emails and mailing addresses recorded. Create a plan to proactively improve the quality of data within your system.

Inquire with your CRM provider to learn if your software includes a direct mail/email address validator or a feature to review deceased records. If your database does not, seek an online batch address validation tool.
Regularly screen your database for incomplete contact information and encourage relationship managers to help fill in the gaps. Note what percentage of entries are incomplete.
Assign one or more point person(s) for inserting new donors into your system, updating donor contact information and salutations, noting donors who are deceased, and documenting the assignment of primary solicitors and relationship managers.

DON’T assume all employees have equal technical skills and time to learn your database.

Usually, some staff members are more technologically adept than others. And frontline fundraisers prioritize engaging donors more than data entry! But the good news is that baseline database skills can be acquired with intentional and targeted training. There are also batch data upload tools and tricks you can employ to help streamline data entry and save end-users’ time.

It is important to meet staff where they are and gradually build their capacity with continuous, ongoing training and informational refreshers. Tailor the training to cover reports the staff member would be accountable for inserting data into and/or need to utilize regularly. In addition, supply easy-to-use glossaries of terms and quick how-to documents to help staff recall learnings.

Is your organization considering how to build an effective fundraising data and reporting structure? Learn more about CCS’s Systems and Change Management services.

Oftentimes, nonprofits seek to resolve their database issues by buying a new CRM (customer relationship management) software subscription. Not all CRM problems are technical in nature, however, and the human element of data systems shouldn’t be ignored.

Before changing your donor database, carefully consider the problems your organization is attempting to solve and whether a new system is needed to remedy them. These five considerations can help your organization get to the root of its CRM issues and understand what it needs from the software.

1. Goals and objectives

Choosing the “right” CRM depends on knowing your organization’s needs. Your CRM selection is analogous to choosing a car—the required seats, gas mileage, horsepower, cargo size, and towing capacity depend on how you intend to use the vehicle.

Any database’s primary objective is to store and retrieve information. Before embarking on a crusade to switch your CRM, consider:

What information does our organization need to store and retrieve to meet its objectives?
Which departments and people currently input and maintain this information within our database?
Which departments and people currently retrieve information from the database, and how?
When and how does our organization use this data to meet objectives?

2. Training issues

Your CRM software could be the equivalent of a high-powered sports car, fully loaded with all the bells and whistles, but your staff may lack a license to drive.

Before investing thousands of dollars into a new CRM, first determine if your institution has committed to and invested in ensuring that staff members can complete accurate and timely data entry. To assist with data entry training, be sure to create an established process and procedure for defining terms and using information for organization-wide and team-specific reporting. Finally, have a plan for ongoing data management, onboarding, and training for fundraising teams. Think through the plan for training users to obtain data and reports and have proactive working relationships with Advancement Services for additional support.

3. Data source complexity

Nonprofits can have complex, multi-layered operations that use several software systems and flows of information. For instance, in healthcare, fundraising departments receive data from clinical software systems and other third-party sources.

When choosing a CRM, consider its ease of fit with your current infrastructure and workflows. How many additional steps are required to make these systems work together? What are the demands on staff time to migrate data from one system to another? For example, multiple payment processing systems may require staff to complete various intermediate validation steps to reconcile donor information, which slows down reporting efforts. Is the additional staff time or resourcing required worthwhile for the CRM under consideration?

4. Organizational siloes

In an ideal world, all users of a CRM have a common understanding of the terms used throughout the database. In the real world, terms have different meanings depending on the user.

As you consider a CRM switch, investigate if all departments and users of your CRM are on the same page. In the case of one of our clients, fund code and account code were used interchangeably in conversations within Advancement Services, which caused confusion when they requested information from Finance. By discussing and creating a dictionary for database terms, the two departments operated more efficiently.

5. Data integrity

Bad data in means bad data out. This is the rule of thumb for any information gathered, stored, and utilized for making reports and predictions.

