Giving often starts with what is right in front of us. A friend shares a cause, an organization makes an appeal, or a community need captures our attention. Those moments can be powerful entry points into philanthropy. Over time, though, many next-generation donors begin asking a broader question: How can I pair that generosity with a deeper understanding of my community and where my giving can make the greatest difference?
In this edition of Ask an Expert, Mackenzie Causey, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships & Donor Engagement at The Dallas Foundation, shares how next-gen donors can build on the giving they are already doing, develop a stronger understanding of Dallas, and make philanthropic decisions informed by local knowledge, relationships, and long-term goals.
How can donors move from responding to opportunities to building a more intentional giving practice?
Many people begin their philanthropic journey by supporting the organizations, causes, and needs they encounter personally. That connection is valuable. As giving grows, donors often want to understand how those individual decisions can work together toward something larger.
An intentional giving practice begins by identifying the values and issues that matter most to you. What kind of change do you hope to contribute to? Which parts of the community are you most interested in supporting? Are you drawn to addressing immediate needs, investing in long-term solutions, strengthening nonprofit organizations, or a combination of approaches?
Those questions do not require donors to give up flexibility or spontaneity. Instead, they provide a framework that can make each decision more meaningful.
For next-gen donors, this process can also be an opportunity to develop a philanthropic identity of their own. You may be carrying forward values you learned from your family while deciding how those values translate into your own priorities and approach.
The Dallas Foundation can help make that process less daunting. By working with fundholders to clarify their interests, explore community needs, and understand different ways to structure their giving, we can help turn a collection of charitable interests into a more cohesive philanthropic strategy.
What does place-based giving look like in Dallas?
Place-based giving is about understanding how the issues you care about actually show up in the community around you.
Dallas is a large and complex region, and opportunities and challenges can look very different across neighborhoods and populations. An issue such as early childhood development, economic mobility, health, or housing rarely exists in isolation. It is often connected to a broader network of nonprofit organizations, public agencies, schools, funders, businesses, and community leaders.
That is why understanding the local landscape matters.
Instead of asking only, “Which nonprofit should I support?” donors can also ask: What is driving this issue in Dallas? Who is already working on it? Where are there gaps? Which organizations have strong relationships with the communities they serve? Where could additional philanthropic investment help accelerate progress?
The Dallas Foundation’s deep roots in Greater Dallas give fundholders access to that kind of context. Our team works across issues and alongside nonprofit, civic, and philanthropic partners, helping us connect donors with both established organizations and promising work they may not encounter on their own.
Place-based philanthropy is not simply about giving close to home. It is about understanding your community well enough to make informed choices about where your resources can contribute most effectively.
How can next-gen donors become more informed about the issues they care about?
Becoming a more informed donor does not mean becoming an expert on every issue. It means creating opportunities to learn from the people, organizations, and communities closest to the work.
That might include meeting nonprofit leaders, visiting organizations, attending community conversations, reviewing local data, or hearing directly from people with lived experience. It can also mean learning how different organizations approach the same challenge and how their work fits together.
This is particularly important because the organizations with the greatest visibility are not always the only organizations worth knowing. Dallas has nonprofits of every size doing meaningful work, including community-based organizations with deep relationships and expertise but smaller fundraising or communications operations.
One of the benefits of working with The Dallas Foundation is access to a broader view of that nonprofit ecosystem. We can provide research, make introductions, facilitate site visits, share insights about local needs, and help fundholders explore organizations aligned with their interests.
For donors, that can replace the pressure to “know everything” with something much more useful: knowing where to turn for trusted information and local perspective.
Does strategic giving mean every gift needs to fit into a long-term plan?
Not at all.
A thoughtful giving practice can include both planned investments and the freedom to respond when something personally resonates or an urgent need arises.
Some donors find it helpful to think about their philanthropy as a portfolio. A portion might support a few priority issues they want to understand deeply, while another portion remains available for community needs, personal connections, or new opportunities.
That portfolio can also include different types of investments. You might support an organization meeting urgent needs today while investing in another working on prevention or longer-term systems change. You might support a large institution alongside a smaller neighborhood-based nonprofit. You might make a one-time gift in response to a timely need and a multiyear commitment to an organization whose work aligns closely with your goals.
The Dallas Foundation can help fundholders think through that balance and build a giving approach that reflects both their values and the way they naturally want to engage in philanthropy.
The goal is not to make giving rigid. It is to give donors greater clarity and confidence in the choices they make.
How can The Dallas Foundation help next-gen donors put this into practice?
One of the most valuable resources a donor can have is a trusted partner who understands both their goals and the community they want to support.
The Dallas Foundation brings nearly a century of local experience, relationships across Greater Dallas, and a broad view of the nonprofit and philanthropic landscape. We work with fundholders to understand what matters to them, identify opportunities aligned with those interests, and provide the local knowledge that can inform their decisions.
That support can look different for every donor. It might include customized nonprofit research, recommendations, introductions to community leaders, site visits, or conversations that help a fundholder better understand a particular issue. It can also mean helping donors consider how individual grants fit within a broader philanthropic plan.
For next-gen donors who want to learn alongside their peers, Rising GENerosity provides another opportunity to engage. Through nonprofit visits, conversations with community leaders, and shared learning experiences, participants can deepen their understanding of Dallas while developing their own approach to giving.
Our role is not to prescribe where someone should give. It is to help fundholders make more informed decisions about the causes they already care about and discover opportunities they may not have found on their own.
Turning Local Knowledge Into Meaningful Action
You do not need a fully formed philanthropic strategy before you begin giving. In many cases, a thoughtful approach develops over time through giving, learning, listening, and seeing the community from new perspectives.
For next-gen donors, the opportunity is to build on the generosity that already motivates them and add greater context around it. Understanding Dallas more deeply can help donors see how individual organizations fit into larger issues, where additional resources could be valuable, and how their giving can complement work already underway.
At The Dallas Foundation, we help connect those dots. By bringing together a fundholder’s values and goals with deep local knowledge, trusted relationships, and insight into Greater Dallas, we can help turn generosity into informed, place-based investment.
And over time, that can transform philanthropy from a series of individual giving decisions into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with the community you call home.