Nonprofit fundraising is often framed as a linear journey—set a goal, ask for donations, meet the target. But reality is much more complex. At every turn, organizations face constraints that limit their ability to reach the next level of impact. These constraints, often invisible to those on the outside, are the barriers holding nonprofits back from achieving their potential. So, let’s get practical about how to identify these constraints and, more importantly, how to overcome them.
Process Constraints: Why Your Fundraising System Is Slowing You Down
Let’s be honest: many nonprofits struggle with inefficiencies baked into their fundraising processes. Whether it’s the way we acquire new donors, the time it takes to cultivate relationships, or the consistency of follow-up, there are built-in limitations—constraints—that keep us from reaching our goals as quickly as we could.
In a nonprofit, every stage of the donor journey is a dependent event. One step relies on the smooth and timely completion of the previous one. Here’s where variations—those fluctuations in how fast or slow things get done—can pile up, creating serious roadblocks. Maybe your prospect research team is overwhelmed, or donor follow-up is inconsistent because staff are stretched too thin. These variations introduce constraints that slow the entire system down, keeping you from moving forward effectively.
Resource Constraints: The Nonprofit Reality
Let’s talk resources. Nonprofits face unique resource constraints that are vastly different from the corporate world. When you don’t have an endless budget or a large, specialized team, every resource decision counts. But this scarcity often leads to constraints that go unaddressed.
Staffing and Capacity Issues
Many fundraisers are generalists juggling multiple roles—major gifts, events, donor communications, stewardship—all at the same time. This multitasking, while necessary, introduces inefficiencies. People are spread too thin, and tasks that should be a priority, like major donor cultivation or donor retention, get pushed to the back burner. This lack of capacity is a fundamental constraint that nonprofits must address.
The challenge of limited staff capacity is compounded by new team members who may not have the time or training to execute key fundraising strategies. When people and time are scarce, it’s easy to see why certain tasks take longer, creating constraints in your system.
Time-to-Close Expectations: A Misalignment in Major Gifts
Let’s be frank: the expectations around how long it takes to close a major gift are often completely unrealistic. Nonprofit leaders, board members, and every fundraiser out there feels immense pressure to close major gifts quickly. But major gift fundraising isn’t fast—it’s a long game.
Building relationships with high-net-worth individuals requires time, trust, and a deep understanding of their philanthropic goals. In order to part with large investments, any reasonable person would want to have high levels of Know, Like, and Trust in the people, the process, and the outcomes.
- If you’re buying a Coke, gasoline, wash your hands in the bathroom, or to check your luggage, you don’t need typically need a person – in some cases you’ll go out of your way to avoid a person. A vending machine will do great.
- If you’re buying something a bit more complicated like an expensive outfit or a new phone, you might want to see it, hold it, try it out. You want a person available to help you but you might just hit the buy now button. If you have a problem, you definitely want a human to help you figure it out.
- If you are making a big investment like buying a house or a car or college education, you want to visit, you want to walk around, test it out, and you want information whether in the form of external counsel or research to help make your decision. You’re going to take your time.
The pressure to secure these gifts quickly often leads to short-term thinking to short circuit know, like, and trust or to rely on some proxy to develop these in donors leading to strained relationships. When leadership expects immediate results, it creates a constraint—a misalignment of timelines—that can hurt the organization’s potential to secure transformative gifts. This is a classic case of trying to push a system that requires patience into operating on a rushed timeline. It might work for some period of time but sooner or later, the system (inside your organization and in the sector as a whole) will buckle.
What’s the solution? We need to reset expectations around the time it takes to close major gifts. Major donors require careful cultivation, and that takes time—time to build trust, to align your organization’s needs with their goals, and to make the ask when the relationship is strong. Without this alignment, you risk missing the mark entirely.
Donor Retention: The Hidden Constraint You Can’t Ignore
Here’s the truth: low donor retention is one of the most expensive problems a nonprofit can face. We’ve all heard that before but in an era of declining generosity, the total prospect pool is getting smaller, not larger.
