Rewriting the Fundraising Playbook: Lessons from the Savannah Bananas

For decades, Major League Baseball had an iron grip on the sport. Then came the Savannah Bananas in 2016, with a bold strategy: if you can’t beat the big leagues, reinvent the game. Their mix of fast-paced play and entertainment now sells out stadiums, commands millions of social media followers, and recently landed them their first TV streaming deal.

Nonprofits, facing one of the toughest fundraising climates in years, should take a page from the Bananas’ playbook: to stay relevant, you need to stand out and take risks. With Americans donating less and more nonprofits than ever competing for support, the need to revise the playbook and embrace innovation has never been more urgent. What the Bananas are doing for baseball, nonprofits must now do for fundraising.

Individual giving has been declining, with no signs of stopping, for several years. Even adjusting for inflation, total donations are falling. Moreover, the funds that are being donated are increasingly concentrated among a small group of affluent individuals. Some in philanthropy have labeled this moment a “generosity crisis,” with twenty million fewer households donating to charities in 2016 than in 2000. Factors like economic uncertainty, donor fatigue, and the increasing number of organizations competing for this same shrinking pool of donors have only compounded the challenges.

While both the amount of money being donated, and the number of people giving, is waning, the number of nonprofits needing their help continues to grow. In fact, the United States has seen a steady rise in registered nonprofits, with over 1.5 million currently in operation. This surge has created a highly competitive landscape that some have referred to as the “nonprofit Hunger Games,” where organizations must find new ways to stand out and secure support amidst dwindling resources.

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