How nonprofits and foundations are navigating new challenges, future impact

Over the past year, nonprofit and foundation leaders have confronted intensifying pressures, rising expectations, and rapidly shifting realities. To better understand how leaders are evaluating their missions, capacity, and outlook within the context of these new realities, our team at Mission Partners collaborated with the Chronicle of Philanthropy on a national research study involving 23 in-depth interviews and 393 survey responses from U.S.-based nonprofits and foundations. The results and analysis of the research can be found in the 2026 Insights on Purpose™ Report.

Here we share insights into three of the key findings, as well as recommendations for nonprofit and foundation leaders.

1. Despite challenges, nonprofits and foundations believe they can increase their impact

Data from our survey, fielded in October 2025, reveals how challenging the environment has become:

• 97% of nonprofits and 87% of foundations surveyed agreed that compared to one year ago, the environment for organizations like theirs is becoming “somewhat or much more challenging.”

At the same time, many respondents were confident they could not only weather those challenges but also increase their impact over the next five years:

• 80% of nonprofit leaders and 91% of foundation leaders expressed confidence their organizations will successfully weather them.
• 78% of nonprofits and 93% of foundations believed they can increase their impact.
• 73% of nonprofits and 94% of foundations felt their organizations are well positioned to move their missions forward.

2. Strategic planning is more difficult for both nonprofits and foundations

Despite the surprising level of confidence, the complex environment is making strategic planning more difficult for leaders:

• 61% of nonprofits and 53% of foundations said it’s more difficult to plan strategically for the next five years than it was a year ago.
• 24% of nonprofits and 23% of foundations are facing this environment without a strategic plan in place.

Reassessing fundraising and grantmaking strategies: As foundations recalibrate their grantmaking, nonprofits are being forced to reassess their fundraising strategies as they seek new revenue sources. Of the nonprofits surveyed, 61% said they made significant changes to their fundraising strategy in the last year. Meanwhile, 22% of foundations made significant changes to their grantmaking strategy, 49% reconsidered which grantees would best advance their mission going forward, and 31% were rethinking which type of nonprofits they will support.

3. Nonprofits especially are reframing communications about work and values; mutual understanding is lacking

Our survey found that both nonprofits and foundations needed to adapt their communications and messaging in the last year, but nonprofits found it even more necessary to reframe how they described their work to funders and their core values to the public.

• 55% of nonprofits reframed how they describe their work to potential funders.
• 42% of foundations reframed how they communicate their grantmaking and the work done by the nonprofits they fund.
• 55% of nonprofits and 41% of foundations reframed how they communicate their core values.

As nonprofits and foundations advance their shared missions and future impact, they will continue to rely on each other. Yet, our data shows that only 32% of nonprofits think foundations understand the challenges they’re facing today “very” or “extremely” well, while just 23% of foundations felt nonprofits understand challenges foundations are facing. To effectively advance their missions in the coming months and years, nonprofits and foundations will need to close this mutual gap in perception.

How to advance shared missions for future impact

Based on our analysis of the survey data and decades of experience working alongside nonprofit and foundation leaders, we believe getting there starts with honest self-examination. That means taking a hard look at legacy collaborations and partnerships to determine whether they remain the right fit for sustaining and advancing mission-driven work. It also means looking outward, exploring, and investing in cross-sector innovation through creative coalitions and new revenue-generating models that reduce dependence on any single funding stream.

That kind of bold thinking requires leaders of both nonprofits and foundations to develop strategies that articulate aligned areas of focus and desired impact, while building in flexibility for how that work evolves. It also requires learning together—particularly when it comes to generative AI—by building shared frameworks and policies for implementing new technologies in service of mission.

Above all, moving missions forward in the coming years will require courage. Organizations that clearly define purpose and core values and hold steady to those commitments, even as the environment shifts, will be best positioned for future impact and long-term success.

Photo credit: The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread