Ads will expand to fill all online spaces. Ads will inevitably come to both, it's just a matter of when they respectively need or decide to capture that profit and when they feel their users are sufficiently dependent so as not to be able to leave.
I don't think it takes pedantry to think advertising in order to solicit funds for a non-profit is still advertising.
If anything the criteria I would apply is does it diminish the user experience while attempting to motivate the viewer to act in a manner that benefits the advertiser.
May I ask why you do not consider it advertising? Is it because it is asking for donations? Because it is a non-profit? If so, why would those factors exempt them?
I am certainly not alone in thinking their fundraising campaigns are intrusive https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33175098
That’s quite different from shoving ads in your face where it doesn’t belong. Like an ad for Copilot on a YouTube video.
IMO it’s distinct.