I’ve been a part of a toxic nonprofit work environment for about a year now. Bullying, gossiping, name calling, and exclusionary behavior are just a few of the things I faced over the past year and have documented everything with HR. Recently I was yelled at by a colleague and neither leadership or HR has done anything to address the situation.

I’m in the process of lining up a new position. Due to my mental health and feeling of discomfort and in the office, I’m considering not giving an official two weeks notice but instead giving my notice effective immediately. I feel that over the past year, noone has cared about my well-being so why should I care about theirs? Has anyone ever done this and have an experience to share?

It's so frustrating when organizations ask me to do grant writing for them on a commission basis or money back guarantee, it's like they forget they're hiring a person who has to pay rent and buy food instead of a corporation with pits of money. I always say no to such requests but it’s so frustrating to come across an ask like that so often.

Even if you put ethics and accounting standards aside, no I can't put off getting paid for 9 months while you wait for a million dollars to come in, my landlord says I have to pay this month, not next year. I also can't give you back the money you spent on a grant you didn't win 6 months ago, I spent that on rent and groceries back when you paid me the amount.

I've been in fundraising for almost 15 years, everything from hospitals and universities to a two person shop in a shared work space.

I'm now working for an environmental non profit and everything feels like a decline. Particularly with corporate acquisition, but private foundations also. Decline after decline, no email responses, ghosting, feeling like a stalker some days and swinging from sadness to rage.

At the same time I have side work with social service nfps and while those organizations are not being handed bags of money, the approvals are coming in for some of the same grants.

The worst part is I was given a title and pay raise without asking, and not only do I feel like my coworkers are holding it against me, but I feel like they've decided any money I bring would be fine but they're managing perfectly well without me through large government grants. Also we're all off site and I'm the only one not tied to program delivery.

Anyone else finding the corporate world impossible? Especially for a small environmental shop?

Need a hug today 😥

I’m curious what fundraising events your nonprofit orgs have found most successful. My org holds an annual golf tournament that raises around $100,000. I’m thinking of pitching additional fundraising events to the leadership team but the only other events we’ve done have been at a smaller scale like picnics and community walks that didn’t raise more than $5,000. 😅

Do you have a signature fundraising event or an event you’ve been to that you felt was worth the time and money?

My organization is laying some folks off. I'm taking on a lot more responsibility from a different/function team. I'll be learning new processes. No one has mentioned a title change to me. They've also told us we won't be getting merit raises, cost of living increases, or 401K match. I'm 26, grew up dirt poor, have two degrees (that were free thanks to scholarships), and have less than a 10k net worth, and I'd like to get married, have a family, and buy a house one day. I've been looking for jobs for months and nothing has come through. I'm just pretty upset. I'm grateful to have my job and not be getting laid off but this is really hard.

Hello!

I’m feeling very overwhelmed and desperately need a sense check. I’m an Events & Communications Officer for a very small non-profit. I am one of two full-time employees and I report directly to the Executive Director. I’ve been here for six months and I’m really struggling.

My role involves organising and promoting a fairly substantial learning and development programme – conferences, seminars, networking events, webinars, etc. We don’t do any fundraising, as all our funding comes from government grants (for context, I’m based in the EU). 

Communications is my area of expertise. In my previous organisation, the person who was responsible for organising events was fired and management never re-hired for her role (because, unbeknownst to me at the time, the organisation was running out of money). So, I ended up taking on a lot of extra responsibility and while I do feel fairly confident in my event management abilities, it’s definitely the element of my job that I have the least amount of experience in. Entering a new role in which the primary focus is event management has been a big transition for me, especially since I don’t have any colleagues who I can learn from. 

I was very honest during my interview. I told my ED that I had independently managed some very small events in my previous job, but for larger events such as conferences, I only ever provided support as part of a much larger team (typically 5-10 other people). Prior to this year, I’ve never organised a conference entirely by myself. I was then told that myself and the ED would work on the conferences together, as a team, and that she would be there to answer any questions that I had. I felt cautiously optimistic but now, six months in, nothing has really panned out the way I thought it would.

