2022: Ten Trends for Significant Nonprofit Survival
We are just starting to realize the full implications and enormity of forces unleashed by our previous national presidential administration, the failure of the current one to enact the larger elements of its plans for infrastructure and society, and, above all by the pandemic on all of us in every way, with huge impact on the nonprofit sector.
In the pandemic, faced by the dilemma of reduced resources and increased need, nonprofits have struggled to achieve their goals. Despite trillions in government funds channeled into the society, need has been greater and many civil benefit organizations have been under enormous pressure, with less staff and less money, to do their work.
Many foundations and company foundations, trying to help meet the essentials to keep their areas of interest functioning, have made heroic efforts to do so, as well as expanding scope to meet social need.
We are now a somewhat different people. We have been isolated, sometimes ignored, told to do things we didn’t want to do, or not do things we desired, or even at times needed. The constituencies of each of our sectors have been affected by all of this, in varied, often negative ways.
Now we are ready to achieve a better future. We all yearn to break out as the pandemic fades. All the above has profound implications for the nonprofit sector:
1. Equity. Foremost in change will be the emphasis on increasing equity in all things that nonprofits do, externally and internally. Program and activity will work to ensure full coverage of all in need, meaning an increase in size and scope for many. Internally, equality of treatment in hiring, work, promotions, wages and benefits will bring additional diversity at all levels of the organization, resulting in stronger and more meaningful work.
2. Cooperation. The implied growth in people and program will result in more cooperation among and between nonprofits to extend available resources and to cover additional programming. Groups will integrate services for more comprehensive efficiency, now possible in a digital world, such as central back-office work in finance, public relations, human resources, tech, possibly even development.
3. Fundraising. With overall giving from below half of all families making donations and nonreligious giving at only 42% of households, major efforts and significant spending must and will be made to rebuild constituency, regaining former donors and enlisting new ones.
4. Innovative methodology. Constituency rebuilding, retaining, and attracting efforts will focus more on digital methodology, emphasis on monthly giving, data mining, and increased computer segmentation. This will be part of a sector-wide trend for increased and effective management efficiency, including the use of more analytic tools. artificial intelligence, data analysis and technology in general.
5. Focus. As efforts are made to expand donations from all elements of society, special fundraising efforts will continue and increase in those areas that kept, and often, increased donations in 2020-2021, the top ten percent of earners and foundations. Many foundations made special efforts to shore up nonprofit infrastructure, to funnel funds into areas of special need and to promote more equity among nonprofit and their work, even borrowing funds to make larger gifts at this time of need. This will continue in 2022 as part of the widespread effort to strengthen constituency.
6. Large-r Nonprofits. The top 500 nonprofits, constituting less than 10 % of the sector organizations received the overwhelming share of donations, many increasing previous year’s totals. This trend will continue in a field increasingly dependent on resources. The counter trend will be the assembling of cooperative units and mergers among middle-sized and smaller agencies. The ability to start a new organization and to be successful will, unfortunately, be harder but never impossible.
7. Growth. Much of the above depends on overall growth in resources in the sector. Share of GDP will increase approximately 1% toward an ultimate goal of 5%. Nonprofit growth is and will continue to be the way to achieve equity and a more sustainable and successful sector.
8. Work. With the pandemic, remote and hybrid work resulted in
a very different environment, often resulting in higher productivity, better job satisfaction and some reluctance to return to the office. It also had many downsides, including the sense of isolation and less cooperative activity. In 2022, the hybrid approach will be further developed, experimental at first and resulting in overall optimal working conditions for many agencies.
9. Unionization. As work conditions improve, with better supervision, pay and benefits, more unionization drives will also occur in a broad spectrum of the sector, as witnessed historically in health care and education.
10. Recruitment and Training. The new and better conditions will attract new board members and workers, with new and highly improved training for both groups. Board members, formerly reluctant to serve, will be enthusiastically engaged in successful work, with training for them to fully grasp their responsibilities, showing a willingness to build constituency and to govern with vision for the institution. Employees will seek positions in the field, now competitive with the other sectors and offering the satisfaction of helping to improve civil society.