Derric Bakker

I help nonprofit leaders reimagine how fundraising and organizational effectiveness actually work in today’s environment. After more than three decades in the nonprofit sector—as a practitioner, consultant, and business leader—I’ve come to believe that many legacy nonprofit models were built for a different era, and are now producing diminishing returns. Not because they were wrong, but because the conditions that made them effective have fundamentally changed. Delivering outcomes today requires a shift to more modern systems, integrated execution, and scalable infrastructure, not just better advice. I currently serve as CEO of DickersonBakker, where I lead a team of 50+ full-time professionals working with organizations across the country helping them chart a Better Way to fundraise, strategize, develop leadership, and build talent. That work gives me a front-row seat to the pressures nonprofit leaders are facing: declining retention, rising acquisition costs, exhausted teams, and donors who are more selective than ever. Much of my recent writing and thinking centers on a single question: how do we preserve the human, relationship-based practices that make fundraising effective—while extending them beyond a small handful of donors? That question led me to write A Better Way to Fundraise: Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor, a book exploring how we an leverage AI and other emerging technologies to extend the principles of exceptional major gift fundraising more broadly and responsibly in today’s environment. The book will be released in April 2026. At heart, my work is grounded in a simple conviction: the future belongs to organizations that align how they fundraise, lead, and govern with how people actually behave—not how we wish they did.