Donor Causes
Donors can choose different ways to improve lives and make change — by giving for direct services, supporting research, backing grassroots organizing, and more. This series of briefs explore these important choices. Each brief explains key considerations for donors, provides examples of the strategy in action, and offers easy-to-follow advice.
Arts & Culture
Arts Education
Donors can make a difference in arts education and community arts, an important area of philanthropy that remains underfunded.
Dance
Giving for dance organizations is modest compared with other performing arts such as music and theater. Here’s how conors can help close the gap.
Film
Film, including documentaries, can be a powerful vehicle for education and social change. But donors need to do their homework to give effectively in this space.
Music
The main beneficiaries of music philanthropy tend to be opera companies and orchestras in big cities. But donors have many other choices for how to support music.
Theater
With theaters still struggling to recover from the pandemic, donors have a range of ways to help support this underfunded area of the performing arts.
Visual Arts
Donors can go in different directions when it comes to supporting the visual arts, including giving to museums, arts nonprofits, and individual artists.
Writing and Literature
Writing can resonate with diverse and wide-ranging audiences. But this area tends to be chronically underfunded giving donors a chance to make an impact.
Civic
Democracy and Civic Life
American democracy is facing both growing systemic challenges and unprecedented direct assaults. Philanthropy is playing an important role in responding.
Immigrants and Refugees
Philanthropic giving for immigrants and refugees addresses a number of areas, including direct assistance services and policy advocacy.
Jewish Life and Culture
Giving for Jewish life and culture is evolving, presenting donors with a growing array of options for philanthropy that’s aligned with their values.
Journalism and Media
As the business model for journalism has collapsed, nonprofits have stepped forward with a great array of initiatives that donors can support.
Economic
Housing & Homelessness
Homelessness and unaffordable housing can feel like intractable issues. But donors have good options to give with impact here.
Poverty and Opportunity
Donors can support an array of strategies aimed at reducing poverty, including new approaches to boost household income and growing movements for equity.
Regulating Wall Street
Regulating Wall Street and curbing corporate power is a key to economic equity. Philanthropists are supporting such work in a number of ways.
Worker Rights
As a new labor movement gains steam, more philanthropists are getting involved with this cause — which is essential to expanding opportunity and incomes.
Workforce Development
Upskilling workers can boost their earnings and mobility. Donors can support such efforts in different ways, such as backing community colleges and apprenticeships.
Education
Donor Insights for College Completion
First-generation and low-income students face particular challenges in completing college. Donors can help by supporting a range of initiatives.
Donor Insights for Early Childhood Education
A growing number of donors are being drawn to ECE, as research points to the effectiveness of resourcing children’s early education and development.
Donor Insights for K-12 Education
Education is a popular cause for donors and has long been a focus of philanthropy. But this can also be a complicated area, given the many choices for driving impact.
Donor Insights for Scholarships
There’s a reason that so many philanthropists like scholarships — because they’re a direct and tangible way to increase access to higher education.
Environment
Donor Insights for Animals and Wildlife
Nonprofit work in this area is growing, offering donors a range of options for making an impact on the welfare of animals and wildlife.
Donor Insights for Climate Change
For donors of all sizes, there are abundant opportunities to give for advocacy, grassroots movements, and research focused on climate change.
Donor Insights for Environmental Conservation
Giving for environmental conservation is on the rise, and there are ample opportunities for funders to get involved.
Donor Insights for Food and Sustainable Agriculture
As nonprofit work on sustainable agriculture and the transformation of food systems grows, donors have ways to get involved.
Donor Insights for Oceans and Freshwater
The rising threats facing oceans and river systems have sparked a wave of new nonprofit activity, giving donors many ways to get involved.
Global
Donor Insights for Global Development
Government funding is the main source of funding for development, but the role of private philanthropy is both growing and changing.
Donor Insights for Global Health
Donors can help save and improve lives by giving for global health. But this can be a highly technical area and it’s essential to connect with the right resources.
Donor Insights for Human Rights
With human rights under growing attack, donors can make a difference by supporting a range of strategies and effective nonprofits around the world.
Donor Insights for Humanitarian Assistance
Helping people struggling with natural and man-made calamities is one of the most direct ways donors at all levels can help relieve human suffering.
Donor Insights for Peace and Security
Donors can support organizations working to prevent, resolve, or mitigate conflicts, as well as recovery and rebuilding efforts.
Health & Science
Donor Insights for Hospitals
Giving for hospitals is popular among many donors — from supporting cutting-edge research to improving care in underserved communities.
Donor Insights for Medical Research
Government and corporate grantmakers tend to be risk-averse, but private donors have good options for backing innovative medical research.
Donor Insights for Mental Health
Philanthropy has long neglected mental health issues. But that’s been changing and there’s a growing array of nonprofits that donors can support.
Donor Insights for Science
Scientists in areas like physics, cosmology, and mathematics badly need philanthropic support. But donors in this space need to do their homework to give effectively.
Public Health
Philanthropy has a major role to play in improving public health and reducing health inequities. Donors can choose different entry points for getting involved.
STEM Education
While funding science, technology, engineering, and math education is popular with corporations and foundations, smaller donors also have good options for impact.
Substance Use Disorder
With many big foundations avoiding the problem of substance abuse, individual donors and family-run foundations have an important role to play in this area.
Social Justice
Criminal Justice Reform
Giving for criminal justice and police reform encompasses an array of issues and strategies. Donors have many choices to find the right fit for giving effectively.
Gun Violence
While gun safety measures are frequently blocked at the federal level, donors have more ways to support new and innovative work to reduce the toll of gun violence.
LGBTQ+
Philanthropy has played an essential role in advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people and donors have a rich menu of choices in this area.
Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice
In the face of attacks on reproductive care and rights, nonprofits in this space are urgently seeking new donors.
Violence Prevention
It’s an exciting time to be involved in giving for anti-violence work, with many nonprofit organizations offering a reimagined vision of how to make progress in this area.
Women and Girls
While gender equity is a big area, donors can find their way to impact by focusing on specific niches and strategies, as well as connecting to funding networks.
