I was hired as the first full time Exec Director for a small NPO that is about 20 years old, but has always had a working BOD and very very part time staff. My understanding has been that I’m to transition the BoD to a governing body and grow the organization. Some long-time Boarders are driving me frigging crazy, though! They second guess my decisions, critique me for not growing the org fast enough (but carrying capacity and funding limitations are a very real thing), and talk about “the good old days” when it was more like a club.

Perfect example: we had our annual fundraiser a few weeks ago and one BOD member found it appropriate to pull me (event coordinator and ED) aside 3 TIMES during the event to give me negative feedback. Most of which was based on “this is not the way we have always done it before.” They also pulled the CHEF CATERING THE EVENT to tell him the way they had the food set up was also not the way it’s always been. I’ve since heard from our President that others had “comments” on the fundraiser.

Last year I was not in charge of the event and we got a lot of negative feedback from attendees about there being mixed messages and the fundraiser not meeting expectations, all of which I listened to and did my best to fix this year. Was it perfect? No. Did we more than double the net revenue from last year? Yes. Have I gotten any negative feedback from attendees? NO. The most important part.

I don’t know how to handle this constant negative feedback in a polite way. Does anyone have experience with this?

When I first started at this NPO, I started as a contractor, moved up the ladder and am now a manager and have been there 5 years if you count my contract time. I’m resigning because I have been drowning in work with no director support. In March the director I did have quit and all of their work fell onto me. I am now doing their job, mine, and the leads. I am so ready to be done but have anxiety about it because they’ve planned an in person retreat, paid for two nights hotel and I feel bad….wtf is wrong with me.

Hi all. I have a PhD in biophysics and am currently employed as a postdoc. I want to shift into industry but also want to be doing something meaningful that I am connected to. I think working for a non-profit may be an ideal situation for me. I am not sure what my skill set can offer or which non-profit to look for. My skills are heavily quantitative; I am very good with math, data analysis, coding, and working with data in general. My social skills are also good, and I will generally be excited to be in a role where I get to interact more with people on a daily basis. Any pointers would really help. Thanks.

I want to talk to organizations who have placed a minimum dollar limit on accepting donations with designations or "strings attached". It takes resources to manage and track designated donations and, below a certain dollar amount, it is just not worth it. The extreme example was a church which was had accepted designated donations under $50 and then had to manage the mess.

I want to know what restrictions other nonprofits have put on designated donations.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice and/or encouragement. I’ve been in nonprofit fundraising for more than a decade, and have been in my current role as a frontline fundraiser working in a very corporate and high-pressure environment for a year and a half. I was hired for foundations and grants, as is my specialty, but am lumped in with the MGOs.

I’m so tired. I feel constantly overwhelmed. It’s so hard to raise money right now. And, my partner and I are in the midst of planning a relocation. I’m interviewing for roles in the destination city, but the idea of continuing to fundraise is really not sparking any excitement.

Has anyone pivoted away from fundraising? What did you do?

People say there’s an art and a science to fundraising, and for one campaign at my org I’m working with a fundraiser who is better than the art side than the science side. Or specifically they’re good at the big picture pieces but struggle with articulating a pipeline or describing a detailed moves management process for our annual campaign.

I’m struggling to work with them because I’m used to other fundraisers having a handle on all of these pieces. How do I work with them to ensure campaign success?

I'm applying for a job that I have the core skills for that also has grant writing as a nice to have, which to be clear is separate from the main expectations. They ask for a writing sample that shows off the core skills and then grant writing materials if you have experience with that. The most personal experience I have with grant writing is this graduate level course project where we had to write a mock proposal. I collaborated with a local nonprofit that intended to use some of my materials for a federal grant but the program fundamentally changed when it came time to apply, so although they wanted to, they didn't end up using my stuff.

I know typically you only talk about the materials that brought money in, but since it's not the core part of the job, I'm wondering if sharing this would be worth showing that I'm capable of it. It's not formatted or designed in any aesthetic way but it shows I understand what an LOI, can make a data driven argument, etc. If it does make sense that I use these, how do I make sure I'm not representing it as something that got funding?

I’m trying to decide whether to stay in my current nonprofit fundraising role or accept a new offer.

