Their message was not about ignoring financial realities or pursuing growth for its own sake. Instead, they focused on the importance of defining the impact an organization wants to create, then building the funding, infrastructure, leadership, and internal support needed to move toward it.<\/p>\n
Here are five lessons from their conversation for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers thinking about how strategic planning for nonprofits can support sustainable growth, even in an uncertain environment.<\/p>\n When nonprofit leaders talk about scaling, the conversation often turns quickly to budget growth, staffing, or fundraising goals. Those measures can all be important, but Joan and Glennda encouraged attendees to begin somewhere else: impact.<\/p>\n During the webinar, they defined scale as expanding the reach, depth, or duration of work that is already effective. Depending on the organization, that might mean serving more people, entering a new community, strengthening an existing program, increasing organizational capacity, or extending the influence of a successful approach. The \u201ccommon denominator\u201d is not simply getting bigger, but increasing the impact the organization is able to create.<\/p>\n That distinction matters, because it is easy for financial goals to become disconnected from the purpose they are meant to serve. A larger budget may be necessary to support growth, but the budget itself is not the end goal.<\/p>\n Joan illustrated this with the example of The Art Therapy Project<\/a>. The organization\u2019s board initially wanted to explore how it could grow from a $1 million budget to $5 million. Rather than beginning with the number, Joan encouraged the Executive Director to get the board talking about what that additional funding could actually make possible.<\/p>\n What would a 5X budget make possible? If a transformative gift came our way, what would we do with it and why?<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t – Joan Garry, Founder, Nonprofit Leadership Lab<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t That reframing led the board into a broader conversation about impact and opportunity. Instead of treating growth as an abstract financial goal, they began to imagine what greater resources could allow the organization to accomplish.<\/p>\n This is where strong strategic planning for nonprofits<\/a> can become especially valuable. Before setting a major growth goal, it can be useful to ask what success would actually look like.<\/p>\n Ask yourself:<\/strong><\/p>\n These questions can give fundraising goals a clearer purpose. They also help donors understand what their support is intended to accomplish, rather than asking them to invest in growth for growth\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n Build a stronger foundation for sustainable fundraising<\/strong><\/p>\n Once you know the impact you want to create, the next step is building a fundraising strategy that can support it over time. Our free guide, How to Build a More Sustainable Fundraising Strategy<\/strong>, shares practical ways to strengthen donor engagement, retention, and fundraising ROI while protecting long-term nonprofit revenue.<\/p>\n Download it now >><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When an organization is under financial pressure, fundraising can quickly become centered on immediate need: closing a budget gap, replacing a lost grant, covering payroll, or simply making it through the next few months.<\/p>\n Those needs may be urgent, and Joan and Glennda did not suggest minimizing them. Instead, they cautioned against allowing the immediate crisis to become the full story.<\/p>\n A donor may understand why an organization needs help getting through a difficult period. What can make the appeal more compelling is understanding what that support will preserve or make possible in the longer term.<\/p>\n The key to fundraising in tough times, whether you are struggling or whether you have some momentum, is vision.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t – Joan Garry, Founder, Nonprofit Leadership Lab<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t For fundraisers, that means connecting the present challenge to a meaningful destination. Instead of asking supporters only to help the organization recover, show them what becomes possible if they do<\/a>.<\/p>\n A strong nonprofit fundraising strategy can make that connection explicit by linking near-term fundraising goals to long-term mission impact. Donors are not simply being asked to solve a financial problem; they are being invited to help move the organization toward something meaningful.<\/p>\n That same principle can be especially useful with boards, which may become more risk-averse during periods of uncertainty.<\/p>\n During the webinar, several attendees asked how to move board members away from a scarcity mindset and toward a more ambitious view of the future.<\/p>\n Joan and Glennda\u2019s advice was to create space for broader, more generative conversations. Boards still need to understand financial realities and exercise appropriate oversight, but focusing exclusively on expense reductions and budget variances can make it difficult to imagine what the organization is trying to build.<\/p>\n Instead, stronger board engagement<\/a> can begin with questions such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n Joan and Glennda noted that board members are often more energized when they are invited to imagine what is possible and understand how their role contributes to getting there.<\/p>\n That kind of board engagement can also make later fundraising discussions more productive. When board members understand the destination, they have a clearer reason to advocate for it, invest in it, and help bring others along.<\/p>\n Help donors see what their gifts can make possible<\/p>\n With Givecloud impact giving options, nonprofits can connect specific giving opportunities with tangible outcomes, helping supporters understand how an immediate contribution advances a larger vision. Impact-focused forms can make the connection between today\u2019s ask and tomorrow\u2019s results clearer at the moment a donor chooses to give.<\/p>\n Explore impact giving with Givecloud forms >><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Greater funding and increased demand can create exciting opportunities for a nonprofit, but they can also create new pressures internally.