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Beyond Giving USA: Highlighting the DAF Fundraising Report

By: Melissa Bank Stepno, President & CEO

For those of us who track trends in philanthropy, June has always been a big month. That’s because it’s typically when Giving USA releases the topline findings of its annual report—though the full version doesn’t arrive until July.

Giving USA is widely considered the most comprehensive source on giving data in the U.S., and as the longest running report it offers unmatched longitudinal data on U.S. philanthropy.

It is the O.G.  It is the legacy report.  It is the source that everyone relies on.

So much so, that its release sparks a flurry of webinars, blog posts, and analyses from consulting firms and other entities eager to share their take on the headline numbers. That content is out there, so I won’t rehash the details here.

Instead, I want to turn your attention to another important report that dropped just a day after the initial Giving USA stats were released — and it may have flown under your radar.

 

Introducing the DAF Fundraising Report 2025

Now in its second year, the DAF Fundraising Report 2025—a collaboration between Chariot and K2D Strategies—is a welcome addition to our philanthropy toolkit.

While Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) have been around in the U.S. for nearly a century, their influence on the philanthropic sector has surged in the past decade. One reason? There are now roughly 10 times as many DAFs as there were ten years ago.

Since 2012, the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) has produced the most comprehensive annual report on DAFs, based on data from sponsoring organizations. I rely on it regularly and eagerly await its November release each year. But as valuable as it is, it tells only part of the story.

Until now, we’ve lacked a large-scale report focused on donors who recommend DAF distributions and the nonprofits that receive them.

With the DAF Fundraising Report, we now have our first view into donor behavior, which is fascinating and perhaps more helpful to non-profit organizations looking to understand DAF giving.

 

Why is this so?  And, why do we need so many reports on philanthropy anyway?

Simply stated, every study or report offering trend analysis provides a different lens on the sector, shaped by its data sources.

Both Giving USA and the NPT report draw primarily from IRS Form 990s—tax filings submitted by nonprofits. Giving USA supplements this with econometric modeling and other datasets, but ultimately, both reports reflect macro-level trends. They don’t provide insight into donor behavior within individual organizations.

And while the sector has talked about becoming more “donor-centered” since Penelope Burk’s Donor Centered Fundraising came out over 20 years ago, the tools we use to analyze philanthropy haven’t done the same.

 

The Data Behind the Report

To be clear, I understand the challenges of benchmarking data across nonprofits. From inconsistent gift entry practices to varying definitions of key terms, even basic data can be messy. And some CRM systems don’t make the exporting and reporting process easy.  Conversely, IRS 990s offer a standardized (and easier) dataset —but “easy” doesn’t always mean “complete.”

The beauty the DAF Fundraising Report 2025 is that it leverages data provided by nonprofits, directly from their CRM databases, at the donation transaction level.  Among other data points, this includes details like an individual donor’s gift dates, amounts and channels (DAF or non-DAF).

To my earlier comments on the challenges with standardizing data, I know that the researchers of this report painstakingly ran quality checks and standardized the best that they could across participating organizations.

While only 32 organizations participated in this year’s report, it is a 60% increase in the number of participants from last year’s report.  The participating organizations represented a nice cross-section of sizes (by annual revenue raised), however it should be noted that most participants were from cause-based and/or advocacy organizations, not from other sectors like higher education or health care.  As such, my advice would be to use the findings as directional indicators and not absolutes for your specific organization.

 

Besides its growth in popularity, what makes DAF giving so important to nonprofits?

Let’s just highlight a few of the DAF Fundraising Report’s findings:

  • DAF donors have higher retention. On average, they were retained at a rate 13% higher than non-DAF donors.
  • Most DAF gifts are not major gifts. In fact, 69% of DAF gifts were under $1,000.
  • Donors who switch to DAFs give more. Median giving doubled for donors who converted from non-DAF gifts in previous years to DAF giving.
  • DAF gifts are significantly larger. At participating organizations, the median DAF gift was 12x higher than non-DAF gifts.

 

Closing Thoughts

Though still young, the DAF Fundraising Report 2025 is growing fast—and it’s already walking, if not running.  It serves as an important partner for its bigger siblings and I’m hopeful it will continue to evolve, broadening its scope and deepening its insights. In the meantime, I encourage you to take a close look. It offers a rare, donor-level view into one of the most important vehicles in modern philanthropy.