Nonprofit organizations need processes and controls in place to determine what donor data or transactional data should be inserted into your system, by whom, when, and how. Creating processes for consistent, accurate, and timely data entry will help your organization identify revenue-generating activities and make the most of its fundraising and marketing efforts.

Is your organization considering how to build an effective fundraising data and reporting structure? CCS Fundraising can help. To learn more about our Systems services, contact Allison Willner, Vice President of Data Strategy, at systems@ccsfundraising.com.

More Insights

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CCS Philanthropy Pulse

February 13, 2025

Uncover the latest fundraising trends in the 2025 CCS Philanthropy Pulse report! Packed with data-rich insights from 600+ nonprofit organizations across diverse nonprofit sectors, this free report will help you plan for success in 2025.

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Custom GPTs for Fundraising: A Nonprofit Guide

May 31, 2024

Learn about Custom Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPTs), their application in fundraising, and how you can harness their capabilities to streamline your fundraising efforts and forge deeper connections with donors.

SEE ALL IN: Data Analytics, Systems, & Research

In the last year, human services organizations have experienced an increase in philanthropic giving as a result of donors’ heightened awareness of the pandemic’s economic consequences and racial inequities faced by marginalized communities. Human services organizations, thanks to the influx in giving, were able to transform their work seemingly overnight to heroically meet drastic increases in demand for their support.

As organizations continue to deploy fundraising windfalls to meet ongoing heightened demand, many are revisiting their strategic plans with the goal of leveraging surplus funding to center the voices of their clients and more deeply address the root causes of the challenges facing their communities.

What We Are Seeing

Contributions to the human services sector compromised 14% of all donations received by U.S. charities in 2020. According to the recently released Giving USA 2021 report, giving to human services organizations grew 9.7% in 2020, totaling $65.14 billion.[1] Adjusted for inflation, sector giving grew by 8.4% between 2019 and 2020. Contributions to human services in 2020 totaled the highest inflation-adjusted amount recorded to date. Not only are more people giving, but they are sustaining or increasing their level of support. A Fidelity Charitable survey found that 9 out of 10 donors maintained or increased their giving because of COVID-19, with 46% of respondents giving notably more than before.[2]

We have also witnessed an influx of leading philanthropists making transformational gifts within the human services sector. According to a recent study by Bank of America and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, nearly 90% of affluent Americans gave to charity in 2020.[3] Human services organizations were a focus of MacKenzie Scott’s $5.7 billion in giving in 2020, including 42 food banks and 30 Meals on Wheels programs.[4] Jeff Bezos made a $100 million gift to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, in addition to considerable philanthropy throughout the human services sector and beyond.[5] Charles and Helen Schwab and Joe Gebbia gave generous gifts to support people experiencing homelessness, with homelessness being the top cause among their total 2020 contributions of $65 million and $27 million, respectively.[6] These mega-gifts, alongside many others, demonstrate that donors recognize the critical role human services organizations have had in supporting our most vulnerable populations throughout the pandemic.

Deploying Funds to Meet the Need and to Invest in the Future

The increase in philanthropic support provides a historic opportunity for organizations to strategically expand their vision and means of achieving their mission. What was once a moonshot idea may now be within reach because of unrestricted philanthropic support. Across the sector, organizations are deploying their funds in three overarching ways.

1) Immediate Need

At the peak of the pandemic, the World Bank projected that global extreme poverty (living on less than $1.90 a day) would rise for the first time in over 20 years.[7] And as communities were reeling from the repercussions of the pandemic, human services organizations had to completely restructure their operations to meet safety measures whilst finding a way to significantly increase their outputs.

Increased levels of philanthropic support enabled organizations to create innovative solutions to meet the immediate and incredible needs of their communities. We have seen food banks across the nation feed millions more neighbors through first-of-its-kind drive-through distribution sites of prepackaged food. Partner organizations such as the Salvation Army were able to strengthen their efforts to break cycles of generational poverty by providing extraordinary utility assistance and access to shelter. The job of a human services organization is never complete, but as the pandemic created a heightened need, increases in philanthropic giving have been vital to providing critical services.

