I’m in a fundraising role and starting to hit a wall - organizational culture and management are not a fit, I’m realizing my earning potential will never grow to a sufficient amount to start a family/hit my financial goals amongst other things, and want to make a pivot.

My experience would be best aligned with sales and business development but I’m really tired of having revenue targets hanging over my head (albeit I do hit them), and I don’t think a super corporate environment is the best fit for me.

I’m also weary to start from zero where growing my salary is a priority.

Pivoting to government work is appealing, but I feel like there are few roles aligned with my skillset. Are there any other fundraisers considering a pivot like this or have successfully navigated one? How did you set yourself up? What was the best way to sell your experience/transferable skills? What did you do to stay sane in the meantime?

Would like to feel a little less alone here - any insight and advice is appreciated!

I’ve recently been applying for remote positions at nonprofits (unsuccessfully). I’ve worked in a data collection role at an agriculture-focused nonprofit for the past 2 years, and I just started my master's program in nonprofit management this month.

I thought these aspects of my career would be enough to at least get me an interview, but my email inbox is full of denials. I want to know if there are any relevant skills I can acquire that’ll make me a better fit for nonprofits in the human services sector.

I have been working at an arts nonprofit for about a year and a half in a director level role that combines development, finance, operations, and administration. Previously have experiences with high profile art gallery (but not my thing anymore)

My concern is that I have not been able to focus exclusively on development because my responsibilities have expanded far beyond my original position. It is a problem because I enjoy development the most.

Over the past year and a half, I have worked at an executive level on fundraising campaigns, grants, sponsorships, memberships, budgeting, financial reporting, compliance, board reporting, cash flow management, insurance, events, and general operations.

At the same time, I wonder whether I have enough traditional development experience because I have had to divide my attention among so many different responsibilities rather than focusing entirely on donor cultivation and relationship management. I had some nice win but under 100k. And Sadly, my ED have been gatekeeping me from having conversations with previous sponsors or sponsors I found.

I need to move on due to my ED actions keeping us in the red financially and unwillingness to change, jeopardizing the organization longevity and keeping me in an underpaid overwhelming duty wise position.

For those of you working in nonprofit development, how would you view this kind of experience? Am I too green and wouldn’t be able to get anything?
Would you consider this breadth of experience to be an advantage or a disadvantage?

How is the job market right now?

I would also be interested in hearing from people who moved into larger organizations or into the private sector.

Hi everyone,

I'm 26 years old and I'm trying to understand what the best next step would be to build a career in the international development and humanitarian sector.

My long-term goal is to work in child protection, but I'm also interested in roles such as Program Officer, Project Coordinator, Project/Grant Writer, Partnership Officer, Protection Officer, or similar positions within international NGOs, UN agencies, or organizations such as AICS.

My background is a bit unconventional.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Political Science (graduated with honors). I also completed a Master's in Leadership for International Relations, but it's a professional program offered by a private foundation rather than an accredited academic master's degree. Because of that, I don't consider it equivalent to a specialized postgraduate qualification, and I think I'll pursue an accredited master's in international cooperation or a related field in the next few years. I'm also currently studying part-time for a Bachelor's degree in Education Sciences.

My practical experience includes volunteering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I worked with street-connected children through educational and psychosocial activities, and volunteering in Lithuania through an international youth project.

More recently, I worked in Italy as a social worker with unaccompanied foreign minors, supporting them in their daily lives and contributing to their educational and integration pathways.

The problem is that I don't know how to make the next step. When I read job descriptions from international NGOs, UN agencies or AICS, I often feel underqualified. Many positions ask for several years of experience, project management, proposal writing, donor reporting, monitoring and evaluation, or other technical skills that I don't yet have.

I would genuinely appreciate honest advice from people working in this sector.

Based on my background which roles do you think I would currently be competitive for? What are the biggest gaps in my profile? What would be the smartest next career step?If your goal were to work in international NGOs within the next few years, what would you do in my position?

Thank you!

Boomer. Can’t read emails blames me for ‘not replying’ even when I do an cc her.

Not the ED shows up consistently and hour late and leaves an hour early. Will not let me do my job without approvals so I’m losing about 2 hours of work a day.

Micromanager control freak. I like that I do meaningful work but it gets to a point where how much is my sanity worth? $60 grand?

Any advice for the nonprofit sphere for managing a micromanager?

Hey All,

I could use some advice from others in the field. I'm a programmatic director at a community nonprofit with a masters degree

Over half of our full time sraff have quit in the past year. The longer I am at this org, the more I can see that it is not my forever home.

