This report offers current insights and updates on recent trends in nonprofit organizations seeking to build their endowment programs, categorizing these trends into investment trends and fundraising trends, as the two main avenues for growing endowment funds.

In these changing times, many nonprofit organizations are reassessing their strategic plans, endowment strategies, and fundraising goals.

In this regard, many have decided to start endowment programs or enhance their existing programs to build their financial strength, increase revenues, and provide a cushion of protection in times of strain. Revenue diversification is a major topic, as endowment programs have become a priority and a focal point for many nonprofits, particularly during the current period marked by cuts in allocations from some federal agencies.

At the same time, we believe that nonprofits adopting a holistic approach to building their endowments will be better positioned to create successful endowment programs, including long-term fundraising. It is very important for nonprofits to monitor key trends that could affect their work.

In this article, the third bank reads the key ideas from the report Wilmington Trust, an American institution specializing in wealth management and investment services, which operates under the M&T Bank group. It publishes professional analyses directed at institutions, endowments, and nonprofits regarding investment, governance, and the growth of long-term assets titled Endowments & Foundations Trends: Update for 2026 which provides an analytical reading for the nonprofit sector in the Kingdom while keeping literary rights to the source, and adapting its models and tools to help Saudi organizations think of endowments as a system of trust and sustainability, not just a long-term financial vessel.

Wilmington Trust's vision regarding endowment and donor trends for 2026 engages with endowments as part of a broader system that includes investment, resource development, governance, technology, and planned giving. This perspective deserves serious consideration in the Kingdom, as many charities still view endowments solely from the asset perspective, whereas the upcoming phase requires seeing it from the institutional protection perspective.

In the Saudi context, the question may begin with an organization relying on a successful seasonal campaign, only to discover the following year that the campaign is no longer sufficient. The solution, therefore, is not simply a louder campaign, but rather building a longer-lasting financial base that protects the programs from volatility and grants the board more calmness in decision-making.

From Idle Asset to Protective Function

When the endowment is tied to a protective function, its status within the organization changes, and it is no longer just a figure in the budget or a property in the assets portfolio, but rather it becomes part of the continuity engineering that links today’s income with the security of the coming years.

Wilmington Trust's experience indicates that endowments have become more urgent with the expectation of more moderate equity returns, rising operating costs, and increasing pressure on funding sources. This presents a direct lesson for Saudi organizations: investment returns alone do not create sustainability without supportive policies for spending, growth, and governance.

A charity that possesses an endowment asset without a clear spending policy may seem outwardly secure, yet the absence of that policy makes the return vulnerable to rapid consumption, and the long-term asset becomes subject to daily operational pressures instead of being protective of it.

Quasi-Permanent Endowment as a More Realistic Beginning

One of the concepts worthy of entering the lexicon of Saudi charities is that of the quasi-permanent endowment, which is a fund designated by the board of directors for long-term investment, secured with internal constraints, even if it is not a permanent endowment bound by donor conditions.

This model has appeared in cases presented by Wilmington Trust of organizations that have begun or studied building quasi-permanent endowments following large gifts or unrestricted resources. In Saudi Arabia, a small charity can implement the idea by allocating a portion of its annual surplus or an unrestricted donation to a long-term fund, and then it establishes a spending policy and annual review instead of waiting for a large endowment that may not come soon.

The advantage of this path is that it alleviates the fear of starting, and the organization does not need a massive asset to start thinking about endowments, but it does require a disciplined decision to convert a portion of available funds into an institutional capacity that grows over time.

The Major Gift When Governance is Tested

A major gift reveals not just the donor's generosity but also the maturity of the organization receiving it, as unrestricted money opens up the appetite for all needs simultaneously.

Wilmington Trust presents the idea of a policy for handling unexpected large gifts as a tool to prevent impulsive decisions. In the Saudi context, a charity might receive a legacy, a significant family donation, or an extraordinary grant, and without a written policy, this money could evaporate in rapid expansion or transient expenses.

In this context, prudent policies do not diminish the joy of giving; rather, they give it a longer lifespan, as it is possible to pre-determine percentages for operations, reserves, and a quasi-endowment fund so that the gift transitions from a lovely news story to a turning point in the history of the organization.

The Strategic Plan for the Endowment Before Selecting Investments

Much discussion around endowments begins with the question: Where do we invest? However, the prior question should be: Why do we need an endowment at all?

Wilmington Trust offers the concept of the strategic plan for the endowment as a map that combines asset growth, spending policy, acceptance of donations, board roles, and benchmarking the organization against peers. In Saudi Arabia, this plan can serve as a foundational document for any organization considering an endowment, as it connects the lawful purpose with financial governance and expected impact.

The difference between an endowment that begins with a plan and one that begins with great enthusiasm becomes clear over the years; the first understands its limits, expenditures, and indicators, whereas the latter may remain an attractive title without transforming into a real capability to protect the mission.

The Board Before Money

It is not enough for the endowment to have a well-intentioned board; it requires a board that knows how to ask about return, risk, spending, and the purchasing power of the asset.

Clients of Wilmington Trust have increasingly sought education for their boards about endowments, to the extent that one organization indicated that only the chairperson of the board had adequate investment experience, requiring the rest of the members to receive specialized training.

In the Saudi model, we find many boards composed of trusted and sincere individuals; however, the next phase requires adding endowment and financial knowledge that makes the board a guardian of the asset rather than a general supervisor. The question that the board should become accustomed to is not: How much income did the endowment generate this year? The more important question is: Has the endowment maintained its capacity to serve the mission after inflation, risks, and changing needs?