2) Sustainability

Human services organizations are often hyper-focused on the issue at hand, and for good reason! However, an increase in philanthropic support has enabled organizations to think strategically around investing for long-term success.

The influx of cash that many human services organizations have received enables them to ensure the longevity of their work through the creation of an endowment fund and reserves. Whether through the creation of a general endowment fund, endowing a specific need such as technology, or creating or expanding a “rainy day” fund, organizations can now apply surplus funding to sustain client services.

Organizations have also invested in their staff. Through the addition of a new development team member or impact officer, nonprofits can focus on retaining new donors and have the means to sustain their mission. Nonprofits in the human services sector now have a greater ability to ensure their work continues well into the future.

3) Catalyst Investments

Some human services organizations that now have the funds to address immediate needs and build reserves are considering bold and visionary ideas. From expanding their scope of work to include wraparound services and/or advocacy, to streamlining processes to make services more readily available to their clients, human services organizations are exploring how they can make deeper inroads to addressing the root causes of their communities’ challenges. Additionally, many organizations are considering capital investments to achieve their work more effectively and efficiently and impact their community in a more meaningful way. An increase in philanthropy has allowed human services organizations to act on ideas they had previously dreamed about but did not have funding to realize.

Centering the Voices of Those You Serve

As human services organizations strategize the most impactful way to deploy surpluses from fundraising windfalls, they are uniquely positioned to double down on efforts that empower the most vulnerable populations in their communities. This comes during a time when donors are asking, “How are you helping to solve the challenges facing the populations you serve?” Organizations are finding that amplifying the voices of their clients is a critical step to truly meeting the needs of their community and creating a deep and lasting impact. We are seeing human services organizations approach this work in three key ways:

Understanding the Challenges of Their Respective Communities

Human services organizations are keenly focused on solving biosocial problems that impact people from an extensive range of socio-economic backgrounds. Thus, the needs of different communities can vary widely and present distinct factors that will inform how service organizations can deliver the most effective services. Organizations are meeting with community leaders in their service areas to learn more about the people they serve: their unique needs, hurdles they face in accessing support, and measures that can be taken to overcome them.

Some nonprofits have taken this work a step further by targeting their outreach to the most vulnerable populations, recognizing that socio-economic challenges disproportionately impact specific segments of their communities. These conversations and listening sessions inform how nonprofits can tailor their strategic plans to ensure funds are deployed in a highly intentional and impactful way.

Questions to consider when seeking to understand the challenges faced by the communities you serve:

How can your organization engage in conversation to co-create solutions to issues facing your service areas?

How can your organization prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable in your planning and realization of your mission?

Creating and Expanding Partnerships

No one organization can address every issue facing its community. Through complementary partnership, nonprofits, governments, and corporations can together create an incredible network of support that leverages the brain trust and skills of experts from different facets of human services work.

We have seen nonprofits who work to reduce food insecurity partner with local healthcare providers to tackle multiple social determinants of health at once. Financial guidance nonprofits, career training teams, social workers, and hunger relief organizations have combined forces under one roof to provide a one-stop shop for individuals experiencing poverty. Partnering with other organizations allows for increased impact, more amenable services to those you are serving, and providing a space for innovative ideas to come alive.

Questions to consider when looking to create or expand partnerships:

What partnerships can be deepened or built to more deeply address the root causes of the challenges your clients are facing?

How can partnerships create more accessible services for your clients?

Reassessing a Client’s Experience

The past year has placed much-needed emphasis on breaking down racial stereotypes to build inclusive and equitable access. At the heart of this reckoning is the need to honor the dignity of individuals who access support. Human services organizations are uniquely qualified to make progress on these priorities. One of the ways they are doing this is by assessing how clients experience their support. For some organizations, this has meant distributing fundraising surplus as grants to immigrant-led nonprofits to ensure the deployment of culturally relevant support and services. Other organizations that have a prominent seat at the figurative “table” – whether that be with a government, nonprofit alliance, or professional association – are creating an opportunity for immigrant and marginalized community leaders to ensure true representation. Respecting and creating agency for the people you serve fortifies relationships, increases trust, and deepens your mission and impact.

