By: Andrew Olsen, CFRE | EVP, Fundraising Solutions
After surveying hundreds of nonprofit organizations, we've discovered something alarming: most nonprofits are disconnected from their own reality, and they don't even know it.
The data reveals a sector-wide schism between C-suite leadership and frontline fundraising staff that's costing organizations millions in lost revenue and impact. While 70% of organizations agree they need new fundraising strategies, a staggering 50% have zero plans to implement change. This isn't just organizational inertia—it's systematic dysfunction.
The Leadership Mirage
Here's what's happening: C-suite executives consistently rate their organizations more positively than their front-line staff do. Leadership focuses almost exclusively on gross revenue, while staff knows donor retention matters more. Boards seek "commanding presence" and "strong personalities" in leaders, while staff desperately desire vision, trust-building, and collaborative communication skills in those that lead them.
This disconnect isn't just philosophical—it's financial. Organizations measuring success by gross revenue often miss the opportunity to discover that they're spending (sometimes) as much as 85 cents to raise every dollar. Leaders tend to focus on activities instead of outcomes in fundraising, which leads to everyone feeling busy, but nothing moving forward in truly meaningful ways.
The Transactional Addiction
Sadly, many nonprofits (more than any of us would care to admit) are addicted to transactional fundraising. It provides immediate highs—quick revenue hits from expensive events, peer-to-peer campaigns, and direct marketing efforts—but prevents long-term organizational health. Leaders get dopamine rushes from seeing money come in today, while shying away from the effort that it takes to build long-term relationships with philanthropic supporters, thereby missing the transformational gifts that come from deeper, more meaningful donor connections.
But the proof is clear.
When we stop prioritizing the gift and instead prioritize the relationship and shared impact, supporters step up in big ways.
We once partnered with an organization that wanted to reduce the number of transactional asks they sent to their donors and begin to reset donor relationships to focus on value and impact over the long-term. We proposed sending this organization’s supporters a mailing with an outer envelope reading "This is not about your money. This is about the lives you’re helping change right here in <City>." The executive director called 40 days later, panicked about the prior month’s poor revenue (which we told him to expect). By year-end, however, recipients of that relationship-building piece had increased their annual giving by 49%.
The Generational Reality Check
The disconnect becomes more dangerous when we consider generational shifts. Millennials and Gen Z (for the most part) don't necessarily care about your 100-year organizational history. They support causes, not brands. Even when giving smaller gifts, they expect major-donor-level access, transparency, and impact reporting.
Organizations building infrastructure to support hundreds of major donors now need that same personalization for thousands of smaller donors. The baseline expectation for engagement has fundamentally shifted, but most nonprofits haven't adapted their systems or strategies.
This is exactly why we’ve pioneered an entirely new approach to direct response fundraising at DickersonBakker, and why we’re the only fundraising agency that’s focused on helping nonprofits Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor™.
Breaking the Cycle
Recovery from transactional addiction requires intentional detox. Organizations must build financial cushions that allow investment in long-term strategies, even when short-term revenue dips. They need feedback loops with donors, meaningful stewardship between asks, and metrics that prioritize donor retention and long-term value over gross revenue.
Most importantly, leadership must acknowledge that front-line staff often understand donor relationships better than executive suites do.
The Path Forward
Organizations that continue prioritizing this year's budget over next decade's impact will find themselves managing decline, not building future growth capacity. The choice is clear: continue running in place on the transactional hamster wheel or invest in relationships that transform both donors and beneficiaries.
The donors are ready. Fundraisers are ready.
The question is whether nonprofit leadership will finally listen to what their own staff—and their own data—have been trying to tell them.
If you want to dig deeper into these issues facing the nonprofit sector, download "A Better Way - A National Study of Nonprofit Leadership & Fundraising in a Rapidly Changing World".