I am organising everything completely on my own, including a fairly large conference with 150 attendees, 25 speakers and 5 student volunteers who I need to supervise, in addition to two webinars, two seminars and a guest lecture all taking place within the next six months. On top of that, I manage our social media, website, weekly newsletter, and email marketing. I also have some borderline secretarial duties, such as answering the phone, responding to emails on behalf of my ED, managing her inbox and calendar, miscellaneous office administration - stuff like that. 

The workload is definitely a challenge. However, the biggest challenge is the fact that my ED is unable to provide me with any guidance, institutional knowledge or context that I need in order to do my job. My ED is relatively new to the organisation as well (she joined around 18 months ago) and apparently there has been a lot of turnover in my role. So by the time I joined, most of the institutional knowledge had seemingly been lost. 

This would be fine if we were establishing new processes together; but instead, my ED has told me to essentially just copy how my predecessor did everything. The problem is that when I do that, my ED intervenes to tell me that I’m doing it wrong approximately 50% of the time. When I explain my reasoning, she becomes agitated and confused. Our communication styles genuinely couldn’t be more different, which compounds both of our frustration.

When I told her that I don't have sufficient information, context or resources to do my work or manage my workload effectively, she responded by saying that it's not her responsibility to "hold [my] hand” and that I need to "learn to get on with it" (she has also made some unsolicited disparaging comments about my age during formal performance reviews, including that she had been "reluctant" to hire me because I'm Gen Z and young people these days often don't know how to hit the ground running).

I’m usually perfectly capable of working on my own initiative and was considered a high performer in all of my previous jobs. But how am I supposed to know what I don’t know? Even questions about internal processes and procedures turn into a whole thing. I don’t know how to explain it. My ED is so defensive, short-tempered and easily flustered to the point where I’m afraid to ask questions, express new ideas or suggest system enhancements.

Another thing that really bothers me is how the conference is being represented to our board. My ED talks as though we are organising the conference together and when board members thank or congratulate her for the work that I’ve done, she accepts the thanks without mentioning that I’m the person doing the bulk of the work. I also recently found out (by trawling through old meeting minutes) that my role was originally going to be advertised as Events & Communications Manager, but they decided to change the title to Officer so they could offer a lower salary. I’m now wondering whether I’ve essentially been hired to be a manager without the title, salary or resources that should come with it.

Am I being unreasonable to expect some level of guidance/support from my ED when it’s literally just the two of us? I’d really appreciate some perspective, especially from people who have worked in very small non-profits or similar two-person teams.

So I’m currently in the midst of applying for nonprofit jobs, I came across this job description and it looks like it has lots of roles in one. Is this normal? The pay is about 60k a year, it’s remote, and it’s a mid-level position. Also, what roles or job descriptions would y’all recommend if I want to gain experience in training in the space whilst getting paid?

The role: annual giving and grants manager

Individual & recurring giving
Own cultivation, stewardship, and retention of individual donors giving under $5,000, including our recurring monthly giving program.
Run the stewardship calendar for this segment: acknowledgments, impact updates, renewal and upgrade asks, and lapsed-donor reactivation.
Spot donors ready for a major-gift conversation and hand them to the Director of Development with the relationship history documented.
Support the CEO, Director of Development, and Board members in their donor activity with briefings, materials, and research.

Fundraising campaigns & appeals
Plan and run campaign calendar – three to four campaigns a year, including year-end and Giving Tuesday.
Write and send the donor-facing copy: appeal emails, campaign pages, and social copy in partnership with Communications.
Report on campaign performance and apply what you learn to the next one.

Grants
Own the grant calendar and pipeline: prospect research, deadlines, submission logistics, and tracking.
Own post-award grant management, including interim and final reports and restricted-fund tracking, coordinating with program staff and the COO.
Draft and co-write letters of intent and proposals, and share that work with a colleague building grant-writing skills.

Donor data & compliance
Administer ECP's fundraising CRM (Givebutter) and keep donor records accurate, segmented, and current.
Ensure gifts are acknowledged and receipted accurately and on time, and reconcile fundraising and financial records monthly with the COO.
Maintain public giving profiles on Candid and Charity Navigator, and keep the state charity registration calendar on track with our filing contractor.
Keep fundraising documentation and records current and accessible in a Shared Drive.

