Does the application actually make sense to someone who does not already know the organization? That sounds obvious. It is not. United Way’s Impact 100 process looks at high-performing human-service nonprofits and considers things like demonstrated outcomes, financial responsibility, organizational need, funding health, and the overall composition of the portfolio. Applications for the 2027 cycle are open through October 16.

For an increasing number of affluent donors, that decision has already been made. The asset may have been transferred months or years ago into a donor-advised fund. It may sit inside a foundation, charitable trust or estate plan. The donor may already have relinquished legal ownership of the money while retaining advisory privileges over where charitable dollars go. In those cases, the nonprofit is not principally trying to create generosity. It is competing for deployment.

We put it in grant proposals. We put it in job descriptions. We send people to a training about it on Thursday afternoon, somewhere between the finance update and the reminder that timesheets are due. Occasionally there are snacks. Then everyone returns to an organization where the executive director sends a vaguely alarming email at 10:47 p.m., three people know the actual budget, staff learn about major decisions five minutes before the public does, and someone has schedul

How much revenue is connected directly or indirectly to government funding? Which programs would become vulnerable if reimbursements were delayed, eligibility changed or a grant disappeared? Which relationshiA nonprofit should be able to answer, today, what happens if its operating environment becomes more favorable, less favorable or simply more volatile. That does not require predicting the election. It requires identifying exposure.ps on both sides of the aisle matter to

The more useful question is not “Is this political?” It is: What kind of decision is this, whose voice are we using, and what does the organization actually have at stake? That distinction matters more now than it did even a few years ago. Independent Sector’s 2026 research found that nonprofits remain the most trusted major institution it measures, with 56 percent of Americans reporting high trust. It also found something more interesting: Americans increasingly see nonprof

We have substantial philanthropic wealth, generations of civic giving, major family foundations, corporate philanthropy, and donors whose investments have shaped health care, education, the arts, social services, neighborhoods, and public life. We also have a community small enough that relationships matter enormously. People remember who followed through, who understood the work, and who listened. Sometimes the person you have spent three weeks researching already serves on