On August 6th, Momentive Software released its 2026 Nonprofit Trends Report, based on a Wakefield Research survey of 500 U.S. nonprofit and educational executives. The key finding is that 89% of executives say that earning donor trust has become more difficult over the past three years. Yet, another key figure in the report is that 83% of those same organizations grew revenue over the past year. Is there a real problem here, or does the revenue number prove everything is just fine?
Well, the leaders of nonprofits who are actually thriving in this harder environment seem to treat it like a real problem and perhaps that is the difference. Let's look at two ways they're responding:
Proactive transparency. Slightly over half (51%) of the leaders are using impact reports and outcome data to rebuild donor confidence. While that is not surprising, the real finding is that 45% of the leaders are proactively communicating how donated funds are being used, before anyone asks. The leaders are not waiting for an arbitrary event or internal reporting cycle when the information can have immediate impact. We discussed this last week when we highlighted the leadership style of NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang: consistency of message, delivered whether or not anyone's checking.
Resourcing sustained growth. Getting today’s donations is important, but what if your organization does not have the infrastructure to deliver on today’s promises or tomorrow’s growth? Leaders need to actively manage their infrastructure beyond just controlling costs.
Where boards have championed new tools like AI, 59% of the organizations have adopted them extensively, versus just 14% where boards have restricted them. The gap matters because it lines up especially where the pain points are: 48% of leaders call repetitive admin work their top frustration, and 41% say they lack real-time data access. By restricting technologies like AI, staffs are forced to trade off time spent advancing donor relationships and outcome reporting to solving ad hoc fixes or low-value work.
In my nonprofit experiences, across associations, charities, and foundations, the backbone of sustained fundraising depends on the excellence of the staff and quality of internal data systems, not on the mission statement or the strategy deck. It is not surprising to me that 60% of nonprofits surveyed still run their entire financial operation through a single full-time employee.
As a result, over a third (38%) of these organizations admit that they struggle just to track revenue coming in across multiple streams. AI and automation technology are not just nice-to-have upgrades for organizations like these — they may be the most cost-effective way to protect the staff holding the operation together.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The organizations thriving in this tougher environment aren't the ones with the best fundraising pitch, but where leadership shows its work without being asked, unleashes new tools to drive team efficiencies, and actually resources the staff holding the operation together. That's not a trust problem at its core, but driven by leadership choices made well before one meets with the donor.
“The strongest fundraising pitch can't outrun a broken back office. Leaders who want trust to last invest in the people and systems holding it up, not just the words announcing it.” — Michael Rabinowitz
Source: Momentive Software, “2026 Nonprofit Trends Report,” August 6, 2026
WINNING MOVES
Be proactive with your top donors or customers. Consider communicating one outcome metric this week that a major donor hasn't seen yet and send it to them unprompted. Don't wait for the annual report to be the first time that they hear it.
Solve for resource bottlenecks. Find a tool or process your team quietly stopped pushing for because they got tired of asking leadership to approve. Understand if that tool can generate the capacity or capability your staff needs to be the dependable team that you desperately need.
If you want to dig deeper into the trust side of leadership, please read Win Via Trust or subscribe below for future Trust Lens newsletters.