America 300: Four Hopes for the Future of Philanthropy

What fundraising looked like 50 years ago offers some perspective on the changes we are navigating today—and the field we are building for tomorrow.

America’s 250th anniversary has given us plenty of reasons to look back this year. We have reflected on the people, institutions, and ideas that shaped our country and considered what has endured, what has changed, and what we have learned along the way.

I think there is equal value in looking forward.

What will philanthropy look like when America turns 300 in 2076?
I certainly won’t be a fundraising professional by then—or leading Compass. But after spending all of my career in this field and watching both the profession and our own firm evolve, I find the question fascinating. Not because I think we can predict fundraising 50 years from now, but because it forces us to put the changes that feel so significant today into perspective.

Think about what fundraising looked like the last time America celebrated a milestone anniversary.

In 1976, computers were beginning to change fundraising in ways that would eventually become commonplace. Larger nonprofits and specialized firms were using mainframe technology to manage donor records, segment large mailing lists, and personalize appeals. Direct mail was becoming more scientific, with organizations testing messages and using data to reach prospective donors more effectively. And fundraising itself was still emerging as a profession, with greater attention being paid to professional education and standards.

By the time I entered the field in the early 1990s, direct mail was firmly established, but the mechanics could still be surprisingly cumbersome. One of my first fundraising jobs at Washington College included managing direct mail, and even something as basic as a mail merge could be remarkably complicated. I’m also old enough to remember managing major-gift prospects and volunteer leader assignments with index cards organized in shoeboxes. Today, much of that process feels almost archaic.

Today, a donor database is infrastructure. Segmentation is expected. Direct mail is one channel among many. And professional fundraising encompasses specialties and capabilities that would have been difficult to imagine 50 years ago.

Now we are in another period of change. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we work. The number of Americans giving to charity has declined. Wealth is increasingly concentrated, while transformational gifts can alter the trajectory of an organization almost overnight. Donors have more ways to give and more information at their fingertips. Social impact is increasingly part of how we talk about philanthropy and what it can accomplish.

Which of the things that feel disruptive to us today will seem completely ordinary in 2076? And which fundamentals do we hope never change?

Here’s what I hope philanthropy looks like 50 years from now.

1. Giving is broader, not narrower
I hope we have reversed the decline in donor participation rather than accepted a future in which philanthropy is increasingly concentrated among a smaller number of very wealthy donors.

Transformational gifts matter. We see every day what extraordinary generosity can make possible. But a healthy philanthropic sector also needs breadth. It needs people to see giving as something they do, whether their gift is $50, $5,000, or $50 million.

That means continuing to engage donors at every level—not just courting the gifts that make headlines.

2. Relationships matter more, not less
I have watched fundraising tools and techniques change throughout my career. I expect the pace of that change will only accelerate.

But I hope one thing remains remarkably familiar in 2076: philanthropy is built on relationships.

Giving vehicles, wealth structures, and technology will continue to evolve. None of them eliminates the need to understand why someone cares, earn their trust, and connect what matters to them with what an organization can accomplish.

Efficiency matters, but it can’t shortcut the time relationships take to build.

3. Technology gives us more time to be human
Artificial intelligence will change fundraising. It already is.

My hope is that we use it to reduce administrative burden, make sophisticated capabilities accessible to organizations of all sizes, and give fundraisers more time for the work only people can do: listen humbly, read a room, and inspire generosity.

Fifty years ago, putting donor information into a computer was innovative. Today, we don’t question whether technology belongs in fundraising. The more useful question is: What will the next generation of technology free us to do better? I hope the answer is more time with donors, not more dashboards.

4. Social impact has a wider reach
I hope philanthropic capital reaches more organizations and communities doing consequential work, including smaller nonprofits that may not have sophisticated fundraising operations, prominent networks, or easy access to major donors.

Some of the most important work in our communities is being done by organizations without the resources or visibility to compete for philanthropic attention on equal footing. The scale of the sector itself has changed dramatically: in 1975, the IRS recognized roughly 208,000 charitable nonprofits; today, there are more than 1.5 million 501(c)(3) organizations.

More organizations doing important work does not mean more organizations have equal access to the tools, expertise, and capital that fuel philanthropy. Fifty years from now, I hope those resources are far more accessible, and that an organization’s ability to attract investment is driven more by the impact it can create than by its size or proximity to wealth.

That will require donors and funders to look beyond familiar networks and assumptions about where opportunity resides. It will also require nonprofits to clearly demonstrate impact and give donors confidence in what their investment can accomplish.

Looking forward
Some of what we’re doing right now will look quaint in 2076.

That’s fine.

The things that feel transformational when we are living through them eventually become part of how the work gets done. What matters is how we respond to change without losing sight of why the work exists in the first place.

America 300 feels a long way off. But the philanthropic sector that will exist then is already being shaped by the choices we make today.

We have spent a lot of time this year looking back 250 years. As we do, it is worth thinking about the next 50—and what we want to make possible by 2076.