<\/p>\n A major grant may require additional staff. A successful program may need stronger reporting systems<\/a> or new technology. Serving more people may change workflows, fundraising communications<\/a>, or leadership responsibilities. Even positive growth can become difficult to sustain if an organization\u2019s internal capacity does not grow with it.<\/p>\n Glennda saw this firsthand during her 14 years leading New York City\u2019s LGBT Community Center<\/a> (\u201cThe Center\u201d). When she arrived in 2009, the organization was approximately $1 million in debt, had a maxed-out line of credit, and was managing aging payables while recovering from the 2008 economic downturn. By the time she left in 2023, the organization\u2019s annual budget had grown from roughly $6 million to $16 million, alongside a $9 million building renovation and major programmatic growth.<\/p>\n The story sounds straightforward when reduced to those milestones, but Glennda emphasized that the actual path was much more complicated. There were layoffs, periods of stabilization, opportunities the organization had to decline, and moments when it had to reconsider what it could realistically sustain.<\/p>\n For her, one of the most important lessons was that scaling is not simply a fundraising challenge. It is an exercise in change management, and effective nonprofit planning needs to account for that internal change as much as the external opportunity.<\/p>\n Before taking on a new program, major gift<\/a>, or other growth opportunity, it is worth considering what the change will require beyond the initial funding.<\/p>\n Questions might include:<\/strong><\/p>\n Glennda shared one example from her own leadership experience. Her organization received $120,000 to launch a new program, hired the necessary staff, and moved forward enthusiastically. When the funding was not renewed the following year, however, the organization had to spend the next several years finding ways to sustain the program.<\/p>\n The takeaway is not necessarily to avoid ambitious opportunities, but to think beyond the first year and consider what success will require once the initial funding, enthusiasm, or urgency has passed.<\/p>\n Pause and ask yourself, How will this impact my staff? My team? How will this impact our resources? Our infrastructure? Do we have the kind of policies and programs in place that we need to be able to do this?<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t – Glennda Testone, CEO, Nonprofit Leadership Lab<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Sustainable change also depends on communication.<\/p>\n New strategies can affect staff roles, organizational culture<\/a>, board expectations, and even the way longtime supporters understand the mission. Joan cautioned that leaders who are eager to make changes can sometimes imply, intentionally or not, that the organization\u2019s previous approach was wrong. Instead, she encouraged leaders to honor the people and decisions that helped bring the organization to its current position while explaining why the next stage requires something different.<\/p>\n That process requires consistent communication throughout the organization and should be considered part of both strategic planning for nonprofits and ongoing change management.<\/p>\n When people understand what is changing, why it matters, and how it connects to a shared vision, they are more likely to see themselves as participants in the change rather than simply recipients of it.<\/p>\n Keep building stronger nonprofit leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n Growth and change require people to move forward together. Explore Rethinking Nonprofit Board Engagement: Moving Beyond the Ask<\/a> for more ideas on building productive relationships with the board members who help guide and champion your mission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Growth stories often sound much cleaner in hindsight than they feel in the moment. A nonprofit may eventually be able to point to increased revenue, successful campaigns, expanded programming, or a larger team, but the path between those milestones is rarely a straight line.<\/p>\n Glennda illustrated this by sharing the progression of the LGBT Community Center over her tenure. The organization moved from financial instability to stabilization and growth, then encountered new periods that required reassessment and contraction before it could grow again.<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic offered one clear example. During that period, increased funding and more flexible unrestricted support allowed the organization to expand. Several years later, as that temporary funding environment changed, leaders realized that some of that growth could not be sustained at the same level. The organization needed to shrink, stabilize, and position itself for future growth.<\/p>\n That kind of adjustment does not necessarily indicate that the larger vision failed. In some cases, it is exactly what allows the organization to continue pursuing it over the long term. The important question for an organization to ask is whether its decisions are moving it toward the impact it ultimately wants to create.<\/p>\n During the webinar Q&A, Joan and Glennda recommended pilot programs as one practical way to build support for an ambitious idea. If a board, donor, or staff team is not yet ready to commit substantial resources to a new approach, a smaller test can provide useful evidence.<\/p>\n A pilot might help an organization:<\/strong><\/p>\n That proof of concept can be especially valuable when an organization\u2019s long-term vision cannot be achieved immediately. Joan suggested breaking a larger goal into manageable stage<\/a>s and helping supporters understand what progress will look like along the way.<\/p>\n For fundraisers, pilots can also strengthen a nonprofit fundraising strategy by connecting future investment with real evidence. Instead of asking donors to support an entirely theoretical possibility, you can demonstrate what has already worked and explain what additional resources could make possible at a greater scale<\/a>.