Cultivating Generosity: Nurturing a Culture of Philanthropy for Nonprofit Success

The takeaway was simple but powerful: generosity is not a transaction. It is a culture.

Philanthropy Starts With People

At its root, philanthropy comes from philos anthropos — the love of humankind. That definition expands the idea of giving far beyond money alone. While financial contributions remain essential, true philanthropy includes time, talent, influence, advocacy, and human connection.

When organizations reduce generosity to dollars raised, they risk flattening relationships that could otherwise grow into long‑term partnerships. A culture of generosity recognizes that people give in different ways, at different times, and across different stages of life.

Moving Beyond Transactional Fundraising

Traditional fundraising often focuses on logistics: tickets, receipts, tables, fair market value, and follow‑ups. While necessary, these touchpoints only skim the surface.

A generosity‑driven approach reframes donors as mission partners rather than transactions. The goal shifts from a single moment of giving to an ongoing relationship built on trust, shared values, and participation in the mission.

This shift is especially important in event fundraising, where momentum can either stop at checkout or become the starting point for deeper engagement.

Generosity Is a Spectrum

Giving does not follow a straight line. Some supporters give financially. Others volunteer. Some amplify the mission through their networks or advocacy. All of it matters.

Recognizing generosity as a spectrum allows nonprofits to meet people where they are instead of forcing every relationship toward a financial endpoint. Over time, many relationships evolve naturally. Others remain non‑financial but deeply impactful.

Both are valuable.

Culture Starts at the Top

A culture of generosity must be modeled and reinforced by leadership. Boards, executives, and senior staff set the tone through the language they use, the metrics they prioritize, and the stories they tell.

While fundraising totals and ROI still matter, leadership conversations should also include:

• Volunteer engagement

• Community influence

• Advocacy and referrals

• Long‑term relationship health

Culture shifts do not happen overnight. They require consistency, repetition, and patience. Small changes, reinforced over time, create meaningful transformation.

The Power of Language

Words shape culture. Shifting language from transactional to relational can change how generosity is experienced inside and outside the organization.

Examples include:

• Partnership instead of ask

• Investment instead of donation

• Belonging instead of branding

• Shared impact instead of fundraising goals

This language shift should extend to donors, staff, and boards alike.

Breaking Down Silos

Generosity thrives when organizations operate as a unified ecosystem rather than isolated departments. Development, programs, operations, volunteers, and leadership all play a role in shaping how generosity is understood and expressed.

When teams share stories, celebrate wins, and use common language, generosity becomes contagious. It moves from being the responsibility of one department to the shared identity of the entire organization.

What the Data Tells Us

Recent GivingUSA and Generations & Giving reports reveal important trends:

• Individual giving remains the largest source of charitable contributions, but everyday donor participation is declining

• Large gifts and foundation giving are increasing, creating long‑term sustainability risks if relationships are not diversified

• Baby Boomers still give the largest gifts

• Gen X leads in volunteerism

• Millennials prioritize impact and values alignment

• Gen Z gives differently, favoring issue‑driven causes, flexible giving options, and transparent communication

These trends reinforce the need for relationship‑based engagement across generations.

Preparing for the Great Wealth Transfer

Over the next two decades, trillions of dollars will change hands. While planned giving will play a role, the true opportunity lies in engaging younger generations now — not later.

Younger donors see themselves as change‑makers. They value collaboration, transparency, and meaningful participation. Organizations that build generosity into their culture today will be better positioned to steward these relationships tomorrow.

Practical Ways to Build a Culture of Generosity

Building a generosity‑driven culture is both strategic and human. Key practices include:

• Using relational language consistently

• Inviting stories from donors, staff, and board members

• Equipping boards to act as ambassadors, not just overseers

• Recognizing non‑financial contributions

• Integrating development across the organization

• Celebrating small wins instead of rushing to the next goal

A Collective Responsibility

Generosity is not owned by one role or department. Board members, staff, volunteers, donors, and community partners all have a seat at the table.

When generosity flows through an organization, it flows outward into the community. The result is stronger relationships, more resilient funding, and missions that endure.

As nonprofits face evolving challenges and opportunities, cultivating generosity is not just a strategy. It is a responsibility — and a powerful one.

This conversation will continue in an upcoming 501cDrop session featuring Laura Hutyra. Stay tuned for deeper discussion and audience Q&A.

