r/nonprofit

Hi all,

I’ve been at a non profit (5m operating budget) for about 3 years now on the data and analysis side of things. Due to a number of circumstances I won’t get into, my team was tapped to also take on grant writing, with me being the main writer. While I have an advantage compared to and outside hire because I know the data and organization’s work well, I’m not going to pretend I know a thing about grant writing besides literally just reading past grant proposals we’ve submitted.

Tips, advice, anything is helpful. Thanks

Hallo zusammen ich habe die ein Gofundme zu eröffnen um etwas Hilfe bei meinem persönlichem Projekt zu bekommen. Habt ihr Erfahrungen mit Gofundme und worüber kann man sein Gofundme dann bekanntgeben und verbreiten?
Danke für eure Hilfe und Antworten

I am an Events Coordinator for the Development department in a local affiliate of a large, national non-profit that tends to be in the news a lot, and that people either support or hate. Because of this, we don't do typical fundraising events like galas (too much of a security risk), and stick to smaller donor hosted house parties. This has been great for engaging the 40+ audience, however, we really need to acquire donors from the younger generation (20s and 30s). Being 26 myself, I know that fundraisers at local businesses like bars, comedy venues, and cafes (among many others) attract that age range. There have been a couple of local places that have reached out to us to host these "third party" events, and they do really well as they don't require much, if any, work from myself/my department. I think it would be a great part of our strategy to have more of these events, to target a younger audience, but I'm not sure if it would be seen as rude or unprofessional to reach out to some local businesses myself and ask them to host these events. Has anyone done/are doing something similar? Any advice is much appreciated (:

Hi all, I am a member of a large nonprofit organization for women. Last night I went to the awards night for the organization. I was nominated for an award and had hopes of winning. I did not. The woman who won did a fundraiser with Glassybaby. The candle holders were sold to members with part of the funds going to the organization.

When I came home, I was told from an advisor in the organization that people who do fundraising are more likely to be recognized. So I started coming up with some ideas for fundraising. I am considering a few different fundraising types. I like the idea of a clothing or shoe drive. I found companies that do both. I found a local company that does the backend for the clothing drive and they pay the organization by the pound. I am also considering asking around at local boutiques to see if any would be willing to do a “fashion show” night or something of the sort. Basically I would get women there to shop and a percentage would go back to the organization. My last idea is through Lumen Field in Seattle. The organization staffs a food/beverage booth and is paid either by volunteer or part of the overall proceeds. I like these ideas because it is at least giving back to the community, besides the shopping event.

I am looking for something that I have a substantial part in leading. Curious what ideas you all have for fundraising that are maybe similar or different from my ideas. I am new to this organization and would like the visibility of a successful fundraiser.

Thanks for your input!

Hello fellow soldiers!

I’ve recently discovered this subreddit and was pretty intrigued to find that a lot of the all time top posts here share that non-profit organizations disregard pay equity. 

These conversations give me the impression/seem to imply that non-profit organizations do this intentionally or even unconsciously, and exercise a large amount of choice in this dynamic. I am posting here with genuine curiosity if that is the case in the majority of people’s experience? 

My belief has always been that non-profits‘ compensation offerings are extremely limited by the landscape in which they operate in, thus resulting in traditionally low pay. In my experience, position salaries are typically restricted by the patchwork of grants or foundations funding them. 

I have built budgets for government grants and received dodgy answers about asking what is the highest amount we can pay for a new hire in our direct service positions. 

I have been told by foundations that they do not like to see an organization’s operating days exceed 180. 

I constantly see a philanthropy culture hyper-fixated on low overhead costs. 

Given these hurdles to funding, I feel that I’ve been made to understand that non-profits provide low pay because of the awful funding models they operate in and that if they could do better, they absolutely would. I also understand there are organizations that absolutely make inequitable decisions, and wonder if I’m just being naive about how often this happens? I have only ever worked a small local non-profits with 30-100 people.

I’m all for collective bargaining, however, even with organizations that unionize, does the org’s revenue not still remain the same?

If possible, please state your experience with building organizational budgets. If you’re able to, consider the pay ratio between the ED and lowest-paid employee and how that might compare to a for profit org’s ratio of similar size.

Last note here: Please control your answers for the things that non-profits very clearly do have full control over like workload balance, 40 hour work weeks, and PTO accrual rates. If you’re being made to work over 40 hours regularly for low pay, made to feel guilty or not encouraged to take time off, that is objectively inexcusable in this industry. 

Thank you in advance for your perspectives! 

I have started a small non-profit. I am very fresh to the game, and I understand there are mixed feelings about the need for D&O insurance.