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Taking Care: Using Equitable and Inclusive Language in Research Profiles and Beyond

By: Anne Melton, Consultant

Anne Melton

Anne Melton

Have you ever received a piece of mail where your name has been misspelled, your salutation incorrect, or it includes typos resulting from a careless mail merge? My reactions to such communications range from laughter to annoyance to downright displeasure. Being called Mrs. makes me cringe, or worse for me – because my spouse and I have different surnames – being called Mrs. Spouse Last Name. I also find it irritating when our household is referred to as the Spouse Last Name Family [insert eye roll here]. My frustration stems from the assumptions that are made about who our family is, and those assumptions typically default to old conventions that are woefully out of date (and sometimes downright offensive and sexist). You can probably guess that I toss those mailings straight into the recycle bin without a second thought.

These same outdated and potentially harmful practices are everywhere, not only in mass mailings. (Think of how commonly “hey guys!” is said to an audience that doesn’t just include men.) As prospect researchers, one way we can work to be more equitable and confront intrinsic biases is when writing profiles. Enter inclusive language…

What makes language inclusive?

Inclusive language is “language that acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities…[these guidelines] avoid pitfalls or habits that may unintentionally lead to marginalization, offense, misrepresentation, or the perpetuation of stereotypes.”1 Inclusive language means that we recognize our words have power, and that we must take care in using those words by trying our best to ensure no one is hurt, excluded, or misrepresented in the ways we share information. Doing so helps us communicate more clearly and accurately and promotes a culture of belonging and respect.

How researchers can promote inclusive language

As researchers, we are constantly conveying information about funders, donors, and constituents, and we can advocate for inclusivity through our usual channels like profiles, event briefings, memos, and even emails and conversations. Language that is not inclusive can fall into the categories of racist, sexist, gendered, coded, ageist, ableist, homophobic, and violent. It behooves us to be aware of and avoid using these types of harmful language. Here are just a few examples on how to reframe how we convey information in a profile:

Instead of:

Mr. and Mrs. Donor gave $100 million to build a new athletics center. Mrs. Donor is a former Olympic athlete.

Use:

Jamie Donor and Taylor Donor gave $100 million to build a new athletics center. Jamie is a former Olympic athlete.

 

Instead of:

The couple have two sons, Robin and Lee. The boys attend Birchwood Academy.

Use:

The couple have two children, Robin and Lee. They are students at Birchwood Academy.

 

Instead of:

Sandy is chairman of the board of a nonprofit that provides job training to ex-prisoners.

Use:

Sandy is chair of the board of a nonprofit that provides job training to individuals who have been impacted by the justice system.

Beyond the profile

Inclusive language can also mean doing away with phrases or words that are unclear or don’t accurately represent what we are trying to say. Often those phrases and words have roots in the non-inclusive language categories named above. A few that come to mind are:

Instead of:

Let’s pull the trigger on deciding which vendor to use.

Use:

Let’s decide by the end of the day which vendor to use.

 

Instead of:

This week, we are welcoming freshmen students to campus.

Try:

This week, we are welcoming first-year students to campus.

 

Instead of:

We are applying for a grant to build housing for the homeless.

Use:

We are applying for a grant to build housing for people experiencing homelessness.

 

Instead of:

Isn’t it crazy that we exceeded our fundraising goal at the gala?

Use:

Isn’t it wonderful/amazing/wild that we exceeded our fundraising goal at the gala?

Beyond our written and spoken communications, there are other steps we can all take to foster a culture of inclusiveness and belonging in our workplaces, and with our clients and donors:

  • Create an inclusive language style guide. Just as your organization might have a style guide or in-house writing conventions, consider creating an inclusive language guide that streamlines your writing organization-wide for you and your colleagues. Make a point to keep it a living document and review and vet it regularly.
  • Educate yourself. Once you start to notice how ingrained non-inclusive language is in our society, it may surprise you at how prevalent it is. Learn about other examples and work to exclude those words, phrases, and colloquialisms from your vernacular in other aspects of your life. See the resources below as a few starting points, but there are many more out there!

Mistakes and missteps happen, and that’s okay. Make amends, correct, and move on. Just as our profession and our skills sets are always evolving, so too is language and our profession’s best practices.