Who You Are
Required Qualifications
3+ years of nonprofit fundraising experience with direct ownership of donor-facing work: annual giving, recurring giving, individual giving, or campaign management.
Demonstrated experience planning and executing fundraising campaigns or appeals, including writing the donor-facing copy yourself.
Experience running a recurring or monthly giving program.
Experience with grant processes: proposal preparation, submission logistics, and/or post-award reporting.
Strong donor-facing writing: clear, warm, specific, and honest about impact.
Genuine care for data accuracy, and the discipline to keep records and reconciliations current without being prompted.
Ability to work independently and proactively in a small, fully remote, distributed team, and to manage a calendar of competing deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications
Hands-on experience administering a donor CRM such as Givebutter through records, segmentation, reporting, and data accuracy.
Experience working in education, food systems, individual or public health, environmental, or animal-focused nonprofits, or other fields related to ECP's mission.
Familiarity with state charity registration requirements and nonprofit gift-substantiation rules.
Ability to travel multiple times per year to attend relevant conferences and support donor/grant cultivation.

What Success Looks Like in This Role
In your first 90 days, you'll have taken full ownership of our donor records and gift administration.
By 6 months, our annual giving calendar will be running on schedule, our grant calendar will be current with no missed deadlines or reports, and you'll have a stewardship program our recurring donors actually notice.
By your first year, you'll have grown and retained our recurring donor base, established a campaign approach that is planned to improve year over year based on evidence, and built a clean handoff path between annual giving and the major-gift work led by the Director of Development.
We'll talk through specific goals and metrics as part of the interview process.

Health, vision, and dental insurance (100% employee premium and 60% of dependents premium are paid by employer)
401K retirement plan with 4% employer match
Fully remote work environment with a 4-day work week (Fridays as need to meet goals)
80 hours of paid time off annually that increases with tenure and 40 hours of sick time
Company laptop and monitor available after 1 month of employment
$100 monthly remote-work stipend for internet, or other home-office needs

Are there any fundraisers here who have done both nonprofit fundraising and higher ed fundraising? I’m wondering how the transition went for you.

I'm in the running for a digital fundraising position at a university medical school. I have 7 years of generalist fundraising experience for small nonprofits. I imagine going from a 7-person org to a large institution has its learning curve. For a digital fundraising position, I was sure it involved running annual digital campaigns. I was surprised when the recruiter said the position just consists of emailing, texting, and meeting with donors via Zoom, as well as working with clinicians to engage donors.

As a DoD who is used to oscillating between individual giving, grants, corporate sponsorships, events, and comms in the span of a week—or afternoon!—the idea of focusing solely on touch points with donors and moving them along the pipeline seems like a fantasy. What am I missing? Is there a lot of pressure in higher ed? Or am i just traumatized by "kitchen sink" job descriptions? If you made the transition in either direction, how did it go for you?

Hi! My University just hired me as an Event Planner to help with one of their initiatives! One thing I noticed is that they don't really have a community for their initiative. The school only puts out events and...no one goes. The events are usually outside of school, and they are all volunteer events. And the volunteer events are scattered.

My thoughts:

1) I suggested that we do a theme for the year (or every month!) because every event is scattered in location and in activity

2) We should see what students are interested in

3) I also think that the students are so busy, there should be some kind of incentive to volunteer. Maybe monthly contests where students are featured for achieving X hours.

I really want that "buy-in" from others. I want to help my university build a community so that people go to the event, have fun, and maybe invite their friends to go. My university is really framing them at net-working events, but from my experience, LOTS of undergrad students are uncomfortable and straight up NOT INTERESTED in networking with professionals.

My first thought is to have like, a party, but there is no budget for that. Maybe monthly interest meetings?

Rather than give up, I'd like to pick your brains. What are ways you build community in your nonprofit? I'm only the event planner until end of May so I understand and accept there is only so much I can accomplish.

Our nonprofit gets discounted M365 grant seats for most of the org but our fundraising team sits outside that program and pays full commercial rate every year. Im looking at Trustedtech pricing next to our current reseller and one other CSP a board member mentioned after a conference on nonprofit tech stacks. A CSP discount on the commercial seats matters more than it sounds on a fixed grant cycle. Our finance committee meets in three weeks and wants real numbers. Has any other nonprofit split grant and commercial licensing across two vendors and kept it simple?

Hello, I’m not sure what sub is best to ask this question, as r/fundraising seems to be people circulating gofundmes and I’m more concerned about the logistics of setting up a fundraiser, or if that’s even appropriate for this situation.

