2025 has already been a tough year for so many of us in the nonprofit world.

Cuts in government funding, Executive Orders coming from the White House, a down stock market, threats of a recession, and of course the impact all these things have on our donors in addition to us as consumers. 

We want to acknowledge the financial difficulties and challenges we face today, but we do not want to stay there! Our goal is to help nonprofit leaders to feel empowered and encouraged despite the economic headwinds we’re currently facing. And we found ourselves having so many of the same conversations around the current financial uncertainty that we decided to have collective conversation with practical, thoughtful advice for nonprofits. 

Recapping a webinar presented by Infinite Giving’s CEO Karen Houghton and our Investment Committee including Buster Wright, Rusty Holcombe, and Justin Pitcock, we shared our insights to help nonprofit leaders. Collectively, Infinite Giving's Investment Committee has more than 80 years of investment experience and management of over $2B in nonprofit funds.

Our financial experts discussed how to navigate this volatile economy and steward your resources. From reserves to risk management, this session can help you make smarter financial decisions for your nonprofit including:

• Addressing your board’s concerns about financial risk
• Investing & Bonds 101 - avoiding panic and finding peace of mind
• Smart diversification with short-, mid-, and long-term options for cash reserves

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Key Takeaways

This sessions started by diving into the Fear and Greed Index. This is a real time index of the stock market that uses a scale of 0 to 100. The higher the reading, the greedier investors are (positive market). 0 signifies maximum fear. It often represents what we are feeling and/or seeing in the news.While there are multiple factors - let’s look at the noisiest ones. As of May 12, the market momentum was Extreme Fear.
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The Safe Haven Demand also builds into that which shows extreme greed = this is because bonds can outperform stocks over short periods of time. Treasury Bonds do better when investors are scared.

Yet, the overall Fear and Greed Index is only at a 67. Which is on the more positive sentiment side:

So what does this mean? How does it impact nonprofit leaders and how scared or worried should we actually be?

This is an opportunity for nonprofits that do have cash to explore investments. While the news has been negative, the market has rebounded during the month of May. Some things to keep top of mind:

• Don’t be scared, be strategic. It’s not all bad. 
• Don’t react with emotions, react with data. 
• Rely on your expert partners (like Infinite Giving) to guide you.
• Diversification is important.
• This is why Treasuries, mutual funds, and our new Fixed Income portfolio are great places to be

If you're leading a nonprofit and don't have a clear vision for your cash reserves, it's ok! Infinite Giving is here to help you get started to grow sustainably, even in this market.
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