Trend Pulse 2024
Trend Pulse: Feeling the Pulse, Thinking Beyond
Across Europe, fundraising organisations are facing oscillating private and corporate giving patterns
At the same time, the number of foundations continues to grow relentlessly Each organisation and/or subsector has thus clear challenges, evolutions and opportunities To support these dynamics, asUgo also looks proactively at evolutions from the sector at large, in complement of the rich day-to-day exchanges.
The down-to-earth goal is to feel what’s ahead, understand what is living, and think proactively ahead
Some of the key topics are discussed more in detail, along with a trend synch: an indication of the extent to which current asUgo clients are already turning these changes into an opportunities
In the end, the ambition remains to find workable solutions, enabled by technology and/or guidance on organizational, process or human matters.
Trend Pulse: New Funding Instruments are Gaining Traction
Across Europe, fundraising organisations are facing oscillating private and corporate giving patterns. At the same time, the number of foundations continues to grow relentlessly Each organisation and/or subsector has thus clear challenges, evolutions and opportunities To support these dynamics, asUgo also looks proactively at evolutions from the sector at large, in complement of the rich day-to-day exchanges.
1
| UNRESTRICTED GRANTS
Fueled by Mackenzie Scott’s grant initiatives, organizations worldwide are exploring trust-based giving While still grounded in data-driven screening, there's a trend toward supporting unrestricted grants
Advocates favor fewer conditions, while others stress setting goals and measuring progress Striking a balance may be key
Exploration ongoing amongst grant giving clients Number of experiments expected to increase in 2025
3 | CORPORATE GIVING
Corporate giving is evolving in Europe, with some areas slowing but a rise in corporate foundations and matching programs. Research shows employees may give more when employers match donations, highlighting strong potential
On the radar of non-profits with proactive fundraising Expected to remain stable in 2025
2 | IMPACT INVESTMENT
Impact investing allocates funds to achieve social or environmental benefits along with financial returns NGOs and foundations have explored this for years, with support from groups like Philea developing tools to aid in its use
Learning topic for non-profit clients with >50 FTEs Expected to remain stable in 2025 (few early adopters)
4 | FAST CHANGING PAYMENT TECH
The Payment Service Provider (PSP) landscape has rapidly evolved, with new pricing models, embedded services, and products like giving pages and P2P options. While promising, this growth demands clear guidance on technology and value propositions
On the radar of many nonprofit clients with proactive fundraising initiatives Expected to grow in 2025
Trend Pulse: Data and other Non-financial Enablers are Key
Creating social impact is often associated with incoming or outgoing funds. More and more, organisations will (need to) look at complementary tools: collecting and connecting data, exploring internal or external insights and reinforcing human capabilities While less top-of-mind of the general public, these activities are well on their way to become standard parts of the toolbox.
7 | NON-FINANCIAL SUPPORT & CAPACITY BUILDING
Targeted guidance through coaching, organizational design, networks, and collaborations can accelerate value, with or without financial support The goal is to foster capital activation and lasting impact, now a core element of impact frameworks
Important subject for grant giving clients
Expected to remain stable in 2025
9
| RESEARCH & DATA
There's a push to build knowledge bases that transcend assumptions, focusing on cross-sector insights and trends These data-driven resources aim to evaluate programs, shape initiatives, share learnings, and foster collaborative synergies
Growing tendency amongst non-profit clients with > 20 FTEs
Expected to increase in 2025
8
| HYBRID TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers play a vital role in large nonprofits, contributing to events, fundraising, and word-ofmouth efforts. Organizations are now focusing on integrating volunteer tools to support a datadriven approach, gaining insights and optimizing workloads
Key for non-profits with >50 FTEs and many volunteers
Expected to grow further in 2025
17 | REACHING & ENGAGING SUPPORTERS
With declining individual support and rising recruitment costs, organizations must prioritize supporter care and retention This requires blending human guidance with technology to enhance the experience, creating new personas and phygital, omnichannel journeys
Growing tendency amongst non-profit clients with > 10 FTEs
Expected to increase in 2025
Trend Pulse: Clear Appearance (and use) of AI for Impact
While it was already actively used as enabler by research centers, corporations and technology afficionados, AI has done a huge jump forward in the public sphere in the last two years It has even become one of the major societal hot topics. This last year, further jumps forward have been taken with Agentforce and discussions on concrete use cases where AI can help.