In past forums, it seemed to be a mix of people who said it was required, despite it being a large portion of the overhead expense, as a legal safety net. While others argue that it depends on the level of risk posed by your services.

I wanted to get any opinion.

We are a small team that provides biannual climate kits for extreme weather (Ice events/prolonged 100+ heat) to the unsheltered population here in DFW.

We also advertise more permanent services from local community programs and churches(how we get our funding)

We had a successful winter pilot phase, expanded, and are aiming to provide kits to 25% of the unsheltered population this summer.

Given that our kits only include safety, hydration, and hygiene items, community flyers, and that the target population is homeless, should we get insured?

We give about $3,000 in supplies yearly, but there is a lot of room for growth

If so, what's the practical solution?

As I said, any opinions or recommendations are welcome.

Does anyone else work in a support role and feel absolutely invisible? I work for the local foundation of a larger system, and we’re a two person team. I support our Executive Director, and lately I’ve really been struggling with how invisible I feel in the role.

From the board’s perspective, I’m seen as - the person who orders food and prints papers - and the only acknowledgment I get is for things that completely downplay the actual scope of my work. Meanwhile, ideas I develop are presented by my ED and naturally get associated only with him. And frankly, he seems happy to receive all of the acknowledgement.

The hard part is that behind the scenes, I’m doing far more strategic work than anyone realizes. I develop and structure our agendas, create stewardship concepts, prepare talking points, shape messaging, coordinate projects, and help drive the overall direction of a lot of what we do. But none of that is visible externally, so people assume I’m just handling the basic logistics.

I came from a leadership role where I led teams and ran meetings. Now I leave meetings feeling awful because I barely feel acknowledged as a professional in the room.

I think my ED does appreciate me, which I value, but it still feels discouraging knowing no one really knows how much of the work I’m behind.

Am I just being a baby? How do you navigate this without becoming bitter or losing confidence in yourself?

Recently, our board terminated our Executive Director without any staff knowing the plan. This goes against a lot of staff wishes, as our director was well-liked and had been doing a lot for the organization.

Our board has consistently been a problem. We had board members who were also active volunteers who would verbally harass staff and would forget that there was a power imbalance in the positions and make staff jobs harder by going against staff recommendations. They regularly have refused to approve things that would actually help staff and have caused a lot of issues with process improvements and huge projects that are very needed. And more.

I feel as though the board is acting contrary to what is best for the organization and staff. Is there some way to report them to some authority or demand some an external review without harming the organization as a whole? It's ridiculous that they can seemingly do whatever they want contrary to what staff wants.

I left a career in tech and want to help nonprofits - not complete volunteer (the Techsoup or other volunteer approaches are not what I'm looking for) but also not looking for a high paid consulting gig. So I can work for a low/fair price that I think would be affordable.

My skills are in the area of CIO/CTO. I can help with a broad range of tech stuff (and have hands on experience so it isn't just nebulous "strategy". I'm not interested in doing day-to-day maintenance (like websites or databases) but can pinch hit in this area. This likely eliminates a lot of small nonprofits but I'm open to it if they were - I do have a target criteria but am also flexible.

But the question is how to connect with nonprofits that need this work. I've got some ideas and have already tested some (reaching out through my network for example), but a lot of it has been a bust. Most people who want to connect me with a nonprofit end up ghosting me and a few experiences with nonprofits show that it's a slow process (which is fine). I've thought of cold-calling but that seems like a dicey path - I suspect there are a lot of sharks trying to syphon big $$ from this group. If I were at a nonprofit I'd likely have my auto reject button constantly getting pushed.

It seems like there is a large need for this (for one thing to avoid getting burned and having their data held for ransom), but if not I can come to grips with giving up on the dream. I saw one post about a person looking to do something similar for CFO and that was semi-helpful but I'd like to get opinions on the more technical C-roles.

Recently there was a huge donor meeting at our office. It was business as usual for others. A bunch of people were presenting their project in a conference room. Unfortunately the area had a power cut, the backup power has limited capacity and does not last for very long.

So, people decided to switch of everything other that the electricals in the conference room. Everyone seemed to be perfectly fine with it like its the norm. It was a very hot day btw, and we were all sitting with no AC or fan just so the more important people in the conference room are not disturbed.

I found this quite disrespectful. Its just a very toxic power dynamic that they are fostering.

Have you experienced something like this before?

Ok, this is something that has been going on for some while but seems to be getting weirder/more frequent recently.

