Name: Everyday Actions, Extraordinary Potential: Engaging Everyday Donors
Uploaded: 2025-02-20T20:31:08.055Z
Duration: 1 h 1 min 20 s
Description: Everyday Actions, Extraordinary Potential: Engaging Everyday Donors

Transcript for "Everyday Actions, Extraordinary Potential: Engaging Everyday Donors": Hello, everyone. My name is Sally Ehrenfried, and I lead government relations for Blackbaud. Thank you so much for joining us today. As your host, I will begin by providing background information on the Generosity Commission, including the recommendations from its reports, Everyday Action, Extraordinary Potential, the Power of Giving and Volunteering, which was released in September. After that, we will have a q and a with our panel. Joining me today are David King, co chair, Faith and Giving Task Force, Karen Lake Buttry, director, Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, and associate professor of philanthropic studies at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, John Tyler, co chair of the policy task force, general counsel, secretary, and chief ethics officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Victoria Vrana, co chair of the Research Task Force and CEO of GlobalGiving. Every day, millions of people across The US give their time and money to the things that matter most to them. These everyday givers and volunteers participate because they want to make a difference. Generosity is a part of who we are, but the shape it can takes continues to change. While many people still give to and volunteer with nonprofits when they can, those numbers have been declining for years. The last few decades have shown a clear decline in the share of American households that report donating to charitable organizations. In 02/2008, '60 '5 percent of households reported donating to nonprofits. In 2018, that had dropped below 50% as we have seen declines in volunteering as well from nearly 30% in 02/2008 to 23% in 2021. The full impact of declines in giving and volunteering has not received much attention, partly because aggregate giving totals have continued to rise year after year. This trend, known as dollars up donors down, reflects that more money is being donated by a smaller group of wealthy donors rather than by a broader base of contributors. This change, of course, impacts nonprofit organizations. There are more than 1,700,000 nonprofits in The US, Eighty Eight Percent with budgets of less than $500,000 When the donor pool shrinks, these small local organizations lose out most of all. Nonprofits are more than just organizations that make our communities better places to live. They are a bedrock of our society. When fewer people give to and volunteer with nonprofits, we miss out on the strength of diverse perspectives, spaces for social connection, and the practice of civic engagement. It was in this context that the Generosity Commission was launched and came together to celebrate the role and power of everyday givers and volunteers through this report that shares research and recommendations. The Generosity Commission was launched in October 2021 as an independent project of the Giving Institute and Giving USA Foundation. It was originally designed by a working group convened by the Giving Institute. This nonpartisan group of leaders was committed to celebrating and supporting the spirit of generosity as expressed through everyday giving, volunteering, and other forms of civic participation. The final product of the generosity commission, excuse me, was a report at the center of our conversation this afternoon. Everyday action, extraordinary potential, the power of giving and volunteering. Blackbaud is a member of the Giving Institute, has participated in the Commission's work since the start. We participated in the working group that designed the Commission, had colleagues lend their time and expertise to the Commission's task force, And Mike Gianoni, Blackbaud's president and CEO, served alongside Jane Wales of the Aspen Institute as the Commission's co chairs. The generosity commission completed its work through the engagement of commission members and task force members. We supported research to understand trends in giving and volunteering, listened to experts in the field, and ultimately wrote up a report with recommendations to encourage everyday giving and volunteers. The generosity commission had three task force task forces, research, faith and giving, and policy, and I have a coach here from each of these task forces with me today. The generosity commission developed recommendations for ways that nonprofit leaders, funders, researchers, policymakers, and business leaders can support and encourage everyday giving and volunteering. The nine recommendations fall into the categories of research, culture, practice, and policy. The recommendations along with the full report are available on the generosity commission's website. For our purposes today, I'll give you a high level overview. First in research, we need to better understand the current state of giving and volunteering and the diverse expressions of generosity. This includes timely and comprehensive data on all forms of giving, both formal and informal, as well as ensuring that research on effective fundraising practices gets into the hands of those that need it most, their practitioners. With the culture recommendations, the Generosity Commission stresses the need to make sure that giving and volunteering has a visible place within popular culture and public discourse. This requires producing and promoting more narratives that uphold the importance of everyday giving. Youth is an important component of this section, focusing on youth both by encouraging generosity and learning from the ways the younger generations are expressing generosity themselves. Funders and business leaders can promote giving and volunteering by shaping priorities and inspiring action. The report highlights an important role for shape for community foundations in promoting giving and volunteering and for employers who can help bolster the workplace as a locus and incubator for giving and volunteerism. There are many ways that leaders in the philanthropic sector can inspire action, and that will be a theme today as we hear from our panelists. Lastly, policy. The Generosity Commission recommends promoting local, state, and federal policies that incentivize giving and volunteering. So with that overview, I'm gonna go to the next slide, which will have information on the commission, where to get more information on the commission's work and the full report itself. But now we're gonna go to our panel and ask, a series of questions. So I'm gonna start with a question for everyone. Why do you believe everyday