Nonprofit Staff Lost in Unclear Roles

“What’s better? Starting a nonprofit or joining an existing one and becoming a director for a specific department? It sounds like it would be obvious, but founding a nonprofit as a passion project is so common that it’s basically something everyone does. Working at a nonprofit that you didn’t start feels more real and like you actually cared, not that you just did it for the stats. Then again, having insane impact is very valuable if you started your own nonprofit because it directly traces back”

“Yeah, without culture context, asking to shadow negotiations/hearings at the remote nonprofit is the move.”

“22 years in IT. I went from one of the most demanding positions to working at a non-profit. In my last role i was always burned out and rethinking career choices. The change of pace, lowered expectations, and general care for the individual employee at the non-profit took a bit of adjusting to but now im relieved to be here. It may not be as exciting work but mentally i feel great. I put in my 8 hours happily and then sign off. If i can be here for the rest of my career I would be happy. My sugg”

“I am an entry-level employee at a small nonprofit. I recently dropped the ball on something and it prompted me to reflect on my workload and why things were getting missed. Is this too much for a part-time employee? I feel like this is too much to handle but I might just be being dramatic. I work between 20 and 30 hours a week. These are my job duties (roughly): Admin duties - answer and manage all calls, emails, and walk ins; process and reach out to incoming referrals for all programming; week”

“I am a one person marketing team at a medium sized nonprofit. As expected I am perpetually burnt out and overworked, but I know how bad the job market is so I try to seem positive and energetic at work. Plus this job is much better than some of my previous marketing jobs. Our CEO is overall nice but very enthusiastic, and will often send me random ideas he wants me to do - videos to create, stuff to add to the website, etc. Usually it’s things I’ve already thought of but haven’t had the time to”

“TL;DR I screwed myself staying in a position that has not added anything new to my resume in four years. How can I translate nontraditional leadership experience to my resume and will getting a short term cert help bridge that gap? I’m 34F with 13+ years of combined experience across administration, operations, finance, and HR, but I’ve hit a wall and need advice on my next move, as I feel I really hurt my career trajectory in my current position. Experience : 8 years in small business manufactu”

“Hello, I am currently working on a corporate sponsorship for a climate-centred project. It's the first time I am doing this and I don't want to mess it up lol. Is there someone I can ask a few questions in regards to my sponsorship deck? Happy to give a few more details in pm, and my current struggles and give any advice I can back related to visual design and communication. Thanks very much. submitted by /u/CommercialFig9114 [link] [comments]”

“Hi all. I currently work a part-time low paid contractor position with a non profit (unfortunately contractor gigs seems to be the norm for entry level non profit jobs now). However, I care a lot about the mission. I don’t want to say what the focus area is specifically for privacy reasons. I’ve recently been offered a full time job with benefits etc and a good salary. Of course I will be accepting this new position. However the cause area is different from the one I work on now, and while still”

“We did this a while back ago, but we had a staff of about 30, which was "manageable" when each department had about 5 people in it. But 75...damn...that is a fricking lot. I get the idea, but this is not the right way to do things right now.”

“Hello... Wondering if there are any other nonprofit founders or directors here that can offer advice or even validation. I'm painfully realizing that a nonprofit structure may not be the best way to make an impact and also I feel like a failure for not being able to raise enough funds to even keep myself hired. All the administrative burden has taken the joy out of why I decided to start in the first place. Anyways.... I'm open to hearing similar stories, too. submitted by /u”

“Wasn't really sure how to post this, for context I do enjoy my job, and always do what I can to help, I would say it is the first job where I have felt compelled to be helpful rather than just doing what I am contracted to, I thought that was going well, I was having good feedback from most of the teams I work with. Until Friday. I won't go into too many details, but to summarise I'd asked our IT to look into an issue and in response they had offered to give me access to a piece of s”

“Context: I am working at a small nonprofit. Our programming staff (2 people) were hired three years ago and have been tasked with rebuilding our programming after COVID caused a steep decline in our work. The mission hasn’t changed, but where we are doing the work (geographic focus) and some of the approaches we are taking have. For example, I was told this February that our programming staff wanted to expand our work into a new region. They wanted to start advertising in that region in March, h”

“Our leadership team feels our CEO has not been able to keep up with the evolution of our company and we're lacking vision and direction. We feel the wheels are falling off the bus and we need to course correct quickly or our company won't grow, or worse, we won't make it. How do we raise this concern? Is a consultant the answer here? If not, what else can we do? submitted by /u/keshas_evil_twin [link] [comments]”

“Based on the article, what conditions do charities find tolerable and what restrictions are considered an overstep? (I was surprised to learn that mandatory volunteer days may be included in some contracts). When partnering with a funding company, what would make your (the charities) jobs easier???”

