Annual Fund vs. Annual Giving

The Annual Fund is a place where money goes before it’s spent on something important in the very near future.  In philanthropic cultures, it’s often viewed as a symbol of what the organization values most.  When describing it as a priority, it should always be capitalized.

Annual Giving, on the other hand, is a behavior.  In philanthropic cultures, it’s viewed as an expectation and its importance is widely understood.  When the math is done right, it provides an organization with an amount of support that can reasonably be expected from its community year-in and year-out.  And while it doesn’t always need to be capitalized, it does always need to be talked about.