I'm in an extremely small NP and most days it's only myself and ED onsite. ED is in my opinion grossly incompetent (doesn't understand some *really* basic things about 501c3s, refuses to follow retention schedules in the interest of just getting rid of "old" things, etc). Then there's the treatment of vendors, which has been appalling - talking down to and sometimes outright shouting at their CSRs, to the point that some of them have had upper level/C-suite leadership tell ED not to contact them again. I can't tell you how many times I've heard calls on speakerphone in which the other party ended up saying some version of "I can't continue with this call if you keep using that tone with me". Another employee had to go to the executive committee about being accused of insubordination for asking how to do something a new program. I, apparently, am considered the "friend" employee and (so far, because narcissists are only nice while they think they can use you) the narcissistic bullying hasn't been directed at me.

But being the "friend", I also get told about all kinds of *weird* things that seem to happen to ED on an astonishingly frequent basis. Like random strangers (or members!) hitting on ED. This is said with an almost boastful tone and often happens several times a week. It's starting to weird me out, being "confided" to about all these people who appear to be sexualising the ED so routinely. But there's certainly nobody else around to verify what I'm hearing and if I raise something to leadership it's obviously not going to be anonymous. And then there's the fact that I'm pretty sure none of these incidents are even occurring anyway because I think ED is some kind of compulsive liar, given some other things I see, hear, and have had contradicted.

I'm actively looking for a new position elsewhere anyway, for reasons too numerous to get into, but I'm sure I don't need to point out how futile that's been over the last year. Even I think the best advice is to deal with it until something else comes along, but given the laundry list of issues this ED has displayed (oh, there's WAY more than the stuff mentioned above!) is this getting into the realm of a sexual harassment concern that *shouldn't* be shrugged off? To be frank, I don't feel "harassed" and I also don't want to bring it up if it's only going to result in my losing my "protected status" and having to deal with the ugly side of ED's personality disorder, but where's the line here...?

I don’t think I can hack it anymore. Unfortunately 8 years of experience in the field and it’s probably the job that will pay me the most based on that. I have a horrible commute and wear 7 hats at my org for decent but not great pay and benefits.

I like working with donors but it seems like i have to do so much other work that I don’t have time to spend it with donors.

I’m burnt out and don’t want to do for profit sales either.

Maybe I’ll find a major gifts role closer to home but I just can’t see myself doing this for another 8 years, but I feel like I don’t even have the time to search for what I might do next because I’m always tired.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Hi all, hoping to get some views from anyone with trusts and foundations experience.

I've recently joined a charity and am developing a capital application to a well-known foundation that has funded us previously. I've identified someone who sits on the foundation's advisory board and is also independently known to our charity. I'd like to reach out to them before submitting to sense-check fit and get their candid view.

The only contact details I have are their home address and phone number, found through their own separate charitable trust's charity commission details. He's old school and doesn't seem to have an email address.

Do you think calling him at home is appropriate? It feels like an invasion of privacy given that I'm not calling him about his own trust. My other thought was to send a letter with my details and suggest he gets in contact.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Joan: Hello?

Me: Hi, this is Rachel from XYZ.  I’m trying to reach Joan Smith.

J: Yes?

Me: Do you have a few minutes?

J: Depends.

Me: Well, I’m the Development Director at XYZ and I’m reaching out to some of our donors. I was hoping we could chat a little. [Pause] Did you get my letter a couple of weeks ago?

J: I don’t remember getting it.

Me: Well, I was hoping to chat and to learn a little more about you. I know you’ve done some of this work yourself.

J: Are you a fundraiser?

Me: Well, I’m the devel-

J: When was the last time I donated?

Me: Uh, 2023.  We’re still doing [this work] and as someone who believes in it, I wanted to get your perspective. But I’m not calling to ask you for a donation. 

J: That’s a surprise.

Me: Yes, I just wanted to—

J: Look—I’ll make a donation. Where should I send it to?

 

UGH. This was kind of my worst nightmare about making these calls (except for the donation part). I have never done real major donor work before and am taking a Veritus course. But I can't get comfortable with it.

Hey everyone,

I work at a small, regional office that is part of a much larger national nonprofit.

We’re a small team that has only gotten smaller over the 3 years I’ve been here (people quitting & never being replaced, layoffs, etc) and as a result, many people in my office wear many hats.

This includes our HR director, who is also the VP of our local office and the head of our Operations team. I really like her as a person, but I don’t know how thoroughly she’s been trained as an HR Person so I’m coming to Reddit for advice.

I’m pregnant and my due date is next month (June 2026). The HR director told me that my maternity leave is covered by the national organization and will provide 100% of my pay for the first 6 weeks of leave and 60% for the second 6 weeks.

