Donors should be treated as partners, not transactions
Join a growing community of nonprofit leaders who, together, are building a Better Way to fundraise — one rooted in relationships, strengthened by technology, and designed for the future of philanthropy.
For decades, nonprofits relied on fundraising systems designed for a different era.
Those systems worked remarkably well for a long time. But donors’ giving patterns are changing, and fundraising as we know it is losing effectiveness.
The warning signs are becoming impossible to ignore:
Fewer households are giving
Donor retention continues to decline
Acquisition costs are rising
Fundraising teams are burning out
Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor
For decades, nonprofits reserved their best fundraising practices for a tiny percentage of donors.
But the behaviors that make major gift fundraising work — listening, personalization, stewardship, and partnership — must become the operating principles for how organizations engage every donor.
Major donors are driving a growing share of giving, and younger generations increasingly give like major donors — selectively, relationally, and with a desire for meaningful partnership.
In this new landscape, treating every donor like a major donor is not aspirational.
It’s essential.
Today, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies make it possible to apply these behaviors across an entire donor base — not through impossible one-to-one relationships, but through systems designed to honor donor dignity at scale.
Yesterday’s Model
A Better Way
Transaction-driven
Relationship-centered
One-size-fits-all appeals
Individualized engagement
Cyclical campaigns
Continuous donor journeys
Short-term revenue focus
Long-term donor value
Mass communication
Two-way dialogue
Passive participation
Meaningful partnership
Staff burnout / turnover
Re-energized teams
Across the nonprofit sector, leaders are recognizing that the future of fundraising will look very different from today. The question is, which future will we choose?
By becoming a BetterWay Champion, you join a community committed to building that future together by advancing these core principles:
BetterWay Champions are nonprofit executives, thought leaders, and innovative practitioners willing to challenge conventional thinking, reimagine the future, and lead meaningful change across the sector.
Together, we are helping write the next chapter of fundraising.
Monthly leadership insights
Implementation resources
Early access to playbooks and case studies
Invitations to conversations and events
Resources to help lead change inside your organization
Fundraising as we know it is losing effectiveness.
Donor retention is declining. Acquisition costs are rising. Traditional campaign models are straining under fatigue and fragmentation.
In A Better Way to Fundraise, Derric Bakker argues that the future belongs to organizations that treat every donor like a major donor — leveraging AI to transform relationship-based fundraising into an operating system practiced at scale.
At the center are seven core major gift behaviors — once reserved for top donors — that can now extend across an entire donor base, embedding dignity, alignment, and long-term partnership into daily operations.
The future of fundraising will not be defined by who sends more appeals, but by who builds deeper relationships — through an operating system designed for scale.
Derric Bakker has more than thirty years of experience in fundraising as a practitioner, consultant, and agency leader. After working in nonprofit organizations throughout the 1990s, he shifted into consulting and founded DickersonBakker, a nationally recognized advancement solutions firm where he currently serves as CEO.
At DickersonBakker, we have a team of more than fifty experienced professionals dedicated to helping nonprofits translate the principles of A Better Way to Fundraise into real-world results.
Our team, led by Andrew Olsen — President, works with organizations across the country to design and implement fundraising systems that strengthen donor relationships, improve retention, and drive sustainable growth. We partner with nonprofits of all types and sizes to develop approaches that play to their strengths, align with their goals, and fit their budgets.
If you’re interested in exploring what a Better Way might look like for your organization, let’s start a conversation.