“I joined the board of a very small nonprofit after multiple requests. I'm new to this and even told them I’m unsure what I bring to the table, as I’ve only handled accounting without assessing the bigger picture or making financial decisions at an organization level. I can prepare financial reports and deliver presentations, but developing CFO-level analytical skills is new for me. Currently, I use AI to simulate scenarios requiring critical daily decisions, but I’m uncertain about its accur”

“I run a design studio helping nonprofits with websites. We recently offered a pro bono web grant to a grassroots nonprofit, but the project became very painful. Instead of having a single decisive lead, every board member weighed in with conflicting edits, and the point person simply passed raw, contradictory feedback back to us (down to debating specific color shades). We don't run into this with our paid nonprofit clients who have established staff, but we want to keep helping smaller, und”

“If you're the Proj Mrg of this project (and effectively resposible for shepherding it through to success), you should review the status with whoever was covering for you while out, and consider calling a form of "re-kick off" meeting to get everyone aligned and yourself full ramped back up. Don't feel like you should just read old emails and be up to speed. Whatever you think you and the project team needs to be successful...do it.”

“My leader said put the stakeholders in one room and let them battle it out. But it never worked out like that.”

“I’m a grad student in Ontario, and I was hired this summer through the Canada Summer Jobs program as a mental health worker. My original contract ended two weeks ago, but they extended it while waiting to hear about additional funding. During that time, both my manager and the executive director kept telling me things like, “We’re 90% sure we’ll get funding” and even “We’d love to keep you for three years.” Naturally, I got my hopes up. Two weeks ago, my manager pulled me aside and told me they”

“I need some perspective and I will try and be concise. I joined the advisory board of a very small non profit whose work is very important to me. They are brand new to fundraising. They received a one-time six figure gift from a not-named donor who also cares about this somewhat niche but health-related work. The founder recently (a perfectly nice guy) frantically emailed the board and advisory board that everyone needed to donate NOW TODAY, as they were applyoing for their first grant and I had”

“New CEO Work in NFP setting. My new boss started this summer. He is lovely, but this is his first role as CEO. He is allowing board to lead him on what priorities are rather than develop relationships with leadership team and make his own determination. I’m being given requests directly from our board - who are communicating in ways that violate our code of conduct (i.e. using profanity, demeaning operational opinions “that’s not a problem” when it is, etc) I am relatively new myself (1 year in)”

“Hi there! I’m an Executive Assistant (EA) for a CEO at a small size nonprofit with roughly 47 employees and 26 contractors- and I feel very overwhelmed and trapped. 1.) As the EA for a nonprofit, I schedule all meetings, coordinate all meetings, project planning, coordinate with the board but I am also a liaison with one of our state program, the biller, I lead the manager meetings, I ran the accounting department for nine months as they went through a reorganization. The CEO sends damn nearly a”

“Howdy! I believe I'm about to be laid off from my job at a nonprofit for budget reasons. I've been working here for many years and one small part of my frankly enormous job description is creating designs. This includes social media posts, advertisements, signage, print materials, etc. I know that, because I am an official employee of the nonprofit and the designing was in the scope of my job description, the nonprofit officially owns the designs I created. However, what that really mean”

“Hello all, Attending a few years out. Group sold out, new corporate overlords came in and said can either be terminated or resign, effective immediately. Have already started to reach out to other openings. But, given credential/ onboarding nightmare will a few months gap in between positions screw me down the road? Worried if I don’t get a new spot quickly that a few months gap on my CV will negatively affect me moving forward. Thoughts? Experience from others who’ve had a similar path? Thank y”