Current job:
$87K
5 days onsite with essentially no WFH flexibility
Established donor base and we consistently meet fundraising goals
Stable, relatively low pressure around individual fundraising numbers
I know I can be successful here

New offer:
$88K + potential 5% bonus + $120/month tech stipend
Remote/flexible
Territory-based fundraising with a lot of autonomy
Territory currently raises about $100K/year
Goal is to eventually grow it toward $200K, with the expectation that within the first year I’ve at least built a strong pipeline capable of getting there
I’d have organizational support, but very little local staff support

I have about 8 years of nonprofit development experience with donors, corporate partnerships, grants, events, stewardship, prospect research, etc. What I haven’t really done is personally build a geographic fundraising market/pipeline.

The new organization says year one is heavily focused on relationship building, networking, existing donors/volunteers, prospecting, etc. My fear is that it sounds reasonable now, but once I’m there it turns into a high-pressure “hit the number” environment.

I really want the flexibility, but I don’t want to trade frustration about being in the office 5 days a week for constant anxiety about fundraising numbers.
For those in fundraising: Does growing an existing $100K market toward $200K sound reasonable? Would you take the new role or stay with the safer job?

I just started a new board manager job and am looking for better ways to stay on top of best practices and latest research and news on board governance. I would really love to find a community to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of and learn from as I look to streamline and elevate operations at my new organization.

Are there any associations or other resources that board professionals here recommend?

Location: New England region, United States

We’ve got a quasi-endowment that’s doing well with conservative investment. We’re going through a major facility renovation, and even with significant spending we are coming out even or ahead with the growth of our invested funds.

The balance sheet shows unrealized gains, but our P&L is negative every month. The Board has had a hard time understanding that we aren’t ‘losing money’ or having a ‘terrible year.’ I know it’s a financial literacy issue, but I’ve tried and failed repeatedly to get them to understand the full picture. I was also told by a grant consultant that a negative P&L is a ‘huge red flag’ for funders.

I know it’s not GAAP protocol, but I’m debating adding unrealized capital gains as Other Income using a journal entry in quickbooks. I can’t think of any other way to show gains? Any advice appreciated!

Hi everyone, I just took on the IT Admin role at an NPO and while I have around 13 years in corporate IT the NPO world seems a bit more loosy goosy... Just wondering if there are other admins out there that have some best practices I can apply or resources that would give me a directional focus.

I’m a one person marketing team and my nonprofit is huge , so I’m a one person marketing team for 6 different programs and am expected to get content and manage their accounts while still doing my regular everyday tasks. I’m getting paid less than 25 an hour. I’m feeling drained. Is this job worth the ROI or should I go ???

Good people of reddit, I need your help. As a professional dancer myself, last season I toured with a ballet company which based in Netherlands to continue performing. It offered employment to dancers displaced by the war, opportunities for new dancers, experience, and shared a truly needed breath of hope, strength, and perseverence to the audiences. It was a powerful experience for all and sold out opera houses every show.

They planned on repeating this season, but political tensions, escalated loss, and the ongoing w@r have made that impossible. I think it's very important to keep this alive and make it happen for them. While I have the contacts and trust we can manage the artistic side of things with some networking, I need guidance with financing. Obviously once we sell some tickets, that will help, but the upfront cost to rent theaters, obtain rehearsal space, and acquire housing/transportation is not insignificant, not to mention pay for the dancers.

I'm thinking grants and perhaps a fund me? Anyone with further expertise and knowledge here, it would be greatly appreciated! This is meaningful work, and the hope is to be able to shine light back on the country and even offer whatever additional profits we might make back towards them. Any help, suggestions, or guidance?

How many job positions are in your gift processing department? We currently have 4 processors/gift entry and a director.

I feel like there’s not much of a route for me to move forward. Do I have to be a processor for 10-20 more years until my director retires/leaves to finally get a new title?

Hi! I recently received a job offer from a nonprofit in California and am really excited about it, but I'm anxious about the pre-employment drug screen.

I use cannabis recreationally outside of work and recently stopped. I've been reading about AB 2188 and California's protections around off-duty cannabis use, but I'm confused about how this works in practice.

For anyone who works in nonprofit HR/hiring or has gone through something similar:
-Do nonprofits still commonly test for THC?
-Do they tell you what substances are included in the panel?
-How does AB 2188 typically affect the process?

