Leading Through Disruption: Building Fundraising Cultures That Last

It’s been five years since Covid-19 brought the world, and the nonprofit sector, to its knees. Many organizations have recovered, but few have truly evolved.

Today’s nonprofit leaders face a new kind of turbulence: persistent inflation, workforce burnout, shifting donor expectations, the explosion of AI and digital tools, and growing public demand for transparency, authenticity, and impact. Once again, the question is not if your organization will weather disruption, but how you will grow from it.

As John F. Kennedy famously said, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”

For nonprofits in 2025, that opportunity is here again, to transform your fundraising culture, redefine your leadership, and build long-term resilience in a rapidly changing world.

Survive or Thrive

The leadership behaviors that win the day now will determine which organizations merely survive and which thrive for the next decade, powered by inspired teams, passionate supporters, and authentic purpose.

Some organizations, sadly, will not make it. Economic and political pressures have accelerated closures across the sector. Others remain trapped in “maintenance mode,” fundraising cautiously and reactively, afraid to offend, slow to innovate, and overly reliant on short-term tactics.

But a small minority, those we might call Great Fundraising Organizations, are once again showing what’s possible. These are the nonprofits that treat adversity as a catalyst. They invest in long-term relationships, tell powerful stories, and build fundraising cultures that engage everyone in the mission, from board to frontline.

According to Philanthropy & Fundraising’s ongoing research since the Great Recession of 2008, it is this 10% that consistently emerges stronger, with renewed internal energy, expanded donor bases, and sustained revenue growth.

This could still be your organization. The window of opportunity is open…if you choose to lead differently.

Focus, Energy, and Action

What makes these organizations different? They focus relentlessly on the long term, even when the short term feels uncertain.

Drawing on Professor Adrian Sargeant’s research and hundreds of case studies worldwide, PF’s work continues to show that great fundraising cultures are built on clear strategic priorities, decisive leadership, and the alignment of the entire organization behind fundraising growth.

The best fundraising leaders recognize that disruption creates both an external and internal opportunity; a chance to improve the quality of fundraising and to build a culture that embraces it wholeheartedly for years to come.

Leading Through Today’s Challenges

Here are a few lessons from the world’s strongest fundraising organizations that are thriving in 2025, lessons you can apply right now:

1. Rebuild belief in your mission and your supporters.

   Donors are not fatigued; they’re discerning. They want honesty, clarity, and proof of impact. Inspire confidence by showing how their support creates tangible change.

2. Empower a cross-functional growth team.

   Bring together fundraising, finance, digital, and program leaders. Give them the mandate and autonomy to innovate and make sure success is measured across the whole organization, not just in one department.

3. Move at the speed of change.

   From AI-driven personalization to evolving giving platforms, technology is rewriting the rules. The organizations winning today are those that experiment quickly and learn faster.

4. Invest in your people, not just your programs.

   The burnout crisis is real. Great leaders are rethinking workloads, investing in professional growth, and creating psychologically safe, purpose-driven workplaces that retain talent.

5. Listen deeply to your supporters.

   Donor relationships are no longer transactional, they’re collaborative. Ask what your supporters care about, how they want to engage, and what makes them feel part of something meaningful.

Making the Hard Choices

If this were easy, everyone would do it.

True leadership today means making difficult decisions: when to invest, when to pivot, and when to say no. Ensuring long-term fundraising resilience might mean delaying a project, reorganizing teams, or taking bold bets on innovation.

These are not comfortable choices, but they are the ones that define the next generation of great nonprofit leaders.

Now, more than ever, the call is to lead with courage, clarity, and conviction, to turn disruption into momentum and uncertainty into growth.

You can learn from the behaviors of the world’s greatest fundraising organizations at philanthropyfundraising.com. And if you’d like help building your organization’s next phase of growth, we’re here for you.