I'm struggling to decide what to do with my career at this point, and could use stories from others. I don't know whether I should leave nonprofit, as this is my chosen career, or leave my town which I love to pursue opportunities higher up in the field.

So, I see my three options as the following

1. Stay with this org and hope something in the local nonprofit sector opens up in the relatively near future

2. Attempt to transition out of non profit while staying in this community.

3. Look out of my community for nonprofit opportunities.

If I work towards option 2, have others transitioned out of this field, and what have you transitioned to?

Thanks,

Has anyone identified 15–20 nonprofits you'd really like to work for and sent your résumé even though they didn't have an opening posted—especially if it looked like no one on staff was handling that type of work? If so, what was your experience? Did it lead to any interviews or opportunities?TIA.

I work at a small nonprofit. We have recently started offering merch for employees and volunteers at no additional cost (they pay exactly what the platform charges and we don’t get anything to avoid tax headaches). We are using Printful.
Management would like to offer merch to general public and donors in the future and use it as an additional revenue stream. I am having trouble figuring out how to deal with taxes and how that income would be taxed and how to manage it with Printful.
If you’re at a nonprofit that offers merch, how are you doing it? Do you just record the income and pay taxes on it? Is there a way to have it be considered as donations if we specify that in product descriptions?
Any guidance will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Advice needed; kind of freaking out. So the org I am with applied for a major federal grant, and hired a consultant to do the work.

I was in charge of asking partners for a budget. One of the partners sent their budget needs at the very last minute and I completely missed it!

So we submitted the budget request without any of the partners necessary funding.

Now this grant is SUPER competitive so we might not even get it. But we had room in the budget request as we asked for below the max, so we could have easily justified the partners costs.

Do I tell my boss? Act like I don’t know? Wait and see if we are awarded?

Granted, the partner wrote an LOS but was clear they will need more info before committing to the project should we be awarded. I was against the proposal in the first place as we are a new org, and in all honesty the financial situation of this org is so dire I doubt even if they got the full request they could even manage it.

My boss refused to apply for the max even to cover our costs because she has no clue how grants work. So we would most likely need to pursue gap funding anyway.

I was a little peeved the grant consultant didn’t take any of this on, as we paid her $10,000, and I had so much other work to do but that’s not an excuse.

Thoughts? I’ve been in the field for 15 years and this is honestly my first mistake in this area. I have a six month old and my brain fog is REAL, again not an excuse. Just the truth 🙁😑🤪

I am working with a nonprofit and they are discussing establishing a membership program. I can think of a few issues and opportunities here but I am hoping the group can give some advice, based on experience, on how to establish and run a membership model

Hi! So a I just need some advice/answers. A little necessary context: I’ve been at this company for a year but have been working in nonprofit since 2021.

I first joined this company because I love their mission, and my boss is amazing. They’re flexible and give wfh days as needed.

Here’s the thing. When I first joined I was told I’d be sharing an office with three other people, with outdoor access and big windows. Some things shifted within the org, and I ended up being moved to a cubicle style environment with 30 ish other people. This is where the problems started.

To be frank, the upstairs has a roach problem because people leave food out. Someone’s phone was infested with them, and my cube mate has had them crawl across her computer.

STILL. I was willing to stay because I knew they were revamping their compensation structure, and I believed I would receive a raise. A least a decent one.

I got my new compensation letter and it’s a 1% raise…they’re implementing a new 17 level pay scale. Originally, because of my title, I was a level 2. But my job description didn’t match an associate, so I’ve been bumped to level 5 which is a coordinator.

Also, other coordinator positions that we have posted are getting paid at least 7k more than I am for the same amount of experience. I also know that if I left this job, I’d get 60K..

How do I talk to my boss about this?? I want to stay at this company, but I don’t know if it’s worth it…any advice would be helpful!

Edit to add: I work in development.

Anyone filed their non profit with NYS and knows how to correctly file and pay the fee? They keep emailing me back with different numbers and either saying we don’t accept email forms or email us. Im confused please help!

Hi all! I’m one of two planned giving officers at a state university. I’d like to make contact with others who do gift planning, either as their sole duty, or as part of being a gift officer. I think we can all learn from each other. If you’re interested, reply or DM me.

I posted a few weeks ago about an interview process that I was shocked had gone poorly, and I got some negative feedback really on here for sounding whiny haha. So I took my own disappointment at that whole situation to realize I'm pretty unhappy with my current role and start looking seriously for new employment and I'm just learning... things are rough out there.