Questions to consider when exploring ways to create agency:

Where can your organization focus on equity versus efficiency?

What shifts can your organization make to be more amenable to the clients’ needs, in turn meeting them with dignity?

Final Thoughts

Increases in philanthropic support to human services organizations provide a historic opportunity for organizations to explore bold and visionary investments. With immediate operational needs and financial reserves addressed by spikes in fundraising, nonprofits should leverage their additional surplus to explore catalyst investments. Engage, partner, and empower the communities you serve to inform how your vision should be pursued and how impact can be measured. Donors trust your organizations to be the experts in your respective work. Your commitment to centering the voices of the communities you serve will instill further confidence and enthusiasm in those who support your mission.

[1] The Giving Institute, Giving USA 2021: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2020

[2] Fidelity Charitable, “A Year Unlike Any Other: How Donors Plan to Approach Giving at 2020’s Year‐End”

[3] Bank of America, “Helping Your Neighbor: A Story of Generosity”

[4] The Chronicle of Philanthropy, “Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott, and Michael Bloomberg Top List of America’s 50 Biggest Charity Donors” and Food Bank News, “42 Food Banks Prepare to Spend Mega Gifts from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott”

[5] Feeding America, “Feeding America Responds To $100 Million Gift from Jeff Bezos In Support of Food Banks During COVID-19 Pandemic”

[6] The Chronicle of Philanthropy, “The Philanthropy 50”

[7] The World Bank, “COVID-19 to Add as Many as 150 Million Extreme Poor by 2021”

The recent headlines surrounding an increased focus on reducing the cost of higher education through the Biden Administration’s American Families Plan, along with the launch of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), have spiked curiosity among institutional leaders on how this could affect their overall fundraising strategy and donor messaging.

Private philanthropy is, and will remain, a crucial component of higher education institutions’ funding mix as it helps ensure overall access, excellence, sustainability, and growth. Philanthropy has historically complemented and accelerated government funding, allowing institutions to focus private dollars on ensuring student success through investment in programs, buildings, and people to help build the workforce of the future.

For years, private philanthropy has decreased barriers to educational access through scholarship support. Philanthropy, however, is so much more than scholarship dollars; it is a pipeline to innovation that allows institutions to implement bold new approaches that accelerate contributions to the social, technological, and economic growth of their communities. This steady revenue stream into scholarships, buildings, programs, and people allows institutions to fulfill their mission, regardless of what state and federal funding provide. And to be sure, these amounts fluctuate so while it might appear that the system is flush today, tomorrow might present a dramatically different view.

The foundation of successful fundraising is still based on the trusting, authentic, and respectful relationships you build with your board, your community, and your donors. Below are some high-level insights and key messages to consider when conveying the gap in funding and the continued need for private philanthropic support.

1. Unmet student need is greater than just the cost of tuition.

The total cost of attending college today goes far beyond yearly tuition. In addition to the cost of classes, students must factor in textbooks and school supplies, housing, food, transportation, and personal expenses. Students working full or part-time jobs in addition to attending school also have to calculate the benefits and trade-offs of earning an income to meet their financial needs while earning a degree or certificate to pursue the career of their choice.

The headline benefit of many public and government funding proposals is free or subsidized tuition, seemingly removing the need for student scholarships at two and four-year institutions. Advancement offices will be well-served to remind donors that philanthropy amplifies the work that government funders hope to accomplish by addressing the wraparound support that students need to be successful inside and outside the classroom.