Recording Transcript:

Leya Simmons (00:01)
Hi everyone. Welcome to what continues to be an evolving special edition of the 501cDrop. First of all, I'm Leah Simmons. I am the CEO and co-founder of Better Unite. Please welcome to 501cDrop where weekly we talk to industry experts, sector-based, we share sector-based knowledge with nonprofit ⁓ advisors and consultants.

event planners, auctioneers, all kinds of folks that work in and around nonprofits, not just with fundraising, but really the entire nonprofit ecosystem. And I am joining you today from my new studio, very excited to be in it. And I anticipated being joined by Laura Huetira, who is the president of Gale and Associates, a world renowned consultancy for nonprofits. We recorded a session this morning.

and we had some audio issues. So the audio was compromised and it is, let me just tell you, actually somewhat of a travesty because it was an incredible conversation. I am joining you solo today and hopeful that I can encapsulate a lot of what Laura and I discussed. She was sharing insights from her, and here, let me share my screen, cultivating generosity, nurturing a culture of philanthropy for nonprofit success.

Laura, who is also a CFRE designate, she shared this presentation at a better conference back in September. It was wildly popular, a wonderful presentation. didn't actually get to see at the time. I was in a different presentation room, but I heard rave reviews about it and I'm so excited to, I was really thrilled to discuss all of this with her. It was a fascinating conversation, as I said. ⁓ I will do my best, like I said, to...

go through and talk about a lot of the pieces that we covered. A lot of what Laura is actually and was this morning and back in September discussing was the GivingUSA report that was released in 2025, our most recent one. We'll get another later this year in 2026. Looking at fundraising trends throughout the United States, we both are a part of the Giving Institute that is the

organization that backs and supports giving USA. Laura is also a part of the Generosity Commission. And that's where her special focus in ⁓ this cult, the idea of cultivating generosity comes from. She is a Laura, let me just give a bit of her bio. She has worked with Gale for the past 12 years, became president just last year in 2025 of the organization of the company, excuse me.

⁓ EmGail, as I mentioned, a consultancy working with nonprofits of all sizes across the board based in Fort Worth. Before that, Laura spent over a decade working with different nonprofits, ⁓ including the Fort Worth Zoo, All Saints Episcopal School, as Director of Development and in Capital Campaign. So she is just a wealth of knowledge. She has been a part, she and EmGail have been a part of the Giving Institute since, let's see, I think she said 2018. ⁓

wanna make sure I get that right. she, we joined, Better Unite joined in 2023. I actually in 2025 was elected the secretary of the Giving Institute. she and I are both very involved with this work, which is a sector based leadership group coming together three times a year to discuss and we see presentations, we have conferences.

on all kinds of topics relative to our nonprofit world. ⁓ It's comprised, the Giving Institute of tech companies like Better Unite, consultancies like Gale and Associates, and ⁓ I guess there's some legal organizations, some marketing organizations that all that have a specialty and focus at least at a minimum of five years on the nonprofit sector. So super interesting.

So I got some notes here because I wanted to write down quickly, you know, some of what I can frankly remember from my chat this morning with Laura. And I ⁓ think this idea of cultivating generosity as a culture shift within and around our organizations is fascinating. It's clear when you hear from Laura that she is just really exceedingly passionate about this topic.

Let me just also note that she will be joining me later this spring for a Tuesday session, a 501 C drop session where we will kind of continue this conversation. So I'm kind of laying the groundwork and she can then ask or excuse me, answer questions that you all might have around this topic. I'll do my best today, but she is the true expert on this topic. So whether you're an executive director, development director, volunteer director, board member,

Maybe a donor to a nonprofit. So when you're joining me today, there is a place for you in this conversation. So let me kind of start with some of her really powerful ideas. And I'm also going to maybe reflect on my time as a development director, executive director. I have a decade of experience working with nonprofit organizations prior to founding Better Unite. So

A lot of what we talked about today resonated so deeply with me. was very, it really very much mirrored my experience working with boards. And frankly, actually now I serve on a couple of boards, frankly now ⁓ mirrored a lot of what I currently experience as a board member for nonprofits. So Laura started with the root of the word philanthropy, which I thought this is fascinating. don't know. In all of my years, I have never looked at this.

