Precision, connection, and the future of generosity.

The era of treating donors as statistical averages is over. In N1 Philanthropy, Nathan Chappell and Gabe Cooper challenge us to move beyond segments and transactions toward a future where every individual is truly known and appreciated. Get this right, and we don’t just raise more money. We restore joy to giving and begin to reverse the trends identified in The Generosity Crisis.

Chappell and Cooper provide the roadmap for reviving our culture of generosity.

I’ve watched Nathan and Gabe shape this sector for years: Nathan pushing us to reckon with why donors are disappearing, Gabe building the systems that make real responsiveness possible. N1 Philanthropy is where their two bodies of work finally meet, and the result is the most convincing case I’ve read for why precision and connection are two sides of the same coin. This isn’t a book about AI. It’s a book about finally seeing the people behind every gift. I’m so thrilled and excited for you to read it!

N1 Philanthropy offers a transformative new framework and a desperately needed challenge to the nonprofit sector: stop treating people like data points and start treating them like people. Nathan Chappell and Gabe Cooper make an extremely data-driven and compelling case for treating every supporter as an ‘N of one.’ This isn’t simply an argument for better segmentation or more sophisticated fundraising technology—it’s a fundamental shift in how we think about the people who choose to support our missions. The numbers don’t lie, and the survival of our sector may depend on our ability to embrace their prescription: communicating with every supporter as an individual, with their own needs, motivations, and reasons for giving.

‘No donors, no prospects, no segments.’ This phrase will probably cause a meltdown at some charities (and vendors) where fundraisers believe they need to know when a prospect gets up from watching Law & Order to head to the bathroom and when returning flips to Storage Wars reruns. The DNA of each donor is unique and—wait for it—private to them. Nathan and Gabe get it correct—only a human can be trusted, held accountable, and carry the weight of a mission.

N1 Philanthropy asks the question every nonprofit leader must choose to answer: Will we use AI to see the person behind the generosity or simply to seek that generosity more efficiently? These are two different questions. The simple truth is that AI can scale both care and extraction. Knowing someone’s gift history is not the same as understanding the human being behind each gift. This book offers a framework we need to build systems that turn values like connection and generosity into practice.

Most people think technology’s promise is buying back time, but N1 makes the braver case that it can help us see another person’s humanity clearly enough to meet them where they actually are. With a hard line against manipulation and humans kept at the helm, this is a book about making fundraising less transactional, not more. It is about alignment at scale, and a framework for doing it well.

N1 Philanthropy is an essential guide for a sector in which values are critical, trust is the currency, and every act of good fundraising is ultimately built upon personal relationships. This timely book shows how nonprofits can harness AI to deepen those relationships and advance their missions while preserving the humanity and integrity at the heart of generosity.

N1 Philanthropy offers a compelling vision for the future of generosity. Nathan Chappell and Gabe Cooper make a powerful case that technology should not distance us from people, but help us understand and serve them more deeply. Their message is both timely and profoundly human. Essential reading for leaders seeking to strengthen trust, connection, and impact in a rapidly changing world.

N1 Philanthropy is more than a compelling vision for the future of fundraising. It is a deeply human and urgently practical blueprint for reaching it. From the ‘Aristotle Barriers’ to the warning against ‘counterfeit generosity,’ Nathan Chappell and Gabe Cooper illuminate both the extraordinary promise of AI and the danger of using it without wisdom. They show how organizations can move beyond segments to see each supporter as an N of one, scale meaningful connection without sacrificing trust, and keep humans firmly at the helm. Every nonprofit leader, board member, fundraiser, and philanthropy technologist should read it, discuss it with their team, and put it to work.

Technology has enabled generosity that flows without friction, yet charitable giving can also pass unseen. What goes unseen can neither inspire nor be emulated, so fewer people learn to be generous. Chappell and Cooper understand that AI can help us finally see the signals we have long missed. They build a compelling case for using these tools to create belonging with precision—so long as we guard the trust that the same tools can undermine.

N1 Philanthropy is a clarion call for the AI era, proving that the most advanced technology ever built is best used not to replace human connection, but to finally make it possible at scale. This is a must-read for any leader committed to navigating the tech frontier without losing sight of the individuals who make our missions, and our future, possible.

No donors. No prospects. Just people. N1 Philanthropy takes that simple idea and turns it into a bold, practical vision for the future of generosity.

I’ve had the privilege of watching Nathan and Gabe wrestle with these ideas in real time, and N1 Philanthropy is the sharpest distillation of that thinking I’ve seen. It’s honest about what AI can distort in our donor relationships and even more compelling about what it can restore. This is the one book every nonprofit leader needs to read this year.

