2026 Predictions: What Nonprofit Leaders Must Know to Thrive

Summary

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Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast: 2026 Predictions—What Nonprofit Leaders Must Know to Thrive

Host: Brooke Richie-Babbage
Release Date: January 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special episode, host Brooke Richie-Babbage curates a series of thought-provoking perspectives from sector experts, each sharing their boldest predictions and key mindset shifts nonprofit leaders must adopt to thrive in 2026. The focus is on what’s changing and what strategies nonprofit organizations must embrace—from emerging tech and donor relations to capacity-building and automation—if they want to survive and grow in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Expert Insights

1. Planned Giving Matures in Mid-Sized Charities

• Speaker: Tess, Full Potential Fundraising ([00:41])
• Main Takeaway: Mid-sized nonprofits are finally prioritizing planned giving, not just the sector's giants.
  • Prediction: Surge in tailored planned giving resources and training for these organizations in 2026.
  • "The great wealth transfer is happening now, it's being realized and 97% of donors' wealth are held in their assets."
  • Tess asserts this shift will be “transformational and long term,” promising new hope for growth sector-wide.

2. AI as a Collaborative Essential, Not a Threat

• Speaker: Unnamed contributor ([01:58])
• Main Takeaway: Generative AI has moved from novelty to necessity.
  • Organizations must learn to deploy AI as a tool for amplifying human relationships—freeing staff from administrative burden, personalizing engagement, and synthesizing siloed data for deeper understanding.
  • "Tools like generative AI aren’t novel anymore, they are a baseline. They need to be used."
  • Emphasis on breaking down data silos for more human-centric, rather than transactional, engagement.

3. Foundations as Cohort Builders and Capacity Investors

• Speaker: Naomi Hataway, President & Founder, 8th and Home and Leaving Well ([03:20])
• Main Takeaway: Foundations will increasingly invest in their grantees’ capacity, organizing cohorts for shared learning rather than simply distributing funds.
  • "The smart money is really in realizing that isolated nonprofits struggle, but the connected ones thrive."
  • Peer learning enables collective resilience and stronger organizational “muscle,” especially amid leadership transitions and donor fatigue.
  • Invitation to Action: Nonprofits should seek foundations with a cohort-based philosophy and actively participate in those circles.

4. Retention & Brand Clarity Over Acquisition

• Speaker: Daniel Francavilla, The Good Growth Company ([04:48])
• Main Takeaway: Nonprofits must pivot from acquisition-at-all-costs to a laser focus on donor retention, brand clarity, and trust.
  • Advocate for frequent, short-form “proof of work” content that steadily builds credibility.
  • "Consistent evidence beats that occasional big annual recap highlight video."
  • Segmented Storytelling: Tailor communications for different donor motivations, e.g., first-timers vs. major givers.

5. Automation as Organizational Infrastructure

• Speaker: Rachel Baerbauer, Happy New Year, Nonprofit Automation Agency ([06:11])
• Main Takeaway: Automation should be considered foundational infrastructure, not a luxury or afterthought.
  • Most nonprofits have unused tools; the real problem is organizational resistance and over-reliance on memory.
  • "It works until it doesn’t... Everything feels very, very fragile.”
  • Mindset shift needed: willingness to invest time and money in tech, and to design systems assuming change is inevitable for stability and scale.
  • “That steadiness, it really adds up in your donor retention and your overall ROI.” ([07:40])

6. Refreshing the Email List: Ongoing Acquisition is Vital

• Speaker: Jess Campbell, Out in the Boones ([08:17])
• Main Takeaway: Don't neglect email list growth in the name of retention; list attrition is real and ongoing.
  • "If your organization is not refilling your email list bucket, then you will continue to solicit people on a stale list."
  • Recommends “tentpole moments” (like webinars or live stories) as effective ways to gather new emails.
  • Encourages acquisition early in the year for stronger campaign results come year-end.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Planned Giving's Moment:

  • “I think this will cause transformational and long term growth for medium sized charities, which gives me a lot of hope for our sector's future.” — Tess ([01:40])

• AI as Human Amplifier:

  • “When nonprofits start to see that AI is a collaborator and not a threat...everybody is going to win.” ([02:08])

• Community Over Isolation:

  • “Business as usual just doesn’t cut it—you need more than funding, you need relationships, examples, and the confidence that comes from knowing you’re not alone.” — Naomi Hataway ([03:48])

• Brand Experience as Growth:

