At Brand Federation, we talk a lot about innovation. This concept feels like it needs to be radical to make a difference, but sometimes, the most modest of changes can be an innovation that revolutionizes how an organization runs.
This word carries a lot of weight and means different things to different people. In terms of nonprofits, innovation is needed to survive in these times of economic uncertainty. It means doing more with less, or being more focused and centered on a sliver of your operations that may yield the most results long term. Most nonprofit donors don’t resist innovation—they just need proof before they leap to follow a nonprofit down the new path.
Across Voices for Good interviewees, the pattern is clear: trust precedes experimentation. Donors overwhelmingly (83%) prefer to fund what’s proven, yet more than a quarter are willing to support innovation if they can see evidence, transparency, and guardrails. In other words, they’re not anti-risk—they’re anti-opacity.
Nonprofits that reframe innovation as a safe bet can win donor confidence and dollars. When organizations make learning visible—publishing pilot data, defining success thresholds, and emphasizing mission continuity—donors treat innovation as stewardship, not speculation. The creative challenge is to package progress as proof and make experimentation feel credible, not costly.
Organizations, whether for profit or not, must innovate to survive. But, innovation that’s not grounded in proof and results leads to hesitation for your constituents. Donors see themselves as caretakers of impact, not gamblers. They need explicit outcomes with clear, transparent reporting. Only 7% of Voices for Good respondents said they were willing to fund innovation without this.
Reduce the risk of innovation by framing it as a next step in your organization’s evolution. Provide clear metrics, milestones, and ongoing validation that the change your organization is embarking on is worth investing in. As we’ve said, when you’re building and fostering trust first and foremost, your donors are more likely to follow and support you in your journey.
You’ve spent a lot of time and energy fostering a connection with your donor base. Don’t lose them as you continue to grow your organization. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
Donors aren’t risk-averse—they’re evidence-hungry. They back innovation when it feels accountable, learnable, and mission-true. When creative storytelling meets operational transparency, even the most cautious donors start to see innovation not as a gamble—but as progress they can proudly fund.
Voices for Good, Brand Federation’s inaugural index that benchmarks donor behaviors and motivators, has uncovered a wealth of insights that create a picture of today’s nonprofit donor. Generated from the insights of over 500 nonprofit donors from around the country, Voices for Good provides nonprofit leaders and executives with proven findings and tangible action items for navigating the economic uncertainty of today, ensuring that donor relations and expectations aren’t just met, but exceeded.
Brand Federation fielded 512 in‑depth, semi‑structured interviews on EmpathixAI’s CultureChat
platform. Built and overseen by PhD‑trained social scientists, CultureChat conducted large‑N qualitative interviews using a 17‑question guide that blended open‑ and closed‑ended prompts. Interviews totaled 213 hours of conversation. Transcripts were systematically coded and cataloged, combining expert-designed code frames with model-assisted classification to generate structured aggregates and prevalence estimates, which were reported in the Voices for Good Report. This approach preserves qualitative richness (what donors say and why) while enabling statistically defensible summaries across key demographics (e.g., gender, age, income, education, and religion/denomination).
Rian Chandler-Dovis is an accomplished researcher and brand strategist with two decades of experience helping organizations define what they stand for and deliver meaningful experiences. She has developed strategies for some of the world’s best-known brands, including MIT, Harvard Medical School, GM, American Express, Mercy Corps, Samsung, PepsiCo, the World Wildlife Fund, AB InBev, and Colgate.
