Is Your Nonprofit Stretched Too Thin?
Unlocking Capacity: A Creative Way to Get the Support You Need
Nonprofits are built on heart—driven by mission, not margin. Being driven by purpose is what makes them so powerful. Yet, despite their huge impact in our communities, many operate under intense resource constraints. Interview nearly any nonprofit and the story is the same: trying to do more with less. Organizations run lean with small teams juggling multiple roles, often with limited time, tools, or support to fully realize their vision.
While we haven’t met an organization whose unclear of it’s mission, we’ve met plenty where the path to sustainable operations and strong donor relationships is murky. In the midst of these daily operations, strategic donor engagement and internal development unintentionally fall to the bottom of the list. This tension between mission and capacity is more than inconvenient—it’s a systemic challenge.
That’s where outside support becomes not only helpful but essential. Whether it’s targeted coaching or hiring a part-time team member, outside support isn’t a luxury—it’s a strategic investment. Such an investment can unlock growth, sustainability, and deepen donor relationships.
Common Gaps Nonprofits Experience
Even the most mission-aligned teams hit roadblocks. The following gaps are common across organizations of all sizes and stages:
a. Staffing & Capacity Challenges
The nonprofit workforce is in crisis. According to the Center for Effective Philanthropy, 95% of nonprofit leaders cite burnout as a top concern, and nearly 75% report difficulty filling vacancies. The National Council of Nonprofits adds that 79% of organizations struggle to offer competitive salaries, making retention and recruitment even harder.
Many small to medium, even large, nonprofits operate with limited headcount, and staff are often stretched thin. Roles blur together—a Development Director may also be managing programs, marketing, or even IT. As a result, essential areas like donor stewardship or strategic planning get sidelined. Hiring full-time staff may not be feasible, especially for specialized roles.
Lean teams often stretch themselves too thin, leading to skill gaps, delayed initiatives, and staff turnover that disrupts momentum.
b. Inconsistent Donor Engagement
Fundraising is often cyclical—heavy during campaigns or year-end, quiet in between. Donors may only hear from the organization when it’s time to ask for money, weakening long-term relationships and planting seeds of doubt with lack of communication. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project reports a 4.6% drop in donor retention in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline. Smaller donors—who make up over 50% of the donor base—are disengaging at alarming rates, with participation down 8.8%. Without a consistent stewardship strategy, nonprofits risk turning their donor relationships into transactional exchanges and losing their most loyal partners.
c. Lack of Strategic Clarity
Even if your mission is crystal clear (and it usually is), the roadmap to sustainable growth isn’t always obvious. Many nonprofits excel at program delivery but struggle with strategic alignment. The 2025 State of Nonprofits report found that leaders are increasingly concerned about unclear goals, fragmented operations, and difficulty adapting to external pressures. This lack of clarity can lead to reactive decision-making and missed opportunities. Without a clear roadmap, even your high-impact work can lose traction.
d. Need for Outside Perspective
Internal teams are often too close to the day-to-day to see gaps in their systems, culture, or communication. A fresh lens—especially from someone with cross-sector experience—can provide honest insight, facilitate organizational alignment and help create new paths forward that internal conversations may overlook. Whether it’s refining a fundraising strategy or rethinking board engagement, outside expertise helps nonprofits move the needle from reactive to proactive.
The Value of a Donor Relationship Manager
A part-time Donor Relationship Manager (DRM) is an embedded, strategic partner who focuses on donor engagement and stewardship. Think of it as having a development director for 5-10 hours a week—without the full-time salary.
What They Provide:
Systematic donor touch points
Personalized stewardship plans
Data-informed engagement strategies
Major gift cultivation and pipeline development
Benefits:
Cost-effective: Access senior-level talent without a full-time hire
Flexible: Scale support based on campaign cycles or leadership transitions
Consistent: Maintain donor momentum even when internal teams are stretched
A part-time DRM offers faster onboarding, long-term stability, and strategic execution. They’re not consultants; they’re embedded partners who drive results.
