Fundraising Bright Spots, Hiring Challenges in New Nonprofit Survey

Nonprofits continue to struggle with retaining staff, according to a new survey of 233 nonprofit leaders. Respondents saw a positive trend in fundraising, with 35.6 percent saying they saw an increase for financial year 2024 over the previous year, 40.8 percent saying their revenue was unchanged and 23.6 percent indicating they saw a decrease.

That compares to 2023, where only 23.8 percent of respondents reported an increase in funding, 34.9 percent reported a decrease, and 41.3 percent stayed flat.

Respondents were asked to rank which departments had the most staff turnover, using a scale of 1 to represent the fewest people leaving and 6 representing the most. Operations departments scored highest, 4.8, followed by finance departments at 3.8 and volunteer coordination at 3.7. Turnover on fundraising teams was 3.2 out of 6.

The survey was released by UHY, a CPA firm that works with nonprofits and corporations. Key findings include:

• Asked which recruitment tactics they use to find new staff, 66 percent said they relied on word-of-mouth referrals. A similar share — 65 percent — said they used social media, particularly LinkedIn, to find new staff. Just 22 percent of respondents said their nonprofit worked with a recruiting firm.
• Forty-one percent of nonprofits said they collaborated with other organizations to deliver programs and services. But only 27 percent said they had considered merging with another nonprofit to “make a bigger impact.”
• Respondents were asked what technologies they felt were most important to implement and allowed to select multiple answers in response. First place was a tie, with 31 percent naming both tech to meet regulatory compliance standards and mobile payment and crowdfunding tools. Cybersecurity technology took second place, with 26 percent naming it most important.

Despite stagnant fundraising revenue, most respondents said they did not plan to significantly rethink their fundraising strategy to lean more on large corporate gifts. Specifically, 36 percent of respondents said such a strategy change “has not come up” for consideration at their nonprofit, while 34 percent said they had discussed adopting a focus on big donors, but decided against it. Thirty percent said they planned to shift their focus to big gifts.

When vetting donors, nearly half of respondents — 46 percent — said they did not consider a donor’s environmental and societal impact or political views. Fifty-one percent, however, said they consider a donor’s environmental impact and sustainability before they approach them for a gift, suggesting that some nonprofits are wrestling with whether a donor’s background or industry aligns with their mission. Twenty-one percent said they consider a donor’s political views before approaching them.