Clear-eyed analysis of why nonprofit fundraising succeeds, why it fails, and who’s responsible.
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I Made Six Predictions for 2025. Here’s My Score — and What’s Coming Next
At the start of 2025, I made six predictions about where the nonprofit sector was headed. Now, halfway through 2026, it’s time to hold myself accountable — and tell you what I see coming for the rest Original article here: https://foundryfundraising.com/2025/01/03/what-i-am-watching-2025/ Nobody in this sector likes to be wrong. And I REALLY don’t like it.…
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You Approved the License. You Didn’t Approve the Work
It is June. For most organizations operating on a calendar fiscal year, that means one thing: the gap has arrived. Not the gap between what was planned and what was possible. That one has always been there. The gap between what the board approved in January and what the organization actually needed to make it…
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Growth Is a Symptom. Durability Is the Strategy.
The nonprofit sector has been using a word for decades as a substitute for thinking. The word is sustainability Ask a board member what it means. Diverse revenue. Ask a funder. Reducing reliance on grants. Ask an executive director working her third straight weekend because payroll is three weeks away. She won’t have an answer…
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The Parking Lot Conversation
A quick note before we start: this is the third piece in a series. The first two — Well-Being Theatre and The Sector Has a Language Problem — It’s Just Not the One You Think. This one says the things people have been waiting to argue with. There is a conversation happening in this sector…
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You Found a $1.5 Trillion Sector and Decided to Exploit It.
How’s That Working Out? Let’s start with what you got right. You already know the number: $1.5 trillion. You found it, you put it in your pitch deck, and you used it to make the case to your board that the nonprofit sector was an underserved market worth entering. You identified 1.8 million U.S. organizations…
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The Sector Has a Language Problem. It’s Just Not the One You Think
This piece is the second in a series. The first, Well-Being Theatre, made the case that the sector’s language around rest and sustainability is exactly that—language. The title was not an accident. Neither is the word “theater” in this one. If you haven’t read it, the argument that follows will make more sense if you…
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Your Technology Isn’t the Problem. Your Decisions Are.
What Nonprofits Get Wrong About Tech — and How to Fix It (Especially When You’re Small and Stretched) Most nonprofits think they have a technology problem. They don’t. They have a decision problem. I’ve spent more than three decades in this sector. I started in organizations that tracked donors on 3×5 cards — literal boxes…
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Well-being Theater
The nonprofit sector talks about rest. What it rarely does is build the conditions for it The nonprofit sector has become very good at talking about burnout. It has been far less willing to stop causing it. Over the past several years, the nonprofit sector has become remarkably articulate about burnout. Conference sessions on sustainable…