giving is so important? I'm gonna start with John Tyler. So I I think, you know, everyday giving, you know, in in within charities and the charitable sector, I I think is important, at a variety of levels. There's there's the individual level, there's a community level, and there's even the broader national and even international levels. But giving from an individual level, is a is an acknowledgment that I belong to something else. I am a part of something else, and that something else depends on me to engage with it. And in this case, for the for the generosity commission, giving of my financial resources and my time. And, of course, part of time is is talent as well. And and that that that belonging, and and that connectedness, and the responsibility that goes with it, is an important part of, of of why giving is important. The but the corresponding aspect of it too, and I've, you know, learned this through my lifetime, I get so much out of. I get so much from those engagements, whether it's it's opportunities to get to know, people, to get to know their circumstances, and, and opportunities to develop my own talents, to learn new talents. Yeah. And, I mean, those sorts of things, what I give and what I get, are intertwined with the nature of giving, and that's why I think it's important. Super. Thank you, John. David? Yeah, I agree with what John said, and and really, I think, when we when we're thinking about, faith and value sometimes, we oftentimes talk about religion around sort of belief, behavior, and belonging to John's point. So I think really this notion of belonging to sort of whether it's giving one's time or money shows that level of engagement and and helps really form communities. And and so in many ways, these institutions, grassroots organizations, are are very large nonprofits that scale nationally and internationally are places not only to engage and sort of, instill a sense of, of trust. That's also something we've seen decline, is trust in organizations and institutions. But sort of having that level of engagement not only helps reweave some of those connection points that makes our local communities and then scale up to a national and global level, thrive. But it also, I think, becomes kind of a a testing ground, even formationally, about why you know, as someone engages in that getting, they're oftentimes gonna have deeper levels of engagement as a volunteer, as someone who's served as an advocate, you're bringing along their friends and family. And I think in many ways, it becomes a first step, to to continue that maybe even generational growth and sort of thinking about why generosity is is something that not only is is vital to our communities, but as John pointed to, it is vital for our own individual, agency as far as what good that generosity gives back to us as individuals and the lives that we live together. Great. Thank you, David. And Victoria. Yeah. Thank you, Sally. Totally agree with everything David and John are saying. And, you know, I first wanna say that despite this decline in participation in giving, like, I believe that generosity is alive and well in The United States. And there has been a rise in informal forms of giving, like mutual aid, things that have been existing for centuries that people are tapping into person to person giving, which is relatively new and facilitated by by, digital tools. But the problem with the decline in giving to five zero one c three nonprofit organizations is they do things that informal kind of entities can't do. They are a safety net for our society. And on the one hand, you could say, well, again, dollars are up. So does it really matter that there are fewer people giving? But fewer people giving means fewer organizations are supported. It means fewer causes are supported. There's this there's this loss of plurality that's so essential to the health of the civic society in The United States. You know, David talked about how people get engaged when they give. They volunteer more, and they're a champion, and they advocate for the organization. They often are fundraisers too. Like, when I care about a cause, I'll ask David to give to it. I'll ask my friends to sponsor my bike ride. You know? So so you're a volunteer fundraiser. You also have to remember that everyday giving, like, small dollar donations, they're the best money because they're general operating support. Right? They don't have the strings that foundation funding and corporate funding and lots of other funding can have. And that's so valuable for organizations. So, you know, this decline in participation is is deeply concerning. John mentioned to you how giving is good for the giver, and, you know, I'd be remiss as the cochair of the research task force fighting and say, there's research to prove that. There's, like, incredible studies that they've done of, like, with fMRI machines that shows parts of people's brains lighting up when they think about volunteering. They've shown that it lowers your blood pressure. They've shown that it, like, it makes you healthier, and it makes you happier, which is, like, and this is bourbon. And so so if we have fewer people giving, that's that's a worry just for ourselves. Right? It it it helps combat the isolation. John and David both talked about that belonging and that connection. And and that's, you know, a huge problem in The US right now. So giving is one of the ways to combat another societal challenge that we face, it does a lot of things at once. Thank you, Victoria. And and you mentioned, in your first response, research. So why did the commission invest in research and believe that further research is necessary? It was really important to the Commission that their report and their recommendations be evidence based. That they weren't just opinions, do this, do that, that we really understood as a group, that the Commission understood as a group, why this was happening, and what some of the remedies would be to fix it. And, of course, there's a ton of research out there already. And my task force, which was co chaired by Sheena Ashley, then of the Urban Institute. She's now the head of the Capital One Foundation. It was an amazing group across academic institutions, digital platforms, Giving Tuesday, behavioral science, folks who deeply knew the research. And so they were able to draw on both what was done and then helped the commission commission some specific research to fill some gaps. And so there's some specific research that came out of the commission to add to this body. And then all of that really helped the commissioners figure out, like, okay, what should these recommendations be? So and, of course, one of the recommendations is we need more research because we