This is a paid piece from Maximizing Excellence, LLC.
Simplified: A new report from nonprofit consulting firm Maximizing Excellence looks at how donor behaviors have changed over the last five years and what new opportunities are emerging for nonprofits to continue to be successful into the future.
Why it matters
- Maximizing Excellence initially released the State of Sioux Falls Philanthropy report in 2020 as a first-of-its-kind look at the state of philanthropy in Sioux Falls. The goal was to help nonprofits get better at asking for money in the ways donors want to be asked.
- With this 2025 reprise to the report, Maximizing Excellence conducted in-depth interviews with 30 established and emerging philanthropic leaders to get an updated sense of trends, and learn what shifts Sioux Falls can make to ensure the culture of giving remains strong.
- There’s room for improvement, though. More than 70 percent of donors said they feel both a greater sense of urgency to have their perspectives heard and less optimism in nonprofits’ ability to meet rising expectations.
- Founder and CEO Cindy Peterson said she hopes this report encourages nonprofits to start getting more innovative and creative in how they broaden their donor base.
“The easiest thing nonprofits can do is tell their story, tell it uniquely, and tell it from the heart while giving real examples of impact,” Peterson said.
Tell me more
The report takes a data-driven approach to understanding emerging philanthropic trends, specifically how donors are feeling.
Maximizing Excellence is in a unique position to present this data because the organization works closely not only with nonprofits but also with the donors and community leaders who support them.
“In a lot of ways we are really at the intersection of philanthropy and impact,” Peterson said. “We felt we were really the right ones equipped to tell that story.”
The report details some of the challenges facing nonprofits at the moment – funding shortfalls, donor fatigue, rising costs, etc. – but it also highlights the ways organizations can continue to improve.
That includes strategies like:
- collaborating to reduce duplication of efforts,
- publishing impact reports to build trust,
- and inviting donors into the work of the nonprofit, not just funding it.
It is also on the community to think about how every person can play a role in this conversation.
“Philanthropy isn’t just for individuals who give big,” Peterson said. “Philanthropy is the $5 a family drops in the bucket at Levitt. Philanthropy is the time that a family or an individual shares at their kids’ school, or at church, or on a committee. Everybody can be a part of this.”
Where do we go from here?
Shaping the future of philanthropy in Sioux Falls and ensuring the services people rely on are here to stay isn’t a responsibility that falls solely on nonprofits’ shoulders, Senior Consultant Rika Peterson said.
“Collectively, we need to take a beat and take the time to really dialogue about this and to evaluate what’s working,” she said. “It’s no one entity’s job to figure this out.”
That conversation starts with this report, as well as corresponding information sessions hosted at Maximizing Excellence on Friday, September 5. If you are interested in attending, email debbie@maximizingexcellence.org as space is limited.
Maximizing Excellence also intends to be part of the philanthropy conversation moving forward. The company works to help nonprofits improve their effectiveness and achieve high impact with customized services.
“We believe organizational sustainability is about more than fundraising,” Cindy Peterson said. “If an organization is providing meaningful programming with measurable impact, successful fundraising will be the result.”
Explore MaxEx’s website to discover the breadth of services they offer.