In a sector where every dollar and hour counts, part-time donor development professionals offer nonprofits a way to grow smarter, not just bigger, within their budget limitations. If your nonprofit is struggling to juggle all the things and you see the value of caring for your donors as partners in your mission, a part-time professional might be the next right hire for you.
Interested in talking with us about how we handle part-time donor development work?
She Means Impact: Inside the World of Women’s Philanthropy
When we think about philanthropic giving, the narrative has often been dominated by big names and hefty wallets, historically tied to men. Think Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. These names have shaped the perception of what large-scale philanthropy looks like. But we know philanthropy operates on small scales too and we also know it’s not just men giving. Women play a significant role in charitable giving. Even dating back to the ministry of Jesus, we see women supporting his ministry through financial means (Luke 1:3). Not only are women generous givers like their counterparts, but women give differently than men.
Women are deliberate and innovative in their giving, redefining what bold, strategic and values-driven philanthropy looks like. They’re also community-focused and adaptive to new technologies in the midst of challenging economic times. Here’s a quick dive into the trends, nuances, and power of women’s philanthropic giving.
Do Women Really Give Differently Than Men?
Giving is giving, right? Yes, but the context in how one gives can vary between women and men. According to the Women’s Philanthropy Institute from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, women are more likely to factor trust and transparency into their giving decisions than men. The same study also found that women are more likely to give locally or to grassroots organizations where they are able to see the direct impact of their contributions.
Women’s giving patterns also stand out for their resilience and adaptability. Despite a general decline in the number of individual donors in the United States over the past decade, single women have shown remarkable resilience. The "declining donors" phenomenon has affected both men and women, but the decline started later and was less pronounced for single women compared to single men. This resilience is particularly evident among Christian women, who often cite their faith as the motivation behind their generosity.
Historically Overlooked: The Gender Gap in Fundraising
Historically, nonprofits haven’t exactly rolled out the red carpet for women donors. The default approach often prioritized men as the primary breadwinners and decision-makers. Seeing as women didn’t significantly enter the workforce in the United States until the 1960’s and peaked in the 1980’s, this makes sense in light of the culture. As times have changed, nonprofits are recognizing the major influence women hold in giving, whether through personal donations or as shared decision-makers in their households. Yet according to this study despite women’s active engagement in philanthropy, they remain underrepresented on nonprofit governance boards, with just 16% of affluent women compared to 30% of affluent men holding board positions.
Women as Influential Household Philanthropists
Women aren’t just passive participants in household giving. A recent report from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute found that 61.5% of couples make decisions together, and when one partner is the decision maker, women are slightly more likely to decide. Another study shows that 85 percent of affluent households’ charitable giving decisions are made or influenced by women.
Research shows that households where women are active in decision-making tend to focus on causes tied to education, health, and community well-being. For single women, their giving further reflects deeply personal convictions, often leaning toward building stronger communities or addressing social issues they resonate with.
Faith-Based Giving: A Beacon of Resilience
Faith communities have long been known for their generosity. According to the Giving in Faith report, more than 95% of people of faith reported donating in 2023. Christian women are no exception. For example, during the pandemic while many households cut back on donations, Christian women bucked the trend by increasing the average amount they gave.
Their impact isn’t just tied to their church communities. While Christian women do often give to their place of worship, they also donate to registered nonprofits, mutual aid groups, and directly to those in need. Their faith inspires them to give generously, both within and outside their church communities.
In an interview with Marissa Newby, Senior Philanthropy Advisor for Wycliffe, she shared this story of a female donor who helped expand her family’s ideas of what giving can look like:
“I have a particular donor where her father started a business and she and her brothers were all involved in the business. Their father was so busy building the business in the family that they didn’t do a lot more than giving than giving to their church, that was kind of as far as he thought in terms of tithing. It wasn’t until there was this big transfer of wealth to her and her brothers that she looked around the table at her brothers and said, ‘We could do so much more–like our churches are good. They all have fresh pews and kindles; I think they’re good! We could use this money other places.’
