Dear Subscriber,
Nonprofits are reimagining how they operate. Scenario-planning, exploring new sources of income, and developing partnerships are a few of the ways organizations have been surviving the chaos of 2025 — all while the demand for services ticks up. Which strategies, born of circumstance, will stick? Can nonprofits come out of the turmoil stronger?
In the new September issue, Ben Gose explores how nonprofits are reinventing themselves. For many leaders, decisions about how to handle the uncertainty are existential. “In our scenario-planning trainings, we ask leaders: ‘What are your nonnegotiables — what is the most important thing to you when you make these very difficult decisions?’” says Annie Chang, a vice president at the Nonprofit Finance Fund. “It’s almost like a values decision of who you are,” she adds. “We always say you have to start with that first before you make a decision on what to cut.”
Other leaders are embracing new or different ways to cut costs and collaborate. For example, building on a trend from the last five years, more organizations are considering fiscal sponsorship, in which financial accounting, payroll, and human resources are handled by a supporting nonprofit entity. In the Philadelphia metro area, 150 executives at more than 100 organizations meet regularly online to discuss regulatory and legislative actions affecting charities. The effort started in January, when Cynthia Figueroa, CEO of JEVS, a human-services charity, says she recognized that Trump’s executive orders were becoming a “political COVID” — a potential catastrophe for the sector. In July, the group held an in-person meeting that featured sessions on policy and advocacy, legal insights, and strategic partnerships.
“It doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be bad news,” Figueroa says, “but people are trying to be proactive rather than just waiting for something to happen to them.”
Ben also speaks with leaders about how to handle the DEI dilemma — fight back or duck and cover? — as well as mergers and acquisitions as an avenue to stay afloat.
With respect to diversity and inclusion, Rosie Drumgoole (above), CEO of Chicago Cares, says her organization hasn’t changed the way it operates, but it has changed some of the language it uses. “If I have to erase a couple of words off my website to make everybody be able to come to the table, that’s what I’m going to do,” she says.