The philanthropy comes from philos anthropos, the love of humankind. So at its essence, philanthropy is not just about donations or giving even ⁓ of financial means. It is about all of the aspects of nonprofit organizations. It's about your shared values. It's about obviously your mission, but it's very much about relationships and human connection.

that love of humanity that is the root of philosanthropos, think, or philanthropy today as we call it, I think I love the expansion of that concept beyond just a philanthropist, which we typically will think of as a rich person that's donating money. Anybody can be a philanthropist. Most people, I would argue, are philanthropists in one way or another.

Something that we say, many of you likely know this axiom in our nonprofit, especially development world, where we talk about people giving of their time, treasure, and talent, the three T's, right? And so often, particularly in a development world, we give short shrift to time and talent. And I've long thought that that is an uncomfortable reality. It is an absolute reality that nonprofits

and nonprofit work requires donations. It requires receiving of financial contributions. And it also means that there are so many other places and ways that folks can give depending on where they are in their cycle of philanthropy, of that love of humanity. So Laura has this concept of cultivating within nonprofit organizations

a culture of generosity, excuse me. And what she means by this is moving away from that very transactional nature and moving much more toward a relationship, cultivation, a connection point, an interweaving of our stories and our dialogues and that human centered approach to generosity. And something that we

talked about is that there's this, and I think these are my words and not hers, but there is a tendency a lot of the time, and I think about this a lot relative to event fundraising, there's a tendency to treat donors as kind of ATMs, to just look to, and that sounds terrible, no one on this call actually thinks of a donor in that regard, but there's a ⁓ kind of transactional nature.

to a lot of what we do, right? Making sure that you've received your ticket, making sure that you've got your seat at the table, making sure that you've received the receipt and the fair market value of whatever it is that you've done. And those things can be complex and they can be ⁓ obviously quite important, but they are so much a surface level of what real philanthropy and real cultivation of this generosity is trying to do. What we're really trying to do

and in the event context is to create connection, to create a connection that we can also build upon, that we can use the momentum from to continue to move into, through a moves management system or whatever else, move people from an immediate transaction to a lifelong relationship with our nonprofit. And so in the kind of service of this culture of generosity,

We want to move from transactional nature to treating folks as though they are mission partners and really building up that kind of partnership dialogue. And some of this, speaking to the word dialogue, and Laura talked about this a lot today, is a language shift, moving away from transactional language and moving much more towards relational language. And I'm going to get to a little bit more ⁓ of that in a minute, but we want to take away the

only focusing on the dollar amount to more to focusing more on on time, yes money, but also volunteering and then giving of influence as well. I actually remember a moment when I was a development director and we had a long time volunteer that never gave financially and you know I had a board member at some at some point saying you know well shouldn't we be moving her along to to make a financial

transaction to make a donation. And she was a younger woman, but she had been a long ⁓ time supporter of the organization who was also very vocal on social media in support of the organization. And I really, I remember saying she already gives, period, end of story. And there's no need to force the issue, right? When you're building relationships, the relationship is not an end game. There is no end game. These are...

practices that we have that evolve over time and some move in a direction of a financial contribution and some maybe never do but there is always some value to whatever way somebody is being generous. So I think this shift is seeing kind of generosity as a spectrum not as a single definite point certainly not as only a financial point.

And another thing that Laura talked about, and I mean, I could not agree with this more, frankly, we talk about this in for-profit companies as well, is that culture flows from the top. So Laura has done a lot of work with boards and board members around coming in as an outside consultant, which she said is frankly, sometimes a lot easier way, right? It's this external person that comes in and talks to your organization and your board and your staff around, you know.

this is working, this isn't, let's evaluate, now let's change some things, now let's look at some data. But she made very clear that this is not something that only a consultant can do. As ⁓ an advancement department or development department or as a CEO or executive director or development director in a solo shop, there is a language shift that can occur when you're talking to your board to encourage a much more of a culture of

rounded generosity, I'll call it. That's my word again, not Laura's. But so that you're instead of only reporting on the metrics of how many donations came in, what was the ROI on the event, obviously all still necessary, but also talking about ⁓ volunteerism, talking, at board meetings to metrics around influencers, around people who have stayed engaged with the organization in a multitude of different ways.