  • “The brand experience that you offer as an organization...can become a growth strategy, not a nice-to-have in 2026.” — Daniel Francavilla ([05:00])

• Automation for Stability:

  • “The organizations that feel more stable tend to have systems just quietly running in the background. And donors hear from those organizations consistently.” — Rachel Baerbauer ([06:58])

• List Growth as Insurance:

  • “Things happen. People switch jobs. People stop opening emails...if your organization is not refilling your email list bucket, then you will continue to solicit people on a stale list.” — Jess Campbell ([08:34])

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• 00:41 — Planned Giving’s rise in mid-sized charities — Tess
• 01:58 — AI & Data: Collaborator, Not Threat — Unnamed
• 03:20 — Foundations investing beyond dollars: Cohorts — Naomi Hataway
• 04:48 — Retention and segmented storytelling — Daniel Francavilla
• 06:11 — Automation as infrastructure — Rachel Baerbauer
• 08:17 — Email acquisition to maintain health — Jess Campbell

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Takeaways for Nonprofit Leaders

• Adopt planned giving as a core strategy, especially if you’re a mid-sized organization.
• Integrate AI and break down data silos—not just for efficiency but for deeper, more human engagement.
• Seek out and participate in capacity-building cohorts; prioritize networks and relationships as much as grants.
• Invest in your brand experience, regularly providing proof of progress to your supporters.
• Treat automation as essential infrastructure to free up mental and operational bandwidth.
• Don’t forsake list acquisition: grow and refresh your community continually.

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Bottom Line:
2026 will reward nonprofit leaders who embrace tech as infrastructure, foster connections and capacity, tell segmented and authentic stories, and balance both donor retention and audience growth. The shift is from grit and scramble, as Brooke says, to intentional design and resilience.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Nonprofit Mastermind podcast where we name what's really happening inside growing nonprofits and what it actually takes to design a high impact nonprofit the right way. I'm Brooke Richie Babbage, longtime nonprofit strategist and coach. Each week I unpack the systems, strategies and specific mindset shifts that help growing nonprofits get smart and intentional about growing their impact without burning out along the way. This shift is about moving beyond grit to design. It's about building organizations that have the systems, structures and leadership capacity to truly hold the weight of their mission. Welcome.

[B]

Hey, it's Tess from Full Potential fundraising here. And one mindset shift that I see happening that's really going to grow in 2026 is that mid sized charities are finally starting to take planned giving seriously and prioritize it. Which is really exciting because so many so far planned giving has been a way for the largest charities to get ahead while the rest of us are left behind. So in the 2010s and early 2020s, planned giving has been left at the side of the desk of most fundraisers. But that's really shifting now and leaders are realizing that they need planned giving to get ahead. The great wealth transfer is happening now, it's being realized and 97% of donors wealth are held in their assets. I also predict that there's going to be a lot more planned giving resources and training specifically designed for the needs of medium sized charities both in education and services. I can say this pretty confidently because I am leading the way on it. I have a lot of free resources and articles that are going to be published this year and I see some of my planned giving colleagues doing the same as well. I think this will cause transformational and long term growth for medium sized charities, which gives me a lot of hope for our sector's future.

[C]

Hi Brooke, thank you so much for this opportunity. In my opinion, I see 2026 as a year that nonprofits use what's already existing more intelligently and smartly. Everybody is talking about AI right now and when nonprofits start to see that AI is a collaborator and not a threat and replacing jobs, everybody is going to win. Tools like generative AI aren't novel anymore. They are a baseline. They need to be used. The organizations that are going to thrive are the ones that use them in service of real relationships, saving time on administrative tasks, analyzing engagement patterns and helping teams communicate thoughtfully and not just going through the motions. Tied along in with that is the better use of existing data. There's so much information available through CRM Systems, fundraising platforms, event registration, surveys, et cetera. But it's often left in silos. So if those silos can be broken down to understand how people are moving through the organization and seeing it more as a human interaction rather than transactional, that is also another place that nonprofits will, will win.