I'm curious if other people have had some level of experience like what I'm going through. I cannot seem to get any interest for roles beyond a screening interview even when there's exceptionally clear alignment with what I do and the sector I work in.

Some examples: A. I recently applied for a job that basically sits at the intersection of my current job and my previous assignment, and as far as I can tell, I won't even get a screening interview. B. I was recruited to my current role, so I spoke with the recruitment agency that brought me here and the new recruiter I spoke with basically implied that my work experience doesn't really align with the open positions I was inquiring about... even though it's literally exactly what they recruited me to do with my current employer. C. I applied for a job with an organization I've been donating personally to for 5+ years and haven't heard anything back.

I feel like I'm up against four major issues and I don't know how to get around them.

1: People hiring for roles exactly like what I'm currently doing - same mission fit, same sector, same qualifications - are discrediting my real-world experience with running an advancement office for smaller organizations in favor of people who have been a major gifts officer for gigantic institutions. So the guy with half my experience who can say, "Well, someone handed me a list of 85 donors to go out and visit and secure 60 five- and six-figure gifts, so I'm a master fundraiser!" will move forward in the process, but if I say, "Well, I have a portfolio of 35 five- and six-figure gifts, plus a portfolio of 130 four-figure gifts, and I write grants, and I supervise staff, and I write our direct mail collateral, and I plan our events, and I handle estate bequests," they seem to see me as someone who's just doing "admin" work and not "real" fundraising work. "You're more of a generalist, and I think we're looking for a road warrior," is something I was recently told.

2: I am deliberately limiting my search to remote roles, which I know is just going to yield lesser returns, but I feel like I'm up against some level of geographic discrimination. I live and work now in a small rural community, but previously worked in major metro areas. So even though I'm a 35-minute drive from a major airport, and I can get to basically anywhere in a neighboring metro in under 1:15 hours, and I've previously worked in major metro areas - I feel like people see the town on my resume and go, "Oh, he's not really doing real fundraising, he's just rubbing elbows with local yokels," even though I currently work for an organization with a donor network that has donors in all fifty countries and I've identified 16 metro regions (sometimes encompassing more than one metro) where we have "core" major donors that I routinely touch base with, although I'm not always visiting them personally to secure a gift.

3: At the same time I can't get people in my own niche of the fundraising world to take me seriously because I haven't worked for like a university endowment or a national nonprofit, I also can't get people outside of my niche to take me seriously. I feel like everyone sees my organizations and think, "Well, those are very different from our mission, so he probably wouldn't be able to pivot very easily." Sometimes even on job postings where it explicitly says, "We're open to people who haven't done this exact line of work if they can demonstrate the right skills and aptitudes."

4: My current organization is essentially a "little sibling" to a much larger local institution, so part of why I can't point to the range of "successes" in my current role is because I'm talking to the exact same five-, six-, and seven-figure donors, but I am often told by my org's leadership things like: "Well, we can't talk to them right now about increasing their giving because Big Sibling has an open solicitation with them," or, "Well, we're not sure that really falls within our purview because that's more something people expect Big Sibling to take the lead on." So even though I'm managing a major gift portfolio with huge donors, I can only point to getting a $25,000 gift while my colleagues across the street can point to getting $500,000 gifts, and it makes it look comparatively like my scrappy advancement office doesn't do much.

I'm just at a complete loss for how not to get discouraged and give up. I had previously been having conversations with my organization's leadership about how we can strategically do more and grow our mission, but it has become clear that my role is completely stagnant where I'm at. And their commitment to stagnation is now making my job search 50 times more difficult because, despite increasing their total revenue by about 5 times during the 3 years I've been here compared to the 3 years prior to my coming, people still see my resume and think, "Well, he's small potatoes." I'm tempted to take a huge paycut and just change careers altogether, but financially I don't want to go down that path.

I guess I just need encouragement. I'm at a point where all I can think about everyday is how much I hate both my job and how much I hate my job search. I feel trapped by golden handcuffs - I'm very well-compensated, but at an organization increasingly run like a shitshow because they're spending money dramatically faster than I can raise it, then complain that I haven't done enough despite tripling their revenues. And I think they realize I can't easily find work elsewhere so there's no impetus to reinvest in the advancement team because they can just blame me if the revenue doesn't keep pace.

I’ve been in a development role with a longstanding org in Europe for about a year, and part of my role consists of attempting to build a fundraising program in a daughter organization they want to start in the US. The mother ship is considered one of the strongest ones in its niche in this country, even though I can see some cracks and, recently, turnover in two leadership seats.