So consistently bringing those issues up to board members can help to make that shift. And Laura emphasized this as well, that shift is not a single or linear shift. Culture shifts take time. Culture builds over years, decades even. And so when you begin to write a ship or set it on a new path, it's not going to be a one-time thing. It's going to take some time. And that's just the nature of

of the game and frankly, this is something that we want, right? Like as nonprofits, we do not want to be talking about ⁓ only the next donation or only the next transaction or only the next month or year. We want to be talking in much more five-year plans and decade-long plans that contributes to the longevity piece. So when we come back, coming back around to our culture of generosity,

If you do have a board that's maybe stuck in a much more transactional ⁓ feel, she also suggested maybe pulling in one board member. Maybe it's ⁓ your development committee chair. Anybody that you could maybe have this conversation with around, let's begin to make this subtle shift. Let's begin to change the relationship that we have to the idea of generosity within our organization. And begin to see kind of, you

what that can do, what that can bring. So I found that very fascinating. I found it fascinating also because this has been my experience as well. As I mentioned at the beginning, both working with boards and now being on a board, I've seen there be times where the, this is actually an anecdote I was telling Laura earlier today. With the working board that I've come in and worked with some nonprofits.

one from the board side that I'm thinking of and one from the staff side, where the board considered themselves a working board. That, in my experience, and this is with two organizations I'm thinking of, that almost excused the board from thinking about ⁓ philanthropy in a financial sense. They certainly considered themselves fiduciary oversight, they considered that they had fiduciary responsibility and oversight with the nonprofit.

But they did not think, and particularly a couple of the major donors, they did not think that that also encompassed kind of spreading the word of their nonprofit, of the nonprofit that we were a part of. And those were organizations that I did myself come in and have to kind of right the ship in that we rewrote the job description for the board members. So.

in our board packet or board appeal to new or prospective board members, we from the outset let them know that there was not only a financial kind of expectation ⁓ giving meaningfully whatever that meant for them to the nonprofit, but it also meant talking to their friends about making financial contributions to the nonprofit. And at the time, I did not really think as much about this shift in the culture of generosity that Laura was talking about.

And I really do wish that I could kind of go back in time, rewind the tape and include much more conversation around volunteerism and ⁓ giving of your talent as well. There was actually an organization I worked with ⁓ where I did this, again, not quite as intentionally as I hope anyone listening today will move forward with, but we ⁓ encouraged, I encouraged.

the board members to create short little 30 second videos around why they give. we related these kind of, were looking for recurring donors. So we were relating these smaller amounts to a cup of coffee or a lunch out or whatever once a month, right? And having the board member film themselves talk about that they were doing this and that they were encouraging other people in their social networks to do the same. was actually very successful.

I did not get every board member to do it. Many of them felt very uncomfortable. It was very new, and I really got that. I get that today. But that's also our job, right? Is to stretch our board members maybe a little bit outside of their comfort zone so that they can make bigger appeals, broader asks, become influencers themselves, and ambassadors really for the organization.

So again, back to finding that one person, one board member that you can kind of recruit to ⁓ your way of thinking, to a mindset shift around generosity and changing the language that can really begin to move the needle. And then peer to peer is always a better approach, right? So board member to board member, staff to staff, that way we're talking about...

culture of generosity throughout the organization. Laura actually today shared an anecdote about an organization that she worked with where they had really kind of siloed groups, like the curatorial staff was siloed over here. They had conversations, the advancement staff, had conversations, the executive staff had conversations, volunteer, but they very rarely all spoke together. so Laura and M. Gale came in and they encouraged breaking down some of those barriers and boundaries.

and beginning to communicate among each other. And in that communication, changing the narrative, changing the language and the way that they spoke about generosity to the extent that they actually pulled in the custodial staff and began talking to the custodial staff about this is a nonprofit. You are doing the work for the love of humanity in this organization and this organization and this building and everything else relies on.

the generosity of every single person that walks in here. And having that kind of through line was very important. And Laura saw some wonderful results with that organization as they began to make that really intentional shift. just absolutely love that. So creating that culture of generosity really means creating space for reconnection. Laura also shared that in this process,

She said sometimes one of the bigger parts of her job as a consultant is to come in and encourage her organizations to celebrate the small wins. So, know, we last week actually on the 501 C drop I had Aaron Peshoff who was talking about, you know, kind of grit and the part they don't tell you about which is just drive, drive, drive and how that actually ends up contributing to the burnout that we see in the kind of massive turnover and staff that we'll often see with nonprofits.

