There’s a particular kind of panic that sets in around October in most nonprofits. Email performance is uneven. The website isn’t converting. Social is… doing something, but no one’s quite sure what. And suddenly, everyone is trying to “fix” things while also launching a year-end campaign. That’s the wrong time to discover your systems don’t work.

But here’s the reality: strong year-end fundraising isn’t built in October or November. It’s built now. Spring is the time for planning—quietly, methodically, and without the pressure of a revenue goal breathing down your neck. So, make time now to make sure your core systems are doing what they’re supposed to do—consistently, cleanly, and without friction.

The Part Most Organizations Miss: Your Communications Channels Are a System

Most nonprofits treat their website, email, and social media as separate tools—different platforms, different strategies, different people managing each one.

But that’s not how your audience experiences you.

To them, it’s all one thing. One interaction. One impression that either builds momentum—or quietly drops them off. Someone sees a post. Something about it resonates just enough to click. They land on your website and, within seconds, decide whether it’s worth their time. If it is, maybe they stick around. Maybe they read something. Maybe—if you’ve done your job well—they take the next step and give you permission to stay in touch.

That permission, more often than not, is email.

From there, the relationship either deepens or fades. They open your messages—or they don’t. They click, read, start to recognize your voice, understand your work, and see where they fit in it. Over time, if that experience is consistent and clear, the idea of giving doesn’t feel like a leap. It feels like the next logical step.

And when they do give, the experience that follows determines everything. Whether they feel acknowledged. Whether they understand what their gift did. Whether they hear from you again in a way that feels human, not transactional.

At some point—if all of that is working—they stop thinking of themselves as someone who gave once, and start seeing themselves as someone who supports your organization. Regularly. Reliably. As part of how they move through the world.

That entire progression—from first click to sustained support—isn’t driven by any single channel.

It’s driven by how well those channels connect.

The Funnel Is Real—But It’s Not Linear

We like to describe this as a funnel because it gives shape to something that can otherwise feel abstract: people moving from awareness to action to deeper commitment. But in practice, it rarely looks clean.

People don’t move step-by-step in a straight line. They linger. They circle back. They disappear for months and then reappear. Some will follow you on social media for a long time before ever subscribing. Others will donate first and only later begin paying attention to your emails. Some will engage deeply without ever giving. Others will give once and vanish. None of that is unusual. It’s just human behavior. The goal, then, isn’t to force people through a prescribed path. It’s to make sure that wherever they enter—and wherever they are—the next step is clear, easy, and worth taking.

Every interaction should reduce friction. Every touchpoint should reinforce why you matter. Every channel should make it easier, not harder, to go one step further. When that’s working, movement happens naturally. Not perfectly, not predictably—but consistently enough to build something real.

What Spring Is Actually For

This is why spring matters more than most organizations realize. Because this is the window when you can look carefully at your systems. Where you can make changes and see the impact those changes made well before the urgency of year-end clouds everything.

Right now, you can watch how people are actually moving (or not moving) through your ecosystem. You can see where interest drops off, where engagement stalls, where intent never quite turns into action. You have the space to test, adjust, and fix without the pressure of needing immediate revenue results.

By the time you reach the fall, those systems shouldn’t be in question. They should already be doing their job—quietly, reliably, without constant intervention. Year-end is not the time to figure out whether your website converts, whether your email program holds attention, or whether your social content leads anywhere meaningful. It’s the time when those things need to already be working. What you do now determines whether they will.

Where This Starts to Break Down (and What to Pay Attention To)

Once you start looking at your communications as a connected system, the weak points become easier to spot.

Sometimes it’s right at the beginning—attention without action. Social content that gets seen but doesn’t lead anywhere. Posts that inform or inspire in the moment, but don’t give people a reason to take the next step.

Other times, the breakdown happens a layer deeper. People are finding their way to your website, but nothing about the experience pulls them in further. The message isn’t clear. The value isn’t obvious. There’s no compelling reason to stay, let alone come back.

And in many cases, the quietest failure point is the one that matters most: people visit, they’re interested, and then they leave without ever giving you a way to reach them again. No email sign-up. No next step. Just a missed opportunity that looks, on the surface, like normal website traffic.

Further down, you start to see a different kind of friction. Lists that are growing, but not engaging. Emails that are being sent, but not read. Messages that sound more like internal reports than something meant for an actual human being.

And then, eventually, the point where it becomes most visible: people are paying attention, but they’re not giving. Or they give once—and you never hear from them again. So, you think the problem must be email. You think that people aren’t giving because you didn’t ask right. Or enough. Or too much.