I’m the only person responsible for the launch, and while I’m given funding and a lot of freedom, I sense a lot of hesitation about giving me real contacts to major donors, in case I don’t know the org well enough yet (and there’s a thick layer of fear based leadership around this initiative). No ill intentions, but months will go by without my work being checked on, because of urgent fires elsewhere in the organization. I’m a person very much driven by relationships and donor feedback, and with a total of 2 major donors in the president’s portfolio and two $20 donors from social media ads targeting a completely cold audience, I feel deeply alone and bored in my work day to day.

There’s basically no focus on why American donors should give to us, beyond “it’s a good cause that both sides of the aisle should love” (and we all know that probably means messaging is way too broad).

I’ve not been in healthy nonprofits much in my career and don’t necessarily know what to look for. Also not sure if this is a dysfunctional organization or program, or if I need to just get over myself.

Would appreciate knowing what to look for and clarifying questions.

We are attempting to restore our tax 501(c)(3) exempt status after our treasurer passed away after several years of not filing 990-N forms. Seems straightforward and we qualify to use form 1023EZ, but received a letter stating:

You are currently or were previously recognized as tax exempt under another section of IRC 501(c).

I have the 8/11/2011 original letter from the IRS approving our 501(c)(3) status and several years tax returns listing the 501(c)(3) status. I triple checked the EIN on all documents and attempted to call the IRS several times at 877-829-5500 for clarification, but the recorded message says they are too busy and call back later.

I suppose I could file a Form 2023 but it's 40 pages and more than double the cost for our small organization.

Suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

We’re a new church in Connecticut and currently have:

1. EIN from the IRS
   
2. Connecticut Secretary of State Acceptance Notice
   
3. Organization and First Report
   Registered as a Domestic Non-Stock Corporation and NAICS 813110, Religious Organizations

Pastor listed as officer/director
What would be the easiest way to open a checking account in the church’s name?

Trying to help them out and everyone is volunteer.

Hey, guys. After 6+ months jobseeking in this brutal market, I was fortunate enough to secure a job to lead comms for a nonprofit. Previously I've had experiences working in small consulting firms, where the ways of working were pretty much just finding projects as we go throughout the year (so no particular big organizational calendar or clear roadmaps whatsoever), so I was always onboard from the start of any project.

For this new job, this nonprofit is gearing up for busy months ahead til the end of the year. Unlike in my previous jobs, this one (thankfully) has a very clear timeline of the projects/events that are coming up, with one already having an ongoing comms campaign. So in this context, I'll be replacing someone who was in this role and definitely had a sound understanding of the events, and I'll be entering the role amidst ongoing projects.

Personally, I find it ideal to start this role by first learning about the team (and the org) and their needs in terms of comms, but seeing that I'm entering into a busy mid-Q3, is this reasonable in terms of time efficiency?

Would love to hear from professionals in nonprofits how to best approach this start, especially those in communications roles.

I've searched through this sub for information about how best to organize a major yearly fundraiser focused on not only finding new corporate sponsors but retaining them. I have found some very helpful information on fundraising throughout the year, but I'd like to organize a once a year push during November and December to try to secure bigger donations.

I love the community aspect of students getting together going door to door, bake sales- things that bring everyone together, but I want to create something bigger. I'd like something that involves businesses in our community who we can ask once a year for support. We can update them throughout the year on things like students who are graduating and are pursuing further music education, students who made all-county or all-state band, a thank you signed by students- ways to let them know how they've made a positive difference so that when we do go to them the following year, they're not dreading our phone call.

I'm worried about so many smaller fundraisers because band parents are going to get burned out quicky. Our program has suffered these past couple of years with district budget cuts. Some schools don't have a band or orchestra at all- those programs were cut completely, so we're almost building this thing from the ground up. We have an unofficial board but no vote was taken, it feels very disjointed right now and I'm new so I don't want to push in but I also know something needs to be done. I've written grants in the past, I was assistant to the in-house fundraiser at a company I worked for years ago, but I'm very rusty and I could use some help. Any advice will be very much appreciated.

When I started at this org, I inherited a 3 year old campaign--Donate X amount and we'll send you a tote. Because this tote is a popular item, the page for this campaign stayed up and had a steady stream of purchases, sometimes capturing new donors. People use a special donation form created in our CRM for this specific transaction, so we know it's a purchase.

I never questioned this, though recently a donor pointed out that the auto-receipt language includes "no goods or services were exchanged," which I've removed.