have to understand these trends over time. And, this is a a space that's really under invested in in the kind of, nonprofit philanthropic infrastructure. Great. Thank you. And sticking with you for for for another question, what does the recommendation closing the evidence practice gap really mean? Yeah. That's one of my favorite ones. I'm a little obsessed with that because as I was saying, there's a ton of research. Right? And particularly about fundraising and how to change donor behavior because that's what we have to do here. Right? We've gotta change behavior. The behavior isn't what we want it to be. We wanna change it. And so what I saw, especially in my time at the Gates Foundation for eleven years funding sector research, is that there's incredible academic work that doesn't get into the hands of practitioners at all. And so there are things that we know about giving that that the average nonprofit, especially small nonprofits, they don't have the time or the ability to go download, like, a huge hundred page academic paper or, like, pull out what they need. So the research often isn't, kind of condensed in a way that practitioners can use it. And then research centers don't often get the funding again that they need to disseminate. Right? So you put a PDF up on a website, but there are other ways to really get the word out there. They'd love to, but they don't have the resources. Closing the evidence practice gap means getting the data about what works into the hands of the people who need it. Nonprofit CEOs, nonprofit program people, nonprofit fundraisers, fundraising consultants in a way that they can actually use it. And so there's a whole kind of symbiotic thing that needs to be happening. Nonprofits, we also talked a lot at the commission about how nonprofits should be shaping the research. So, you know, academics can get delighted with certain academic questions that are super interesting, but may not be the most burning question to a fundraiser. And so how do you help inform the research by the nonprofits themselves? Great. Thank you. And, you know, we've talked about the benefits of giving and why it's so important and and the benefits not only to to civic society, but also to us as individuals. But I wanna sort of look at the flip side a little bit because we are seeing a decline. And so what concerns the three of you the most about the decline, in the number of people who are giving and volunteering? And David, let's start with you. Sure, I think that is concerning on a number of levels, which we've already begun to hit on and we can think about, you know, a lot of these same trends sort of align up with what we're seeing with declines in religiosity, which we might can talk about a little bit later. But in some ways, one of my main concerns is even as the dollar's up, donor's down, is keeping the, you know, the the total amount of charitable giving sort of, sustained or growing, I'm I'm worried about what this looks like not only now, but five, ten years down the road when we're thinking about if we're not forming, you know, everyday givers and they're having those opportunities to give and to continue to grow as givers and then to form and shape the next generation, kids, grandkids, other community members. I think this could be a bit of a snowball that if we're not careful, continues to, to to create this kind of the avalanche that in many ways is is key, to correct in order to continue the vibrant third sector civil society engaged, community in which way we've kind of rebuilt in The United States. And I think there's oftentimes, we've already mentioned sort of the need for sort of multiple, plural perspectives in this third sector in civil society. And, you know, as we continue to concentrate more and more power or wealth, in our major donors, that I think is something to be concerned about as the the number of donors, lose some of their their voice and engagement on these questions. Thank you, David. Moving to John next. Yep. To me, you know, the the charitable sector is connected to our core systems unlike any of the other sectors. The economic system, whether it's as employer, whether it's as educating towards employment and and engaging in the economy and the marketplace, the political sector and the social sectors, I mean or systems rather. The sector runs across all of these in in ways that are unique. But that requires engagement, by individuals, by families, by communities. And to me, one of the most, and maybe to me the most concerning, piece of data that came out of the research is that the largest decline in the number of givers was in the low moderate income sociodemographic of of our society. So if they are not giving of their their money, their resources, and their time and talent, we're missing out on that input. We're missing out on hearing what those, what those priorities are, what those preferences are, and and, and and the opportunity to build on those things. The sector I mean, with with wealth, I mean, we hear a lot about the wealth and the influence of the wealthy and endowments and, you know, and that's important and it's meaningful. But it's also meaningful when individuals give. There there is a degree of engagement that happens in an aggregate, in an aggregation, that establishes priorities in ways that an individual wealthy donor cannot. And, if if people are are not connecting in in that way, the pluralism that Victoria talked about and the pluralism across our economic, social, and political systems suffers, because of that. Thank you, John. And Victoria. Sorry. It took me a second to get off mute. And, you know, one thing I'd add to this that we haven't touched on yet is another one of the findings from the Do Good Institute, from research we commissioned there, at University of Maryland that showed and proved definitively. And this wasn't something we knew before because I looked for it many times. But it showed this connection between giving and volunteering and civic engagement, which is like a no brainer. Right? It's what we're talking about. It's like, yeah, of course. But there wasn't evidence until they did this research, and it showed that people who give are 10% more likely to go to the polls, and people who volunteer are 12% more likely. And we all know how important that voting and that civic engagement is. So, again, I just feel like it's woven into our democracy, both nonprofits themselves and the act of donating and volunteering. And, they help keep our democracy healthy and safe. Thank you. Thank you for that. David, moving to over to you. What does the generosity commissions research tell us about why people give and the impact of religiosity? Are these numbers a cause for concern, and what