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What If One Foundation Investment Could Transform the Revenue Trajectory of 50 Nonprofits?

A new report dropped in January 2026 should make us all take pause. According to the Center for Effective Philanthropy, nearly 90% of foundation leaders reported an increase in demand for funding from nonprofit grantees in 2025. 30% increased their payout rate more than planned as a result.

And on the other side of that equation: over 60% of nonprofit leaders stated that the current context poses moderate to significant risk to their ability to continue to operate.

These numbers tell a story that goes beyond funding gaps and budget cuts.

They tell a story about a sector that is structurally dependent on external funding in a moment when that funding is under threat – and what it would mean to change that.

I’m not a grantmaker. I’m a monthly giving strategist. 

But I believe the most forward-thinking thing a foundation can do right now isn’t just to give more grants. It’s to help the organizations they fund become less dependent on them.

And I built a tool specifically for that.

The Real Problem Isn’t a Lack of Generosity

Now, don’t get me wrong, foundations are stepping up.

 GEO’s 2025 National Study of Philanthropic Practice found that 87% of grantmakers now provide multiyear funding – up from 79% in 2014. 77% offer at least some general operating support. 40% increased unrestricted giving in 2025.

That’s real, meaningful progress. And it still isn’t enough to address the underlying structural challenge.

The uncomfortable reality is this: more grants solve a cash flow problem. They don’t solve a revenue model problem. And most small nonprofits – the ones doing the hardest work in the hardest places – have a revenue model problem.

They are almost entirely dependent on grants, events, and year-end giving. 

None of those revenue streams are predictable. 

None of them compound. And all of them require starting over every single year.

Monthly giving changes that equation entirely. And it’s what almost no one in the sector is adequately resourced to build.

What ‘Capacity Building’ Actually Needs to Look Like Right Now

The CEP report found that half of nonprofit leaders want foundations to help them build skills, cultivate relationships, and acquire resources to respond to the current context. Only 40% of foundation leaders identified capacity building as the best support to provide.

That gap matters. 

Because the nonprofit leaders closest to the work are telling us something clearly: they don’t just need money. They need tools to generate their own.

This is exactly why one of my Monthly Giving Mastermind Alumni, Mark Thompson, received a $10,000 grant from the Big Nova Foundation to pay for my mastermind training. So he could learn the fundamentals about monthly giving, including how to name a program, build touchpoints for donors, and publicize it. After The Picnic Project rolled out its program, The Plenty, in less than a year, it has nearly quadrupled in size, with 53 recurring donors who account for nearly 20 percent of its annual budget!!

This full story and others are featured in this Chronicle of Philanthropy piece about nonprofit sustainable funding.

Monthly giving is the most scalable, highest-retention, lowest-cost revenue stream available to nonprofits. The average monthly donor retains at 80-90%, compared to 43% for one-time donors. A sustainer program doesn’t require relaunching every year. It compounds.

But building one requires a framework, a system, and intentional education – exactly the kind of capacity investment that foundations are uniquely positioned to fund.

Introducing the Monthly Giving Builder

I created the Monthly Giving Builder as the tool I wish every small nonprofit had access to from day one.

It’s an AI-powered platform built on my 5-step framework for building, growing, and sustaining a monthly giving program – the same framework I developed over years of working directly with nonprofits and distilled in my book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind.

The Builder walks organizations through every step: naming their program, building their landing page, writing their first appeal, building their stewardship sequences, and tracking the five metrics that determine program health. It’s self-paced, practical, and designed for Executive Directors who are already doing the work of five people.

And it’s now available as a multi-year, multi-organization license for foundations.

How the Foundation Partnership Model Works

We’re partnering with community foundations, family foundations, and philanthropic intermediaries on multi-year licenses for 50-100+ grantee or local organizations. Instead of one grant to one organization, a foundation can activate monthly giving capacity across its entire portfolio simultaneously.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• The foundation purchases a license covering 50+ organizations for 1, 2, or 3 years
• Each grantee organization receives full access to the Monthly Giving Builder – the complete framework, AI-powered tools, templates, and guided exercises
• The foundation gets a clear dashboard showing how each organization is progressing through the framework, their monthly giving metrics, and their ROI over time
• Organizations build permanent capacity – a recurring revenue stream that doesn’t disappear when the grant cycle ends

This isn’t a one-time training or a workshop. It’s a living tool that organizations use every day to manage, grow, and steward their sustainer programs.

The Math That Foundations Need to See

Let’s talk about return on investment. 

Even under the most conservative assumptions:

• 50 organizations
• 20 new monthly donors per org in year one
• $25 average gift, no year-over-year donor growth
• 85% retention

 The math looks like this:

• Under a conservative scenario with zero growth in new donors after year one, the 50 org portfolio generates $771,750 in reliable, recurring revenue across 3 years.

With modest, ongoing donor growth:

• Just 10 new sustainers per org per year in years 2 and 3 – the same investment generates nearly $1.2 million in predictable revenue.

And that revenue doesn’t disappear when the license ends. 

Those sustainers continue giving. 

That retention compounds. 

The organizations you funded to build this capacity now have a revenue stream that outlasts any single grant.

What Foundations Can See and Track

One of the most common challenges in capacity-building investments is measuring impact. Foundations fund workshops and trainings and then have little visibility into whether anything actually changed.

The Monthly Giving Builder changes that.

Through our foundation dashboard, you get a clear picture of:

• Which organizations are actively using the Builder and how far they’ve progressed through the framework
• Portfolio-level growth across all grantees over time
• ROI data you can report back to your own board and stakeholders with confidence

This isn’t just good stewardship. It’s the kind of measurable, mission-aligned impact reporting that modern philanthropic practice demands.

This Is What Bold Looks Like Right Now

The CEP report found that nearly 70% of foundation leaders perceived their foundations as willing to take risks – but only 29% of nonprofit leaders shared that perception.

That gap is where the real work is.

Taking a risk right now doesn’t mean funding controversy. 

It means investing in something structurally different than another grant cycle – something that builds the permanent revenue infrastructure nonprofits have been asking for.

Monthly giving is not a new idea. 

But making it systematically accessible to every organization in a foundation’s portfolio is. 

That’s what we’re doing with the Monthly Giving Builder.

The organizations you fund are asking for tools to survive and lead through uncertainty. 

A monthly giving program gives them exactly that. And a foundation that invests in building that capacity across its entire portfolio isn’t just giving grants – it’s changing the revenue trajectory of the entire communities it serves.

That’s the kind of bold I’m inviting you into.

Interested in a foundation partnership? I’d love to talk through what a multi-year license could look like for your grantee portfolio. Reach out directly to kat@positiveequation.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dana Snyder

Dana Snyder is the founder of Positive Equation, creator of the Monthly Giving Builder, a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, and the author of The Monthly Giving Mastermind: A Framework to Build, Grow & Sustain Subscriptions for Good. She is also the host of the global nonprofit podcast Missions to Movements, and host of the Monthly Giving Summit, a worldwide event for nonprofit professionals focused on building stronger recurring revenue programs.