Philanthropy in a Covid-changed world

Posted May 11, 2021 by Doug Wilhelm

As Covid-19 gripped the nation last year, the philanthropic sector greatly boosted its support for charitable and community organizations, and nonprofits can take a range of actions to encourage that generosity to continue. That was a key message from “The Road Ahead: How the Events of 2020 Might Shape the Future of Philanthropy,” a May 4 webinar presented by the Stanford Social Innovation Review and the donor-advised fund Schwab Charitable. 

Moderator Michael Voss, the journal’s publisher, opened by asking, “What will the changes of the past 15 months mean for the future of nonprofits, philanthropy and social change?” Responding were Nicole Taylor, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in California, and Kim Walton, president of Schwab Charitable. I attended to find out what the discussion would suggest for the youth services sector, where so much has changed and more change is coming. As everyone seeks to adapt to the new fundraising environment, here’s what I took away from this conversation:

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation raised $64 million for seven newly created Covid-19 relief funds, Nicole Taylor said — and key to that success was that it clearly designated the new funds for specific issue areas.

“People wanted to help,” Taylor said. “We made it easy for donors to identify what they could do and who they should support.” Among its target areas, the foundation aimed new funds toward assisting its region’s response to Covid, helping low-income workers who had lost jobs or lacked health insurance, and supporting carefully selected nonprofits, K-12 education, and child care. In all, the foundation raised $249 million for Covid-related causes, enabling it to support 378 nonprofits with a wide diversity of missions, and to assist some 680,000 individuals and families.


“We knew we needed to increase funding to communities of color,” she added, “and immediately we jumped on that, and created a giving guide for Black-led organizations to encourage community support. Throughout 2020 we hosted or co hosted 23 webinars, to inform donors of pressing issues facing our communities and spotlight of the work of our community partners.

“We will continue to replicate our fundraising model. We’ve seen that donors really do enjoy, and find it easy, when we aggregate capital for specific issue areas.”

“A recent survey of Schwab Fund donors found that 56% ‘were planning to increase the amount of money they grant over the next 12 months. Another 44% say they plan to support a new charity this year.’”

“It's going to take a few years for us to really understand the complete picture of how the pandemic has shaped us as a society and as philanthropists,” reflected Walton of the Schwab Fund. But “in dollar terms,” she said, “grants from DAFs [donor-advised funds] rose almost 30%, from $6.4 billion the first six months of 2019 to $8.3 billion for the same period of 2020” — a growth rate “nearly double what we had seen from 2018 to 2019.”

A recent survey of Schwab Fund donors, Walton said, found that 56% “were planning to increase the amount of money they grant over the next 12 months. Another 44% say they plan to support a new charity this year. They have the most interest in organizations that deliver human services, social services, food, housing and disaster recovery.”

As nonprofits look to draw new support, “you want to encourage donors to give non-cash appreciated investments and assets,” Walton said. “Many large donors have increased their wealth substantially over the past few years,” and “appreciated non-cash assets that are held for more than a year offer really, really important tax benefits when compared to giving cash.” Her fund also encourages donors to “bunch” contributions for tax benefit, to offset with donations the tax impacts of converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, and to make unrestricted contributions to the nonprofits they support.

“Make it easy for donors who have DAFs to give to your organization,” she advised. “Make sure that on all of your solicitation materials on your website, that you've got an option for DAF giving. ... Consider dedicating a web page to information about DAF giving.” People who have donor-advised funds, she said, tend to want simplicity, efficiency, and tax-effectiveness in their giving strategies.

Overall, Taylor of Silicon Valley hopes the experience of the Covid crisis will inform a new commitment, among donors and foundations, to joining and supporting the long-term work of making genuine, systemic change. “Philanthropy needs to wake up and realize that there is no going back ... to how we used to operate,” she said. “We need to be much more humble, much more accessible, and much more willing to share the power.”

There’s more on this topic in an article posted May 5 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy: “They Came Through in a Crisis. Will 2019’s New Donors Keep Giving?”