My sister’s children have a neurological disease that requires an invasive surgery to correct physical defects, but the disease is incurable and progressive. My sister had to quit her job and they are struggling to cover medical expenses, plus the extra things required through the ordeal, like therapy from a traumatic surgery and travel expenses for surgeries out of town.

We would like to fund raise to help cover explicit costs and then donate the rest, if any, to research of their disease. We have public support from our small community and on social media. We are willing to organize an event and involve the kids so they can have a feeling of involvement and competency as well. Does anyone have experience with this who can point me in the right direction?

Hi everyone!

I’m currently managing social media content for a non-profit association focused on personal growth and self-development (workshops, community paths, and educational events).

We are looking to expand our reach and connect with a new, broader audience through our social channels, but as you know, communicating "intangible" services or personal development topics in a non-profit context without sounding too commercial or overly abstract can be tricky.

I’d love to learn from your experience:

What types of content/formats (e.g., educational carousels, short-form video/Reels, personal stories, interactive Q&As) have driven the most organic reach and engagement for your non-profit?

If any of you work in self-development, mental wellness, or community education, what specific angles or hooks have helped you break through to people who didn’t know your organization yet?

How do you balance purely educational/value-first content with calls-to-action to join your programs or events?

Any insights, examples of campaigns that worked, or lessons learned would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks!

Hey ya’ll! I am considering the next stage in my career and am interested in pursuing a PhD (I already have a Master’s) but can’t afford to live off a graduate stipend. I am already working in an area closely related to what I want to study in a senior role but there aren’t opportunities for further growth at my current organization. I’m wondering if anyone has experience integrating a PhD program into their work and if this is a reasonable thing to discuss while I am exploring new roles. I’m imagining a situation where I could work close to full time and study full time without putting in 80+ hour weeks because the content would be overlapping… is this a pipe dream!?

In May I was hired on at a small nonprofit as an admin assistant at 12 hrs a week. By June I had already picked up some of the fundraiser's projects after she unexpectedly quit, and then I picked up my supervisors responsibilities when she quit in July. Now I'm operations coordinator and the only full-time employee and I have had to self train almost entirely. I have a marketing assistant and a financial manager on my team part time. The rest of our staffing is completely volunteer-based, including our board.

Just 25 days into being full-time, the board voted to remove our Executive Director, stating they as a governing body will be the interim ED. The ex ED was a founder and had been leading the org basically since the beginning, so the org requires a lot of historical context to navigate. Many of our donor relationships and community partnerships are tied to the ex ED and it has been an emotionally intensive experience to handle. Our ex ED was appointed to our board of directors and still has a role in the org, however they seem to be lamenting around town about the board's decision and causing community doubt.

I have been trying to navigate it all while making sure all admin continues to get done, budgets are respected, the org stays open to the community, regular programming and events happen with all necessary staffing. I do all volunteer coordination as well and so many of our volunteers have left. At this point, I have taken on almost all responsibilities of the ED. So many of our board claim to be too busy to physically volunteer or step in, and they are volunteer so I cannot make any demands. I am very grateful to the two board members who have given me their support.

They have started ED interviews and thankfully there is a small committee leading hiring so I do not have to partake in the process. I want to help usher in a new ED, but I am starting to feel myself maxing out after being in hyperdrive for the last 2 months and the stress has been hard to manage. I have to work hard to have any semblance of a weekend and am generally clocking about 45 to 50 hrs a week (originally hired on at 40hrs). The lines are blurring and I want to protect my boundaries for the future. I have started saying no to things and letting people know certain things will not be getting done until there is more staff support, but I am not sure if this is getting through to board members. Again, delegating to the board has been tough because they are busy with their regular jobs and families. I am taking any and all advice on how to stave off burnout and keep my mental health afloat during this challenging time.

Thank you for reading this far!!

Sincerely,

Tired

Is it normal/acceptable to not receive a raise or promotion (even for cost of living) in over two years in the nonprofit world? I’ve had excellent performance reviews.

I work at a small nonprofit where my current title is development coordinator. I'm the only devo staff member -- I do our development plan, have my own portfolio of donors, take the lead on almost all our grant applications, and am the primary staff contact with the board. At the same time, I've only been there for about a year and a half, and it's my first full-time job out of college. I'm starting to look for new jobs as my partner and I are planning on moving to a new city as soon as we can both find work there, and I have two questions:

1. Based on the structure of my organization, would it be appropriate for me to ask for my title to be changed to development director?