It is important to acknowledge that a student’s timeline to completion can vastly vary, as many are balancing work, a family, and other personal responsibilities. Since institutions know their students’ needs best, scholarship dollars can be redirected to the most vulnerable community members or those who fall outside of public funding parameters, such as community college students enrolled in workforce training programs. In many cases, unmet need will still be a major challenge facing college students even with free or reduced tuition.

For one CCS higher education partner, the cost of tuition is a fraction of the total cost analysis facing the 60,000+ student body at the community college. Innovative scholarship funds and programs have been developed in recent years to creatively lower students’ financial burdens and are growing rapidly as donors see that need and impact clearly align with helping students achieve their academic goals. While having government funding absorb tuition fees would be a significant benefit to the students, transferring savings to another financial priority still doesn’t resolve the average unmet need of over $9,200 annually.

2. Share with donors the need to innovate and implement bold new strategies that will directly impact students.

Regardless of whether scholarship dollars are going to be as essential to future students as they have been to current and past students, the need to provide funding to stay up to date on emerging programming, technologies, and resources will remain crucial to ensure students are career ready and employable. Consider what the in-demand industries are in your region and what programs your institution has in place that directly funnel graduating students into these key industries. Are there programs that can and should be enhanced to better prepare graduating students for newly emerging industries? Continue to remind the donor about the role your institution plays in your community’s economic growth and share the success stories of your students.

3. Keep student stories front and center.

People connect with stories, and donors are no exception. We also know that people give to people. With every opportunity you have to get in front of a donor, whether that be announcing a new program, providing impact updates, or simply saying thank you, the act of including an individual student’s journey at your institution brings an irreplaceable human element to your work. Encourage students to go beyond the standard background information and share the hopes and dreams that lie ahead for them! Everyone loves to feel inspired by the next generation and the work your institution is doing to make their big dreams a reality.

4. Philanthropy can ensure long-term security of institutions.

Federal and state dollars fluctuate every year, usually with strict policies or timelines in place for specific spending requirements. Private philanthropy ensures flexibility and consistent resources are available well after federal dollars are spent. In light of this, consider the following forward-thinking opportunities:

Grow Your Endowment: Building your endowment by asking donors to leave a legacy that will allow for your institution to carry out your mission for current and future generations is a strong ask. By focusing on endowed gifts, you will show the community that you are thinking long-term and building an annual stream of income that can support the institution, its programs, and its students in perpetuity. The strength of your endowment also shows the financial health of your institution. The larger your endowment, the stronger you will be perceived as an institution.

Meet the Unexpected Needs of Students: As we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, new student obstacles emerged, and philanthropy created opportunities to solve those challenges. The higher education landscape is fluid, and the economy and other external influences change the arc of stories all the time. Through the flexibility and immediacy provided through private philanthropic dollars, emerging student needs can be addressed quickly and on an ad hoc basis. Private dollars allow institutions to put the student first, which ensures a stronger opportunity for successful outcomes.

Philanthropy is here to stay. While ambitious public funding proposals to support higher education institutions evolve over the coming months, we must all remain focused on cultivating the private funding sources that will sustain our work. We must continue to meet students’ needs and help them achieve their goals.

At the same time, being proactive and flexible with your messaging is necessary. The heightened focus on student support through greater public resources puts higher education institutions in a positive spotlight but also requires institutions to be thoughtful about communicating the value of scholarship support and private support for higher education needs more broadly. Communicating the well-known value proposition of your institution’s mission will ensure its future long after public dollars are spent.

One year ago, CCS purposefully affirmed our commitment to racial justice and our efforts to foster a more inclusive and equitable world. The senseless killings of George Floyd and countless other Black lives ignited the desire to firmly stand in solidarity with our colleagues and communities of color. Systemic racism and discrimination have no place in our society. We actively condemn violence and aggression directed at anyone based on their race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or gender.

Today, CCS remains dedicated and steadfast in pushing this commitment forward. While there are no words to describe the anguish and frustration as these injustices persist, CCS continues the work to create change both within the firm and beyond. We are a firm comprised of passionate, mission-driven people dedicated to making the world a better place, and we recognized that this work needed to start from within.