“I’m a VP tasked with revising our bylaws and I feel underwater. They aren’t major changes, but the rest of the board is tuned out and the president is an imbecile. Isn’t this normally don’t by committee? I really want this done by year end so I can operate from them while I am president. submitted by /u/oolsmcpoo [link] [comments]”

“I work for a small nonprofit. We have a board with 20 members and the majority of them are extremely uninvolved. They show up to some meetings and usually remain quiet, they barely respond to emails, they rarely volunteer to do anything. A new board member, Jason, was recently appointed. He joined one of our committees and started to be very responsive. Perhaps the most responsive of any of our board members in the years I’ve been here. My 75 year old boss, Tim, (the ED) is astonished by Jason’s”

“I'm in my mid-20s, currently in development operations at a ~$5mil nonprofit in NYC. I've been here for a little over a year and would love to get some perspective on how to 1. move into proper fundraising from this with solicitations 2. how to move into general operations outside of nonprofits and 3. any general career advice people have! Neither of my parents went to college and I've found that I've really had to seek out advice from others because I don't really understand”

“Recently joined a new org, mid-sized org. 40ish staff members, budget of over $3million. Org is about to start a fundraising campaign and the ED suggested we try to get 100% of staff to donate to it. Am I crazy to be offended by this? Like in any nonprofit, the staff is already generous with our time and everyone seems to go above and beyond for the org. It just feels so tacky to even ask staff to give back to their employer. I’ve worked at several other small nonprofits and they would have neve”

“I need candid career guidance, and the stakes are real. I have spent more than 13 years leading associations and nonprofits. I have served as an Executive Director, built organizations and operating systems from the ground up, led national membership portfolios, partnered with boards, grown revenue and membership, produced major events, and helped organizations navigate change. I want to stay in association leadership if I can. I believe deeply in the power of associations, and this is where my”

“I work as the director of development at a small arts nonprofit, and our Artistic Director and I naturally have some overlap because companies and industry contacts can lead to both sponsorships and programming. The issue is that this happens all the time. I will be cultivating a company for sponsorship, and if the Artistic Director meets someone else from that company, they may start their own relationship. I raised it with our ED, who said nobody should “own” a company, which I understand, but”

“I don't have a union at my organisation but there is a broader union that I've joined which sits across multiple organisations of my particular industry. (Sorry for vaguebooking, I don't want to give away my employer.) What I'm saying is that your organisation type may be covered by a broader union and they are always worth exploring.”

“I work at a nonprofit foster care agency , and I am having a lot of issues with the staff being in cliques. I’ve worked for a nonprofit CBMHC prior and didn’t have this problem, but have heard this isn’t uncommon in nonprofits. Our leadership and HR are untrustworthy and often are a part of the Cliques causing the drama. I am just unsure of how to continue forward I love my families and community. I keep trying to remind myself that the people at work don’t deserve all my energy and that at the”

“I work for a medium-to-large nonprofit in one of the largest cities in the US, that has a very big presence in our space (homelessness). Due to a weird chain of events, we were asked to operate a program in a neighboring state that one of our remote employees lives in, in a very small city that just didn’t have capacity to run this program. The local nonprofits said they didn’t have capacity. The city said they didn’t have capacity. Everyone said “we need help” and we were like “fuck it, why not”

“Hi yall. I’m 39F and in NYC. I’ve worked in my niche area of nonprofits for 15 years and I have completely hit a wall, career-wise. Income wise, the bottom has fallen out. A brief overview of my working life: My first professional job was an Analyst title at a $25million nonprofit that I still think fondly of as a sort of “alma mater.” The President of that org saw promise in me and basically lent me out to a tiny nonprofit for a summer to serve as the interim executive director to cover a mater”

“Hello, The nonprofit I work at is as they say “turning the corner and now has a $3 mill budget making us a large nonprofit” with that apparently changes come in the form of the board wants development to send monthly reports of who development has talked to, met with, networked, and done. They’re wanting to keep track of what we are doing with our hours. I normally wouldn’t care but this feels so micromanaging to me and really frustrates me especially as the development director is starting to g”