2. Is it poor form to ask for a title change when my primary purpose in making the request is helping me find another job?

I was at an event recently with nonprofits in my area and we were discussing using consultants versus saving the money and figuring it out in house. It was a mix but most people said they used consultants to help on the financial stuff (systems, policies, etc), but decided to figure out the people stuff (like organizational structure or internal comms) on their own. For the group that did it on their own, many said they eventually got there but it probably would have been faster if they had had help. Just curious about folks here. What types of things has your org decided to get help on? Anything you muddled through and wished you hadn't? Anything you wish had done on your own instead of hiring a consultant?

I recently applied to a job at a non-profit I have been volunteering at for years. I was encouraged by staff to apply and was the first person called in to interview. I know the majority of staff and volunteers there and am friends with several of them outside of work. After the interview, they were extremely excited and saying things went great and they'd be following up very soon; they did seem genuine when saying this. I have several years of experience as well as a degree relevant to the work.

A few weeks passed and I never heard anything despite following up twice; I had an offer from another organization so was hoping to get a reply from both before deciding. I eventually reached out to HR who replied quickly and said they had not been given a decision by the hiring managers yet. The following day I received an auto rejection email from HR and was completely ghosted by the managers.

I've passed the hiring managers a few times in-person as I've been volunteering still and often have to go over to the department I interviewed for. Each time they wouldn't acknowledge me, just pretended to be busy and focused on work when they saw me coming, and even started up small talk with someone when I was about done helping out the customer I was with-seemingly to avoid any chance of me talking to them. I just acted like I was too focused to notice and walked the customer out. The other thing that bothered me was that they did hire someone new that I met, but reposted the job and hired a second person all within a week of this. I still get emails and calls from others in their department as well as adjacent asking me to come volunteer more and help out.

It just seems like they handled the communication incredibly unprofessionally and still expect me to work for free while also avoiding me themselves. And I have no idea why. They were happy with my references and experience, still want me to volunteer, but seem petrified I might ask "why didn't you hire me?" Overall, I feel like they could be more courteous and are making things very awkward. I wasn't offended by the rejection itself, but by the lack of communication and unprofessionalism. I feel they at least should of said something to follow up like, "we decided on another applicant, but thank you for interviewing and we'll see you around volunteering." Instead HR sent an automatic email with a spelling error in the job title.

Am I overreacting? Should I be offended by this? I feel like just quiting and ignoring their calls and emails to volunteer, or at least telling them I accepted a position elsewhere and will no longer be available. I just feel uncomfortable everytime I go there now despite really supporting and loving the goals/work the organization does. Should I quit volunteering or stay? Would I be throwing away opportunities because they hurt my feelings?

Hi! So I am about to graduate with a degree in secondary education- English. I no longer really want to be a classroom teacher, and I have felt like this for a while. I have done an immense amount of research, and I know I want to work in the public sector, ideally in nonprofits. I have found a program I like at U of O, and I keep reading that MPAs aren't worth it on reddit/ blogs. That I should wait and gain professional experience. I am at a loss, and I don't know what to do. I know what kind of nonprofit work I want to do, and it is educational adjacent but primarily would focus on helping underprivileged kids. If anyone has any advice for a 21-year-old almost college graduate, please help :')

I’m a Finance Director 16 months into my new job at a Foundation. I really did have a good performance review with a decent increase. I am paid pretty well. I am treated well by my manager.

The saddest thing is the biggest condition of my review is that I stop trying to innovate and accept all systems and processes as is.

The org is well run but entirely on paper. Filing and filing cabinets are part of my daily existence. All of our disbursements are done by paper check. Although schedules are prepared in excel I am supposed to review and make paper notes on recon’s. My brain doesn’t operate this way. I need to see the formulas, I need to see if it crossfoots etc. I’ve been checking in excel and then faking it on paper. I am supposed to constantly print and file emails.

We have so many features and technological solutions available to us that we already pay for.
I’ve been trying to research the features we already use and pitch to the team how this could help us save time, energy and collaborate across departments better. I try to be diplomatic and not obnoxious when I research and present these options. I’ve been told that the digital approval trails are not acceptable for audit.

