Category: Trends

Government and philanthropy have long been partners: sometimes uneasy, but aligned in purpose. As of 2025, they look more like adversaries.

In the three years since generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools became widely available to the public, we have seen an extraordinary rate of growth and change. AI’s next era must focus on good governance.

Nonprofits must show they are competent — good at doing the work — in order to build trust with the public.

With federal datasets disappearing and trust in institutions continuing to decline, philanthropy must find ways to secure the data resources and capacity we need.

Philanthropy is shifting from institutional to participatory and from elite to networked as digital tools expand access and collective practices redistribute power among the new generation of philanthropists.

For this tenth edition of the Trends report, we reflect on the themes that have shaped our sector over the past ten years and name both enduring shifts and new developments.

Attacks on public figures, executive orders and rhetoric that target specific nonprofits, and widespread instability have donors concerned about the safety of giving.

Nonprofit organizations are facing increasingly existential challenges — challenges that not only put their missions at risk, but threaten the well-being of their most valuable resource: their staff.

Climate action from grassroots organizations, Indigenous communities, and large-scale funders alike is working to fill the gaping holes left by eliminated federal funding, research teams, and entire agencies.

Facing unprecedented threats, some nonprofits are contracting while others reinvent themselves through experimentation, bifurcating into two distinct streams: how funding is organized, and how operations are structured.