“I have been working as a fundraiser for about 6 years now and have an education in nonprofits. I have recently started a role that I thought would be different but I am struggling. My current role is a major career step down from my last role. The pay is really bad, there are no benefits and I continue to be confused about how to be successful in my role. There was supposed to be growth opportunity but it is not looking that way. Currently I am a Development Manager and this role is supposed to”

“I’m looking for some guidance from those who have successfully made the move from the corporate world into the non-profit sector. I’ve spent the last 10 years in the corporate sector — five years in management consulting and five years in internal operations — working across large-scale transformation programmes and helping organisations navigate complex change. Alongside my corporate career, I’ve also built experience in the charity sector as a trustee and through running my own charity, which”

“I have a board member who has been with the organization for more than a decade. She is great, but has recently become almost like the ED. She has begun to what feels like overstepping the ED and giving me (a staff person) directives without including the ED. I don’t know how to address this without damaging the relationship, so what have you done to sort of cope with this in your position as support staff? submitted by /u/Exciting_Designer611 [link] [comments]”

“I think collaboration is way undervalued in these types of conversations. Find other nonprofits working in the same or tangential spaces with children and families. Befriend them. Learn their operating model, how they're funded, where your two organizations have overlap or address a gap for the other, look for ways to achieve economies of scale by partnering together. Then, show this to your donors. Can present it in a variety of lights -- good collaborators, creative problem solving, good s”

“Hey! I'm new here but have been working for a healthcare and community development nonprofit for the past three years. Excited to be a part of this subreddit! In my role, I handle grant writing and communication with internal and external audiences. Donor stories, impact stories, newsletters, annual magazine, letters, and grants of all types and sizes. I love the work that I do, and my team is amazing. The leadership here is visionary and pushes us to think and act boldly. And my colleagues”

“ive found a few opportunities online where i can apply to be an exec role for an already established 501(c)(3) with a good amount of impact. I'm deciding whether to apply to that role or start my own initiative and grow it to that level of impact. I kinda wanna understand from an admissions officers point of view on which theyd find "better" or how they would consider me in either position (basically would they prefer the non-profit exec role better because of any reasons or the se”

“Corps are especially complicated because things get displaced due to org boundary, report lines, budget, etc. It’s very possible one has the problem and needs it solved, but can’t or won’t get it solved.”

“Hi everyone, I'm a Support Services Coordinator at Pregnant Then Screwed. If you haven't heard of us, we're a national charity supporting tens of thousands of women and parents every year and fighting to end the motherhood penalty. https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/ We've recently re-launched our Tribunal Mentor Programme and we're looking to recruit volunteers to help us grow the programme. If you have filed an Employment Tribunal Claim (even if you didn’t go all the way to th”

“i’d keep the first email really short and focus on how you can make their life easier, not your whole background. mentioning the 5 years of experience and nonprofit niche is probably enough to start”

“If your organization has a Grant writer, where do they sit in the org chart? Who do they report to? Trying to get some insight since my organization is restructuring and I’m curious what’s worked in other nonprofits. submitted by /u/breezzyboo_ [link] [comments]”

“I used to be a kitchen manager for a non profit, and I honestly didn't have a lot of work to do. It would usually amount to less than 20 hours per week of ordering, meetings with staff and people from other areas of the non profit, scheduling maintenance, etc., and then I would fill my other 20 or so hours just in the kitchen helping with cooking and cleaning. But I left that organization a couple months ago and started the same position, but now at a preschool and I have even less to do now”

“I've started my career in nonprofits and only worked in nonprofits until now. 3 times now, I have ended up in roles where I am the ONLY analyst on the team. Everyone I work with is either data adjacent, or not an analyst at all. I'm the only person ever working on analytics work, and I have no real life gauge/context on how to do things better in a real world context. I google things all the time, I take courses, but the advice is too generalized and doesn't go deep enough. I need pe”

“The biggest trap with skilled volunteering is building complex projects the nonprofit has no capacity to maintain once you leave. A few setups that actually work without creating an administrative headache: Use Taproot Plus or Catchafire: Nonprofits post pre-scoped, bite sized needs here (like auditing a budget or drafting a policy) so staff don't have to spend hours inventing a project for your team Run fixed-scope clinics: Partner with a local job training org or school for a 2 hour resume”