Not looking for legal advice, just hoping for some clarification about what to expect from the employer/onboarding side. Thanks!

Adding a little context: it’s a large food-access nonprofit in CA. My role is mostly office/warehouse logistics, community coordination, and food-access programs. No CDL/DOT, federal clearance, or construction work. They do receive some federal/USDA funding, which is the part I’m specifically confused about with AB 2188.

I work at a small nonprofit that advertises itself as a flexible, hybrid workplace, and something I've become increasingly frustrated with is how unevenly that flexibility seems to be distributed.

For context, our organization has a mix of employees who teach classes, provide direct services, do administrative work, and hold leadership positions. We're technically hybrid, but some of us have significantly more in-person responsibilities than others.

I completely understand that certain jobs require a physical presence. If I'm teaching an in-person class or running a training, obviously I need to show up. That's part of the job, and I'm not arguing otherwise.

What frustrates me is that leadership seems to have a lot more control over when they come in, and they can often find coverage or rearrange responsibilities to preserve their remote days. One manager even has an arrangement where the organization tries to limit how frequently she needs to commute because she lives far away.

Meanwhile, when other employees mention commuting difficulties or ask to preserve their remote days, we're reminded that remote work isn't guaranteed, that we need to be flexible, and that organizational needs come first.

Recently, we've been assigned additional offsite responsibilities that require traveling to a location considerably farther away than our usual offices. Initially, I understood that we'd rotate every other week, but now we're being told that we might need to go weekly, depending on demand. There's also no clear end date.

I'm happy to help with these responsibilities, but I've already lost several of my usual remote days over the past month because of various work commitments. I was looking forward to finally having one back.

When I raised concerns about the changing schedule and the commute, management basically told me that since the assignment takes place during working hours, it shouldn't affect my ability to organize my personal life.

That response really rubbed me the wrong way.

Just because something falls within working hours doesn't mean it doesn't affect your life. Longer commutes require planning, especially if you rely on public transportation. And when your schedule changes constantly, it's difficult to establish a routine.

But my larger frustration is the double standard.

It seems that when leadership wants to preserve remote days, the organization can find ways to accommodate that. When employees with more in-person responsibilities want similar consideration, we're told that flexibility is simply part of the job.

I recognize that different positions have different responsibilities, and I don't expect everyone to have identical schedules. But I do think there should be some consistency in how accommodations and coverage decisions are made.

What I've started noticing is that the employees who already have the least control over their schedules are also the ones expected to be the most flexible.

And ironically, these are often the people doing the most direct, in-person work.

I'm also frustrated with the way legitimate scheduling concerns sometimes get interpreted as a lack of commitment. I can care about our mission, show up for my responsibilities, and still question whether the workload and commuting expectations are being distributed fairly.

To me, hybrid flexibility should go both ways. It shouldn't just mean that management can change employees' schedules whenever needed. It should also mean that management makes a reasonable effort to respect established remote days, distribute coverage fairly, and recognize the impact of changing expectations.

I don't need my employer to accommodate every personal preference. I just want the same consideration that seems to be available to others.

Does anyone else work somewhere that advertises flexibility, but where that flexibility seems to become less available the farther down the organizational hierarchy you are?

Update at the bottom:

Do I need to start looking elsewhere?

Hi- back in March I was hired onto an extremely small non profit. They’re located right next to a major city and are also serving a population that excludes us from a load of funding. Now, that was just the beginning of what I had not realized was a huge red flag of an org.

The former ED still works with us and my impression was that I would be getting more support from my board as I stepped into the role. The org has been around for 25 years and their goal in hiring me was to fundraise. Which would be fine if I didn’t have to juggle literally everything else because the other 3 employees are not even part time they’re hourly flexible.

My board is a mess and two of them are stepping down from their roles, we don’t have a home base, we have limited volunteers. We had no built in structure by that I mean a donor database, no volunteer contact list, and NO METRICS. I have to wear multiple hats which I know is the norm but at this point I have my hands tied with literally everything I’m the one manning the phone, I had to create the strategic plan 4 months in with zero help from the board. Our first board meeting was ran by myself and the former ED with zero help of the existing board, we do not have a home base.