It was this interesting process that opened this whole conversation about the ministry side of fundraising and got right into the ministry of what it means to be generous and what does tithing look like? It was so wonderful to see her open up her brothers’ eyes to this idea that the thing they’re passionate about is the thing they should also be giving to.”
The Big Picture: Women’s Growing Influence in Philanthropy
From being overlooked to becoming highly influential, women’s impact in philanthropy continues growing. They’ve gone from being seen as “secondary” decision-makers to sharing the stage. Their growing voice in giving—from the household to larger societal causes—is transforming how nonprofits engage donors, prioritize causes, and innovate fundraising.
Whether through faith, the household, or unique resilience during economic shifts, women are impacting the nature of charitable giving one donation at a time. They’ve made it clear: donating isn’t just a financial act—it’s a deeply personal, powerful way to create change. Are you paying attention yet? Because the statistics show women are reshaping charitable giving.
Collective Giving: A Game-changer for Nonprofits
Philanthropy is no longer just about making a donation and calling it a day—it’s about creating genuine connections and excitement that translate into real impact. Philanthropy is shifting gears, and collective giving is leading the charge.
Collective giving empowers like-hearted and like-minded people to band together in micro-communities to give toward a purpose and mission bigger than themselves. In our increasingly tech-driven and now AI-focused world, face-to-face interactions and true connections are proving to be more important and valuable than ever.
And for Christian nonprofits? This type of giving may be the missing link to revitalizing your organization’s mission and re-energizing your donors.
What is a Giving Circle?
Collective giving is known in different groups by different names. These terms may include terms like giving circles, giving chapters, collective giving groups or giving projects. Essentially, a giving circle is a group of donors that together give intentionally and strategically toward a specific project, cause or mission. Sizes of groups may range from a few people to a few hundred.
The members of these groups often share a common thread of belief that they can leverage the power of working together to accomplish more than they can on their own. Practically speaking, this may look like a group of donors inviting friends, family or their small group to give toward a specific project with a cause close to their hearts.
Why Collective Giving is All the Rage
The buzz around collective giving isn’t just hype—it’s rooted in powerful outcomes. Look at Sara Lomelin’s TED Talk (TED Conferences, 2022), where she champions giving circles and collective generosity. With more than 1.5 million views at this article was published, it’s clear the message is resonating.
Giving circles came on the scene in the early 2000’s, though there have been a handful around for decades. Since 2017, the collective giving movement has skyrocketed. Nearly 4,000 groups have rallied 370,000 philanthropists and raised over $3.1 billion in donations—a more than 140% increase in both participation and funding over six years (Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy).
For Christian nonprofits, this is more than a trend—it’s an opportunity to encourage your ministry partners to live out the call God gives us in the Bible to live generous lives in community with one another. Collective giving can be a way to develop donors into true advocates for your mission. What better way to engage and educate others than to invite them face-to-face into giving with you and a handful of others? When partners of your ministry see to an initiative completed, it brings a deeper sense of connection to the mission of the organization.
Big Impact, Close to Home
Another aspect of collective giving that sets it apart is its ability to uplift local communities. With 88% of philanthropic funding going to the top 5% of nonprofits (Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy), smaller charities often get overlooked—but not in giving circles. These groups champion smaller nonprofits and community organizations, focusing on grassroots initiatives that make a difference.
Whether it’s a small group meeting in someone’s living room or a larger nonprofit-led collective, nonprofits can use this strategy to keep things personal, mission-driven, and impactful. If you have a donor with a heart for a specific project, leading them toward collective giving is a powerful way to engage them on a deeper level.
Women Are Changing the Game
Women have always played an important role in philanthropy and collective giving is no exception. Giving circles tend to be dominated by women with 70% of all giving circle members being women. Women-only giving groups have grown from 53% in 2006 to 60% in 2023 (Bearman, 2007; Eikenberry et al., 2017).
