We’re soon at the end of another year, and if you’re like me, you’re keeping your eyes focused through the windshield instead of the rearview mirror. The philanthropic sector continues to evolve, like everything else in society, due to forces like wealth, technology and globalization.

When I started my nonprofit organization over a decade ago, we were in a different landscape than we are today. Transparency, social media, and Millennials in positions of influence and management (increasingly filled by Gen Z as the marketing world begins to look to the next bright generation) have brought about an enormous change.

But, if you’re like me, then you want to stay one step ahead. As you begin to look to close out the year and move into 2018, here are some of the trends you want to keep in mind.

• The rise of foundations and impact investing. The Stanford Social Innovation Review reported on partnerships between foundations, government, and corporations for impact investing, which is funding a cause or community that seeks both profit and social impact. As we know, Detroit has suffered for years due to its adverse financial challenges and its single-family housing market, which was decimated by the 2008 recession. The Kresge and Ford Foundations, in partnership with local, city and state banks, developed the Detroit Home Mortgage Program, to provide homebuyers with renovated homes with a combination of grants and loans. Another impact investing venture is a partnership between the McKnight Foundation and Mellon Capital Management and also the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with billions of dollars to eradicate disease and improve education and the lives of children.

With the extraordinary wealth accumulated within institutional organizations, there is now a greater opening to have a measurable social impact in the community as public funding dwindles. Foundations have knowledge and understanding of what it means to invest in a community, and leading organizations are now using their experience and massive capital to help lower risk for other investors, such as cities and corporations.

• Extraordinary wealth has given rise to more endowed legacy foundations. Americans have a rich culture of philanthropy. The reality is that we live in a time of unprecedented levels of wealth for a few (in the hundreds of billions of dollars) and also millionaires for others, and the culture of philanthropy continues. And because Americans are exceptional capitalists, financial institutions have figured out how to make sure they get a cut of money management fees. We know there’s a dirty little secret in the philanthropic world with Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) allowing donors to get an immediate tax deduction, but the massive amounts of money are parked in DAFs and not charities and nonprofits. profit.

With as little as $5,000 to $25,000, more and more Americans are creating legacy foundations, making, for example, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund one of the largest foundations in the US with billions under management as donors create their own legacies due to brilliant marketing. Essentially, Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, and others have taken on the expense and hassle of creating the foundation itself and, for convenience, can manage the money.

• Government money and regulations get tighter. The trends will continue, and especially if there is a tax reform. The federal government is moving towards massive tax reform, and two essential elements would affect charities:

1. There is an interest in limiting the charitable deduction.
2. One of the goals of tax reform is also to limit standard deductions.

Tim Delaney, executive director of the National Council of Nonprofit Organizations, said in this article: “Both would be a considerable success not only for nonprofits, but also for the people they serve… The rise of the standard deduction will be a covert assault on charities.” giving in the name of tax simplification… Instead, the charitable and philanthropic communities are coming together to achieve a universal deduction for giving.”

While I recognize that most charities and nonprofits in the US are small, and you may be telling yourself that you don’t think any of these realities affect your group, that’s not necessarily TRUE. If there is tax reform, that will likely affect the vast majority of nonprofits as donors begin to reassess their charitable intentions. And, even if your charity doesn’t receive money from global foundations, the idea that the public and donors are much more open to donating to private and public associations, especially those where profits are made, is essential to your nonprofit leadership. of profit understand. In other words, there are many more ways donors can support society besides a direct donation to charity, especially if they have wealth and want the impact to be broad and scalable.