When I asked if I’ll need to submit FMLA Paperwork, she said it wasn’t needed and I’d only need a note from my doctor saying the baby was born.

I’m worried about NOT submitting the FMLA paperwork even if I’m not getting any financial assistance from the federal government. Doesn’t the FMLA paperwork give me job protection while out on leave? If I need to take a sabbatical or need to extend my time out of the office, doesn’t FMLA cover me from retaliation or dismissal?

Anyone who has more knowledge and experience in this field PLEASE help a very stressed and chronic overthinker figure out what I should do so I can breathe before the baby comes lol

I recently attendee the NACCDO (National Association of Cancer Center Development Professionals). It was a great conference but at every corner they were talking about AI. It was a drinking game at some point. If you are using it, what has been helpful or overhyped? We use it at my organization and will expand.

*don't think this question breaks any rules - but they will tell me.

Hello everyone!

Recent grad here, about to complete one year working for this nonprofit. We got the grant for my position from the county and my contract will be renewed for another year. (Fixed term- yay!) however the director sat me down and proposed that instead of working 40 hours, I work 32. (Fridays are remote work) he said something about budgeting and “making room” and wants me to think about it and get back to him on Thursday. This is my first ever “real” job and I don’t want to do anything to rock the boat, especially because it’s on a yearly basis, but I also don’t want to make less money. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? Any help is appreciated!

Fellow non profiters, I'm looking to streamline a clunky manual process I inherited. We host a class 4-5 times per years that costs $. Currently people register through Google Forms, pay through Little Green Light, and then manual mayhem ensues.

We're looking for a single source solution starting with whether or not Little Green Light can be it.

But, do you have a software (not Salesforce) you use that satisfies these criteria:

1. Registration and payment in one platform
2. Registration cannot be completed without payment (non payment = abandoned)
3. Once registered/paid automated email sent for confirmation
4. Roster is pulled as a report rather than a manual spreadsheet
5. Optional: reminder emails based on drip campaign

Thanks!

Hi all, I work at a non-profit in a downtown area. We have up to 20 volunteers at any given event with around 280 events per year.

We’ve recently had some volunteers extremely upset that there’s no free parking available for them. Keep in mind, we are located just downtown with parking garages and metered street parking. Free parking simply does not exist, no local businesses will allow use of their lot, and if we were to pay for their garage parking, we’d be looking at around $20k per year with extensive admin work.

Tl;dr, do you pay for parking or travel expenses for your volunteers to the one, regular location that all volunteer shifts take place at?

Title 1 School focused (and the cities, towns, and communities they reside in)

Programs: Snacks in classrooms, clothes for students, endowment to continuously develop programs for school specific needs (think school clubs/programs), emergency funds for teachers and families (flood/fire/DV/etc).

Marketing/Advertising: "Traditional" methods, shying away from the "social media void", and attempt to drive "organic" traffic to a website. Sponsoring youth sports clubs, leagues, and teams (2 fold approach in which it's mission oriented and places "eyes on org"). Guerilla marketing campaigns with local artists. Radio spots and local billboards.

Community Tie-ins: Regular and continuous local community x-promotions and partnerships. Eg, 25% of today's take goes to Xxxxxx org. Within the community, and a part of fundraising would be to have a constant stream of events. Whether it's golf, paddleball, 5k+, dog meets, whatever. Be seen, not so much as heard. Kind of like that steady parent that doesn't need to talk so much, but you can always count on them being there.

Partial self sustainment: Org owned and operated micro businesses. Whether it's f&d or "retail", I believe there's a way to run a popup "clothing thrift store" that recycles already graded used clothes. Or a coffee Co that is active at markets, but also looks to find a foothold inside hospitals for example (instead of your regular corp).

I want the organization to be seen, as it should be, in the community on a constant basis. Not slipping by you, as you've passed your 2000th image/video for the day, and hope it sticks.

I come from a supply chain background, but have been lucky enough to take part in quite a few industries, as well as touch points within small, med, large, and global operations.

For an NPO, I would want to run as lean as comfortable, be swift, adaptable, efficient, and most importantly effective. With as many arms as this potentially could have, what are NPO professionals feedback on the general idea itself, as well as what/who would be key to bring on in a quick fast and a hurry.

Ps. Part of the motivation behind this, is to be able to run an organization that doesn't "dilly dally." Doesn't stroke egos, and is ALL ABOUT THE MISSION. I don't need, nor do I want to play the traditional game. We wouldn't be doing galas, if we need to raise money for the community, we will be doing in the community as a community, not a separate classes kinda thing.