Building Together
The heart of collective giving lies in collaboration. Working together, sharing resources, and reimagining how we make an impact is exactly what many faith-based organizations aim to do. As this movement continues to grow, it’s clear that collective giving isn’t merely another trend; it’s a powerful way forward for philanthropy. This powerful way of engaging your giving partners is one we suggest considering how to incorporate into your donor development strategy if you haven’t already.
Ready to take action? If you need fresh takes on how to implement collective giving, we’re here to help!
Book a discovery call with us, and let’s explore how you can make this strategy work for your unique mission and donors.
Or if you’d like to better understand how collective giving looks from a donor’s experience listen to this podcast where Josh and Kaitlin Saenz, founders of Compel You, share how they were invited into this transformative way of giving.
An Open Letter to Every Donor Everywhere
Dear Donor,
It’s that time of year. Yes, the time of year where walking out and opening the mailbox affords you a real chance of opening a real card! Christmas and holiday cards are being sent and received. This is the time of year where merriment and cheer abounds.
But most of all, this time of year we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We celebrate the wonder, mystery and fulfillment of hundreds of years of prophecy being fulfilled after hundreds of years of God’s people waiting for their Savior. It is a wondrous time of year to be quiet and reflect on the beauty of it all as a Jesus follower.
His birth and life on Earth is truly one of the greatest gifts God could have given us. In His grand and lavish generosity, God lived His character out before us so that we might truly know Him.
It is in the spirit of great generosity, we reach out to you today. We know as a donor, you’re probably receiving all the end of year letters from your favorite nonprofits, ones you’ve supported in the past, and maybe some organizations you don’t support but magically got added to their mailing list! Does it feel overwhelming?
That’s a rhetorical question.. we know it does.
Being asked for more while you’re already doing all the things, juggling the Christmas shopping and trying your best to focus your heart on why we celebrate Christmas. We get it. We are working parents, homeschooling our two boys and juggling all the things just like you.
So we want to take a moment to be as frank and transparent as to why you keep getting these letters every December, year after year.
Does an end-of-year gift really make that much of a difference? Or are organizations just trying to get a little more to pad the budget for January?
The answer is… yes, your year end gift makes a real difference and no, organizations are not just trying to pad budgets!
It’s estimated that 30 percent of annual giving for a nonprofit happens in December. We’re not just hoping for more giving and generosity from our wonderful partners. We truly rely on it. How our nonprofits exist and engage effectively in our missions directly rely on the giving received in December.
Ten percent of all annual donations come in during the final three days of the year. Would it be nice to understand a budget and forecast next year’s planning ahead of time? It sure would. But are we grateful for last minute gifts? Absolutely!
When we reach out, we do so in unity and the same oneness of our God who made us generous like Him. We know you share a heart and a passion for changing lives in the same way we do. And we want you to be part of that!
When we reach out, we’re doing so with the understanding and knowing, based on years past, that maybe you’ve meant to make a gift. But life got busy, and you need a reminder.
We rely on God first and foremost to fulfill our missions. But knowing the realities of December giving for so many, we know He uses this month to spur on His mission.
Our hope is that when you receive that end of year letter this year from your favorite nonprofits, maybe you’d take a moment to pray and consider whether you can make a year end gift. It might be a large gift, but maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s one given with a cheerful heart and a whole lot of prayer that God would multiply your faithful gift.
We work with a wide range of nonprofits that seek justice, provide for the poor, spread the gospel of Hope. And on behalf of organizations, everywhere, we are so thankful for your generosity and giving all year! We are especially grateful for your December gifts that truly give a stable financial footing to our missions and the work on the ground.
May God bless you with His peace and joy this Christmas. May you know His ever-flowing generosity toward you always!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Josh and Kaitlin Saenz
Compel You