more do we need to know? Yeah. I think in many ways, it's a great question, and I was really excited about the opportunity to to join the generosity commission and and focus in on this broader question of faith and giving because it becomes you know, it's such an important as you know, sector, not only as a subsector of where people might give to, but also kind of a a motivating factor for why many people choose to give in in all sorts of ways. But a lot of the trends are, similar. So just as we've seen sort of a decline in, the percentage of Americans that might give, we're also seeing declines in religiosity that might be religious affiliation, affiliating with a particular religious group, attendance patterns, like a house of worship, a congregation, as well as membership to kind of, you know, point towards the notion of belonging that John mentioned earlier. So those trends really are in parallel, and in many ways, I think they are, they inform one another. So I do think that declines in religiosity are also somewhat impacting declines in, the percentage of Americans who are giving because that religious subsector, which has oftentimes been mostly congregations, and denominations, other sort of, narrowly defined, religious communities as far as their primary purpose, have has continued to follow the same trend, where it sustains about the same level of charitable giving overall, but is declining as a share of the overall charitable giving pie. Around 50% or more, you know, two, three decades ago, now down to about 27% or so, in the last few years. So, again, concerning, as far as not only, you know, people of faith across, you know, a variety of religious communities, but also the ways in which we know religiosity, particularly engaging religious community, that belief in behavior, are important primers, for motivations to give not only to religious causes, but to causes across the board. You know, we know religious Americans give more to religious and secular, causes. And I think, again, like we've mentioned before, those faith communities, oftentimes serve as one of the best places for people to run into opportunities to give, to volunteer, and to build bridges, particularly in the times in which we live. I do think even, amidst difference, religious communities, those faith and values can be bridges that we can work across difference in order to build strong communities, to encounter one another, and sort of engage at that deeper level. And so, you know, we can look in different ways. Victoria already mentioned sort of not only looking at the the formal giving to five zero one c three nonprofits. Similarly, we can look at and track different forms of religiosity and spirituality values that it might inform individuals and their communities that may not necessarily be best counted by how often they went to attended a, religious purpose in the last month. So with eyes wide open of the way some of these questions, and trends are changing, it's important as we try to get a better sense of what's happening and how that shapes the, you know, the the charitable giving landscape in which we're focused on. Great. Thank you very much, David. The next question is for all of you. One of the commission's recommendations is taking youth donors and volunteers volunteers seriously. You please share your thoughts on the importance of getting youth involved in giving and volunteering and taking them seriously. What are some maybe tips and tricks that our listeners can take, take back with them on how to engage younger donors? And let's see. Victoria, I'll let you go first this time. Sure. I when you were talking about taking you seriously, I I couldn't help but think I I'm the mom to a 24 year old, 21 year old, and 16 year old, and you better believe you gotta take them seriously. There's no not taking you seriously in today's world. I guess, you know, I it's hard for me not to immediately think of technology. And technology, I think, can actually, be a factor in the decline in giving if it's not done well. It can be transactional. Transactional. It can be cold. It can turn people off. It can make you not feel that sense of belonging that some forms of giving really can make you feel. On the other hand, digital tools done well can totally make you feel a more personal connection, a better recommendation. Young people, this generation lives online. I mean, they don't know what a check is. They've never seen a check. Forget, like, money or cash or any of these kinds of things. And so you have to have options for them to get online, and you have to reach them online. So are you on TikTok? Are you on Blue Sky? Are you on Instagram? How are you reaching young folk? How are they gonna hear about you? Are do you have video? Video, video, video, video, video. Short video. You know, so so those are some of the factors, that involve young people. But also, you know, research has shown that younger donors these days want impact. They wanna know if they're making a difference. They want proof. Right? They also trust institutions less, and, they're they haven't formed those relationships. You know, David was talking about how you really build that next generation of donors, which often includes a loyalty to a certain place that you give to or places. But but young folk don't have that. They care about it causes. So how are you framing your organization in the form of a cause? So those are just a few of the things that really come to mind for me. Great. Thank you. And John? So I I think I have a a three pronged answer, to this question. One is, youth have and Victoria had talked about some of these things. But youth have perspectives that are useful. They they have insights, sometimes even naivete, that can be useful. They're youth, and they they look at things differently, which is, which is helpful Even if their insights don't result in, in changing something, it can result in reinforcing something. Okay. We do it this way because. Well, why? And there I'm invoking the terrible twos. Why? Why? Why is the grass green? Those are still good questions. The grass is still gonna be green, and the answer is still in part chlorophyll. But the questions are important for, for organizations and individuals and and leaders and volunteers to continually be thinking themselves. And it it's not just those perspectives. It's talents. And now I'm gonna shift to the second part of it, which is what the youth can gain from the engagement. And and engaging in ways, you know, I I'm not I'm not convinced engaging to engage is, is particularly healthy, but it can be a good inroad. And and it can open doors and open eyes towards more engagement. But it but engaging in the nonprofit sector builds skills, helps