U.S. charitable giving surpassed $600 billion for the first time in 2025, and individual giving grew even as consumer sentiment remained low, suggesting where donor motivation stands right now.
This week is about what that means in practice for your fall calendar: how to fill a room with the right people through smarter targeting, how to structure a cultivation event so the work that follows converts, and what the organizations building durable, multi-city fundraising series got right from the start.
A fall fundraising event planned in July looks very different from one pieced together in September. Givebutter's free event planning checklist walks through every stage, from goal setting to post-event follow-up, with a timeline based on how far out you need to make each decision. Download it now and use the summer to get the pieces in place before the calendar takes over.
How to find new supporters through affinity targeting 📖
Filling seats at a fall event means reaching people who don't know you yet, and affinity targeting is one of the more practical ways to do that. Instead of casting a wide net, you build audiences around shared interests, so your ads land with people who are already a reasonable fit before they've ever heard of you. The result is a room full of people who showed up for the event and left as supporters of the mission.
A practical guide to donor cultivation events 📖
There's a version of a fall event that doesn't raise a dollar on the night and still outperforms your gala, but only if the work that follows is treated as part of the event itself. A cultivation event is measured by portfolio movement in the 90 to 180 days after: prospects who moved a stage, first meetings booked, major gifts closed. Without a named owner and a 48-hour follow-up window, the cultivation value evaporates no matter how well the evening went.
The latest Giving USA data is out 📖
U.S. charitable giving hit $617.20 billion in 2025, the first time it's crossed the $600 billion mark. What matters for your planning is what's inside: bequest giving jumped nearly 20%, individual giving grew 4.1% despite consumer sentiment near historic lows, and human services and education both posted strong gains. The generosity is there. The harder question is whether your fall events and appeals are specific enough to capture it before someone else does.
What started as a single gala in Washington, D.C., in 2011 has grown into a multi-city event series that has raised more than $14 million for colorectal cancer awareness, research, and patient support. The Colorectal Cancer Alliance runs Blue Hope Bash events across cities including Chicago, Denver, and Indianapolis, each organized by local volunteers and tailored to their community, while the flagship D.C. event raised $2.1 million in 2025 alone.
The model is worth studying not just for its scale but for its structure: local ownership keeps each event community-driven, while the national brand gives every city event the credibility and momentum of something bigger than a single night.