Fundraising conference helps to instill confidence despite federal funding challenges

More than 900 attendees gathered at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Thursday and Friday for the third annual San Diego Fundraising Conference.

The attendees represented more than 450 nonprofit organizations, just a slice of the county’s 13,172 total nonprofits.

The conference, organized by the community nonprofit San Diego Foundation, also welcomed 56 guest speakers from across the nation and hosted dozens of individualized sessions and discussions. 

This year, the conference focused on navigating a so-called “triple whammy” of challenges that San Diego County’s nonprofit sector is experiencing. Service needs are increasing while resources shrink due to funding cuts by the new federal administration. And those cuts have come along with varying levels of criticism, too, particularly for groups that serve immigrant or LGBTQ communities.

President and CEO of the San Diego Foundation, Mark Stuart, hopes that the conference will provide nonprofit leaders with the tools to strengthen their repeat donor relationships.

“My hope is, that a lot of what we’re doing with our nonprofit organizations here is helping them [to] get a focus on what does it cost them to bring in a new donor, but then how do they provide that care, that engagement and opportunities to bring them deeper into the organization, so they become a multi-year donor and get much more involved in the organization,” Stuart said.

According to Stuart, while philanthropy only accounts for about a quarter of a nonprofit’s revenue, it has remained a reliable source that continues to grow.  

“If you get really, really good at philanthropy as a revenue stream, it’s one you can depend on year after year after year, and the more you get someone involved, the more they feel like giving,” Stuart said. “And it’s not only their annual gifts, but how they volunteer, how they advocate for an organization … And so, you can have donors with you for a lifetime, whereas other revenue streams can wax and wane depending upon federal or state administrations.”

According to a report from the Nonprofit Institute at the University of San Diego, 81% of residents benefited from a county nonprofit in 2024.

“I think right now there is a lot of confusion about the effectiveness of nonprofits, especially when you see the rhetoric that comes out of certain officials in the federal government,” said Samuel Tsoi, director of leadership & professional development at the Nonprofit Institute.

“There is this assumption that there is fraud, waste and abuse. And so I think it’s important for us in any region — but especially in San Diego where we have such a big population, very dynamic, at the border — to see on paper that there are over 13,000 nonprofits with almost 50 billion [dollars in] assets, and there are so many jobs that are created, and there’s all this long-term impact that they’re making when it comes to the quality of life here in the region.”

The Nonprofit Institute not only conducts annual surveys of San Diego’s nonprofit sector, but it also provides individualized education, training and advocacy to various organizations to help improve services. 

“We’re very grateful to be part of this conference because we work so much with philanthropy and we are constantly trying to respond to the needs of the sector,” Tsoi said. “We’re equipping them in real time, whether that’s fundraising or managing a board or engaging the community or being more confident in advocating for your cause through a policy change or through communications, those are all the things that we offer in our leadership government programs, in our convening trainings.”

In February, the Nonprofit Institute launched a new study, analyzing how federal funding cuts and policy shifts are impacting local nonprofits. Through biweekly “pulse” surveys, the study found a near 50/50 split in organizational confidence, with 46% of nonprofit leaders feeling ready to take action on shifting policies, and 45% worried about changes and feeling unsure.

For Adrienne Wilkerson, director of communications and advocacy for Episcopal Community Services, maintaining confidence in her nonprofit’s various services comes from staying informed on federal actions.

“We made sure that we were aware of the federal legislation at the time and our biggest focus was to ensure that we would be able to maintain employment for our staff and to continue providing services for the families that we serve,” Wilkerson said. “Right now, ECS serves 2,000 families and had funding been cut for the Head Start program, those 2,000 families would have been impacted. But our team was doing everything in our power to ensure that we would be able to provide some level of service.”

Wilkerson is walking away from the conference with knowledge of how to support fundraising in her advocacy role and an action plan of donor outreach best practices.

“The theme that I have seen throughout every single session that I’ve taken is the importance of building relationships [with donors] and authenticity within those relationships,” Wilkerson said. “That has been something that has been very key and obviously is a fundamental practice when it comes to fundraising.”

Junne Esguerra, director of programs for the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation, also hopes to put her organization’s mission on full display for donors. 

“One of the things that I learned from this conference is the impact of a personal appeal, [to not] be afraid to be personal with your donors, to share those stories,” Esguerro said. “And then to also not just celebrate the wins, but acknowledge where you have to pivot, where things may have not worked. But to use these as springs and ‘Hey, we’re trying. We are really, really trying.’ It’s okay not to have it work the first, second or third time. At the end of the day, because we’re a nonprofit trying to help people, we have to keep on trying.”

Dana Rivers, development director for the Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges, has been attending the conference since its inception in 2023, and highlighted the opportunity is provides for industry connections and continuing education.

“It was so reaffirming. It was a really, really good reminder that not everything is so transactional,” Rivers said. “The time and intention for yourself as a fundraiser, just reminding myself that it’s okay, it’s okay to fail, that nobody is perfect and just being an overall healthier human being than myself will only make me that much better for the people that we’re helping serve.”