Hub ONE

The quiet things that don't make it into the grant call.

Funders carry constraints they didn't design. Nonprofit leaders carry workarounds they didn't choose. Both rooms know it. The conversation rarely makes it across the hallway. What gets named out loud is what the system can begin to fix.

Hub ONE holds the door open between the two rooms.

Right now, in a lot of grant calls and convenings, someone asks: "what's your AI strategy?"

And the room gets quiet.

Funders are asking because their boards are asking. Nonprofit leaders are quiet because the honest answer is usually some version of "we're still figuring it out."

That's where this book is useful.

The Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in an Automated World by Kanter and Fine is a working frame for how nonprofits can adopt smart tech without losing the part of the work that has to stay human.

Kanter and Fine make the case that automation should give people back time to think, plan, and stay in real relationships with the communities they serve. They also write plainly about what smart tech does badly: screening applicants, identifying donors, and paying historic patterns of bias forward into automated decisions.

The book is also relevant for funders. The questions Kanter and Fine ask of nonprofit leaders are the same ones funders need to be asking inside their own institutions.

Silos cost the sector more than we're willing to admit.

When nonprofits work in isolation, they solve problems independently that others have already solved. When funders make decisions without input from the communities they're trying to serve, they fund initiatives that miss the mark. When sector leaders don't talk to each other, we repeat the same conversations in separate rooms and call it progress.

The cost can be inefficiency, lost momentum, duplicated effort, and missed opportunities for real collaboration.

Hub ONE exists because we believe stronger organizations and stronger relationships lead to stronger communities. That belief is grounded in a simple truth: the work moves further when we stop working in silos and start working together.

This doesn't mean every nonprofit needs to know every funder or every funder needs to fund every nonprofit. It means creating space where honest conversations can happen and where challenges can be named without judgment.

The sector is ready for this. Nonprofits are ready to learn from each other instead of competing for scraps. Funders are ready to align around shared goals instead of funding in isolation. What we need is the courage to have the conversations that usually happen in separate rooms, or never happen at all.

"If we want to see faster progress, then we need to create a new power dynamic," Kathleen Enright, President and CEO, Council on Foundations.

Most of the funders our partners work with sit somewhere in her network. When she names the power dynamic between funders and nonprofits as the thing holding back progress, she's naming it from inside the room.

The dynamic she's pointing at shows up at every convening we hold. Funders feel constrained by inherited processes that reward caution over partnership. Nonprofit leaders feel constrained by deference patterns they didn't design. Both rooms care about the same communities.

Neither room can shift the dynamic alone.

A new power dynamic gets built when people in both rooms stop waiting for the other to move first.

Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) research surveyed nearly 20,000 grantees of 86 foundations to ask what actually strengthens funder-nonprofit relationships.

Check out the Center for Effective Philanthropy's Grantee Perception Report: https://cep.org/report/relationships-matter/

Somewhere along the way in the nonprofit sector, we buried the work under the language we used to describe it.

Grant applications got longer. Program guidelines got more specific. Many of us got better at explaining what we do and less certain about whether we were making a true impact.

The sector has a lot of frameworks. For many of us, plain, transparent conversation is harder to find.

What would change if the next meeting in your organization started with what's actually true instead of what's safe to say?

Many nonprofit leaders know what works in their communities. Many nonprofit leaders and funders have learned what creates lasting change.

The challenge is that we're often working in isolation intead of building it together.

When funders and nonprofits convene around shared goals, something shifts and ideas connect. Experience informs strategy. Local knowledge shapes national conversation.

Building what works often means bringing people together who understand different parts of the puzzle and creating space for their insights to connect. It means moving from isolation to co-creating solutions together.

What could you build if you were building it together?

Learn how Hub ONE convenes funders and nonprofits to build what works at https://www.hub1one.com

The nonprofit sector sometimes operates in isolation with funders in one room and nonprofits in another.

National conversations happening separately from local action. Brilliant solutions sitting in separate organizations, never connecting or becoming true models.

Collaboration over silos means breaking down those walls. It means funders and nonprofits learning from each other and co-creating together.

When we collaborate instead of isolating, we can often solve problems faster. We learn from each other's experience. We might even build something stronger together than any of us could build alone.

Explore how Hub ONE helps nonprofits and funders co-create together. www.Hub1one.com

PNC analysis of nonprofit trends for 2026 covers six major shifts shaping the sector. It emphasizes that efficiency, compliance, and protecting people and systems are essential priorities. It also highlights the importance of staying ahead of trends while remaining grounded in mission.

Whether you're a nonprofit leader planning strategy or a funder trying to understand the landscape, this resource offers valuable insights into what's changing and what nonprofits need to thrive.

Read the full article:

https://www.pnc.com/insights/corporate-institutional/manage-nonprofit-enterprises/nonprofit-trends-for-2026-key-insights-and-strategies.html