Two major benchmark studies dropped this week — the M+R Benchmarks Study and the Virtuous Nonprofit Benchmarks Report — and both tell the same story: monthly giving is claiming a growing share of nonprofit revenue. M+R puts it at 27% of online revenue; Virtuous at 21% of all revenue. 

Sustainable recurring giving is growth is real, and it's why the question I get often keeps coming up.

How do you get donors to actually make the leap to becoming sustainers?

It's a fair question. Giving a recurring gift is a different kind of decision than a one-time donation. It requires trust, clarity, and a reason to commit.

One of the most effective — and underutilized — tools in your toolkit is the incentive.

If you're a fan of golf, you probably watched this past week as Rory McIlroy won his second consecutive Masters – a feat that hasn't been accomplished in over two decades. What made the win especially remarkable was his Saturday. Rory had a rough third round, and some counted him out heading into Sunday. But he rallied, shot a stunning final round, and claimed the green jacket once again.

What I find most interesting is how he did it. But we'll get to that in a moment.

In honor of the Masters, let's look at two lessons that you and I can learn from the world of golf to apply to our leadership today.

With Tax Day in the U.S. approaching, I have a confession to make.

I've been preparing and paying my taxes for more than 20 years, and I still don't get it. I've started or helped run three different companies, served on nonprofit boards, reviewed returns, and read more IRS form 990s than I care to admit.

On my best day, it seems like it's starting to make sense. On my worst, I have no clue what all of the jargon means, and I'm hopelessly confused.

And yet our tax system in the United States has a demonstrable influence on charitable giving. While it's true that our nation has a convoluted tax system, various incentives have generally encouraged generosity throughout our history.

I've been thinking a lot about the power of moments lately.

Maybe it's because, as you read this, our family is at Disneyland. Our youngest daughter's band was invited to do a recording session at the Disney studio — something I didn’t even know existed until recently. 

It’s one of those opportunities that, as a parent, you don't let pass by. So we packed up the family and are going all in on making it a memorable moment. (And yes, I'm incredibly proud of her.)

Being intentional about creating moments for the people I love is one of the most important things I've learned as a leader, a parent, and a human. And one of the most surprising things I keep coming back to is this:

The most powerful moments don't come from making good things better. They come from taking the worst moments — the painful ones, the broken ones, the ones that make people wince — and flipping them into something extraordinary.

I published a version of today's article three years ago in April. 

This week, we hosted a Sustainable Giving Summit for a client. It's one of my favorite days. In that room, we were reminded of the importance of this lesson: If we want to keep getting the same results, we should keep doing what we're doing. 

But if we want different results — if we're stuck, especially in areas where change is hard — we have to be willing to see differently.

I write today's Wave Report with a sense of gratitude.

I'm grateful for you. You keep showing up. You forward these articles to friends and colleagues. You trust me with a few minutes of your attention, and that is not something I hold lightly. The readership of the Wave Report has grown 15X since that original article. I've shown up week after week, and so have you. I'm thankful.

Which brings me to why I'm revisiting one of my earliest Wave Reports today.

I need the reminder. When times are hard, or results are down, or change is not happening and I'm frustrated, one of the first questions I have to ask is: am I following the conventional path? Am I doing the same thing we've always done and expecting different results?

Helping clients challenge assumptions is at the center of what we do. But I need this reminder as much as anyone. So here it is — with one update I think you'll find striking.

Last week, I was talking with a senior leader at a nonprofit about their upcoming fundraising gala.

At one point, he paused… and kind of nervously laughed.

I know just what he was thinking and feeling. How are we going to make this better than last year? Will people show up? Will we hit our goal? 

The pressure.

The expectations.

The quiet question every team asks but rarely says out loud:

Is this even worth it?

💡 What if your next fundraising event didn’t just raise money for one night… but built generosity that lasts for years?

Finance may not be exciting – but it is essential…. 

Budgeting. 

Cash flow. 

Income statements.

Finance is the infrastructure that every organization runs on, and when that infrastructure is designed well, everything else can grow.

In January, one of the “Waves to Ride” I identified for 2026 was the rise of Donor-Advised Funds, or DAFs, as they are more commonly referred to:

Donor-Advised Funds have been growing at an accelerating pace for more than a decade. In 2024, contributions to DAFs exceeded $89 billion, total assets surpassed $326 billion, and grants from DAFs to charities reached an all-time high of $65 billion—more than double what donors were granting just six years earlier (per the DAF Research Collaborative). – Waves to Ride in 2026

The beauty of a Donor-Advised Fund is that the dollars are pre-committed by donors and cannot be used for any other purpose than distributions to charities.

There are nearly 3.6 million donor-directed DAFs out there, representing $326 billion ready to be given, with $65+ billion given annually. 

When I was early in my career, I took an assessment that promised to help identify my strengths, motivations, and interests. As a fan of most assessments like this, I wondered what it would say – what core part of my make-up it might illuminate to help me better understand myself.

As I flipped through the report, my attention was naturally drawn towards a section labeled “interests.” Intrigued, I read on.

