Just the process of dreaming big is transformative. It's worth half a day brainstorm with your best people — what's the biggest thing we can do? Can we send chills down the donor's spine?
— Chris Anderson, Curator, TED, TED Talks, TED Conference, speaking at DXS 2025
Fundraise Up's 2025 Donor Experience Summit wasn't your typical conference. Speakers challenged conventional wisdom and reminded us that nonprofits have more power than they think.
The conversations spanned four key themes:
- Global giving at scale
- AI-powered optimization
- Trust & transparency
- Donor experience
Here are some of the quotes we can’t stop thinking about.
On donor experience…
"Listen with your eyes." (Quote from a five-year-old friend on how to make people feel seen.)
—Neen James, Client Experience Expert, Neen James Inc.
"Our most loyal donors feel that they matter. On an emotional and rational level they feel that they are stakeholders."
—Francesco (FDF) De Flaviis, CMO, The National MS Society
"We can't change behavior. We can only change the pressures that people interact with to cause behavioral change."
—Matthew Wallaert, Chief Experience Officer, Oceans; former head of Behavioral Science at Microsoft
"Expectations are set by the consumer experience… People want to pay how they want to pay. The minute they cannot do that, you risk losing them. Cart abandonment is about 70%. If you don't have someone's preferred payment, that jumps to 85%."
—Yana Gutierrez, Head of Platforms, Customer Success, Stripe
On setting suggested donation amounts: "If the anchor is too high, people feel like they're being used as a means to an end."
—Michael Hallsworth, Chief Behavioral Scientist, The Behavioral Insights Team
"Urgency and scarcity work well when they're genuine."
—Clare Purvis, Behavioral Scientist, Founder of WELL
"65% of donors indicated they would give more if they knew the impact of their charitable investments."
—Michael Thatcher, President and CEO, Charity Navigator
"Anyone selling you a persona is an a**hole — all personas do is layer biases on biases."
—Matthew Wallaert, Chief Experience Officer, Oceans; former head of Behavioral Science at Microsoft
On AI-powered optimization…
"AI represents the single biggest opportunity for organizations to catch up."
—Mahin Samadani, SVP Experience AI Growth, Publicis Sapient
"Every single time there's been progress in human history there's an enormous amount of capital and wealth that's generated, and with that increase, there's been an increased gap in access to wealth and power. Maybe this time we don't do that."
—Calvin Abbasi, Director of Narrative and Communications/Strategic Advisor to the OpenAI Nonprofit, PICO California and OpenAI
"Data cleanup and integrity is not sexy. But without the data integrity you're not going to get to the fun stuff."
—Maya Samadani, Board Member, Rise Alliance for Children
"Don't look at AI as a cost center, look at it as a human force multiplier. You don't have to reduce the task force, just use the team to do the high value work."
—Nirmal Kaur, Google Marketing Platform, Google
"When everyone has access to the same tools and technology, humans become more important than ever. If you don't have the skill, AI won't make you better, it will make you more prolific."
—Scott Rising, Sr. Manager, Social Content Marketing, LinkedIn
"Stop thinking of AI as a tool and start thinking of it as an undercurrent of everything you do. It thinks faster than you do."
—Calvin Abbasi, Director of Narrative and Communications/Strategic Advisor to the OpenAI Nonprofit, PICO California and OpenAI
On trust & transparency…
"Four-star charities receive 900% more dollars donated than two-star charities."
—Michael Thatcher, President and CEO, Charity Navigator
"AI is going to be democratized, but taste is not. Tech hasn't been able to tap into that—heart, mind, humanity — so real and so true."
—Courtney Richardson, Creative Director & Founder, Droga5
"Trust is declining. For the nonprofit you love and trust—maintain that through authentic storytelling."
—Rasheeda Childress, Senior Editor, Chronicle of Philanthropy
"Trust is not starting when you think you're starting. It's a good will bank that you're depositing in all along the way."
—Kevin Wong, Senior Vice President of Marketing, The Trevor Project
"I was struck by how much our legal team put in the contract. If it's not in the contract, it's hard to address it later. We have all these great first meetings—but the level of detail matters: asking for the social content, PR, field marketing up front." (On the importance of detailed contracts in brand partnerships)
—Rebecca Moeller, VP, External and Movement Communications, Girl Scouts of the USA
Global giving at scale…
"Nonprofits do have power. There's a lot of name recognition. If you come out against something with other nonprofits, they'll have to listen. The truth is a great disinfectant."
—Calvin Abbasi, Director of Narrative and Communications/Strategic Advisor to the OpenAI Nonprofit, PICO California and OpenAI
"Urgency always wins. On Giving Tuesday, we send 12 emails that day and all the money comes in at 8-10 PM."
—Jessica Bernat, Director, Digital & Sustainer Marketing, Canadian Red Cross
On the key questions to ask when evaluating potential brand partnerships: "How big are the audiences? What other value can you give us? Marketing dollars? You do have to make sure the brands align."
—Lucy Casey, Product Innovation Lead, Supply Division, UNICEF
"94% of all donor dollars flow to nonprofits outside the donor's home state."
—Michael Thatcher, President and CEO, Charity Navigator
"50% of new traffic to NGOs are coming from social and search. But the average donor value is low. So this means you need to make your donor experience mobile first."
—Nirmal Kaur, Google Marketing Platform, Google
"Billionaires wanted to make philanthropy a part of their lives, they did exciting things, but causes seemed boring […] We take the people who want to change the world and ask them to spend 80% of their time fundraising."
—Chris Anderson, Curator, TED, TED Talks, TED Conference