and pushing and pushing for pushing sake. so Laura encourages her clients and her organizations to celebrate wins. Don't just, you know, hit the milestone and move right on to the next one. It's there. Sure. We know this, but do take a moment, pause and be kind to the staff, be kind to yourself, acknowledge what you've accomplished. That is a piece as well of cultivating that whole culture of generosity because you all

are also a part of that incredible generosity, that philanthropy that is occurring just by virtue of being where you are and holding the seat that you do. So Laura referenced the Giving USA, and here's where I'm really gonna lean on my notes. She referenced the latest data in the Giving USA data, which came out, as I said, in 2025, looking back at 2024. So in 2024, Americans gave 592.0

$25 billion to charity. That's a 6.3 % increase from 2023. That is ⁓ on par. We've seen, except for 2022, we saw a slight dip. That was when the stock market went down. Every year since 2008, that's not right. Maybe it is. Maybe it's 2013. I'll have to check my notes from our meeting. We've seen an uptick in the total dollars given.

⁓ It's really significant, especially because it's giving, the giving has outpaced inflation and that happened for the first time in 2024, or in three years that's happened. But it also gets a little bit more complex than that. Individual giving is still the majority at 66%, but we continue to see a decline in everyday donors. And then here's where we see the increase coming in in our overall dollars.

mega gifts and foundation giving are increasing, but that concentration poses long-term risks. ⁓ Laura spoke a lot about the Lilly School of Philanthropy at the University of Indiana, which by the way, if any ⁓ University of Indiana alum or fans out there, congratulations, last night they won the ⁓ college football championship. But they've done a lot of research, they do a lot of work looking at sector-based giving, as well as just giving overall.

in addition to the GivingUSA report. And what we discussed is that if your culture, and honestly, this is a sector-wide kind of issue or concern, if our culture of philanthropy is built around only high net worth individuals, it becomes fragile. ⁓ We just saw some reports from the Gates Foundation as well committing to ⁓ higher dollars amount. I think it was $9 billion that they'll give in 2026.

⁓ and a reduction in their staff by about 500 people, but also they're going to shutter the entire foundation in 2045. So, you if we think about these mega groups giving, it's ⁓ the, you know, Generations and Giving Report also reinforces this. Here's another piece of our generational topic. Boomers, baby boomers, still give the most, but Gen X and millennials are becoming more central.

And then Gen Z, they care deeply, but they give differently. So we're going to get back to that. But the point is a strong culture of generosity can really diversify your revenue. And here's the key, your relationships. It doesn't rely on just one set segment. It relies deeply on community wide ownership of the organizations. So I want to touch on from generations, a little bit from the generations and giving report.

key takeaways. The Baby Boomers still lead an average gift size, but the Gen X group, and I would include myself in that, is the most active volunteer group. And then Millennials, they are giving more than ever. And they are, you know, you're kind of in your early 40s, they're beginning to become more engaged, more involved in schools and organizations, but also in sector-based giving. They value impact and values alignment more

than they do organizational alignment. And then Gen Z donors are almost exclusively to date issues driven. They prefer flexible giving models as well. So here's where you're going to think about stock donations, ⁓ crypto donations, although that skews ⁓ wildly, but also online text to give QR codes really, really important when we're talking about that breadth of donations. Another piece that I...

actually remember from the Generations and Giving report is that, and this was a total surprise to me, Gen Z, they like to receive non-transactional direct mail pieces. Up to 80%, actually slightly over 80 % of those surveyed, Gen Z surveyed, said that it was very important to them that they received ⁓ reports and ⁓ impact statements and things like that.

from the organizations that they supported via direct mail, which I find very surprising, although I guess ⁓ one ⁓ kind of facet of that could potentially be that we all get far less physical mail these days. So the pieces we do get paid attention to, there's an environmental impact to some of that as well that some organizations might need to stay away from. But really, really interesting data. actually will link in the show notes the... ⁓

the giving and, sorry, I keep messing it up, Generations and Giving Report so that you all can take a look and read through it. It's really, really interesting stuff. But Laura and I did discuss this shift. There's that intergenerational transfer of wealth somewhere between 71 trillion and 120 trillion will be given away over the course of the next 20 years. Here's an interesting thought. We keep talking about this, and Laura mentioned this today too, that this, ⁓ we should be seeing an uptick in planned giving, and yet in our,