My top interests, according to the report, were:

• Literary – appreciation for language (92%) 

• Administrative – systems, order, and reliability (88%)

• Artistic – creation, appreciation for arts, aesthetics (78%)

• Numerical - working with numbers and data (72%)

Those all made sense. As I looked down the list to the very bottom of my apparent “interests,” I had a chuckle.

• Outdoor - work in an outdoor environment (5%)

Ouch! 

“I can do it myself – how hard can it be?”

Picture this… It’s a beautiful summer Sunday in July.

The sun is out. The windows are open. It’s one of those rare Pacific Northwest days where you feel like you should be outside soaking in nature.

Instead, I hear it.

That faint but persistent sound of a toilet running.

No big deal, right?

I lift the lid. The flapper isn’t sealing. Simple fix. Ten bucks and 20 minutes at most. I’ve watched enough YouTube to be dangerous.

Can you remember a time when you had to bring your A-game?

I can.

Early in my high school basketball career, we played one of the weakest teams in our league. We came in confident. Too confident.

We played sloppy. Turnovers. Bad shots. Lazy defense. We won, but we had clearly played down to our competition. It felt terrible.

A few weeks later, we faced our rival, a team we knew was better than us. If we were going to compete, we would have to bring our absolute best. And we did.

We were focused. Determined. Locked in. We played at a completely different level. In the end, we still lost — but we walked off the court proud, because we knew we had played up.

Can you relate? 

An opportunity just beyond your comfort zone. A moment that stretched you. A project that demanded more than you thought you had.

That’s the thing about growth – it requires playing up.

The Rise of Sustainable Giving was delayed three times. Took three years to research and write. And it was a longer road than I could have imagined. 

But this past year, more than 25,000 leaders have been exposed to the message of Sustainable Giving, through the book, the Sustainable Giving Podcast, workshops, Wave Report articles, and speaking at events. 

Fundraisers, charity leaders, board members, and donors who care about growing generosity have hope for a more sustainable way of funding their mission

This past week, 22 organizations gathered just outside Seattle for our 2.5-day Sustainable Giving Workshop. It was a time of connection, insights, and inspiration, and some 33 leaders walked away equipped to grow sustainable giving. 

One of the most essential skills in life and in leadership is pattern recognition. To be able to see connections between things. 

Patterns help us make sense of the world. Patterns help us see, understand, and seize opportunities. 

Without further ado, here are six waves I see building momentum in 2026 that I think you can ride to create growth for you and your organization.

Does it feel like January is already off to the races? 

I don’t know about you, but by the end of last week, the holidays felt like a distant memory.

In the midst of a fast start, I truly believe that 2026 will be a pivotal year for many organizations. This will be the year they embrace a sustainer-first mindset and truly tap into sustainable giving in a substantial way. For others, 2026 will be the year they accelerate on a strong base of sustainable recurring giving. 

Whether your organization is looking to tap into growing recurring giving this year or whether you have a solid base and want to accelerate growth, today’s Wave Report is for you.

Let’s start with making the message of sustainable giving more accessible – in audio form. 

January 1 has a way of sneaking up on nonprofit leaders.

At 12:01 a.m., the calendar flips – and with it, the emotional math resets. No matter how strong December was, no matter how hard your team pushed, many leaders wake up on January 1 with the same familiar feeling: Here we go again.

Back at zero.
Back at the bottom of the mountain.
Back to asking how we’re going to do it all over again this year.

For decades, we’ve accepted this as normal. We’ve planned around it, budgeted for it, even joked about it. January 1 became the worst day of the year not because leaders lack vision or discipline – but because the system we inherited was never designed to carry momentum forward.

But what if January 1 doesn’t have to feel this way?

Happy New Year. 

I hope you had a blessed holiday season and that in this time you’ve found pockets of peace, rest, and reflection.

Today’s Wave Report is a short one. I want to leave you to consider just one question.

What’s your Imago?

We love watching Christmas movies. Christmas is such a busy season that we don’t get to watch very many, so we take turns picking the movie. Often, the pick is a Christmas classic - Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch (no Die Hard, sorry not sorry).

But one of our new favorites is Journey to Bethlehem. Release in 2023, the sometimes-cheesy film is a musical retelling of the story of the first Christmas (think of it as Wicked but for Christmas 😉). The soundtrack is a standout (here’s the Spotify playlist, including songs such as Can We Make this Work, Mother to a Savior and King, and We Become We).

As we watched the film this week, I was struck by the foresight that the magi must have had as they traveled from the east to find this king to be born in Bethlehem.

I think there are several lessons we can learn from both the wise men and shepherds in the Christmas story on innovation and seeing coming waves of change.

Happy Friday. As you shift into holiday mode, I want to send a short Wave Report about what we can learn from waves, Christmas, and the spirit of aloha. 🌊🎄🤙

I wrote earlier this year about our family’s experience attending a sold-out Savannah Bananas exhibition baseball game at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. 47,000 fans filled the stands – one of two straight sold-out nights in Seattle. It’s pretty incredible for what is essentially a minor league exhibition team.

But the Bananas are so much more.