The reality is that your issue didn’t start with email. It started earlier, in all the small moments where the system didn’t quite hold.

Right now, you have time to fix it—and the time and investment you make now, will pay dividends when you get to your year-end campaign.

The Stay Ready Scorecard

You can use this scorecard to measure how ready you are to manage a difficult time, or just a regular Tuesday in nonprofit land.

Let’s Go! Read each question and honestly answer Yes, No, or I Don’t Know. Give yourself 2 points for every Yes answer and 0 for every No or I Don’t Know.

1. Have you reviewed your messaging in the last 6 months?

2. Does your social media, email, and other communication follow a central theme?

3. Are you posting on social media at least weekly?

4. Do you have systems and protocols in place for getting communications out?

5. Have you tested fundraising practices in the last 6 months with an A/B test?

6. Are you Search Engine Optimized (SEO)?

7. Have you updated your website in the last 6 months?

8. Do you have a mobile friendly website?

9. Can you make a donation from your homepage in under 5 clicks?

10. Is your donation page mobile friendly?

11. Do you have a database that automates donations?

12. Does your database have reliable data (at least up to the end of the last month?)

13. Have you updated your mailing list in the last 6 months?

14. Are your sign-up forms converting people?

15. Do you have a welcome series?

16. Have you tested it in the last 6 months?

Tally Your Results! If you got:

• 27+ points:

  • You’re ready! Tighten up on your No’s, figure out your I Don’t Know’s, and tweak your strategies.

• 11-26 points:

  • You’re on the right track. Focus on your No’s and try to get to the bottom of your I Don’t Know’s.

• Under 10 points:

  • You gotta get ready! Make a game plan to tackle the No’s and I Don’t Know’s!

If you want to truly be ready for anything, check out our previous posts. Read our Thriving Amongst Chaos article. Then, check out our on-demand training—it’ll take less than 30 minutes and give you lots of good tips.

For more context see our long form article on Thriving Amongst Chaos below.

For one on one support navigating the current funding environment, email us at kafele@nonprofittriage.com or polly@nonprofittriage.com

We can also get good advice from unexpected sources. In fact, by tuning into that “oldies” station or playlist you may hear a song, from way back in 1978, that sheds a light on the path forward. That song is, The Gambler, by Kenny Rogers.

As the song explains, the key to success (in life and poker) is understanding the cards you’ve been dealt and figuring out how to make the best use of them:

“You got to know when to hold ‘em.

Know when to fold ‘em.

Know when to walk away.

And know when to run.”

- Kenny Rogers, The Gambler

Similar to the gambler in the song, in order to make the right decision right now, you need to look at the entire game—both from a table level view as well as from a bird’s eye view. You have to understand past actions and learn from them to better predict future outcomes.

So, the question you have to answer is, “Are you living in the now, or is your decision making rooted in historical data?”

Where We’ve Been

While this timeline is decidedly unique, we’ve had similar financial upheavals and philanthropic reshuffling and pulling back in the past. During those times, many nonprofits faced budget crises, scaled back their work, fired multiple staff, and several even closed their doors:

• After September 11, 2001

• During the Great Recession of 2008

• During and “after” the International Covid Pandemic of 2020 (and beyond)

Amidst those turbulent times, we’ve also had “surge” moments—where individual giving dramatically increased—including:

• After September 11, 2001

• After the 2016 Presidential Election

• During the Movement for Black Lives after the murder of George Floyd in 2020

• After the Dobbs SCOTUS decision in 2022

Many organizations that faced crises, surges, or both, struggled. They used outdated modes of communication—and often didn’t communicate at all. They believed that “keeping a stiff upper lip” and not letting the public “see you sweat” was the best way to convey strength. They thought they knew what people wanted to hear from them, yet they never asked, or looked at the information that was screaming at them from within their own data. They even, unintentionally, positioned their organization as more important than their mission by speaking to the importance of keeping their doors open rather than keeping the work going.

What We Did Then

The organizations that survived took a different approach. They centered their mission, vision, and values. They communicated frequently with their people—all of them. They used every channel they had available. They were transparent. They talked about money. They talked about people. They used language that connected (lots of “I, you, and we”).

When these nonprofits talked about how the financial climate impacted them, they centered the people they served, not their own jobs or existence. They also gave people multiple opportunities and options to do something—making monetary and nonmonetary asks alike. In short, they pulled back the curtain and told the truth, and through that, they embraced the community that had been there for them, and laid the groundwork to expand it by communicating in a way that nurtured authentic relationships.

