Top Nonprofit Trends to Know and Follow in 2025

Current trends also bring challenges you must overcome to rise above the fold and become more visible among donors, volunteers, and the community. Below, we break down 2025 nonprofit trends to help you identify and plan for your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

2025 nonprofit industry trends

The nonprofit industry is changing fast, and here are the trends dictating the state of the nonprofit industry in 2025. 

1. Donor-centric management

Nonprofit organizations are increasingly adopting donor-centric fundraising and management. This approach involves raising money by focusing on the donors and your relationship with them instead of simply raising funds. 

Donor-centric management drives sustainable nonprofit donations because it allows donors to see the impact of their operations. It increases donations, boosts donor retention rates, and enhances the nonprofit’s reputation. 

There are several ways you can adopt donor-centric fundraising and management, like:

• Sending prompt and meaningful acknowledgment every time you receive a gift
• Assigning each gift to a specific program or activity
• Providing detailed measurable reports before asking for more donations
• Managing donations transparently and responsibly
• Clarifying what donors can expect in return for their donations
• Engaging donors in a personalized manner that reflects their preferences, interests, and motivations

2. Social fundraising

Social fundraising is an affordable way of raising funds that leverages your community to increase your reach and solicit contributions. It involves using social media platforms to raise awareness and funds for non-profits.

You need online donation forms for nonprofits that your organization’s supporters can use to ask their audiences for support. Peer-to-peer fundraising allows access to a broader donor and volunteer base with a personal connection and affinity to your cause. 

It also gives donors a feeling and a sense of community when your supporter’s friends, acquaintances, and family members join the course. This may improve donor retention rates and help build stronger relationships. 

3. Use of AI for fundraising

Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken every industry, including the nonprofit sector, by storm. Nonprofits are using AI tools to complete repetitive fundraising tasks, such as:

• Donor journey mapping to optimize your organization’s fundraising efforts
• Predictive analysis to identify future donor behaviors, giving patterns and trends
• Content generation for social media posts, research papers, and grant applications
• Business simulation to help you understand the factors that affect fundraising performance
• Prospect identification and development to create more targeted fundraising opportunities

Using chatbots on your site boosts your nonprofit’s reputation by providing donors, supporters, and volunteers with reliable communications. Chatbots are available 24/7 to answer donor questions and direct them to relevant information on your organization and fundraising tactics. 

4. Workforce challenges

According to a survey by the National Council of Nonprofits, 74.6% of nonprofit organizations have job vacancies, and a majority (74%) of the vacancies are in public-facing positions. 

The nonprofit industry is riddled with ongoing labor shortages due to limited financial resources, increased talent competition, and burnout among employees and volunteers. Nonprofits also struggle with high turnover rates because they cannot pay competitive salaries.

With inadequate staffing, your nonprofit organization risks service delays, decreased morale, and reputational damage. Even with limited cash flows, nonprofits can attract and retain staff by:

• Organizing upskilling events
• Providing workplace flexibility with remote work options
• Promoting a positive organizational culture
• Increasing professional development opportunities

Nonprofit marketing trends

Digital marketing is the biggest nonprofit marketing trend in 2025 because the Internet is a prime place to find donors. It has many advantages for nonprofits. Most importantly, it can save significant costs associated with traditional marketing.

The following top digital marketing strategies work great for nonprofits in 2025 and beyond:  

6. Increased use of social media

With social fundraising, social media marketing is an effective way of reaching out to donors and volunteers. Social media drives engagement, following, and shares to boost your online visibility and attract more donations. 

One of the most effective uses of social media for nonprofits is sharing heartwarming stories to raise awareness about your organization and inspire people to donate to your cause. Here are other ways nonprofits should leverage social media:

• Acknowledge donors publicly by sharing accurate donation data from collections to impact
• Encourage followers to leave feedback and reviews
• Communicate your goals to encourage action
• Announce events and fundraisers and drive sign-ups

7. Optimize your website for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears in front of people interested in your cause. SEO improves your website’s user experience by helping them and search engines understand your website and offerings better. 

An SEO strategy for your nonprofit organization should include the following:

• Targeting high-intent keywords that include your brand name and geographical location
• Creating a data-backed and donor-centric content marketing strategy
• Securing backlinks from other websites to rank better and drive traffic to your website
• Restrategizing and adjusting your SEO strategy every so often

In a time when AI is shaking things up in every industry, OmniSEOTM is a great option for your nonprofit. It’s the process of optimizing your website for different search engines, including traditional search engines like Google and Bing, social media search engines like YouTube and TikTok, and AI search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT. 

8. PPC advertisements

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is a great marketing strategy for nonprofit organizations because it drives immediate results and allows high-level targeting. With PPC, you can target your campaigns to specific audience demographics, keywords, and locations.

They work with limited budgets because you can set a daily maximum spend and only pay for ad clicks, allowing you to effectively manage your nonprofit marketing budget. You can efficiently measure and track your PPC results to adjust your strategy and improve your campaign performance. 

One of the best ways to leverage PPC for nonprofits is by applying for PPC ad grants and discounts on platforms like Google and Facebook. These grants help you save money and enjoy all the benefits of paid ads. 

For instance, with Google Ads grants, you can access up to $10,000 per month to purchase ads on Google. You can enjoy free advertising on the most popular search engine to get instant marketing results and an opportunity to refine and expand your nonprofit’s influence. 

Increase your nonprofit donations with WebFX digital marketing strategies

While you focus on adjusting your operations to keep up with the state of the nonprofit industry, we can ensure your marketing aligns with the industry’s marketing best practices. WebFX is a top nonprofit digital marketing agency with 12,950+ hours of marketing experience spent helping nonprofits grow their revenue.

We have 55+ nonprofit industry experts who are well-versed in different digital marketing strategies that increase donors. Our digital marketing experts can help you choose the best strategy for your nonprofit, create custom campaigns that inspire action, and manage your marketing budget. 

Request a proposal today to help donors and volunteers find your nonprofit online, or call us at 888-601-5359 to discuss your inbound marketing strategy with one of our experts. 

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