⁓ generations and giving report. We are not yet seeing that. And there's a kind of hypothesis built into this report that states, and this actually is based as well on the work of Russell James, a researcher at Texas Tech University, who looks exclusively at the kind philanthropic world, that will state that baby boomers are living much longer. Generous baby boomers.

live even longer. People who are generous, we know this, it's a data point, they live longer. Much wealthier individuals, they also live longer. So then combine much wealthier, generous folks, they live the longest. So by that logic, those folks born prior to 1960 should live to around, there's some calculations that they'll hit 85, know, kind of that.

timeframe in the 80s, in your 80s, where there's a one in four chance of death. And that will happen in 2045. So that kind of apex of giving, we would extrapolate from this data and from this line of thinking, would happen much closer in the next 20 years, just under 20 years. So we're not there yet, but Laura today did emphasize that if you are not talking about planned giving, now is the time to start.

It ⁓ is something that you could put into your moves management, a direct path that we can put even event donors on based on some segmentation and demographics. Really, really important to look at our information, our data, and be well ahead of the curve with that sort of ask and topic. ⁓

Let's see. So here we go. I'm going to go back now. We talked about baby boomers for a moment, but millennials and Gen Z aren't loyal to specific institutions, as I mentioned, but they are fiercely loyal to causes. And that is where the relationship piece really comes into play. A millennial, a Gen Z, they may not respond to a traditional gala, but they might well respond to a more interactive or hands-on or kind of in the weeds type of event.

rethinking the way that our events are laid out, even if we are in the midst of a traditional gala, because right, we still have to talk to baby boomers and Gen X. And maybe that's, know, if in your organization, that's the preferred method of the fundraiser. Can we find components that pull our millennials and Gen Z's in more deeply? Laura talked as well about, you know, rather than having a young person join your board as a junior board member, that feels

diminutive, it feels less important, pull them in all the way and acknowledge that the capacity might be different, but the goal is a meaningful donation. It is whatever that means for that individual person. And it might be that that individual person is volunteers. I remember an organization that I worked with, we had a client board member always on, somebody who had been a client at a recovery organization. And...

It was very important to this board, and I really applauded this effort, that there was no differentiation in the way that that person was spoken to or the way that they were interacted with and they did not get any kind of subset of messaging or information. They just had a different approach in their appeals, in their outreach, and in what was asked of them. ⁓ Okay, what else?

Yeah, I've already covered that, so we're gonna keep going. Here we go. So, practical steps to building a culture of generosity. That was one of my questions for Laura. Okay, great, this sounds wonderful, like what do we do? And so Laura said a couple things that we've kind of covered already. Language matters. Partnership is the better word than ask. Investment, wonderful, like I know that you're giving and now you're a part of our organization. Belonging.

the connection that's there. I've stated earlier that I think this year is the year of belonging and not branding. I think that falls into this culture shift in generosity as well. Our shared impact, not fundraising goal. Language matters. so paying attention to that, both with your donors on the outside, as well as your staff, as well as your board. Inviting in stories. Ask staff and board and donors to share why they care. Like I mentioned, those.

30 second videos that I asked my board all those years ago to create for social media shares during our citywide giving day. These things matter, they have an impact and they're also evergreen a lot of the time. You can also use them for a while. ⁓ Equip your board. So not just talking points, not just your elevator pitch, but like meaningful connections to the work. Invite them in, invite them to visit programs, invite them to host meetings.

invite them to talk to other donors, again, peer to peer, always best. And then let them also write the notes to your donors and take some of the burden and the lift off of the nonprofit. I just realized that I have been sharing this screen this whole time and I don't need to be doing that. So I'm gonna stop now and let me be full frame. All right.

The next thing you can do, here's number four, broaden your definition of generosity. So you're gonna recognize time, referrals, advocacy, and feedback as really, really critical acts of support. And then finally, integrate development and program. As I mentioned, breaking down those silos like Laura shared in her example, between your ⁓ volunteer manager, your development director, your executive director, your custodial staff. Share stories.

understand each other, use a common language. These things really do impact culture. And when you can infuse that with the generosity component, you're really moving ahead of the game and really beginning to shift everything. Like I know from experience that when development is isolated, it's rarely sidelined, right? Like it's always an important component and it, you know, development always talks to the board, but it also sometimes works in a vacuum and that is never a good thing.

