Welcome to the Pure Charity State of Good Report for March 23rd, 2026.
This is your weekly intelligence brief for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers.
My name is Mike Rush. I'm part of the team at Pure Charity, and this week we're looking at a hidden crisis that's quietly undermining your fundraising, and it might not be what you think.
It's not about donor fatigue or economic headwinds.
It's about the people on your team. We're also talking about why a Gen Z donor is calling out the entire nonprofit sector, and a tax strategy that could help you hold onto 87% of projected revenue even as deduction rules change.
So join me as we dive into the State of Good.
All right, let's start with what I think is the most important story this week, and it's one that a lot of development directors know in their gut but rarely talk about openly.
Two reports came out this week that, when you put them together, paint a really concerning picture.
The Nonprofit Finance Fund released a report called "The Heart of the Nonprofit Sector," which was covered by Inside Philanthropy, and it documents widespread well-being challenges among nonprofit workers.
Then separately, a piece from the Ohio Society of Association Professionals highlighted research showing that board governance failures are directly fueling staff burnout across the nonprofit sector in Canada, with very similar patterns showing up here in the United States.
But here's the thing. When you connect these two findings, the picture gets really clear.
Poor board governance leads to burned-out development teams, which leads to high turnover, which leads to broken donor relationships.
One development director quoted in the research described it as "trying to build relationships while constantly training new staff.
" And if you've been in this work for any length of time, you know exactly what that feels like.
Your donors don't want to meet a new contact every eighteen months.
They want continuity. They want trust. So if your board's governance practices are contributing to staff burnout and turnover, that is a fundraising problem, not just an HR problem.
I would say this is one of the most underappreciated threats to fundraising effectiveness out there right now.
Now let's talk about something more hopeful. The 2026 tax changes are coming, and smart organizations are already getting ahead of them.
Nonprofit Pro published a really practical piece on gift bunching strategies, and if you're not familiar with the concept, it's straightforward.
You help donors concentrate multiple years of giving into a single tax year so they can clear the standard deduction threshold and actually get the charitable deduction benefit.
Organizations that are implementing data triggers to identify good bunching candidates are reporting they're maintaining 87% of projected revenue even with these tax law changes on the horizon.
One community foundation found that donors who bunch gifts increase their lifetime giving by an average of 23%.
So this isn't just a tax trick. It's a retention and upgrade strategy.
If you're not already thinking about how to navigate these deduction changes with your donors, now is the time.
In our segment about why donors give, here's something interesting about donor psychology that I think is worth sitting with this week.
There's a growing body of research around what's called identity-based giving, and the core insight is this: when charitable giving becomes part of someone's self-concept, when they see themselves as a generous person or a champion for education or whatever the identity is, they don't just give more.
They give two to three times more over their lifetime compared to donors who view giving as something they do occasionally.
The psychology makes sense. Humans want to act consistently with how they see themselves.
When giving is part of your identity, not giving actually creates discomfort.
The gift stops being a sacrifice and becomes self-expression.
Now, here's the practical takeaway. Think about how you frame your appeals.
Instead of "please donate to help children," try "as someone who cares deeply about children's futures.
" It's a subtle shift, but it activates identity rather than guilt.
And in your thank-you letters, affirm who the donor is, not just what they did.
Something like "your generosity reflects the kind of person you are" lands very differently than a standard receipt.
Create naming opportunities that reinforce that identity. Think "Education Champions" or "Founding Circle.
" Give people a title that matches how they want to see themselves.
When we look at what changed this week, there's one piece that really stood out to me.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy published an opinion piece from a Gen Z donor who essentially called out the entire nonprofit sector for misunderstanding their generation.
And the message was blunt. The author basically said, "you're asking the wrong questions.
" Nonprofits are obsessing over which social media platform to use or which app to build, and they're completely missing the point.
Gen Z donors want authentic relationships and measurable impact.
They want to know what worked, what didn't, and what you learned.
Organizations that shifted their approach from "how can we reach Gen Z" to "how can we serve alongside Gen Z" saw engagement rates triple.
So if you're treating Gen Z as some monolithic demographic to be cracked with the right technology, I would say maybe consider flipping that.
Invite young donors onto committees as full partners.
Share your unfiltered impact data, including your failures.
Create volunteer-to-donor pathways that respect their time. That's what they're actually asking for.
I also want to quickly mention a fascinating analysis published on philanthropy.
org about planned giving strategy. They looked at examples ranging from the Annenberg Foundation to a Vermont janitor who left millions in his will, and the finding was clear: transformational bequests come from trust relationships, not wealth indicators.
Organizations that stopped chasing wealthy prospects and started deepening relationships with loyal supporters regardless of giving capacity saw planned giving commitments increase by 67% within eighteen months.
So audit your planned giving pipeline. You might be overlooking your most loyal donors simply because their annual gifts are modest.
All right, the bottom line for this week's State of Good Report.
So if you remember one thing, this is it.
The future of fundraising depends less on new tactics and more on taking care of fundamentals: your people, your relationships, and your donors' evolving needs.
Here are three things you can think about doing this week.
One, schedule a governance review conversation with your board chair.
Specifically ask whether any current practices might be contributing to development team burnout or turnover.
Frame it as a fundraising conversation, because it is.
Number two, analyze your donor database by gender and by generation.
Look for gaps in your engagement strategies. The research from Indiana University's Women's Philanthropy Symposium shows organizations that intentionally engage women donors see average gift sizes increase by 35% and retention improve by 28%.
Make sure you're not leaving that on the table.
And third, start conversations with your mid-level donors about gift bunching and planned giving opportunities this week.
Don't wait for year-end. Trust matters more than wealth, and those conversations take time to develop.
And we'll finish with our good in action segment.
This is also my favorite part — it reminds us that there is so much good happening in the world today still, and it reminds us about why we do this work.
Cornell University just ran their annual Giving Day, and according to Cornell News, they shattered records.
But not because of some fancy marketing campaign or new technology.
They did it by mobilizing the largest number of volunteer champions in the event's history.
These were students, alumni, and staff who personally reached out to their own networks and said, "this matters to me, and I think it should matter to you too.
" And I love this. One student champion was quoted saying, "Seeing that collective support reminds students that they are part of a community that believes in their success.
" That's what it's about. Here's the lesson that I think we can take away from this.
Your most powerful fundraising tool isn't your platform, your email software, or your social media strategy.
It's the people who believe in your mission enough to share it with someone else.
Invest in building champions before you invest in building campaigns.
All right, that's the State of Good Report for March 23rd, 2026.
The full report with all the links and sources is available at purecharity.
com. And if this has been helpful, I would ask you to share this with a colleague who could use it.
Again, my name is Mike Rush, and we'll check back in next week.
Until then, thank you for doing the difficult and necessary work of creating the state of good.