N1 Philanthropy makes a clear and urgent case that the future of generosity depends on seeing people as people, not segments, prospects, or rows in a database. Chappell and Cooper pair moral clarity with practical vision, showing how AI can help restore human connection at scale, with humans still firmly at the helm.

AI has the potential to upend fundraising, but it also offers real possibility to make fundraising more personal, not less. N1 Philanthropy is the practical, honest guide we need right now, showing us how to build trust that’s genuine, not manufactured.

For most of fundraising’s history we worked in segments because segments were all we had. N1 Philanthropy makes clear that this is now a decision rather than a limitation, and Cooper and Chappell are refreshingly honest that no one solves it alone. What they offer instead is an invitation to the whole sector: take the technology that can imitate connection and use it to magnify and multiply what it means to be human.

The best argument I’ve read for why treating every supporter as an individual is now possible, and why it’s also a responsibility.

Gabe and Nathan are two of the sharpest, most forward-thinking people I know, and this book couldn’t have been written by either one alone. Together they make the generosity crisis feel less like an ending and more like the case for a reboot—one where treating every donor as an individual is finally within reach.

After twenty years of watching good organizations lose donors they never really knew, I can tell you that N1 Philanthropy has named the real problem and handed us something we can act on Monday morning.

Generosity has never been scarce. Our imagination about how to engage it has been. In this timely book, Nathan and Gabe show us how the future of philanthropy won’t be built by optimizing transactions. It will be built by expanding participation. N1 Philanthropy shows how technology, thoughtfully applied, can help organizations understand and engage people as individuals rather than ‘donors’. It’s an important contribution to the growing conversation about how we cultivate generosity instead of simply soliciting it.

If you’re a nonprofit leader wondering how to embrace AI without betraying your values, N1 Philanthropy is a must-read. Chappell and Cooper anchor every discussion of technology in the lived experience of donors and fundraisers, where trust and dignity actually play out.

The idea at the heart of this book was born on our campus, where precision medicine taught us that the average patient does not exist. N1 Philanthropy carries that same conviction to the people who make our missions possible, and it arrives at exactly the right moment. Chappell and Cooper have given fundraising its most important reframe in a generation.

Nathan Chappell and Gabe Cooper have identified significant challenges and opportunities facing all fundraising efforts—and provided an important roadmap forward.

N1 Philanthropy is essential reading for fundraisers at a moment when the age of AI is colliding with an age of unprecedented expectations for personalized experiences. Nathan Chappell and Gabe Cooper show us how to harness technology not to replace human connection, but to deepen it—creating experiences that make every supporter feel known, valued, and connected to the causes they care about. For fundraisers, the question is no longer whether this transformation is coming, but whether we are prepared to lead through it.

Philanthropy is at an inflection point. Working harder with the same tools and the same worldview will not address the challenges facing our sector. It’s essential to rethink the model itself. N1 offers a compelling vision for what comes next. Its premise is deceptively simple: there are no average donors, only individuals—each with a distinct story, motivation and vision for the impact they hope to create. For decades, foundations have inadvertently reduced people to segments, financial tiers and transactions. AI now gives us the opportunity to restore individuality and humanity without sacrificing scale. Simply, AI does not make our work less human but enables us to become more human at scale by redirecting time wasted on low value busywork to instead listen, connect and build relationships around shared purpose. Nathan and Gabe make it clear the future will not be defined by choosing between technology and humanity but by organizations wise enough to use one in service of the other.

Chappell and Cooper have written an essential guide to fundraising’s AI moment: clear-eyed about how machines can counterfeit connection, and genuinely hopeful about how they can restore it. Every nonprofit leader should read this before their next technology decision.

Generosity is truly a remarkable thing. I’ll never forget the day we received our first million-dollar donation and I’ll also never forget the first time a young child gave the contents of her piggy bank because she wanted to help those in slavery. Those donations, and every gift in between, are an act of sacrifice and a statement of hope for the future that person wants to create. N1 Philanthropy reframes how we think about each of these profound acts of generosity and points us towards a future where people are more connected to the things they care about and the things worth sacrificing for.

We often talk about delivering a ‘white glove’ donor experience. Nathan and Gabe show how to make it a reality. They reveal how technology and authentic human connection work together to help donors and partners feel truly known and valued. This isn’t a passing trend—it’s the future of fundraising. Ignore it at your own peril.