An important first step in advancing our commitment was creating our DEI Mission Statement to establish CCS’s core values. Through inclusive and challenging conversations amongst leadership and staff, CCS developed our guiding principles to hold ourselves accountable for creating a respectful, inclusive, and equitable company culture for all employees. Leadership listened, adjusted, and committed to growth to stimulate this cultural change.

As a firm, we also acknowledged that we have much to learn on this journey and decided to partner with professional consultants with expertise in areas related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We began our partnership with Nadia Jones of Culture Cipher, who led us through the development of firm-wide training and education, as well as guidance in the key early decisions on our DEI journey. CCS also partnered with Holistic to conduct interviews, small group conversations, and a firm-wide survey to understand key factors of job satisfaction, growth, and belonging. Additionally, Holistic underwent a deep analysis of our recruitment pipeline to help us understand opportunities for more inclusive practices from the moment a team member applies.

Resulting from these initial steps forward, CCS committed to taking specific, measurable actions in the areas of:

Fostering leadership training and growth through regular conversations and meetings to prioritize DEI as a principle interwoven throughout our operations.
- CCS overhauled its governance structure with new Board of Directors made up of nearly 50% women.
- This new Board of Directors will also include two new external independent Directors – with diverse candidates already identified and their onboarding imminent – prompted by the intention to bring about greater perspective and diversity to the firm’s governance.
- All CCS Partners have engaged in a series of trainings on centralizing DEI to all aspects of our business, from recruitment to retention and how we serve our clients. Trainings will continue through the end of the calendar year and beyond.
Valuing inclusivity by encouraging the development of several internal outlets which offer a supportive and diverse network of voices for the CCS community.
- The CCS DEI Working Group is comprised of 24 dedicated employees across all staff levels, geographies, and backgrounds. The group meets regularly to guide CCS’s work across three priority areas, including: internal enhancements, client services, and external engagement.
- 44% of CCS staff are members of our Employee Resource Groups, which include the People of Color and Multicultural Network, Aspiring Allies, PRIDE at CCS, and Working Parents.
- We have hosted a series of firm-wide safe space listening sessions, which provide employees with a forum for discussion and learning about sensitive topics.
- In addition to our firm-wide efforts, we formed four regional DEI committees throughout the firm to explore key concepts, engage in honest talks, and continue our growth.
Strengthening recruitment strategies across new avenues of inclusive hiring and upholding the re-affirmed company values, making this a desirable working environment for potential employees of all backgrounds.
- Through a concerted effort to change our demographics, 32% of new hires brought into the firm in 2021 identify as BIPOC.
- CCS began the search to recruit a Vice President for DEI, who will lead, coordinate, and facilitate CCS’s efforts in DEI moving forward. Encouraging progress is underway with a diverse pool of candidates.
- A series of anti-bias trainings has been tailored to all staff involved in recruiting.
Prioritizing professional development by ensuring equitable access to training, tools, and leadership opportunities that promote career growth.
- CCS staff across all levels and tenures have been invited to participate in educational sessions on topics such as anti-racism and unconscious bias. These sessions offer opportunities to learn from speakers from an array of multicultural backgrounds. Over the past year, CCS has hosted 8 of these firm-wide sessions.
- Increased mentorship and coaching by leadership is a priority to foster an inclusive and supportive work environment.
Creating a vibrant client community by developing tailored resources for underserved nonprofits and offering our services to those most in need.
- Our DEI Working Group is currently piloting the launch of a free public resource library and expanding pro-bono service to benefit this community.
- The group also implemented a regular set of DEI-focused planning standards for webinars, publications, and communications that reflect our values and those of the diverse client base we serve.

We have made important and necessary progress this past year, but we recognize this is an ongoing journey, and our work must persist.

