Day two of DXS Brooklyn got practical. Speakers shared what giving-season data says about when and how donors give, what Charity Navigator learned about connection and trust, and why direct mail and the phone still earn their place next to digital.
Panels covered responsible AI in practice and the skills the next generation of nonprofit leaders will need. Behavioral scientist Matt Wallaert closed with a reminder that making giving easier is not the same as giving people a reason to give.
Here’s a recap of every day two session with full recordings.
Mentalist Jason Suran: Possibility is a state of mind and The memory advantage
Jason Suran, mentalist
Across a day one keynote and a day two workshop, Jason showed how belief, attention and memory shape what people experience. He opened by noting that the moment we form an expectation, we limit what we can experience. Then he proved how predictable our minds are through a series of mind-bending displays that left us in awe.
But the next morning, Jason came back and picked our jaws off the floor and explained the craft behind the act.
A mentalist, he says, is in the business of information: obtaining it, retaining it and delivering it. Retention is where most of us fall short, and it matters, because "one of the most powerful things you can do to make people feel seen is to just remember what they tell you."
After memorizing a shuffled deck live in about 24 seconds, he explained he learned the skill to remember people, not cards. For fundraisers, the lesson is clear: remembering what donors share is a skill anyone can build.
Watch the recording below.
The giving season, decoded
Bryan Funk, Fundraise Up, and Yana Gutierrez, Stripe
Bryan and Yana walked through what giving-season data says about donor behavior. The final six days of the year account for 38% of giving-season revenue, and December 31 alone brings in 16%. With 78% of revenue arriving through search and organic traffic, donors are seeking out organizations they already know, so year-round brand building matters.
Payment options matter too. ACH bank transfers averaged about $1,500 per gift versus $276 for cards, yet nearly 40% of nonprofits didn’t offer them. Mobile drove more than half of gifts overall but just 23% on Giving Tuesday, a reminder not to neglect desktop. Donors who gave in each of the previous two seasons drove 31% of revenue. And because most donors give only once in the season, there’s little room for error.
Trust and connection
Kyle Gardner, SVP of Development, Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator expected its latest research to show falling confidence in nonprofits. Instead, 70% of surveyed donors said they trust them. The real problem was connection: 25% felt organizations only contact them to ask for money, and 15% couldn’t remember the last time they thought about a nonprofit.
Donors who felt connected gave 7.6 times more, about $1,400 a year, compared with less than $200 among those who felt none. Personal experiences, visible impact and engagement beyond the gift all build it.
Skeptics surprised the researchers too: the most skeptical donors gave about $1,100 a year, more than any other group, which suggests transparency can earn bigger commitments. Some donors doubted a small gift mattered but valued their time, so volunteering and peer-to-peer fundraising can bring them closer first.
Responsible AI: From principles to practice
Moderator: Cheryl Contee
Panelists: Jon Thompson, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Josh Hendler, Office of Eric Schmidt
The panel got right into it and pushed past small efficiency gains afforded by AI. The biggest opportunity isn’t saving 10% of staff time but changing what an organization can accomplish.
Responsible AI doesn’t mean the strictest rules everywhere. Josh advocated for oversight scaled to risk, and Jon described how healthcare-grade data restrictions could needlessly slow lower-risk fundraising work.
AI can also surface value that silos hide: at CHOP, a direct mail donor who attended one event and returned to mail saw lifetime value double. On human oversight, Josh warned that approving every AI action creates approval fatigue. Jon’s model lets AI spot opportunities while gift officers decide how to act.
Fundraising strategies: In defense of old school
Moderator: Danielle Rice, Fundraise Up
Panelists: Dan Sonners, Judicial Watch; Kevin Schulman, DonorVoice
Direct mail isn’t dying. Its strength, Dan argued, is attention: unlike a pop-up, a letter gives donors time to engage with a story and come back to it. As AI filters more digital messages, thoughtful mail becomes a way to build trust.
The bigger lesson was combination. Adding peer-to-peer texts after a mail appeal produced a 20–30% lift, with about 90% of the increase coming back through mail. Digital ads before phone campaigns improved conversion too. Kevin made the case for lifetime value over acquisition cost: in his experience, telephone programs achieve 68–73% first-year retention, with three- and five-year value around 50% higher than other channels.
The closing point: donors don’t think in channels, so connecting offline appeals to a seamless online gift captures more generosity.
The leadership team of the future
Moderator: Tobes Kelly, Fundraise Up
Panelists: Sarah Lundberg, DHR Global; Jon Ward, The Ward Group
Sarah and Jon are executive recruiters, and they described how nonprofit leadership is changing. Technical expertise still matters, but curiosity, collaboration and comfort with ambiguity are becoming just as important. The strongest leaders adapt, challenge assumptions and bring people with them.
Finance leaders now need to anticipate risk, model uncertainty and build resilient systems as funding grows less predictable. Development leaders need relationship skills plus data fluency, donor journey mapping and revenue strategy.
AI raises the bar rather than replacing leaders: as it takes on admin, content and analysis, leaders' value shifts to judgment and connecting technology to mission. Introducing a tool is only the start; leaders must find where it creates value and guide teams through new ways of working. The real opportunity is rethinking where people spend their time, moving teams from transactional work toward relationships, problem-solving and better donor experiences.
Closing keynote: The science of possibility
Matt Wallaert, applied behavioral scientist and CXO of Oceans
Matt closed DXS by separating ease from motivation. Behavior comes from two competing forces: promoting pressures, the reasons to act, and inhibiting pressures, the reasons not to. Making giving easier removes friction, but it doesn’t give anyone a reason to give. Strong fundraising works on both.
He offered two uncomfortable brainstorming prompts. First, instead of asking how to increase giving, ask what would make someone never donate again. The answers expose barriers and assumptions conventional brainstorms miss. Second, ask how you’d increase giving if you couldn’t tell anyone what you’d changed. That pushes teams toward experiences, like unexpected generosity, personal relevance and surprise, rather than more messaging. His final point was about identity. Giving helps people see themselves as generous, compassionate and connected, so nonprofits should test messages that reinforce who donors believe they are, not just the organization’s impact.
Brady is a writer and editor who lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He spent a decade serving local, national, and global nonprofit organizations before joining the Biden-Harris White House correspondence team. Brady has raised millions of dollars for nonprofit organizations and cares deeply for teams that are raising funds to transform the world.