In 2025, nonprofits stand at the crossroads of opportunity and challenge, navigating a rapidly evolving technological landscape. As organizations dedicated to fulfilling vital community needs, they face unique pressures to adapt while maintaining their core mission.
Based on our review of industry research, three pivotal trends – the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI), the adoption of electronic payment methods, and the critical need for robust cybersecurity – may reshape elements of the nonprofit sector in 2025.
For nonprofits, staying ahead of these trends can help boost their resilience and relevance. By proactively addressing these developments, nonprofits can help safeguard their operations and amplify their impact in the communities they serve.
AI Adoption Is on the Rise
Increasingly, nonprofits are turning to AI to streamline administrative work and fundraising. In a 2024 survey highlighted in its 2025 Fundraising Outlook Report, OneCause found:
• Forty-nine percent of organizations use or plan to use AI for donor management, up 15 points from 2023.
• Seventy-one percent of nonprofits use or plan to use AI for copywriting, up 19 points from 2023.
• Seventy-one percent of nonprofits use or plan to use AI for fundraising and event planning, up 28 points from 2023.
AvidXchange’s 2025 Trends Survey found that most organizations (65%) are using AI in their finance departments as well. While 76% of the finance leaders we surveyed say they see value in using AI for finance functions, 71% noted they are concerned about measuring that impact.
Questions about how to measure the return on investment (ROI) of AI have become a common theme across industries. In nonprofits, ROI is especially critical because there is pressure for every dollar spent to directly advance the mission, ensuring maximum impact and accountability to donors.
Moving into 2025, it’s likely that organizations, including nonprofits, will continue to prioritize tech tools that leverage AI. To ensure they gain maximum value from these investments, they will likely offer more training opportunities for employees. Our 2025 Trends survey found that 65% of organizations are currently providing staff training on AI and 50% are offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities related to AI technology.
ePayments Gain Momentum
FundraiseUp discovered in a study that credit cards are the most popular form of donation payment, with 65% of donors preferring this method. FundraiseUp also found that other ePayment methods are gaining traction, with donors using platforms such as PayPal (25%), Apple Pay (6%), and Google Pay (3%) to make charitable donations.
A UConn Business study recently found that online giving has grown 42% since 2019 and mobile giving via smartphones accounted for 28% of donations in 2021. As Americans spend more time on mobile devices, nonprofits are best served to integrate ePayment methods across all donation drives.
Organizations, including nonprofits, are also increasingly adopting ePayments in their finance departments, taking advantage of the convenience and enhanced security compared to paper checks. AvidXchange’s 2025 Trends Survey found that most organizations (61%) either exclusively or mostly use ePayments to pay suppliers. That same survey found the adoption of mobile payment platforms (like Venmo and Apple Pay) to pay suppliers is also growing in popularity, nearly doubling from 8% in 2023 to 15% in 2024.
ePayments can deliver greater efficiency, security, and transparency compared to paper checks, enabling faster processing, reducing manual work, and mitigating risk of fraud or lost payments. This matters uniquely to nonprofits because it allows them to dedicate more time and resources to advancing their mission while ensuring donor funds are used effectively.
Cybersecurity Is a Priority
The CyberPeace Institute published an article this year calling non-profits, “cyber-poor” and “target-rich,” noting that they’re often sought out by cybercriminals because of the large sums of money they manage while lacking appropriate cybersecurity measures due to limited budgets and resources.
The 2023 Nonprofit Tech for Good Report shared that 27% of nonprofits said they’ve experienced a cyberattack. According to that same report, as a result, many are concentrating on security:
• Sixty-eight percent said they have a website security plan in place.
• Eighty-four percent said they have an SSL certificate installed on their website (up 14 points since 2019).
The AvidXchange 2025 Trends Survey underscored this focus on cybersecurity with respondents ranking security, fraud, and phishing attempts as the top concern for most finance departments this year. More than three-quarters of organizations have fallen victim to or been the target of attempted cyberattacks, according to our survey. So it’s no surprise that 65% of respondents said their organization has strengthened security measures in 2024.
Prioritizing cybersecurity is crucial for nonprofits to protect sensitive donor information and financial assets, maintaining the trust and support essential for their mission. Adopting financial software with robust security features can help reduce the threat of cyberattacks by supporting secure transactions, detecting fraud, and safeguarding critical data.
Finance Departments Make an Impact
Staying on top of trends can help nonprofits to remain efficient, protect finances, and maximize the impact of donations. Adopting technologies like ePayments and AI helps streamline operations, enhance cybersecurity, and reduce administrative burdens, helping nonprofits direct more resources toward advancing the mission.
The finance department can play a critical role in this transformation by implementing tools that help minimize risks, improve transparency, and optimize resource allocation. Learn more about what’s on the horizon for finance professionals by downloading our free guide now.