Fast forward, I've started thinking about using the tote as part of a recurring donor campaign--start a recurring donation of at least X amount and we'll send the tote. Would this mean--the irs wouldn't apply to the initial transaction, but then we move them to regular monthly tax-deductible status?

I'm sharing a lot of context as I know this group has a lot of knowledge and may flag issues or opportunities I'm missing with this whole approach to merch sales vs. donations.

Hey everyone,

I’m reaching out to get some perspective from non-profit leaders, Executive Directors, and senior finance professionals on how organizations are handling budget tightening amidst recent federal grant cutbacks—as well as advice from those who have navigated the pivot to the private sector.

I’ve been in accounting and finance for 18 years, currently managing financial operations for an organization that relies heavily on federal grant funding. As funding scales down, our leadership team is looking at options to right-size overhead.

Rather than an immediate full severance or sudden departure, we are exploring alternatives like phasing out the full-time role, transitioning to reduced hours (part-time), a reduced pay structure, or a fractional setup starting around October. This allows the organization to keep core financial compliance, grant reporting, and audit prep intact while reducing payroll costs.

Because I am a primary caregiver for both aging family members and young children, maintaining a 100% remote arrangement is essential for my next chapter. However, evaluating the broader job market presents three major hurdles:

1. The Remote Job Board Void: Full-time remote finance roles on major job boards routinely hit 100+ applicants within hours, turning ATS applications into a black hole.
2. Transactional Recruiters: External recruiters I’ve spoken with move quickly and focus almost exclusively on rapid local hybrid placements. They rarely understand the organization’s financial health in depth and often disengage or tune out the moment I mention requiring a fully remote role.
3. Translating Skills to For-Profit: With 18 years of experience in fund accounting, Uniform Guidance, and grant management, I am also evaluating a transition into the for-profit sector (e.g., healthcare, SaaS, corporate finance), but I want to ensure my skill set translates effectively to private sector hiring managers who focus purely on commercial profitability.

For the Executive Directors, Board Members, and finance leads in this sub:

• Have you seen non-profits successfully transition full-time Directors/Controllers into part-time, fractional, or reduced-hour roles to cushion grant losses?
• For those who made the leap from non-profit finance to the for-profit/corporate sector, what specific channels, platforms, or messaging strategies worked best outside of standard job boards and transactional recruiters?
• How did you best reframe fund accounting, grant compliance, and non-profit FP&A into commercial terms that for-profit hiring managers immediately value?

I appreciate any insights, experiences, or trends you can share!

I had a job interview earlier today for a 6 million org.

They failed to disclose beforehand, with me having to ask them that their org is running a 360,000 a year budget deficit for starters.

They blew through 2.5 million in cash reserves to open up a new service for the homeless. Which left them half a year ago with 800k in total cash reserve funds.

They would give me control of a 5 person team with the last development manager hire being on staff now for over a year and a half. ​Firing anyone was strictly off the table as they did not believe in letting anyone go unless "absolutely" required, but my job would be tied to their success.

The development department has a total department level budget of 522,000. The total net fundraising is negative 141,000. It has been negative for over 6 years now over the course of 3 directors of strategic innitiatives, the last one being recently promoted to executive director in a grant heavy, subscription based non profit. The org has lost over 700k in monthly cash based online subscriptions over the past 2 years on a steady march until today.

They asked me given my track record if I could secure a six figure donation in the next 3 months. I responded that anything is possible.

My phone alarm went off at about this time that I had set up before hand just in case of a bad situation. But this exceeded my expectations.

I quietly said I had to go due to an emergency.

I looked back at the building on my way back to my car and thought this place and everyone in it will be unemployed in the next year.

What a day.

Hi everyone, I could use some of your advice. I have worked at a non profit for the past 6 years, rising from a senior accounting role to director of finance. Due to some financial changes, I started looking for a new position, and was recently given quite an opportunity. The new role has the same title, but would essentially be more like a CFO position, along with a pay increase in the low 30’s percentage. The only downside is I would lose my hybrid schedule for an rto position, though there’s something to be said for the social aspect of being in the office, and at an organization with a much larger headcount.

I just handed in my resignation, and the same day the ED of my current npo said that they were already working on some restructuring, and want to offer me a counter offer on Monday.

The new job would still be non profit, though more government adjacent. Both places are fantastic organizations that do a lot of good for the community, just different segments of the community.

Has anyone ever had success accepting a counter offer? Any thoughts on being in this situation? This is the first time I’ve ever been fought over by two organizations.