Sources, references, and further reading:

[1] Linguistic Society of America. (n.d). Guidelines for Inclusive Language. https://www.lsadc.org/resources_list.asp?c=10&i=22

Olsen, Erin. (2025, May 1-3). Inclusive and Equitable Language in Prospect Research [Conference presentation]. NEDRA 2025, Portland, ME, United States.

https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2022/09/inclusive-language

https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines

https://counseling.northwestern.edu/blog/inclusive-language-guide/

https://www.csueastbay.edu/universitycommunications/inclusive-language-guide.html

https://www.culturemonkey.io/employee-engagement/language-inclusive/

https://devar.ucdavis.edu/using-inclusive-language

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/careers/all-employees/working-with-others/words-matter.pdf

https://pros.educ.queensu.ca/blog/inclusivelanguage#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Linguistic%20Society,%2C%20and%20promotes%20equal%20opportunities.%E2%80%9D

https://www.washington.edu/brand/guides/equitable-language-guide/#explore-the-guide-2

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Time to Take Your Temperature: Warm vs. Cold Prospecting

by: Melissa Bank Stepno, President & CEO

In the past few months, The Helen Brown Group has seen an uptick in the number of nonprofit organizations interested in finding new major gift prospects for their organizations.  In brief, we call these “Prospecting Projects,” and they typically involve identifying net-new potential donors, based on some combination of potential capacity and previously demonstrated mission alignment.  Sometimes, these are called cold prospects.

This is a common type of project for prospect researchers but before you decide to journey down this path on behalf of your nonprofit, I would recommend taking a giant step back and asking yourself: Why?

While I understand that there are some instances where cold prospecting is the best path forward, fully evaluating your current database first is typically a more successful strategy.  This is typically called warm prospecting.

 

“Warm” vs. “Cold”

Warm prospects are in your database for a reason.  Maybe they graduated from your school, attended a performance at your theater, was a patient at your medical facility, signed up for your newsletter, volunteered, etc., etc.  Any one of these demonstrates some connection to your organization, even if it is a loose one.

Cold prospects have no prior relationship with your organization.  They might not even have any awareness about your organization.  Any outreach you do will be … well… cold.

Okay, now I’m going to sidebar for a moment and ask you: do you like cold calls?  Do you respond to emails from random people that you don’t know?  Are you as annoyed as I am about the amount of spam I receive from people thinking that I “must” be interested in what they are selling?  Now, put your cold prospect donor hat on and let’s return to my post…

 

Prioritize Warm Prospecting

Simply put, working with warm prospects typically has a higher conversion rate, meaning they are more likely to respond to your outreach and ultimately give.  It is also easier to build a relationship with someone who has a baseline understanding with what your organization is and who you represent.  Warm prospecting is about identifying and nurturing potential donors who already have a foot in the door.

So, the next time you hear someone say: “we need more prospects,” look no further than your own database.  There are dozens of ways to do effective segmentation and data mining in your database, from simple RFM analyses, to wealth screenings, to sophisticated predictive modeling exercises, to relationship mapping, to looking at engagement data, and the list could go on.

If you want to read more about how to warm prospect, check out my colleague, Jen Turner’s blog post from earlier this year: A Field Guide to Prospecting Within Your Database.

 

Use Cold Prospecting Strategically When Appropriate

Only once you have exhausted your internal connections, or when you are looking to fundraise for something completely new/ancillary to your core mission, should you consider external prospecting.  Here are five quick examples of where cold prospecting makes sense:

  • Historically your research-focused organization has relied primarily on federal funding, you are concerned that those funding channels will dry up (or they have already been cut), and you do not have a database of previous donors
  • Your geographically focused social services agency is expanding into new territory – maybe the next county or state over – and you are looking to build a donor database within that region.
  • You are building a new museum, literally and figuratively from the ground up. You’ve been provided with initial funding from a handful of benefactors – mostly the board members – and you have been tasked with identifying potential funders for the rest of the project
  • You work for a large and sophisticated organization with a natural constituency base. The organization has a ground-breaking program or initiative that would appeal to donors familiar with the topic area, even if they are not connected to the larger institution
  • You are looking to diversify your donor database, maybe because it is primarily corporate and foundation focused with few individuals, or because your individual donor population is aging rapidly

 

Summary

Many nonprofits are seeking new major gift prospects, but before diving into cold prospecting, it’s critical to fully explore the warm prospects already in your database. Warm leads—those with prior engagement—typically convert at higher rates and offer better long-term potential. Cold prospecting has its place, but it should be used strategically and only when appropriate.

Image credit: Melissa Bank Stepno

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