We will continue to develop resources and assess our operational practices to foster advancement and a positive environment for all employees, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, parental status, national origin, different abilities, age, veteran status, or other invisible traits. We know that as a firm, we are only as valuable as our people and that there is strength in diversity.

CCS commits to learn and grow through compassion, humility, and accountability as we partner with organizations across the nonprofit community and beyond.

Click the video below for our DEI Mission Statement from the CCS team.

Developing a comprehensive prospect list bespoke to your organisation and aligned to your programmes is a critical part of enabling success.

Given the changing economic and social circumstances nationally and internationally, it may be necessary to revisit your prospect list to ensure that you are focusing resources and time on those relationships most likely to progress your goals.

Below are five tips to refresh your prospect list…

Re-Visit your Case
Before you can ascertain if you have the right prospects, it is important to consider your case in light of the evolving environment. Are there changes you need to make to the proposition to reflect recent months? Do current challenges strengthen your plans and if so, how? Conduct a SWOT analysis; take every case element and give thought to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that may exist when considering the funding climate for each. In doing so you will be able to prioritise programmes that, in the short term, are more likely to resonate with potential donors.
Develop a Robust Criteria
List core selection factors for prospects to be included on your list, these may be;

Financial ability to support your goals
Past giving to your organisation
Demonstrated interest in the programme area
Track record of philanthropy
Relationship with the organisation

Then use this system to refine your prospect list and determine the prioritisation of engagement.

Gather Information
Your prospect list may have been developed a number of months ago but it is still worth taking some time to research new opportunities with the current climate in mind. Consider:

What sectors are more robust now? E.G. software, technology, pharmaceuticals, food retail
To whom does this programme matter? E.G. Alumni, corporations, employers, government
What similar programmes exist nationally and internationally and what sort of funders do they attract?

Fact Check
With the economic uncertainty, spend some time learning how potential funders may have been impacted in recent months. Though there is no exact science, you can use share prices for the year to date or news articles to give a good indication of a company’s performance.
Road-test
Once you have a refreshed list, circle back to internal leaders that may be able to help make connections and build relationships. Your main objective should be to secure (virtual) meetings so that you can share your plans and gain insights as a first step in cultivating prospects. Even if you have established relationships you can move them along by asking for calls to discuss amendments to programme prioritisation and renewed areas of focus.

Community is the backbone of society, the heartbeat of philanthropy, and the purpose behind many social and human service nonprofits. The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way we think about interacting with people and pushed us to explore new horizons of digital communications. As we’ve shared in our recent article about virtual fundraising events, there are many benefits to virtual communication that we should consider retaining after social distancing restrictions are lifted.

In particular, virtual solicitations have been an excellent way to reach a breadth of donors who live far away, have limited ability for in-person meetings, prefer remote communications, or have busy schedules. As you continue with these digital discussions, we’ve put together the following guide to help you refresh your approach to scheduling and conducting virtual visits.

Selecting a Platform

We have learned a few key considerations during our time in a virtual world on selecting a platform. Some questions for your reflection include:

Do you need to reach donors that are geographically spread? If so, consider a Zoom call that requires simple dial or call-in options with a suitable schedule to accommodate time zones.

Is your target generation more interested in in-person meetings? Feel free to simply ask your donor if they have a preference.

Do you want to share something that is location-based? Is this a location that is easy to reach in person? Perhaps you want to show a new wing of your homeless shelter, but don’t want to disturb the individuals staying there. Simply taking a video of the empty space and sharing the video at the beginning of a call can showcase your work without interrupting the privacy of your beneficiaries.

Do you want to foster communication and connection between donors? Should the connection be one-on-one, or as a group? If you would like for donors to connect amongst themselves, consider an in-person event or an avatar-based platform like Event Farm. If you are facilitating one-on-one connection, breakout rooms on Zoom could be a useful tool if you choose to stay digital.

