Generosity Xchange 2025: Key Takeaways to Fuel Your Impact

Generosity Xchange 2025 (GX25) has officially wrapped up and wow! We were thrilled to have over a thousand nonprofit professionals come out to join us. Our virtual two days together were filled with fundraising insights, strategies, and a lot of collective energy. The event was packed with voices shaping the future of generosity, from strategic vision to the platforms and tools that make it all happen.

For those of us working in the nonprofit world, the event was both professional development and a powerful reminder of what truly drives our work. There was a collective sense of collaboration and inspiration. Plus, an overwhelming sense of a community that wants to help each other succeed. 

Whether you were able to join us or you happened to miss this year’s event, there were some important takeaways that we want everyone to hear. 

So without further ado, here are the four big ideas and key takeaways we’re carrying forward from GX25.

1. Generosity Doesn’t Wait for Permission

This phrase from Rachel D’Souza’s closing session was a high-voltage moment in the chat. It’s a powerful call to action for every nonprofit leader. It’s especially pertinent to those who often feel they need to over-plan, seek endless approvals, or wait for the “perfect” moment to inspire generosity. 

Rachel’s core message is simple: if your actions are rooted in intention and heart, you don’t need to wait. If you’re fostering your community of support in the right way—with intention, connection, and vulnerability at the core—you have people in your network who are passionate and excited to support you. So let them! 

Takeaways for Your Nonprofit

In nonprofit day-to-day work, this translates to:

• Not overthinking the outreach: If you have an idea for connecting with a donor, a volunteer, or a community member, do it.
• Empowering your team: Don’t let bureaucracy slow down acts of kindness or connection. Trust your staff to act with good intentions.
• Starting small: You don’t need a massive, perfectly organized campaign to begin. Just start.

2. Relationships Are the Heart of Effective Fundraising

This theme came up again and again (and again), across every track of the conference: effective fundraising is relational, not transactional.

Whether the session was about events, marketing, or technology, the conversation always came back to people. Nonprofits that are seeing the most success are those who prioritize making their community members feel seen, valued, and connected. 

This theme extended beyond just traditional donors and inspired us to consider generosity in all forms. You shouldn’t just be stewarding your major gift donors. You should be foster relationships with everyone who supports your org—volunteers, event attendees, P2P participants, and beyond. 

Takeaways for Your Nonprofit

A few ideas on how to build this into your organization:

• Focus on connection, not just conversion: Every interaction, from event registration to a thank-you note, is a chance to build a relationship.
• Design for involvement: When you’re planning, think about how to involve people and create a feeling of belonging, not just how to process their money or information.
• It’s about the feeling: At the end of an event, you know if it was a good one not just from the dashboard metrics but by seeing the smiles and hearing the conversations of people as they exit.

3. Customers Are the Best Teachers

On the tech stage, the sessions we  hosted were real-world case studies that proved just how crucial the right technology can be in helping our customers reach their goals. 

This year, we were thrilled to spotlight a host of Neon One customers who are in the trenches every day. These sessions proved that the best lessons come from those actually doing the work. 

We saw incredible examples of how our customers are using Neon One tools in creative ways:

• St. Paul Urban Tennis shared how donation forms help them connect with their community
• Together for Youth and Wisconsin Association for the Talented and Gifted shared how their website, audience segmentation, and branded emails have been a game-changer for their marketing
• Art Table demonstrated how they use Neon One’s automated workflows to save time and reduce stress for their team
• Decatur Makers and the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra shared how Neon One’s event management tools give them a major advantage

Takeaways for Your Nonprofit

The main takeaway here is the power of perspective. Hearing from your peers helps you build confidence. Plus, you gain actionable insights about how your local organization can do more to engage its community.

4. Finding Moments of Joy, Connection, and Hope

During our keynote conversation with Diane Yentel, Anne Gingerich, and Rachel D’Souza, a topic that came up time and time again was how the nonprofit sector is facing unprecedented challenges. But our speakers also noted seeing a collective effort to uplift one another and a desire across the sector to keep finding room for joy, connection, and hope.

And that last piece is one of the key lessons from GX2025: It’s important to find moments of joy, connection, and hope in all that we do.

Throughout the conference, the spirit of collaboration resonated deeply with speakers and attendees alike. Our speakers and participants illustrated how nonprofit professionals are increasingly supporting each other and fostering an even stronger sense of community as they face funding cuts, divisive rhetoric, and increasing needs within the communities that they serve. 

We also saw an enthusiastic embrace of low-stakes, joyful points of connection and decompression during the event. That was evident in the positive buzz around the beloved Pet Parade, the excitement of a live Bingo game that drew over a hundred participants, and the many reactions of gratitude for a daily ten-minute guided meditation. 

Takeaways for Your Nonprofit

So how can this translate to nonprofit work? 

• Design for Delight: Think about small, unexpected ways to bring joy to your donors, volunteers, and staff—a personalized thank-you, a fun social media challenge, a game at your next staff meeting, you name it. 
• Prioritize Community Building: Create spaces—both in-person and virtual—where your supporters can connect with each other and not just with your organization. This could be a casual online forum, a volunteer social, or a supporter spotlight series.
• Acknowledge Well-being: Encourage your staff and community to take moments for themselves and embrace being present.
• Celebrate the Small Wins: Don’t wait for monumental achievements. Celebration is a powerful connector! Regularly highlight small successes, acts of kindness, and individual contributions.

What’s Your Commitment?

We closed this year’s conference with one final question: what’s the one commitment you’re going to carry through for the rest of the year? 

Answers varied as we heard from our speakers and attendees in the chat, but I challenge you to answer this question too.

Is it to act with more intention? To prioritize relationships? To step back and remember the real ground work? Think about it, commit to it, and get out there!