In Your Own Words: Fundraising Strategies that are Working in 2026

At the Blackbaud Institute, we look at the trends through the rear-view mirror. We can tell you where growth is happening, how it’s shifting by organization size, and what’s changing year over year.

And if you’ve been doing this work for a while, much of it will sound familiar:

• Giving is uneven.
• Major gifts matter more.
• Year-end carries your annual revenue.

But to know what’s happening right now, to see the strategies that are shaping the trends reports of tomorrow, we lean on conversations with professionals like you about how these trends are showing up in your day-to-day. Across subsectors and organization sizes, strategies begin to emerge that are driving the sector forward, shaping and responding to the high-level trends we see in the data.

We had the privilege of sitting down with hundreds of your peers to share the data, then we broke into groups by subsector and asked a simple question: What’s actually working right now?

What people shared was practical, specific, and actionable. In many cases, they’re still figuring it out in real time, just like you.

Here are the strategies that they’ve put in place for 2026 and the results they’re seeing.

1. Direct mail and digital work better together

While online giving continues to outpace overall giving in YoY percent growth, the value of IRL tactics like direct mail isn’t going anywhere.

Across sectors, people kept coming back to the same theme:

“We continue to see a MUCH stronger return on direct mail than online giving, despite a very robust email campaign strategy.”

Another group put it more bluntly:
“[We see] high open rate with digital; very low response to digital solicitation.”

There’s significant growth in the digital space:

• Online giving is up.
• Email is getting opened.
• Use of digital wallets (Venmo, CashApp, PayPal) continues to increase.

When it comes to driving gifts, especially at scale, direct mail is doing the heavy lifting. What’s changing is how it’s being used.

The organizations seeing the best results aren’t choosing between channels. They’re connecting them in sequence:

Mail hits first -> Email follows -> Then a mix of follow-ups to close

One healthcare team described it simply: they “try to get [their] annual appeal to hit mailboxes prior to Giving Tuesday, when they will receive the same solicitation electronically.”

The Takeaway:
Digital is one tool in your toolbox, but sandwiching digital outreach with real-world connections drives better donation conversion.

Explore Blackbaud’s fundraising campaign resources to build more connected multichannel donor journeys. 

2. The Middle is still a WIP

If there was one shared challenge across every room, it was this: Mid-level giving still isn’t working as effectively as it could, despite the understanding of its value to donor pipeline and longevity.

Teams are experimenting with:

• Segmenting annual donors into interest groups
• Identifying upgrade candidates earlier
• Building more intentional stewardship touchpoints

But these strategies are still evolving, and in many cases, they run up against a more immediate reality: limited time and staff.

One team summed it up this way:

“We have so much coming from our major donors… it’s really tricky to find the time… to go for those mid-level donors.”

There is a very real limitation that is showing up in the data and daily work:

• Focus stays with major gift prospects because that’s where the revenue is.
• The middle gets delayed because it’s harder to operationalize.

The Takeaway:
Most organizations are still working to build approaches to midlevel giving that scale. In her article, AI Can Be Your Most Powerful Tool for Growing Midlevel Giving, Katrina Grant of Dataro gives her insights into how AI can bridge the gap between priorities and resourcing when it comes to growing midlevel giving.

3. Donors want deeper involvement

With the number of giving households decreasing, and their investment into the sector increasing, there is a natural trend towards donors wanting to become more involved in the organizations they partner with. But this isn’t just true for major givers, it’s a trend that shows up with everyday donors as well.

Organizations are welcoming this involvement by:

• Bringing donors onto committees
• Inviting participation beyond giving
• Creating clearer, more specific roles for engagement

One group described it this way:

“Intellectual engagement leads to deeper connections, larger monetary donations, and higher retention.”

This shift is also influencing how organizations approach peer-to-peer fundraising. The peer advocacy tactic that worked a few years ago—“go tell your story”—isn’t enough anymore.

One team said their biggest win was providing fully built toolkits:

• “This is your text message”
• “This is your email”
• “Here’s exactly what to share”

When they did that, participation and results both increased.

The Takeaway:
Connection isn’t just about personalization; it’s about making it clear how donors can engage and where they fit. They want to get involved, empower them to take a seat at the table. 

4. Year-end planning starts Jan 1

Q4 is table stakes, always has been and (I’m willing to bet) always will be. Anyone who has worked in fundraising doesn’t have to look at the data to know that.

What’s changing is how organizations prepare for that window.

There’s more intentionality around:

• Timing
• Volume
• Focus

One organization shared that they stopped running a November event entirely:

“If you come to people with too many asks back-to-back… they’re not going to be as receptive [later].”

Instead, they consolidated effort around year-end—and saw stronger results.

Another noted a shift toward more consistent giving throughout the year, even with a December spike:

“It used to spike more… now it seems like… a steady income throughout the year, with that year-end push still driving results.”

The Takeaway:
Year-end is still decisive, but success there increasingly depends on decisions made earlier in the year. Timing, clean data, and a strong understanding of the year-round giving cycle allows for year-end to the be cherry on top, not a nail-biting hail mary.

5. Keep it simple and consistent

Not everything your peers shared was about campaigns or strategy shifts. Some of the most consistent examples were the fundamental, done well and consistently:

• Structured thank-you cadences
• Monthly or quarterly stewardship
• Clear segmentation of donor types
• Basic CRM optimization

One team described their approach to stewardship in a clear, predictable cadence:

• Recurring donors thanked quarterly
• Other donors recognized monthly
• Larger donors receive personal, signed letters

Another put it simply:

“We have a robust relationship program… stewarding by thanking and making those connections.”

The Takeaway:
When growth is increasingly tied to fewer, higher-value donors, ensuring connection is even more important.  There’s no single tactic driving results; it’s consistency, structure, and follow-through.

6. Capacity is the constraint

When we look at all the wins shared and strategies put into place, there is still one challenge that all teams are working to overcome: limited capacity.

Teams know what they should be doing:

• Building mid-level programs
• Personalizing outreach
• Improving stewardship

But they don’t always have the resources to do it consistently at scale.

“We need staff.”
“No database manager.”
“We struggle to make the case [internally].”

So organizations are prioritizing:

• Giving major donors the lion’s share of attention
• Gradually building systems
• Cautiously testing new tools like AI 

The Takeaway:

There is no lack of inspiration, ideas, and innovation; it’s about what teams can realistically execute.

Trends beyond the data: what’s shaping the sector today

The organizations gaining ground aren’t necessarily doing something new.
They’re making what already works more consistent, more intentional, and easier to execute. None of this is a major departure from what we already know.

But it does clarify where organizations are focusing their effort:

• They’re connecting digital and offline engagement into a holistic approach
• They’re focusing the capacity they can on mid-level giving—building systems that work and finding opportunities to scale
• They’re making existing tactics scalable with systems, technology, and stronger supporter involvement

What do you think? Does the data we discovered around giving in 2025 reflect your lived experience, and how has this past year informed how you’re moving forward? To the professionals who shared their expertise with us in this session: thank you. Not only for the insights but for the work you do every day to navigate uncertainty and strengthen this remarkable sector.