Scheduling a Virtual Solicitation

Scheduling a virtual visit is similar to scheduling an in-person visit. It is important not to discuss details of your visit agenda when scheduling. To avoid this, remind the person that you have some materials you want to share with them during your conversation.

Step One: We just went through a global pandemic, which was a difficult and isolating experience for many. Start off with a personal check-in and show empathy by saying something like:

“This is (your name) calling from (your organization). We are making an effort to reach out to folks right now to make sure they are feeling connected and see how you are doing during this phase of re-emergence. We’ve missed seeing you!”

Step Two: Make the pivot from small talk to business with a phrase like:

“Have you received our emails about updates to our volunteer and services policies, etc.?”

Step Three: After connecting on a personal level you can extend the invitation to have a virtual visit. Consider saying something such as:

“As you know, we are engaging in an initiative here at (your organization) to address some of our pressing needs and we believe (the project that you are working on) will be life-giving to our organization. We are committed to advancing this effort in a way that makes sense for the current circumstances we are facing as a community. I was wondering if you might be interested in having a conversation with me over video call about this initiative? It’s been a nice conversation to have with folks, particularly at this time when we are so focused on what’s next after the pandemic.”

After Scheduling

When prepping for the visit, consider the following.

Materials should be shared with prospects prior to the meeting. It is ideal to mail the prospect the materials, so they have a hard copy to look at with you during the visit. This is also an opportunity to send a gift, logo items, or other treats. If you are unable to mail materials, you can send a “PDF packet”’ via email and/or a link.

Send a follow-up email to the scheduled prospect to confirm the date and time and include the details to call into the meeting. For some people, this may be their first time participating in a video conference. Screenshots and step-by-step instructions are a helpful resource to provide. Create a backup call-in option in the event the video conference cannot be accessed.

Conducting the Virtual Solicitation

You can conduct a virtual visit the same way you would an in-person visit. Stick to key best practices:

Open with small talk before transitioning to the case.

Present the case. Be sure to focus on your mission, the story of your organization, and your current needs.

Introduce the request for support. You can do this by demonstrating the credibility of your fundraising ask and your enthusiasm for the support you’ve received thus far.

Make the ask by articulating a specific number. Feel free to share your screen and show them the gift table for illustrative purposes. Finally, pause to give them time to process the request.

Handle their response. Some potential reactions could include articulating understanding for their financial situation, expressing gratitude for their generosity, or explaining the methods of executing the donation.

Keep timing in mind. Build in time at the beginning of the meeting for technical issues and aim to keep the overall timeline for the visit to no more than an hour. Finally, schedule a time to follow up with the donor.

Success Stories

Social and human service nonprofits across the United States have developed innovative digital communications strategies, including cocktail hours for spread-out communities, video tours of new building construction, and one-on-one video meetings with individuals who have been hard to reach for years.

In particular, one human services nonprofit in the Intermountain West offers marginalized women employment, career guidance, and life skills. Despite not having a background in major individual giving, this organization has had tremendous success through entirely virtual briefing and solicitations. They are on track to achieve their benchmark goals and are 38% toward their campaign goal in one year. The key to their success was keeping the mission and vision of the organization at the forefront of every conversation. The CEO and Development Director tailored conversations with donors to the donor’s interests – for those who appreciate data and results, they focused on current outcomes and the return on investment the campaign would have in making a difference in the lives of women. For donors who are compelled by stories, the team highlights individual women served and shares the impact the organization has on each individual to help them gain self-sufficiency.

Another social services organization on the West Coast approached virtual solicitations differently. This organization offers a range of therapeutic services on a beautiful campus, where they held a drive-through carnival barbeque complete with prizes, dinner, a take-home swag bag, and a band. Children were able to shoot hoops with a take-home basketball and have a family picture all from their cars. Invitees included big-ticket buyers and sponsors for the event. The event also acted as a cultivation touchpoint before a virtual major gift ask, and thus offered a great conversation starter during the solicitation.

We hope that your organization finds similar success as you refresh your virtual meetings approach post-pandemic.