identify other skills. You know, in my own, you know, kids' experience when, you know, through their their, their their high school experiences in particular, they were volunteering in what's affectionately called an old folks home, an elder care assisted living. They didn't actually want to do that, but but the engagement was profound for them and for the people that they were, you know, they they were spending time with and sharing lives with and sharing sharing moments with. I mean, the kids still talk about, those experiences, which then gets me to the third point, which is that, you know, one of the other culture recommendations is, is having public figures and leaders, talk about how they engage, but also talk about how they benefited from engagement. As a culture matter, and there have been some studies of this too, you ask people, when have you benefited from the charitable sector? And people say, oh, no. No. I I I haven't benefited. When when is the charitable sector or charitable organization health? Well, no. They haven't. Well, the odds are they were born in a hospital, may have been charitable, may have been for profit, but there was charitable activities going on around it. They've engaged as as youth, in in sports, in theater, in choir, in dance. A lot of those activities and, of course, others are done by charitable organizations and and charitable volunteers. Increasing that awareness of how we benefit, how we have benefited, and and, starting that, if you will, with youth will, in fact, change culture. Now that's a long game, and it's over time. But it's important to recognize that we all continue to benefit from charitable organizations in the charitable sector. And and youth can be a part of enhancing that awareness, particularly as they talk about, like, like Victoria says, they talk about their experiences in their interactions, in their social media interactions and posts and this, that, and the other thing. Great. Thank you, John. David. I think just to reiterate, but and not to to extend too too long here, but I think one key that, you know, Victoria brought up sort of technology, but I think generally the ways in which we tell stories is is so vital. And so thinking about storytelling generally and just attending to, you know, all generations and all you know, just having, just really, you know, I'm gonna be an advocate for research to, you know, working at a university all the time, but maybe even more key than that is translating that and telling stories. The flip side of that, I think, though, for all of us is to also take the perspective as a listener, and so too often we might can sort of, you know, tell the next generation what they need to do, but I think, and this is what I appreciate about the generosity commission, is that the sort of approach is also really more as much of a listening of what the what are the blind spots? What are the questions that need to be asked? And I think that would be one of, you know, sort of priority one is is listening to what the questions are, to John Tyler's point about sort of different perspectives. And I think third then would be, creating opportunities for, youth or young, you know, young adults of all generations to be able to plug in and engage, that might be slightly different into the institutional structures that we, you know, have already thought through. And, you know, we're not trying to slot them into a, to a young leader, chair in our you know, on our advisory board, for instance. But find other ways where we can include them because they have those fresh ideas and to be able to kinda of include them in leadership. Oftentimes, maybe they have lower financial capacity at a younger age, but they love to kind of come together as a group, you know? So maybe instead of just having a table for your organization that, you know, that costs $1,500 to, you know, to observe a table, maybe you could just do a slight twist and say, you know, like, maybe five friends wanna come in together and do that versus just having their, and it could be a it's a it's a social opportunity to even engage in a community. So I think, you know, not only telling stories, opening up opportunities, but particularly for us to be listeners to what, a younger generation, would want to in the ways in which they're already giving and volunteering and engaging that we might be blind to. Super. Thank you, David. And Victoria, you wanted to add one more thing. Yeah. Just one quick one. So I was remembering research that we funded at Gates at the Women's Philanthropy Institute at IU that showed evidence based that one of the biggest influences on young people giving and volunteering was their parents. And and and it's their parents not telling them go volunteer, save half your allowance, but their parents talking about their giving. And, you know, in a lot of families and for a lot of individuals, we're, you know, humble about our giving or it's anonymous. So we don't we we don't think to tell our kids where we're making donations or, you know, they can see you volunteering, but they may not know where the family's donating. So it's a very easy thing to kind of do together as a family, and that can make a huge difference. Great. Thank you. And this is gonna be the last question that I'm gonna, ask of the panel for for just a smidge because we're gonna go to some, questions from the attendees. And this question is for John. John, the last two recommendations that the, commission issued focus on policymakers. As the chair of the Commission's Policy Task Force, where do you see this report landing in light of the tax policy discussions that are happening right now and will will happen for for most of 2025? So I think that there are are two ways in which the commission's report can, can help with, with the policy discussions in DC and elsewhere. One very concrete and another, perhaps, broader and more intangible. And the concrete one is, you know, the universal charitable deduction, expanding the ability for everyday givers to deduct their contributions to charitable organizations. And this goes back to, you know, to some of what I said before. Every but the charitable sector is different. The charitable deduction is different than other other deductions and other tax favored treatment. And, and if, you know, there's there's a a there's a, an economic effect. There's a there's a there's a, dollar effect. There's an incentive. There's a dollar incentive with the universal charitable deduction. You give, you get to deduct, you know, from your taxes. But the the charitable deduction, universal charitable deduction also has a signaling effect. It's signaling from, the the members of congress, the president, the the federal