Planned Giving as a Calm Path to Endowment Growth

Endowments expand when the relationship with the donor shifts from a one-time gift to a prolonged impact; thus, planned giving is present in Wilmington Trust's experience through wills, bequests, and designated beneficiaries, and advised funds.

These tools are not transferred to the Kingdom in their legal and tax precision but carry a core that resonates with our culture of continuous charity, wills, and endowments. A Saudi charity can build a clear page for wills and endowments and explain to donors how to make their contributions enduring, rather than limiting their relationship to urgent support for an upcoming campaign.

Organizations like the Hearing Health Foundation utilize campaigns matching planned giving, announcing large future gift commitments that supported scientific research in hearing loss. A health charity in Saudi Arabia can draw inspiration from this idea by launching a “Lasting Impact” program connecting deferred gifts to funding treatment, research, or ongoing care.

Recommended Donor Funds and Their Local Counterparts

Recommended Donor Funds (DAFs) are charitable funds where the donor places their money now and then later recommends directing it to chosen nonprofits. This has become significant in the original material, as the National Philanthropic Trust, a public U.S. charity specializing in managing recommended donor funds, is one of the leading practical references in tracking the growth of this type of long-term giving tool.

Also, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a leading American nonprofit specialized in cancer treatment and research, which is an outstanding model for employing long-term giving to support care and scientific research, offers organized options for donors to direct their gifts and future impact, allowing the fund to benefit from the entire account or a percentage of it.

In the Kingdom, this tool does not operate in the same American format; however, the practical idea is beneficial: providing the donor with an organized channel to manage long-term giving with recommendations for expenditures or fields. Saudi organizations can draw inspiration from this through dedicated funds within the endowment or clear family giving pathways that allow the donor to direct their impact with declared governance.

The important point here is that large giving should not remain solely a personal relationship. When the organization designs clear channels for long-term giving, the donor becomes a partner in building the institution rather than just a funder for a temporary need.

Technology as the First Test of the Endowment's Seriousness

The organization talks a lot about its endowment, yet the donor struggles to understand it from its website, enters the page, and finds no spending policy, no expenditure categories, no giving options, and no answer to the simple question: What will happen to my money? Additionally, the material presents models for using websites to facilitate giving such as the DAF DIRECT option, and highlights the importance of donation buttons and “ways to give” options and recurring giving.

In Saudi Arabia, a charity can begin with a simple step: a respectable endowment page that explains the goal, governance, donation options, and expenditure categories, and presents a brief periodic report. Here, technology is not an ornamental enhancement but the face through which the donor tests the organization's seriousness. Any ambiguity on the digital page diminishes trust even if the fieldwork is good.

Financial Transparency from Regulatory Duty to Language of Trust

When it comes to endowments, transparency becomes part of the value of the product itself, and the donor placing their money in a long-term asset needs to see what reassures them, rather than just hear a general promise.

We cite in this material the example of United Way of Southern Maine, a local American nonprofit working to address community issues such as housing, food, and child care, which is a practical example of employing financial transparency to build donor trust by clearly presenting accountability information and financial data, showcasing a section for accountability and financial data and also mentioning organizations that present annual reports, audited financial statements, IRS Form 990, and investment and gift acceptance policies.

In Saudi Arabia, this can be translated by publishing the annual report, approved financial statements, gift acceptance policies, and a summary of the endowment policy in language that is clear to the donor, rather than closed accounting jargon. In this way, transparency transforms from mere compliance to a resource development tool, as the endower or major donor seeks an institution worthy of their time, and clarity provides them with an additional reason to trust.

Artificial Intelligence When It Serves Relationship, Not Noise

The experience of the American technology company specializing in fundraising solutions for nonprofits Givzey | Version2.ai, presented by leader Emily Groccia, offers a new angle on using artificial intelligence in resource development, where the idea is no longer limited to data analysis or message writing but extends to a virtual interaction agent that helps build relationships with donors that human teams cannot reach one-on-one.

In Saudi Arabia, this idea can be cautiously adopted, allowing the organization to use smart tools to understand donors' interests and categorize those interested in endowments, wills, and continuous charity, then build for them a graduated informative content without losing the human touch in the relationship.

The critical criterion is that technology remains a servant of trust; poor artificial intelligence increases noise, whereas prudent use enables the organization to listen better, follow up, and respect the donor's privacy.

What Does This Mean for Saudi Organizations?

The picture that emerges from these models is clear: modern endowments do not begin with the asset alone; they begin with an institutional decision that sees long-term money as part of protecting the mission, then establishes around it a policy, an educated board, a clear page, a pathway for planned giving, and verifiable transparency.

A Saudi organization can start with gradual steps, officially establishing an operational reserve, then studying the allocation of a quasi-permanent fund, followed by writing a policy for substantial gifts, training the board, enhancing the endowment page, and building a program for long-term giving.

The value of these steps lies not in their initial scale, but in their ability to transition the organization from waiting for support to building capability, from managing donations to managing trust, and from sustainability as a slogan to sustainability as an internal system.

Endowments are no longer quiet treasuries at the bottom of the budget but are a financial memory for the organization, a shield that protects its mission, and a bridge between today’s needs and tomorrow’s reassurance. The more nonprofits recognize that endowments are not the end of a fundraising campaign but the beginning of long-term institutional maturity, the closer they come to transforming permanent assets into lasting impact.

Source: This article was analytically adapted based on the Wilmington Trust report titled: Endowments & Foundations Trends: Update for 2026, with ideas tailored to suit the reality of nonprofit organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.