And what happened in those times when donations surged?

When those donors were welcomed and engaged with in the same way, many of those donors stayed. When they weren’t, they never returned.

Where We Are Now

The DOGE cuts from early 2025 had a devastating effect. The nonprofit sector saw its funding gutted, long standing agencies were dismantled, staff were terminated, and the aftermath was lots and lots of chaos. Organizations that depend on federal grants had to slash programs, services, and staff, all while the need for those services increased. And while DOGE may, ostensibly, be gone, the administration is still expanding on what they started. They are still attacking the nonprofit sector and the main targets are progressive and leftist organizations. And all of this has had a trickle down effect.

Many government funded organizations scrambled to fill their funding gaps with foundation grants—making an already competitive environment even more so. Major funders, especially in the civic engagement space, announced spend downs, or have transitioned out of this space. The federal government’s threats to funders related to their funding practices resulted in foundation and corporate funders trying to hide from the spotlight by complying in advance, shifting funding priorities and even clawing back grants. And, specifically, running away from anything that sounds like diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The sad truth is that philanthropy had been navelgazing since the 2024 election and was too slow to respond to emerging threats. Funders began to stand up to the administration, not when it began targeting nonprofits, but only after facing direct attacks themselves, putting their endowments before the social contract.

BIPOC, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities are living in fear of harassment and state violence. The economy is precarious. Everyday life is getting more expensive because of tariffs and government actions. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs—and most disturbing is that 300,000 of them are Black women! People are hurting. And, because of all of this, it appears that more people are holding onto their money.

But there is hope. Even with the decline in the number of people donating, we are seeing an increase in the average size of individual donations. That means that the people with the means, desire, and opportunity are stepping up.

What We Can Do Now

You are not navigating economic uncertainty alone. Your donors, staff, and board members are experiencing similar pressures. Take the lessons from the past and apply them. Immediately. Focus on people: the people you serve and the people who care about your work. Invite them into the conversation. Be transparent about both challenges and opportunities.

When you communicate, make sure that your mission, your work, and your impact take center stage. Keep your vision and values visible. Be clear and candid—especially about finances—and explain how funding shifts affect real people and real outcomes. Stay in regular contact with your whole community: donors, prospective donors, volunteers, advocates, activists, partners, and stakeholders. Use every channel available—in the way it was designed to be used. Avoid jargon and insider shorthand. Don’t write tomes. These folks are your friends. Talk to them that way and give them something to do.

The principles are similar for individuals and institutions, though tactics may vary. When dealing with institutional funders, pay close attention to how the current climate impacts how you present your work. Meaning, you may have to code switch.

Many foundations—and particularly government entities—are using automated tools to screen submissions, rejecting projects with language that triggers heightened scrutiny. To mitigate this, you will need to fly under the radar. Your work doesn’t need to change, but the way you describe it may. Frame your work in ways that are accurate, grounded, and strategic. Emphasize outcomes, distinct expertise, and the specific value you bring. Make a clear case for why you are uniquely positioned to deliver results. And most importantly, invest in relationships with program officers and fund managers wherever possible. Direct relationships can provide context that forms alone cannot.

Nestled between individual donors and institutional funders are Donor Advised Funds (DAFs). It is expected that they will continue to grow as a share of giving in 2026, so it is essential that you prepare. It’s estimated that 80% of DAF donors are already giving to the organizations they supported with a DAF gift. Be proactive by sending a short 1-question survey to all of your people asking if they have DAFs. Promote that you’re DAF friendly on your website. Encourage donors to notify you when they initiate a gift through their DAF. And finally, create a DAF giving society to encourage donors to out themselves.

Scarcity thinking can not only make people cautious about giving, it also creates unnecessary competition among partner organizations. This is not the time to run from collaboration, it’s an opportunity to run toward it. Identify and create collaborative fundraising opportunities. Strategic partnerships can expand the reach of all organizations involved, introducing each to new friends and funders, strengthen funding proposals, and create cost efficiencies by sharing both the effort and the expense.

Final Thoughts

While unique, this is not the first difficult time nonprofits have faced. Funding priorities change. Political winds shift. The attention of the general public drifts and then returns. This is not the time to panic, or hide. It’s time to assess, learn, adjust, and move forward with purpose. If your decisions are driven only by the urgency of this moment, they will likely be reactive. If they are informed by experience—by patterns we’ve seen from past cisises—they can be strategic.

The goal is not simply to survive this moment. It is to navigate it in a way that strengthens your organization for what comes next.

For tools to tackle the new fundraising landscape, join the Growth Forum.