government that everybody's engagement in the charitable sector matters. It is a, that the giving of time and money now, of course, there there's not a deduction for time, but giving of your dollars matters as a reflection of your priorities, your purposes, your engagement, your passions, that all contribute to, the health and vibrancy of our communities. And that signaling effect, with the charitable deduction, probably I think is more important than even the financial incentive. The second way the Commission's, report and recommendations can help, especially as we get into all of the policy discussions related to the sector, really, in otherwise, there is extraordinary information, insights, and perspectives in this report. Insights about the charitable sector and about our, you know, about our communities, about our people, about our approaches to the sector and otherwise. In a lot of ways, policymakers, becoming familiar with the report and the recommendations can have and I think should have a filter that their policy decisions might have an effect on the sector. And in asking that question, does it have an effect, might it have an effect, is the effect positive or negative? And then making sure that the effects are not negative and that the effects are positive. You know, for all the reasons that that we've all been talking about, the the the the effects being positive are are important. And, you know, increasing burdens on the charitable sector is counterproductive to to our systems, economic, social, and and political systems. So I think that as as the policy task force did its work, and by the way we recognize universal charitable deduction has been around. It's been in in the ether for a while. We did not come into our work, either Art Taylor, you know, the the chair of the BBBY's Giving Alliance as as co chair, neither he nor I nor the 13 members of the task force came in with an agenda. We were looking at the research. We were taking testimony from dozens of people and trying to identify what are the things that make the most sense from policy standpoint, which then actually led into a culture standpoint as well. But, as as in the two concrete policy examples that came up, universal charitable deduction rose to the top. It did it wasn't on any radar. There was no radar, for it to be on, which then in my mind makes it all the more impressive that it did rise to the top among the concrete policy recommendations through that process and engagement. Great. Thank you, John. Very, very helpful. So going back to going to some of the q and a, you know, that we have from our attendees, there's some really great questions in there. I'm gonna kick it off with, an interesting one on national giving days. So what does the panelists think of national giving days? You know, the questioner says that she's found that nonprofit profits that she's worked with, it's typically not a good thing because sometimes those giving days compete with the other fundraising activities that they have. So what does this group think about, national giving days like Giving Tuesday? I I can jump in on that, Sally. I mean, Giving Tuesday has become kind of a force and a phenomenon, like, not just in The US, but around the world. And I think part of the reason why is because it sets this norm for giving. You know, we have when you look at behavioral science, you know, and I and I think about David and, like, the way our our religious structures set norms. Right? For giving, you set you set benchmarks, you set rituals, you set moments. And yet when you're in a fully secular space, we don't have as many of those. Right? And so you don't know kind of how much you're giving or how much you should give or when you should give. And so Giving Tuesday has been really powerful that way. We've seen at GlobalGiving that it increases every single year despite the fact that it becomes more competitive and busier and noisier and lots of donors say, I got so many emails on Giving Tuesday. The giving does continue to go up on Giving Tuesday. I know a nonprofit that I'm close to that, stepped out of Giving Tuesday for a few years, and they decided to just thank donors and not ask donors to give. And their giving on that day was, like, 10 times less than it had been. And then just this last year, they decided to ask people to give again on Giving Tuesday, and, the dollars just shot up. So I I think that these are moments not to be missed. I think they're also moments to try something. You know, if you have an end of year campaign, do something experimental on Giving Tuesday that's a little different and try something out. But that's kind of been our experience. But John and David, I'm I'm curious what you think. There's a lot of perspectives out there on this. Well, I'll just add one quick thing and then turn it over to John. But I, you know, I think we're probably the abnormal group. Like, you know, I I would imagine our inboxes have, you know, dozens upon dozens of emails from organizations, but we're not we're not we we might not be your best, you know, test case. So I do think, I I really love the idea that Victoria mentioned of of doing something slightly experimental or different. Thinking about the everyday donor, that that might be, you know, it might be the initial on ramp for for for someone to find your organization or to engage that lower level. It's not really, in in my mind, really meant to compete with your your full comprehensive fundraising strategy for the organization. And you might get your major donors to give an additional, smaller gift then, but that's not when you're expecting sort of the, you know, the bulk of those funds to come in. But if it could be a front door to kind of be able to tell your story or to have someone kinda engage with you for the first time, or try something different, you know, kind of a viral, everyone, you know, give something and then pass it on. I mean, these are the kinds of things I think where, it does become a bit of a ritual rhythmic marker in the calendar, but I think it can be a creative space. But if it becomes one more thing that an organization that's oftentimes, you know, stretched then to do, that, then that might be where it becomes competing and, sort of diminish the overall strategy for your fundraising. Great. Thank you, David. Another question. So, since 2020, since COVID, this, you know, this organization has noticed that its supporters have become more reluctant to show up to events in person and especially with the advent of a lot more remote opportunities. So any advice or ideas for encouraging people to get out of the house and participate in an in person volunteer opportunity? Anyone? Anyone? You know, I I I don't have any any magic, to