10 | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The 2024 European Nonprofit Pulse reveals growing interest in AI, with 50% of respondents showing cautious optimism and a desire to learn more While some seek further guidance, 13% are excited and already leveraging AI (see details in the box)
At asUgo, we’ve taken proactive steps Past nonprofit discussions focused on traditional AI or informal exchanges about generative AI
In 2024, we partnered with trailblazing nonprofits to deliver AI awareness sessions, hands-on exercises, and practical use case exploration with Salesforce and other technologies. Nonprofit leaders are now turning their enthusiasm into action, often outpacing traditional corporations in innovation
Trend Pulse: Gradually Scaling Impact Across Ecosystems
The trend of "Ecosystem Scaling" among NGOs and foundations, highlighting two approaches: organization-driven actions, such as events and research, and ecosystem synergies that foster cross-sector collaboration While activity synergies are emerging in sectors like climate and health, funding collaborations are still in their early stages.
14 | ECOSYSTEM SCALING
Actions taken by NGOs and foundations can have different levels of collaborative ripple effects As indicated below, some are clearly more driven by (and focused on) the organisation itself, while others aim at reaching impact through a more collaborative engagement Often sparked by shared visions between people, they can be smoothened by technological accelerators, data insights and strategic guidance While still in its early days, there is a growing trend towards blended impact
Events, Information & Mobilisation
Activities >>
Data сollection, research, publications
Knowledge sharing organisation-toorganisation
ORGANISATION DRIVEN
Funding >>
ACTIVITY SYNERGIES
Last year, non-profit clients did complement ‘personal’ activities with cross-organisational synergies This has been especially visible in sectors that aim for systemic change, where information is key, or that focus on human development
Present amongst non-profit clients in 2024 Expected to grow further in 2025 cross sector
Idea cogeneration / Alliances
Joined Research & Data Collection
Co-organisation of public Events or other Actions
ECOSYSTEM SYNERGIES
FUNDING SYNERGIES
With declining individual support and rising recruitment costs, organizations must prioritize supporter care and retention This requires blending human guidance with technology to enhance the experience, creating new personas and phygital, omnichannel journeys
Early stage for non-profits active in funding
Expected to remain stable in 2025
Trend Pulse: Iceberg Model Exercise
In designing for systems change, groups can focus on events to activate the deeper layers in society Identifying causes and effects at deeper levels often leads to funding different types of interventions. As explained by the Shifting Systems Initiative (Ford Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Chandler Foundation, Jasmine, Porticus, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors):
“Impacting a complex challenge requires cumulative, mutually reinforcing change at multiple levels, including niche innovation, systems, culture, and landscape.
In essence, linear or traditional responses that focus on one component will only solve symptoms of the underlying issue An integrated approach goes beyond the linear and combines different levels
The Iceberg Model framework helps to better understand this complexity: “Mental models are at the base of all systems Power dynamics, relationships, and connections that are informed by mental models and underlying social norms are a key component of a system. Systems are more effectively changed with participation from community members who live and understand these relationships and dynamics ”
Several non-profit clients function based on an integrated multilayer approach Many don’t Rather, they (currently) focus on one or two layers of impact. They do try to increase their impact (and potentially the lasting effect of it) by using different channels, and working with different type of impact groups
The most ambiguous level appears to be the collaboration with governments While subsidies and bidirectional exchanges do exists, not all organisations have a deeper impact yet.
ImpactChannels
Patterns Structures Mental Models
A real event that took place
The changes and the trends that we perceive taking place over time that will have caused this event
Trend Pulse: Enabling People Remains the Fundament
The 2024 European rofit Pulse confirms that managing skills, well-being, and workforce remains a key challenge for Non-Profit and social impact organizations, emphasizing the need for a blended approach of technology and human support
12 | SKILLS, WELLBEING, WORKFORCE
The management of skills, wellbeing and workforce is a major attention point for nonprofit and social impact organizations
Without surprise, this has also been confirmed in the 2024 edition of the
European Nonprofit Pulse Managing workload and supporting staff in their wellbeing rank consistently in the top 3 of challenges (along with raising sufficient funds)
Exactly as in for-profit, organisations need to dedicate more time and energy to the motivation, growth and retention of their teams Skills development is as essential for the organisation (to support its ability to deliver upon promises), as for the employees themselves (for their growth and motivation)
This pressure is there to stay, given the increasing number of corporate foundations, and the shifts in workforce composition
H M L
MANAGING WORKLOAD
Gender Balanced Teams
Supporting Staff and their Wellbeing
Staff Recruitment for IT and Fundraising
To craft a positive dynamic in this climate of fast changing environments and human needs for deceleration and human connection, it is advised to go for a blended approach
Technology can smoothen organizational processes It can contribute to workload management, sense of meaning (as less time needs to be dedicated to redundant
tasks) and overall employee motivation
Similarly, it can contribute to more flexible work environments (while keeping a focus on human connection and organizational culture)
It only delivers lasting results when combined with human and organizational guidance, tailored to each department and the organization as a whole
H L M L Very present amongst non-profit clients in 2024 Expected to grow further in 2025 cross sector
Retaining Workforce
Flexible Work Environments
Increasing Digital Skills & Fundraising Skills
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