Visionary Voices

Only 1 in 10 established nonprofits reports an endowment. The other 90% fund the future one year at a time. New Form 990 data from 990 Scout shows which sectors are building permanent funding, which are falling behind, and why the organizations communities lean on most are among the least likely to have one. The median endowment is $1.45 million. That isn’t Harvard money. So what’s stopping yours? See how your sector compares.

Some of America’s richest people just found a new way to give, and it skips nonprofits entirely. Michael and Susan Dell, Elon Musk and Ray Dalio are putting money straight into children’s Trump Accounts, invested and growing until age 18. No grant application. No gala. No nonprofit. The reason is growing cynicism about whether charities are built to last. Your Form 990 answers that question publicly, whether you like it or not. Here’s what the billionaires’ new giving model reveals about reserves, endowments, gifts of stock and the great wealth transfer… and what your organization should do about it this week.

We’ve heard every one of these. At conferences, in webinars, over the phone, and from members of the public who found their organization on our

2026 is the first year for several major changes to the charitable deduction, and the rules are different from last year’s. Non-itemizers can now deduct cash gifts, itemizers face a new 0.5% floor, and top-bracket donors see a 35% cap. Here are the year-end deadlines for every gift type, from stock and wires to QCDs and donor-advised funds, plus the planning moves that matter most before December 31. Miss a deadline, and you may miss a deduction for 2026.