[D]

My name is Naomi Hataway. I'm the president and founder of 8th and Home and Leaving. Well, what I'm watching for and excited about in 2026 is foundations stepping up differently. And not just writing checks, but actually investing in their grantees capacity and together as cohorts. When you bring grantees together for shared learning around things like governance, succession, strap planning, modern evaluation, or operational resilience, you multiply their impact exponentially. I think that the smart money is really in realizing that isolated nonprofits struggle, but the connected ones thrive. And that is through peer learning, shared challenges, collective problem solving. And it's really helping grantees build muscle and not just survive until the next grant cycle. We're seeing so many unprecedented leadership transitions across the sector. There's economic uncertainty, donor fatigue, et cetera. Organizations really need more than funding, they need relationships, examples of how to do this work well and, and the confidence that honestly comes from knowing that they're not alone. I think that cohort based support also gives foundations leverage. You're not customizing services for 20 different grantees and you're also not guessing what they need or hoping that they have the confidence to reach out. You're literally creating an ecosystem with a cohort based model where they can strengthen each other. So my prediction is also an invitation. If you're a foundation, build it into your strategy. If you're a nonprofit leader, look for funders doing the work and get in those rooms. And if you're already in a cohort, show up, engage and implement. The organizations that stay strong are not just the the ones with big budgets, they're the ones that have the strong network.

[E]

Hello from content and brand strategist, founder of the good growth company, Daniel Francavilla. Few things I'm thinking about this year, I think most important mindset we're seeing more of is talking about retention over constant focus on acquisitions. Obviously we know donor counts have been slipping even when dollars rise. So that means that the brand experience that you offer as an organization, whether that be more clarity, more trust, more consistency, more that can become a growth strategy. Not a nice to have in 2026. Now in terms of brand storytelling and content plays that I think will matter more, we talk a lot about short form content but short form, high frequency content that's focused on proof of work. So tiny updates to build big trust. I think when donors are more selective, consistent evidence beats that occasional big annual recap highlight video. And the second is segmented storytelling. Think about it as one mission that you have, but multiple pathways, multiple doorways that donors can get in. With donors down overall, especially a lot of the small dollar donors, I think it's so important to find different narratives for different motivations, whether you're talking to first timers, monthly givers, major donors or volunteers. So really segmenting and customizing your stories. Let's focus on brand clarity as a resilience strategy this year.

[F]

Hi there. Rachel Baerbauer with the nonprofit automation agency Happy New Year. I keep coming back to the idea that automation is infrastructure. I think most nonprofits already have access to tools that could be doing a lot more for them. And what I see over and over isn't a lack of options because we know there's so much tech out there. It's that automation is treated like something extra or something that you're going to figure out later instead of something that's foundational. I also see a lot of teams that are relying on people to remember things, remembering to follow up, remembering to send an email, remembering how the system works, remembering to send out that note. It works until it doesn't, until you get behind, until something comes up, someone leaves, someone gets overloaded, you have an event, it's busy, and then suddenly everything feels very, very fragile. The organizations that feel more stable tend to have systems just quietly running in the background. And donors hear from those organizations consistently. The internal processes don't have to live in one person's head. Things just keep moving. That allows you also to scale as you continue to grow or allows you to turn over if somebody le. This requires a mindset shift. Being willing to invest in technology, invest in time, money, into the setup, choosing tools that actually allow you to connect with each other instead of what is the cheapest, and building things in a way that assumes that change is coming. So when that's all in place, there's a lot more breathing room, there's less scrambling, fewer drop balls. You don't have to keep everything in your head. And over time, that steadiness, it really adds up in your donor retention and your overall ROI within your organization.

[G]

Hi there, this is Jess Campbell from out in the Boones where I help nonprofits discover donors in their email list. And my prediction for 2026 is this. Organizations who don't take the time or energy to refill their email are really going to struggle when it comes to running campaigns and raising donations online. In our sector, we rightfully talk a lot about retention, and retention is critically important to your organization. But things happen. People switch jobs. People stop opening emails from certain addresses. People even unsubscribe. And if your organization is not refilling your email list bucket, then you will continue to solicit people on a stale list. And so if you are looking to thrive and grow your audience and discover everything from new donors to major gift donors, then I strongly encourage you to do some acquisition in 2026, preferably in the first half of the year so that you can nurture and entertain and educate people well in advance of run your late in the year fundraising campaigns. My favorite way to do this is through what I call a temp poll moment where you gather people online and the price of admission is an email address. You can do a State of the Union. You can do a lunch and learn. You can do an faq. You can even bring someone from your program to tell their story and give some of your community members and donors some facetime with the people that you serve. And I wish you a lot of luck in rebuilding and growing your audience throughout the year so that you can have a lot of success in 2026.

[A]

Thanks for listening. If this episode resonated, leave a review. I read them and they do matter. And make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a deep dive into building your resilient nonprofit. And finally, if you're ready to move from grit to good design, head to Brooke ritchiebabbage.com strong to take the 90 second quiz and find out where to start.