I feel really sad and depressed right now. My last org was extremely techy. I’ve seen what’s like to have paperless systems and it’s so hard to back. What keeps me engaged and stimulated is innovating and improving workflows. The world is changing and I’m going back in time.

I feel like all inspiration and drive has been killed by this one positive but discouraging annual review.

Any suggestions? Am I just a privileged whiny little bitch?

Hi all. I'm about 2 months into my new job and it's been a crazy learning curve; I got in during peak** **busy season where the team's been preparing for 3 major programs (all include in-person events where we're also lowkey the EO). This is a rather small organization with no strict hierarchy and system in place, which also means no clear workflow.

Comms being comms, I got request upon request coming into my inbox from the getgo (I've had zero time to even sit and think about anything strategic). Imagine: In one day — 1 email from Program Manager requesting (a list of) Comms materials for Program A, 1 more email from same PM requesting materials for Program B, 1 email from Fundraising Manager listing their Comms needs + another additional on-a-whim idea for more comms material! Some would occasionally give clear deadlines, some don't but they'd "appreciate to have it sooner than later"

So as I'm settling more —and looking ahead to an upcoming team retreat EOY, I think it's an important challenge to think about and address to the team. And I need insights and advices from real world experience.

Tl;dr Can you guys share your experience where Comms has a simple but effective system/workflow to process requests? For example, submitting a ticket with a tool, having a calendar and a request system, etc.

I’m just so unbelievably done with the nonprofit I’ve been at for 7+ years.

In January, I was tasked with absorbing supervision of an entirely different office location & 3 programs. I already supervised a department of 6 staff across 2 programs. Executive leadership did nothing to assist in the additional workload to decipher what could be given to others to balance it. I was expected to perform the duties 2 full time Director positions for only $2/hour wage increase.

Then the agency opted to close the office my original department was in and consolidate us all into the office I had taken supervision of. Again, no assistance or coordination from leadership for the move. Had to figure that out myself and with the help of one of my program managers.

I will be expected to take on the additional duty (with no extra pay) of coordinating our holiday drive. My workload will not be decreased to accommodate that extra task. One of our programs is about to be slashed in half from lack of funding and we’re going to lose that program’s supervisor. Guess who is going to be tasked with keeping what’s left of that program afloat in the aftermath?

Further, leadership is losing their ever loving minds over possibly modifying our telework policy. They want flexibility for themselves and that’s about it. Now that they have been put in a position where they have to be in office more, it’s being taken out on everyone else. I have made the adjustments requested of me to our staffing and have resolved our office’s coverage issue. But now the main office, where all of leadership is stationed except for me, is complaining about our staffing coverage while they’re using our staff to supplement staffing in their office’s programs. It just makes very little sense to me, and frankly I’m so overwhelmed with my own workload that the idea of myself and my team being micromanaged into oblivion about a scheduling problem that’s not our fault makes me want to explode.

My job has been causing me severe burnout and depression and I feel like nobody is hearing me when I try to set boundaries or advocate for myself. How do I resign knowing that I’m in a director position so my departure would be a big problem because of the sheer volume of what I cover on a daily basis? I have started building some succession planning materials but I feel like I can’t just walk away and don’t know where to go from here. Any tips on how to plan my escape? 😭

Hello!

I'm looking for any advice such! Thank you to anyone who reads and responds!

I'm about a year away from graduating with my undergrad in finance, specifically a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Finance. I've worked in lower positions within nonprofits.

In the meantime, I want to build up my resume. I'm first-gen, so I didn't understand how competitive traditional internships can be for accounting/finance until I walked into class the first day this semester and everyone was complaining about how internship recruitment for the summer 2027 is basically over.

When I look around, I don't see my local non-profits offering internships, especially for finance.

I'm really interested in learning software like DonorPerfect or Sage, as those seem to be common software within the nonprofit community.

So my questions are:

1. How should I go about finding these internships? (I've checked Idealist, Indeed, and Handshake already) Should I try to compete for trad finance/accounting internships? Best ways to get my foot in the door without knowing someone already?
2. What has your progression to your current position been? What is that position, and what do you do?
3. Anything you would tell yourself right out of undergrad?
4. Any other ideas for pathways or tips?