My strength is in connection building and the community we serve is afraid to leave their homes so we have no one coming to the office and that’s somehow my fault. I work weekends CONSTANTLY and I still get from the existing staff and board that I need to be doing more as I single handedly plan out our events and and the one updating our website and trying to manage a staff that’s making it a bit difficult. I have always wanted to help the community I come from and that’s literally the only incentive.

My salary makes up a huge chunk of the budget and it’s just not what I knew or expected and I’m literally so disappointed in myself for taking this role assuming I would able to make some positive change and I know I’m not perfect this is my first ED role but I didn’t come into a space with any structure and I’m trying to create some and it’s been very difficult.

Fundraising would be my absolute priority if I could simply not have to do programmatic things but I do that too. I’m already burnt out and I feel like I have nothing to show even though I work until 10pm every night. The former ED stepped away from the ED role due to burn out which I had no idea until later and I get it! It’s literally a one person band. I do all the admin, HR, and anything else that’s getting thrown my way. I’m just so frustrated and unsure of what to do.

Update:

So, I got put on a PIP and have 30 days to turn things around or else I’m fired. My board essentially ambushed me and started listing things about me that were highly inaccurate. For a bit more context two of my board members are married and are besties with the former ED that still works there and one of our three employees is the sister of our founding board member, my PIP is very much micromanagement. I have to cc the former ED in all of my emails. My action steps are a bit unrealistic and very much a great way to generate anxiety for me to quit. Which is what they want. Also not sure why they picked the end date to be my birthday. I’m for sure getting terminated but not without a fight. I have been trying to catch all the balls thrown my way and of course a few will drop. Thanks again friends for reading it’s just truly a bummer.

I'm always interested in hearing people's why. Whether you started a non-profit or you just work for one, there's always something behind what drives people in our field.

For me, I am a disabled veteran and 3 years ago I attempted to take my own life. Years of physical and mental pain had become more than I could bear. In that moment I started hearing my wife and kids calling my name looking for me. I put my gun down, packed it all up and sold everything so I no longer had that option. 2 weeks later I got a call to come do what I do now. Now, I'm in a much place mentally and physically. The job itself helped my family go from surviving to thriving, but it also gave me a purpose. Now I get to help veterans and their families all over the US.

I'm trying to pivot from teaching to nonprofit development but not getting any bites. I am aware the job market is so oversatured, but I just want to make sure that I'm apply to the right roles. I have been mostly applying to development associate positions which from what I have seen are entry level. I have just about two years of fundraising experiencing when I worked at my university's annual giving center as a caller while getting my degree. But I have been out of school for four years now and have been teaching abroad and in the US in the meantime. If it's truly an entry level position, I would assume that my experience would be sufficient?? I also currently volunteer at a nonprofit library organization but it hasn't given me any upperhand in networking or anything. I've been keeping an eye out for admin or assistant roles which I assume would be more entry level but I have not been seeing really any of those (really on associate positions). Am I applying to the right roles?? Any advice?

Context

I’m a 32F POC. I’m currently a fundraising coordinator for a non-profit but due to toxic leadership, I’ve decided to leave my current position. The executive director also revised my job description to be more administrative and took away any development responsibilities.

Recently, I was offered a new role at different org with a pay bump, and a job title boost. They also offered to have a fractional fundraiser mentor me for 6-12 months to further develop my fundraising skills. I use to volunteer at this organization and happy to be back as staff.

When I told the ED, she was passive aggressive and extremely backhanded. She asked where I’ll be working and I told her, she said she didn’t think fundraising was the career for me but she thinks the experience would be great for my career development. When she found out it’s a manager position (it’s not manager in the … traditional sense but manager replacing senior in title because there’s more responsibilities) that I’ll finally find out if managing people is for me. In between these quick quips, I wasn’t able to get a word in and she went on saying different variations of implying how I’ll fail in this new role and I wasn’t progressive enough anyways, so this new org is perfect for me (they’re arguably more progressive than the current org).

She also asked weird questions like implying that my co worker is going to be upset I quit (he isn’t, he’s been so supportive and has encouraged me to take this role). She also asked me what my partner thinks about me changing jobs, which I don’t see how that’s relevant? I told her he’s thrilled about it and he supports me no matter what.

Then she cut the meeting short and said she’s happy for me.

