Navigating Tomorrow’s Generosity: How AI Can Help Address the Challenges and Opportunities Within the Current Giving Landscape

Nonprofits are operating in a volatile funding environment, making fundraising even more essential. Yet the latest Blackbaud Institute data shows uneven results: larger organizations are pulling ahead while the typical smaller organization may be struggling more. 

The Blackbaud Institute’s 2025 Trends in Giving Report breaks down what’s driving this divide, from organization size and average gift size to year-end performance, and points to a clear takeaway: as major gifts continue to grow, organizations of every size need better ways to identify high-potential donors, improve retention, and scale personalized engagement.

Increasingly, AI can be the lever that helps them do that, without creating more burden on their limited resources.

There’s a performance gap between small and large nonprofits, and it’s linked to major giving

The typical nonprofit achieved growth of ~4.3% year over year in 2025. But our research underscores an important reality: fundraising performance is diverging. Large organizations (those with annual revenue of $10 million and above) saw +11.7% year-over-year growth, while small organizations (those with annual revenue up to $1 million) declined by 6.4%. In addition, gifts of $1,000 or more grew by roughly 4.7% year over year, while gifts under $1,000 declined by about 1.1%. 

Major giving plays a critical role for organizations of all sizes. Strengthening a major gifts strategy is often the most effective place to start when looking to accelerate growth, but investing in the mid-level segment that bridges small and major giving is also important for long-term sustainability. For smaller organizations in particular, scalable stewardship matters. Low-friction and recurring giving strategies can generate near-term revenue while also building the engagement signals and relationships that help identify future mid-level and major donors.

Yet these things are easier said than done. Organizations are increasingly facing high rates of turnover and staff burnout in addition to tighter resources. While The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that an average of more than 10,000 fundraising positions need to be filled on an annual basis, SHRM estimates that staff replacement expenses can reach up to 200% of a professional’s salary. Beyond the financial impact, staff turnover disrupts donor relationships and slows revenue growth as teams repeatedly face the steep learning curve of fundraising software. Heavy workloads, ambitious targets, and limited leadership support remain common drivers of burnout. 

Agentic AI: a new way to scale donor stewardship

For many organizations, especially smaller ones, it can be difficult to uncover major-donor potential, consistently engage mid-level supporters, and keep recurring programs growing all at the same time. This is where AI—and more specifically, agentic AI—comes into play. AI is most valuable when it can work in partnership with a team of talented individuals, helping them gather strategic insights and take concrete actions—prioritizing the right prospects, prompting the next best outreach, and scaling thoughtful stewardship.

Agents that can act autonomously under human supervision provide a substantial opportunity to help close the gap by working around the clock to advance donor relationships, freeing up time for fundraisers to focus on the strategic, human-centered work that drives mission impact. 

To this end, Blackbaud recently launched the Development Agent, the first of our Agents for Good™. This virtual teammate is designed to work side by side with fundraisers to personalize donor engagement and grow revenue, expanding capacity by acting as a partner to fundraising teams. By engaging donors with personalized, brand-aligned outreach—while keeping fundraisers in control of the strategy and the human moments that matter—it can help teams act on the opportunities in their data with greater consistency and speed.

Other ways AI can support your team’s fundraising goals:

• Spot major-donor potential already in your database: Many organizations already have future major donors in their CRM—they’re just not labeled that way. AI can analyze giving history, engagement signals, and capacity indicators to surface prospects that merit personal outreach, helping small teams focus limited time on the donors most likely to make a transformational gift.
• Turn mid-level supporters into tomorrow’s major givers: Mid-level donors are a crucial bridge between small and major giving, but they’re often under-stewarded because personalization doesn’t scale. AI can help teams deliver more timely, tailored touchpoints—so fundraisers can build trust and connection more consistently, moving donors toward deeper involvement and larger commitments.
• Build recurring revenue now, while major gifts are cultivated: Because major gifts take time to cultivate, recurring programs create dependable revenue and keep donors engaged between campaigns. AI can help identify the right audiences, recommend the right ask amounts and messages, and prompt well-timed upgrades—building a healthier pipeline of retained donors and future mid-level supporters.

Most nonprofits are using AI for the basics—but here’s what comes next

Although automation and CRMs are widely used (Gartner reports 79% of nonprofits use automation in online fundraising and 67% use a CRM), AI adoption remains mostly basic. The Blackbaud Institute’s 2025 The Status of Fundraising in the AI era survey found most fundraisers use AI for tasks like drafting and note-taking, while fewer than one quarter use it for advanced applications (e.g., prospecting, A/B testing, or predicting donor behavior)—even though advanced use is linked to higher revenue growth.

This data underscores a clear imperative for all of us: we must move beyond basic applications and fully embrace AI’s profound potential, while doing so responsibly and effectively. 

That’s why Blackbaud is delivering embedded AI that’s built into the tools teams already rely on—so AI can support real fundraising workflows, not just one-off tasks. With intelligent capabilities built directly into our products, fundraisers can surface actionable insights in minutes to transform and supercharge their fundraising workflow, whether at a small nonprofit or an enterprise organization.

The Trends in Giving Report is designed to help every organization better understand today’s landscape and plan for what’s ahead. I invite you to explore the full report here. And learn more about Blackbaud’s approach to embedded AI here.