suggest. I I would, you know, compliment the the person asking the question. I mean, being aware of that issue is important. Asking the question is important. I think experimenting with different ways to to reach out, you know, and some of them might be small one on one outreach that that can grow and build into other things. Some of them, you know, may be, you know, small group outreaches. You know, without knowing the nature of the organization, it's hard to, to truly brainstorm in in any detail. But, you know, as as we've talked about, that that getting engaging in person is part of belonging, and it is it is part. I mean, there there's a sense of belonging that happens with in person engagement, which means getting out of the house that's different than, and I would contend, deeper than, you know, the the virtual engagement. Although, you know, one on one virtual engagements can actually be pretty deep and even small group. But, but being together physically, you know, has has value. And I don't I mean, there there may be a variety of reasons that some of the folks are not they're they're not willing to leave their house. They're, you know, maybe they're they're afraid that the, the physical environment might not be, protective enough for them. You know, do what you can to make sure that people are are comfortable, and I think probably within reason too because there's a counterbalance. You don't go overboard with, you know, bleaching everything or whatever it might be, and other people may not, may not wanna be there. But I I think that asking the question is important. I think it's great. And then brainstorming, trying some things. Don't be afraid to try and fail with some of these ideas. They may lead to other new ideas and they might work. Great. Thank you, John. Going on to the next question, how do you think the transfer of wealth from the boomer generation to the younger generations will affect current and future giving? I guess I'd I'll I'll say that it all depends on if we can build that muscle for giving in the next generation. Right? I mean, that's part of what makes us so urgent. I mean, yes, there's lots of there's lots of information that shows that money is gonna flow. Right? That does make me think about the quest in in that transfer as well. Like, how do you make sure you're you're working on planned giving as a nonprofit? But, you know, it that that transfer of wealth won't pay off for organizations in the way that some folks have modeled if we're not really engaging those next generations. Great. Thank you, Victoria. Any thoughts from this group about how the economic effects such as the increase in the cost of living have had on, have impacted giving and ways to encourage participation in spite of those challenges? Are you gonna jump in, David? Well, I I think I'll let me just I mean, yeah. I mean, you would think particularly if we're focused on everyday givers, it can't it it can't not have a difference, you know, make a difference when we're talking about, you know, grocery prices or, kept, you know, cost of living increases for many folks. One thing that we at least learned, you know, is one small caveat is that, like, religious givers, who most often are more like everyday givers than major givers, right? So it's more of a democratized kind of structure, are not incentivized by, like, a tax deduction or itemizing the same way that others might be. So, you know, when we studied, you know, most recently the change in, sort of the charitable giving, that allowed for a higher standard, you know, deduction and less itemizers, it actually did not make, sort of see a decrease in religious giving the same way we saw with almost every other sector. So I would say that, you know, some types of giving are more, you know, we might think of it as obligatory, but I would think of it more like, you know, just a part of a rhythmic part of their life. Right? So giving becomes not just like paying one's bills, but it becomes sort of a standard part of how they, you know, approach their engagement. And I would think about how can we begin to look towards those more routinized forms of giving and and think of it as as a practice. But we can't and John mentioned this earlier. Where we're seeing the declines, in participation is oftentimes at that lower middle class level. But, Victoria, I think you probably have better, you know, sort of data and sort of points on some of these things here. I don't have the exact figures. I do know that that both Indiana University and Urban, like, kind of definitively show the economy to be, like, an outstanding factor in this decline starting with 02/2008. Right? So it's it's been a long decline. It's not solely responsible for it, but it is a huge factor. And I just think one of the ways to combat that, which is one of the thoughts I wanna leave folks with generally, is if you wanna engage everyday donors, you know, engage them where they are. Make folk feel okay about giving $5 or giving $10 or giving a $5 a month recurring gift. Or there's been some interesting research about, like, give later. You know, that whole, like, buy now, pay later kinda thing that you constantly buy online? There's some research that shows that that that actually works for giving too if you have the right tools, you know, on your site to be able to do that. GlobalGiving has a campaign every year called Little by Little that we run with our nonprofit partners, and it really is about small dollar donations. And we've seen that add up to, like, enormous impact. Our 2023 little by little campaign raised, over a million dollars from 15,000 gifts, so very small gifts. And we're we're intentionally framing the whole thing to be like, just just give a little bit. And that actually works. And so I I think people shouldn't be afraid to to talk about small dollars in the right way with information. You don't wanna ask your high net worth donors to give you $5. So that's where, again, technology comes in handy. You really need to know who you're asking. Great. Thank you, Victoria. John. And I would just I mean, there there's no question that that, the state of the economy, cost of living, prices, as those things eat into household income, that means there's less to be doing other other things, at which I get, and that is a reality. But the other reality is that all giving matters, and it matters from an economic standpoint. The organizations that get the money, they can aggregate small gifts. That becomes it can become a lot of money and very useful for the organization. But all giving matters both economically but also intangibly as well. That that since this is I'm giving a small dollar to this organization because I believe in this organization, because