So we want development to be kind of embedded throughout, including with the board. And then honestly, it becomes contagious. Okay, so back to our great wealth transfer. It's happening. It's not happening as quickly as we might have thought or maybe hoped, but 124 trillion expected to change hands by 2048. And of that, it's expected 18 trillion goes to nonprofits. So over the course of the next 22 years, we anticipate $18 trillion

coming into our sector. The rest of it's going to go to heirs and individuals and they'll do with it what they will, but it will come into the economy, which also has an impact on our sector. And the people that are the stewards of that are younger generations, but they need to be engaged now. So again, not just talking about when we're talking about this great wealth transfer, we're not just talking about plant giving, as I mentioned before, we do need to talk about that. But we also need to focus our language on these younger generations.

And they all view themselves as change makers. A lot of them have tried to create their own foundations, their own ⁓ organizations, their own nonprofits, and some of that is great. Interestingly, Laura was pointing to something that she's finding that foundations are beginning, and I think some of this actually comes from community foundations too, but they're beginning to look to organizations and nonprofits to collaborate to solve problems in the community.

This is an incredible thing. We don't have in our nonprofit world a real kind of mergers and acquisitions, &A incentive a lot of times. A lot of times organizations operate separately disconnected. ⁓ Here in Austin, where I live, there's actually a summit called the Austin Together Summit. And it's literally about bringing nonprofits together to find ways for people to collaborate. And Laura was expounding upon that and saying that, you

not only do we see that sort of work happening where nonprofits are looking to each other, but also foundations, not just community foundations, all foundations are looking, they want to see that sort of collaboration happening, occurring among nonprofits. So ⁓ as I wrap this up, I want to first of all, thank you for being here and staying with just me.

I appreciate it and we will take all the questions and we'll talk about this much more thoroughly with Laura in a couple of months or weeks. But I do want to say that your work matters and it's so very important and you all are the standard bearers of this generosity shift that I know that we can see and accomplish. I think if that culture of generosity

flows through all facets of our nonprofit organizations, it must flow out into our communities as well. So this work, this shift that Laura is advocating for that we are talking about today, it has such a ripple effect. It has so much impact on all of the work that all of us are doing. So whether you are a board member or a staff member or a volunteer or a donor,

You have a seat at this table. It is important what you say, what you do, and what you share. So thank you again for being with me. I'm so sorry that it was just me and not also Laura Huitera. Please look up Gale and Associates. Take a look at the Generosity Commission and the work that the Giving Institute and GivingUSA are doing. It's really important. It's very critical work. It gives us so much information and insight. And they are also

all incredible advocates for the work that we all do collectively. ⁓ So let me actually now go back and share my presentation one more time. Here we go. I'm going to click carefully here and I'm going to tell you what's coming up next. Next week, I will be joined by Candice Luisi of Knockout Fundraising for supercharging your events. Candice is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the tactical

boots on the ground, what do you need to do just before and at your event to make that event a success? She also was a presenter at our Better Conference in September and another very, very popular session. She just has some really, really incredible, very specific do's and don'ts that you will not want to miss if you are an event-based fundraiser, for sure. So.

Please join me next week, what is that? January 27th at 1.30 p.m. Scan that QR code if you would like to join. You can also take a look around Better Unite. I've mentioned Better Unite a couple of times. We are a full suite software solution for nonprofit organizations. We have volunteer management, grants management, and then of course all of the fundraising, donor management, ⁓ email marketing. All of your teams have some solution within Better Unite, and if you want all of that in one place,

and then so much more, including all of your event software. Come take a look, scan that QR code or email support at betterunite.com. And if you've got any other questions or if you're a Better Unite user and need help, if you would like to ask a question that you want me to pass along to Laura, send those over to support at betterunite.com. You can also email me, Leah, L-E-Y-A spelled weird, at betterunite.com. Leah at betterunite.com and I am more than happy to send questions, your questions over.

to Laura so that you can get the answers that you're looking for. I could not be more thrilled that you joined me today. Thank you so much. If this was of help to you, please do share it with your team, share it with your colleagues, and then also join me at the next ⁓ 501c drop. We're hosting these every Tuesday at 1.30 Central. So I hope to see you again soon. Until then, let's go do some good. Bye.