“I’m the Director of Development at a small arts nonprofit. I also oversee our finances, so my responsibilities include Development strategy, membership performance, revenue tracking, budgeting, and financial reporting. I’m increasingly struggling with the boundaries between my role and our Artistic Director’s role. Our Artistic Director frequently steps into conversations involving membership, fundraising, sponsorships, and revenue strategy. The issue isn’t simply that she contributes ideas. Whe”

“Senior associate in a niche support group (think energy/healthcare/etc. regulatory). I like the work I do, and I have a good reputation in my group and in the adjacent corporate practices we support. For the most part, I genuinely enjoy and respect my colleagues. That said, I hate biglaw; I hate the fake pressures and the billable hour. I only intended to be here long enough to pay off my student loans, but I’m still here years later. I have an opportunity to go in-house in a role that’s got lit”

“Excuse me while I put this into the ether. I stepped into a director role for a make-your-own interdisciplinary program this year. Over the last year I've looked at program studies and assessments and made curriculum for additions. Every single one of the documents talks about approval of student plans by an advisory committee being done before they're fully admitted into the program. Imagine my surprise when I find the advisory committee has been non-functional for years, the student pl”

“i've been running clubs long enough to have made every admin mistake in the book. here's what i'd tell my past self. spreadsheet hell compounds. you start with one member list in excel. then you add a dues tracker, an event RSVP sheet, an email list in gmail, bylaws in someone's personal google drive. by midyear nobody knows which version is the real one. pick one source of truth early, even if it's just a single shared system everyone logs into. the admin learning curve burn”

“Janet texted me & told me her right-hand man Darrell -finance manager, had been fired & how the board eventually ran her off with reduced responsibility & increased, unnecessary paperwork & duties. I texted the volunteer coordinator last week and cancelled my shifts, but tomorrow starts a new week. I liked Janet, but can sort of understand why Darrell got the axe. Fortunately, I don't serve a pivotal roll in any sense. So I could just resign - but I like the participants &amp”

“I’ve worked in nonprofit since graduating from grad school in 2020. My first job was events based, with data entry from the funds raised and I loved it until I started getting push back on trying to move up the ladder into fundraising. I got annoyed at constantly put my all into something that wasn’t going to pan out so I made a somewhat lateral change to a different nonprofit. No longer in the event space, but still very data entry driven. My company is fantastic and honestly I’m probably overp”

“*Long post incoming; sorry, I'm looking for some tailored advice and I always struggle to keep it short! I'm a new ED at a small non-profit who's mission focuses on environmental remediation and protection at the watershed level. We also have a new chairperson, who is both ambitious and knowledgeable about the work we do, but is new to being on a board. For the past 2 years under the previous chairperson, our board has been discussing the creation of an onboarding plan for new board”

“Curious if you had to prioritize between development staff or communications staff which would you pick? Assume you are an ED of a small ish /mid size nonprofit org and the budget only allows for a $90k (with benefits) expense. How would you break this down or which would you prioritize? Obviously there's lot of context needed but to sum up: development would help with tracking donor engagement, track reporting (directors do reporting), lead gala planning, thought partner to ED for fundraisi”

“Throwaway. I joined a homeless shelter and housing nonprofit Board of Directors two years ago. No experience was necessary. I have a four year degree and work experience in social work, and personal experience with homelessness. I left social work to save my mental health, and have been blue collar by choice since then, and I do very well for myself. I am also an introvert, but can hold my own in a social situation pretty well. However, popularity was never my wheelhouse. Anyway, they were so ve”

“My org recently went through an ED hiring process. I was excited! And hopeful! I love my job, our team works incredibly well together and achieves way more than a staff our size should, and we really needed a leader with a strong mind for business and an aptitude for development to lead us forward. Now, we’ve had this new ED in place for exactly two months, but she was away for almost half that time on a pre-planned vacation. In those two months she has been 100% focused on pushing through a van”

“One thing I'll add is to second the need for a dedicated board. Despite the discussion back and forth on the topic online, I am a believer in having a board that understands its role is to raise money. You can have members of a low-income community on your board and raise real money. It will probably take them and you out of your comfort zone, but there is no better advocate than someone who uses the services. I also feel that if your communications are well done, you can ask for donations m”