I'm connected to this organization, the people that it supports and the people that are involved with it. That connectivity, is important. So, being able to tap into that, and also and I would say, you know, some people, they still aren't gonna necessarily be able to give small amounts. Find ways to engage with them in other, other ways. Their time, their talents, their networks, their abilities. You know, maybe money isn't the way they they can connect right now. But there are other other ways that they want to be able to engage, and and so work with that. Great. Thank you, John. And so as we wrap wrap up, we have about, five ish or so minutes left. My last question, for this group is why does the commission and its work matter, and would you like to issue issue a call to action to our attendees today? And I'll start with David. Yeah. Thanks, Sally. I mean, I I I I do believe that the the commission's work matters if if only really to to help us see, what's happening with giving and really to champion why giving matters in our communities and our society. And that and that would really be my my call is, for all of us to tell the stories that are part of who we are and that we know and that we might be the best storytellers to tell how giving has changed our lives and how, you know, we've experienced the sort of the, you know, the blessing and the benefits of generosity, as givers and as receivers. I think the other, you know, call would be to be, really, open, listeners, and so to kinda, I would say, make space, in your very busy lives to kinda to ask questions and listen in, maybe from a community that you're less familiar with, whether that's a younger generation or a different, you know, cultural, ethnic, religious tradition across town, whatever these might be. And then finally, I think I would, ask us to make space for I mean, we it it is the best use of time maybe for a fundraiser to concentrate on those major donors that probably are going to be able to sustain that organization, but if we don't make space and carve out a little time for creativity, for engaging with that next generation, or for that everyday donor, that's that's gonna be a missed opportunity. And it may not be the seem like the easiest or best investment of time, right this second, but just elbowing out space for those conversations and for that creative juice that skunk works in your organization, I think, is gonna be helpful in thinking about not only right now, but into the future. Great. Thanks, David. Victoria. Yeah. So I I do think that the generosity commission's work matters very much and that it stimulated this conversation. And that was always the intent of the commission that it not just be like a report, but that it really kind of it it would foster the opportunities for conversations like we're having today. And I'm so grateful, Blackbaud, to you all for hosting this, because it we we need to talk, and we need to know that this is happening and brainstorm as a sector. And, you know, my call to action would be one one tactical thing and one more philosophical thing. And the tactical thing, we haven't talked about collective giving at all, which is a a powerful force. Giving circles, you know, bringing people together, especially everyday donors, to have it all add up to something, whether that's at an event or whether that's a virtual giving circle. Lots of ways to tap into the movement and collective giving. The philosophical piece is just to talk about how important donating and volunteering and the nonprofit sector is in The United States. It's it's urgent, and it's really essential that all of us who are involved in this sector champion it and stand up for it and really share our stories about the differences that nonprofits are making in our communities every single day, how essential they are. Thanks, Victoria. And John? So I would echo, the commission's remit, its scope, its purpose, was to address, that's probably too strong a word, but I'll stick with it for a moment. To address the decline in the numbers of givers of time and money. It the scope of the report and the recommendations and the commission from the beginning never thought that it was going to have solutions. These are complex issues. They're they're complex opportunities that exist. So the the commission's work and the scope of the work and the scope of then the recommendations in the report is always been about moving needles forward. And not that the commission would move the needles, but that society would move needles, that nonprofits would move needles, that policymakers would need move needles, that donors would move. So and those needles would get moved by conversation, by awareness, by engagement, by asking questions, yeah, and, and and doing, you know, a lot of the things that we've talked about. So, and there, I guess, maybe two two calls to action. One, if you haven't read the report, get it and and read it. It's it's actually I mean, I think it's an extraordinary document and and has great insights. It's gonna have different tidbits and different insights for different people in different organizations. So I I would I would get I would read it. I would encourage then conversations from what you read as well. Engage with your other nonprofit leaders and and, nonprofit groups. Engage with donors. Engage with your your volunteers about the work of the commission with an eye towards not enforcing the work of the commission, but enforcing the work of the charitable sector. And then, you know, I guess maybe a second call to action, and this is, building on on Victoria's point. I'm not convinced that our policymakers, and not just current, but historic as well, truly grasp the sector and what it's mean what it means, your organizations and what it does, what they do. I I encourage have conversations with, with policymakers. Encourage people, to engage and encourage people in your networks and with your organization to engage with policymakers. And and maybe about the universal charitable deduction or other things or other policies, but just the nature of the work, the work that you do. And perhaps you can find ways to say how they benefited from the work. Very often their their bios will say that, you know, I've been involved with this, that, or the other thing. That's the sector. And and reminding that engagement or building new opportunities to engage, for them to engage as well I think is useful. Great. Thank you, John. Thank you, David. Thank you, Victoria. This has been a phenomenal conversation. Really appreciate it. And thank you to all the attendees who joined us today and for those who will listen to this recording at a later date. Thanks so much and have a great day, everybody.