<\/p>\n Measure what works before you scale it<\/strong><\/p>\n A pilot can help you test a promising idea, but the results should guide what happens next. DonorPerfect reports and dashboards make it easier to establish benchmarks, monitor fundraising KPIs, compare campaign results, and visualize trends so your team can see what is working before committing to a larger investment.<\/p>\n Explore reporting and analytics >><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of the clearest risks of relying heavily on a single funding source is that a change outside your organization\u2019s control can quickly become an organizational crisis.<\/p>\n During the webinar Q&A, Joan and Glennda discussed an organization that received approximately 70% of its funding from government sources before that support was abruptly lost. The immediate consequences were significant, and the organization had to make difficult decisions about what it could continue supporting.<\/p>\n At the same time, the loss forced its leaders to reconsider the organization\u2019s long-term funding model. Rather than simply replacing one government source with another, they began exploring foundation support and other revenue opportunities that could make the organization less vulnerable to a similar disruption in the future.<\/p>\n Funding diversification<\/a> cannot eliminate uncertainty, but it can reduce the likelihood that one change will determine an organization\u2019s future. For that reason, it is worth considering as part of both strategic planning for nonprofits and an organization\u2019s broader fundraising strategy.<\/p>\n Depending on your mission and fundraising model, a more diversified approach might include:<\/strong><\/p>\n The right mix will vary from one nonprofit to another. What matters is understanding where your support currently comes from, where there may be too much dependence on one source, and which relationships or channels are worth developing over time.<\/p>\n Diversification also requires patience. A nonprofit that has historically relied on grants, for example, will not build a mature major giving or monthly giving program overnight. But making that work part of your nonprofit fundraising strategy before a crisis occurs can create greater flexibility when conditions change.<\/p>\n Find more potential within your existing donor base<\/strong><\/p>\n Diversifying your fundraising does not always mean finding an entirely new audience. DonorPerfect with DonorSearch wealth insights<\/strong> can add wealth and demographic information to the donor data you already have, helping your team identify supporters with greater giving potential and prioritize stronger major-gift opportunities.<\/p>\n Paired with giving history and engagement data in DonorPerfect, those insights can help fundraisers decide where deeper cultivation may have the greatest potential.<\/p>\n Discover your next major donor >><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Throughout the webinar, Joan and Glennda returned to the idea of a \u201cNorth Star\u201d: the few important outcomes an organization ultimately wants to achieve.<\/p>\n That perspective becomes especially important when circumstances are difficult. Funding changes, costs increase, programs face new demands, and staff capacity has limits. A long-term vision does not make those realities disappear, but it can help leaders decide how to respond to them.<\/p>\n Strong nonprofit planning helps an organization determine when to grow, when to stabilize, which opportunities to pursue, and where additional investment is needed. Effective board engagement helps build support around those decisions, while a clear nonprofit fundraising strategy connects the vision to the resources required to move it forward.<\/p>\n That work is easier when your team has the right information at hand. With DonorPerfect, nonprofits can use connected donor data, reporting, and fundraising tools<\/a> to better understand where support is coming from, identify opportunities for growth, and track progress over time.<\/p>\n Whether your organization is navigating uncertainty, preparing for growth, or strengthening the foundation for what comes next, sustainable progress starts with a clear plan.<\/p>\n Download our free guide to building a more sustainable fundraising strategy for practical ways to strengthen donor engagement, retention, and fundraising resilience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n1. Plan for impact, not budget size<\/h2>\n
Define what success looks like<\/h3>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/uploads.donorperfect.com\/images\/sites\/2\/resilience-mockups-blog-1-1024x606.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n2. Build your fundraising strategy around a shared vision<\/h2>\n
Use board engagement to elevate the conversation<\/h3>\n
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![\"Givecloud](\"https:\/\/uploads.donorperfect.com\/images\/sites\/2\/givecloud-peer-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n3. Approach growth as organizational change<\/h2>\n
Make sure your nonprofit planning includes internal capacity<\/h3>\n
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Bring your people along as you grow<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/uploads.donorperfect.com\/images\/sites\/2\/board-blog-callout-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n4. Make room for a nonlinear path<\/h2>\n
This is another reason nonprofit planning should leave room for revision. A period of stabilization can give an organization time to strengthen infrastructure. Declining an opportunity can preserve resources for work that is more closely aligned with the mission. A smaller pilot can help leaders understand whether a larger investment is justified.<\/p>\nTest ambitious ideas before scaling them<\/h3>\n
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![\"The](\"https:\/\/uploads.donorperfect.com\/images\/sites\/2\/custom-report-builder-1-1024x579.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n5. Strengthen your nonprofit fundraising strategy through funding diversification<\/h2>\n
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![\"Donorsearch](\"https:\/\/uploads.donorperfect.com\/images\/sites\/2\/sam-donorsearch-example-800px-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBring nonprofit planning, board engagement, and fundraising together<\/h2>\n
Keep building a stronger, more sustainable fundraising strategy<\/h3>\n
Download your copy of How to Build a More Sustainable Fundraising Strategy<\/h2>\n