Charity regulators have to “do double-time” to catch up with the shifting landscape of philanthropy, according to speakers at a conference here Tuesday.

“Our laws are designed for the 20th century, and that doesn’t quite work,” said Karen Gano, assistant attorney general in the Special Litigation Unit of the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office and president of the National Association of State Charities Officials.

Ms. Gano and other charity regulators and nonprofit experts spoke at the conference, which was planned by the Federal Trade Commission and Nasco.

Among the key forces that will shape the future of philanthropy are the growth of crowdfunding platforms, donor-advised funds, Giving Tuesday, impact investing, hybrid entities like benefit corporations, and alternative giving vehicles like the limited-liability company set up by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, speakers said.

“We already know that we’re somewhat behind the ball on regulatory issues, but now we’ve got all sorts of new future ideas coming to bear,” said Cindy Lott, director of nonprofit management programs at Columbia University. “They’re going to make all of us have to do double time in playing catch-up to get to where we need to be.”

Technology and Tradition

Marcia Stepanek, a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies and Rachel Hatch, research director at the Institute for the Future, led discussions of how immersive technology like virtual reality and the use of personal data for commercial purposes could shift the relationships between individuals and charitable institutions for better or worse in the years to come.

But traditional methods of fundraising are still very much on the minds of state regulators, said Alissa Gardenswartz, deputy attorney general for consumer protection in Colorado. Almost all of the major enforcement cases brought against charities have addressed those traditional methods.

“A lot of folks prefer to give through these methods,” Ms. Gardenswartz said, adding that such forms of solicitation “tend to target some of our more vulnerable populations when it comes to charitable solicitation.”

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The data backs that up.

Emerging forms of fundraising like social media and online solicitation are less likely to be regulated by state offices than are telephone, direct mail, in-person appeals, and fundraising events, according to a 2016 report by the Urban Institute.

Many of the legal and regulatory issues posed by social-media viral campaigns, crowdfunding, and hybrid entities that use their social mission to attract customers are still unresolved, said Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a law professor at University of Notre Dame.

For example, only about half of the states have laws addressing hybrid entities like B Corps, he said.

“Change is the number-one theme that the regulator community needs to take hold of,” said Art Taylor, chief executive of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. He urged regulators to collaborate more with each other, as they already are in efforts like the Single Portal Initiative, which will allow charities to register to raise money in multiple states through one system.

Mr. Taylor also suggested that watchdog organizations like his could help regulators navigate the fundraising landscape. By hosting this event, he said, the Federal Trade Commission is presenting “a signal and sign that we’re coming together more.”

A recording of the conference will be posted online.