Yet too many organizations put a disproportionate amount of effort into acquiring new donors rather than keeping the ones they already have. This is one of the most significant constraints in nonprofit fundraising today. Typically, these are people who are not acculturated to giving because they are just starting their generosity journey. Even for people with significant wealth, moving from no giving to giving is a more complicated process than moving someone from some giving to more giving.
Acquiring a new donor costs far more than retaining one. Yet the urgency of bringing in new names and meeting immediate revenue targets often eclipses long-term strategies for stewarding existing donors. When you neglect donor retention, you’re creating a revolving door. New donors come in, but they don’t stay long enough to deepen their relationship with your organization or become ambassadors of the cause, amplifying your efforts. You lose the most persuasive form of marketing: word of mouth.
The key constraint here is lack of stewardship. When you aren’t properly nurturing relationships after a first gift, you’re leaving money—and impact—on the table. Every donor represents a potential long-term opportunity, but nonprofits often treat first-time donors as one-off transactions, missing the chance to engage them in a meaningful way.
What’s the solution? Implementing a robust donor retention strategy that focuses on personalized stewardship is critical. This doesn’t have to be complicated—it could be as simple as timely gratitude, regular impact updates, and ensuring that donors feel appreciated and connected to the mission. By removing the constraint of poor stewardship, you can unlock the full potential of your donor base.
Technology: The Silent Constraint
Technology is often thought of as the solution to all nonprofit fundraising problems, but outdated or underutilized tools can be just as much of a constraint as anything else. Many organizations are still using outdated CRMs or lack the training needed to make full use of the technology they have.
While technology should streamline processes, poor implementation or lack of understanding can create friction points in your donor management system. Data is often mismanaged, donor touchpoints get missed, and opportunities for more strategic engagement fall through the cracks.
Here’s another secret: your technology might be too efficient. Imagine a robot on an assembly line that rapidly produces a widget. We tend to focus on the robot having the right raw materials at the right time – and that’s important! But we forget that once the widget is created, we have to package and get the finished product out the door.
This is going to sound odd coming from someone who built a technology solution and works for a tech company but it’s possible to have too many prospects. It’s easy to say that we want “more donors” but we need to ask the difficult question of whether our process enables throughput from identification to cultivation to solicitation and to stewardship.
What’s the solution? It’s not just about having the latest technology—it’s about using the tools you have to their optimal capacity. Train your team to leverage your CRM, donor management platforms, and communication tools so that technology becomes a resource multiplier, not a constraint.
Overcoming Constraints: The Path to Success
To achieve your fundraising potential, you have to get serious about identifying and addressing constraints. This isn’t a one-time exercise—it’s an ongoing process of evaluation and refinement.
Here’s how to get started:
- Examine your process: Identify where variations are causing delays or inefficiencies in your donor journey. Is donor stewardship inconsistent? Are you relying too heavily on overwhelmed staff or volunteers? Find the areas that are slowing you down and address them head-on.
- Align expectations around major gifts: Reset timelines for closing major gifts, ensuring that leadership understands the long-term nature of this process. Cultivate relationships with patience and trust, not urgency.
- Prioritize donor retention: Focus on building long-term relationships with your current donors. Create a stewardship plan that emphasizes regular, meaningful touchpoints to increase retention and donor satisfaction.
- Invest in people and technology: Remove the constraints that come from under-resourced teams or underutilized technology. Training your team and maximizing the tools you already have can significantly improve your fundraising operations.
By recognizing and overcoming the constraints within your organization, you unlock the potential to achieve greater fundraising success and, ultimately, a greater impact on the communities you serve.
Let’s commit to this work. Nonprofits can no longer afford to be held back by constraints that limit growth. It’s time to address these barriers head-on, build systems that work, and create sustainable impact. The communities we serve deserve nothing less.