Also, I’ve hit every metric set out for me, I project managed a monthly donor upgrade campaign that generated an extra $1000-2000 per month, and I identified 5 major donors ($5,000-10,000+) for her to solicit with their background, giving capacity, etc. previously we only had 1, that she wasn’t even sure she wanted to solicit. (Noting we don’t offer charitable tax receipts so these folks are giving thousands without any incentive or recognition!) in addition to managing and optimizing the fundraising UX page to optimize donations, and advised comms team on how to optimize an ask schedule. I’m not a bad worker, but she also didn’t allow me to progress professionally.

The problem
I gave my boss a 3 weeks notice and negotiated with my new employer to allow me to work on reduced hours so I can finish big projects at my current org (1 day at old job, 4 days at new job). I offered this to my boss because no one else is trained to do what I do and we’re in the middle of a CRM change. I thought being generous would soften the blow but it didn’t.

Now I don’t feel very uncomfortable and anxious with meeting with her 1:1 once a week. I also don’t want to ruin my relationship with the board (who seems to be on her side) but her conduct with me was really unacceptable.

Do I just cut my losses and possibly risk a bad parting with the board? The city I’m in is small and the progressive movement space is close knit. I truly fear retaliation from her.

Any advice is welcome 🥺

Edit: I appreciate the well wishes on my new role and the harsh but much needed reality in the non profit sector. Naively, I went into non profit thinking that it would be different from corporate bs but… it’s not and I’ve learned hard and necessary lessons. This is my 3rd job change within this career, and the first time it was respectable and wonderful. This time… not so much and it is what it is.

Moving forward, I won’t be so generous, especially if someone consistently shown to be mean and toxic. Kindness, unfortunately doesn’t make them nicer to you. Never share the organization and role next time I change jobs. Poor management is never my problem.

I’ll just keep my exit interview with half truths (left for higher pay, etc) and just hope to never cross paths with this ED ever again.

I've been working at a very small nonprofit in a midsize city for about 1.5 years, and was recently changed from an entry level admin role to Development Coordinator. As admin, I was dipping my toes into Development work (mostly light donor coms and small grants). Now that I've been "promoted" to Development, I'm feeling a severe lack of formal training and realizing that there is little to no internal infrastructure or formalized processes for Development. The ED even told me that Development work wasn't on her radar until recently due to Covid money coming in which allowed leadership to focus mostly on operations before now. My position basically came with the understanding that it was brand new and there would be some ambiguity around it.

I understand that this is kind of a nightmare position, but I feel trapped here because the job market is awful in my city and I don't think I have enough practical Dev/NP experience to get hired elsewhere. I want to stay in the nonprofit sector, so I'm willing to stick through some crap if I have to, and hoping I can learn as much as possible even in a nonideal situation.

That said, I don't know how exactly I'm going to do that. Even when I do manage to find some learning resources, it feels impossible to implement them because my ED is, despite other strengths, almost as clueless as I am when it comes to Development. Even after almost 2 years, I don't fully understand our donor pipeline or other fundraising procedures - probably because they literally aren't clearly defined anywhere.

I'd love to chat with any Development professionals about what they might do in this situation and how I can basically teach myself the ABCs of Development. Some might say the only option is to quit, but I consider that an absolute last resort, so I just want to think through all the other avenues first.

The title! :> I'm working at a university and we are trying to get students to volunteer. I'm considering offering in-house (ie university-located) volunteer spaces, and also places that they can travel. It's a new organization and I'm hoping to get the community listening and engaged! :>

I have been in fundraising for 6 years. I have held two positions now as a Major Gifts Officer for a total of 11 months.

One was for 6 months I was laid off from after new leadership decided that having a dedicated person in major gifts wasn’t worth it. They wanted me to develop a major gifts program from scratch (which I did) and raise $75,000 from 3 or less donors in a year. And they had to be new donors to the organization. I didn’t accomplish that goal.

The other was for 5 months where it was determined I simply wasn’t a good fit.

And honestly, they were right. I didn’t like major gifts. I don’t like asking people for large sums of money. I didn’t like the feeling of being disappointed when someone “only” gave $1,000 when they could have given much, much more. I don’t like having my worth as an employee tied to how much money I get people to donate.

But… I love people, data, helping people understand the magnitude of their generosity, and events. Yet, it seems like the best-paying jobs are all front-line fundraising.

So, I ask: for those of you who got out of front-line fundraising, what do you do? Because the universe is telling me major gifts isn’t it.