Philanthropy is about more than just giving money. “A philanthropist is anyone who gives of their time, talent or treasure to make positive change happen for humanity regardless of their wealth or status,” according to the National Philanthropic Trust.
Art Taylor, president and CEO of the nearly 30,000-member Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), expands that definition even further. “There are different ways that people get to being philanthropic, but I would say, ultimately, it boils down to: You give because you’re loving, in some way, humankind.”
You can give items from your closet to nonprofit gift shops like Goodwill or the Salvation Army, he notes, or you can give food or donate time, for example. But donating isn’t the only way to be philanthropic. “There are all sorts of ways of showing our humanity and that we care about people, and it’s not always giving away money or things. Sometimes [it’s] just showing up and showing our care about the situation that people are in.
“I think that seeing a person and smiling at them is also a form of philanthropy, believe it or not. It’s an expression, maybe of goodwill that you have toward that particular individual.” He adds other examples, like offering comforting counsel to a struggling colleague or showing support to a grieving neighbor.
His advice? “Practice doing something every day that would elevate or make the lives of someone else a little bit easier. And I guarantee you that you’ll feel better in the process.... It’s empowering to give away whatever you have—your time, money, your talent, whatever it is. It’s very empowering. And it gives us, I think, a... good feeling and warm glow.”
If you’re thinking of getting into philanthropy, Taylor says, “Don’t wait. Don’t feel like you need to wait until you have a certain amount of money or a certain amount of impact that you’re trying to create. Give now. There’s something that you have to offer; give it now and watch your blessings also multiply.”
How Do Nonprofits Find Major Donors?
Traditionally, when people talk about philanthropy, they have major donors in mind. Well-known are Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the Gates Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and MacKenzie Scott’s multibillion-dollar donations. Other top philanthropists in the U.S. are also familiar names, such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Dell and Phil Knight.
These philanthropists are what are known as “megadonors.” Taylor insists that even if your organization doesn’t have access to these major givers (and most do not), “There are others who can afford to give away a million dollars a year. They’re not billionaires; they’re just in a position to give away a significant amount of money.... [people] who’ve done well in our society and who believe they can give back. And there are many more of them than there are the Bezos and the Bloombergs.”
Sometimes these people are looking to donate and hire advisers to help them find the right organizations. More common, according to Taylor, is prospecting—fundraisers approaching specific individuals based on their history of giving. “It’s a critical aspect to philanthropic engagement, because most people give because someone asked, so if there’s no ask, there’s not likely to be a whole lot of philanthropy.”
It helps if the organization has a connection to the donor or can, through research, find a pathway to connect with that person or foundation. “Then they will have, hopefully, a chance to make a pitch after building a fairly long and sustained relationship... Major gifts don’t usually happen out of the blue, right? They’re the result of a long cultivation effort.”
For broader outreach efforts, there are “list brokers” who manage databases of potential donors, and websites like Candid, which help identify foundations and offices of families that give away substantial sums. To money, reach more potential donors, especially those interested in making smaller contributions, organizations often use direct mail, which Taylor calls “a very effective way of generating large amounts of small donations.”
Why Is Charitable Giving Declining?
Small donations are essential, especially in the absence of access to megadonors. Taylor cites a series of factors contributing to declines in everyday charitable giving, from fewer in-house corporate or government-driven fundraising campaigns to a decrease in religious-organization giving due to declines in church attendance. “You can begin to see that these engines that used to aggregate large amounts of small donations are a fraction of what they used to be,” Taylor says.
Generational changes are also being seen, with millennials and younger people graduating with more debt and a more expensive housing market. “They’re not really thinking about giving right now. They don’t know that any amount of money makes a difference, but they’re feeling like they don’t have it to give right now,” Taylor notes.
We may increasingly be relying on the megadonors to fill the gap that everyday charitable giving and government support used to fill. “The loss of government funding for many nonprofit organizations could put a lot more pressure on them to do philanthropy, but they’ll probably try to reach major donors—people who have millions and hundreds of millions of dollars to give away, which is in some ways a good thing,” Taylor says.
Are Megadonors Taking Over Philanthropy?
“Thankfully, there are people who have the capacity to make those gifts, but I think from a societal standpoint, it’s also a bit concerning,” Taylor says. “I don’t believe we want one class of people controlling all of the philanthropy in our society. I think we want to make sure that fundraising is broad-based enough so that an organization has the freedom to operate its programs in a way that it deems will be most helpful to society or to best achieve its mission and not be so influenced by either institutional donors or large donors who may have their own points of view about how that organization should operate.”
In other words, it’s better for all if we all support each other, allowing nonprofits to do their best work, allowing individuals to benefit personally and allowing democratic society to function most smoothly. “There is a connection between people who donate and people who volunteer,” Taylor says. “There’s also the connection between people who donate and people who vote and participate in civil society. And so, the more people we can get donating money or volunteering, the more likely we’re going to see participation also in our civil society.”
And that’s good for everyone.
Featured image courtesy of Seventyfour/Shutterstock
This article was first published in the November 2025 issue of SUCCESS+ digital edition. Get your FREE copy here.
