Key takeaways
Stricter corporate compliance and vetting requirements in 2025 had real financial consequences for nonprofits.
Nonprofits overwhelmingly value multi-year, unrestricted financial support above all else.
To build durable partnerships, companies must treat nonprofits as true partners — funding the reporting they require, providing adequate notice of eligibility changes and prioritizing operational support over their own storytelling needs.
The data below draws from the Benevity Spring 2026 Nonprofit Perspectives Survey and the State of Corporate Purpose 2026 research. The full 2026 State of Corporate Purpose report will be available July 9. Mark your calendars.
The corporate purpose landscape shifted significantly last year, and nonprofits felt every tremor.
Companies responded to a wave of political, regulatory and social pressure by tightening budgets, revising eligibility criteria and running grant decisions through broader approval processes. The result: a sector that was already operating on thin margins got squeezed even harder.
The Benevity Spring 2026 Nonprofit Perspectives Survey, conducted across 165 nonprofit organizations in 13 countries, captures what those shifts actually look like on the ground — and what they mean for the future of corporate–nonprofit partnerships.
The compliance crunch is real — and it has a cost
When companies tightened their compliance and vetting requirements in 2025, it wasn't just an administrative inconvenience. For many nonprofits, it had direct financial consequences.
33% of nonprofits reported known or suspected negative financial effects from stricter vetting rules, compared to only 4% who actually gained new funding. Among those reporting losses and factoring in federal funding cuts, 35% estimate they lost between 10% and 25% of their annual revenue. Another 23% report losing more than a quarter of their revenue.
When compliance layers are added without consideration for the organizations on the receiving end, the numbers tell a challenging story.
Nonprofits had to adjust to changing budgets
The compliance burden is adding further revenue uncertainty to organizations already navigating a difficult moment. In 2025, 23% of nonprofits saw a small revenue decline compared to 2024, while 15% experienced a significant decrease of more than 15%. Only 13% saw meaningful growth.
For many, the response has been to rethink where funding comes from entirely. 43% of nonprofits say the compliance and eligibility changes accelerated a shift toward individual giving and broader revenue diversification. Another 30% increased investment in finding new corporate partners to replace those lost. Some are repositioning their mission or rebranding entirely — 17% reported doing exactly that.
This isn't strategic evolution for its own sake. It's triage.
The reporting burden: labor that corporations don't fund
One of the less visible ways budget shifts affect nonprofits is through the cost of reporting — and who actually pays for it.
As corporate purpose programs have come under more scrutiny, demand for customized impact reporting has grown. The problem isn't the reporting itself. It's that the labor largely isn't funded. Nearly half of nonprofits says that donors rarely or never fund the effort associated with additional reporting requests.
The pattern is worth naming plainly: corporations are investing in their own storytelling and purpose communications, while passing the data-gathering work onto nonprofit partners. When companies increase reporting requirements without increasing the funding to support them, the burden lands on the organizations least able to absorb it.
50% of nonprofits say the preferred solution is simple: accept existing impact reports rather than requiring custom formats.
What nonprofits actually want from corporate partners
When asked to rate the value of different types of corporate support, nonprofits ranked multi-year financial support highest — 88% rated it very or extremely valuable. Unrestricted funding came in at 82%.
Technology and infrastructure support ranked last, with only 47% finding it highly valuable — and 11% saying it had no value at all. 72% of nonprofits have never received tech or artificial intelligence (AI) support from a corporate funder.
The gap between what corporations are offering (or talking about offering) and what nonprofits actually need is one of the clearest findings in this research. Purpose programs that load nonprofits with reporting obligations, tighten eligibility without added support and replace direct funding with technology solutions are not meeting nonprofits where they are.
The takeaway for impact leaders
If you're responsible for your company's nonprofit partnerships, this data is a call to audit the friction in your own programs.
How many eligibility changes have you made in the past 12 months? Are you funding the reporting you're asking for? Are you prioritizing your company's public relations requirements over your partners' operational realities?
The corporate purpose environment will continue to evolve. Regulatory and social pressures aren't going away. But the companies that will build the strongest, most durable nonprofit partnerships are those that see their partners as exactly that — partners — rather than as vendors of impact stories and compliance checkboxes.
The nonprofits showing up in this data are resilient. They're adapting, diversifying and finding ways to keep serving their communities despite the headwinds. The question is whether corporate purpose programs will meet that effort with the kind of support that makes a difference.
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