‘Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study’: Diversification Rises as No. 2 Priority Behind Major Gifts

Nonprofit leadership priorities are shifting in 2025. While major gifts continue to top the list, diversification of revenue streams has emerged as the No. 2 priority — a sign of how leaders are responding to funding volatility and long-term sustainability pressures.

Those findings come from NonProfit PRO’s “2025 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study,” sponsored by Momentive Software, and powered by NAPCO Research. Now in its seventh year, the survey of nonprofit leaders offers a glimpse at the biggest hurdles organizations are facing; staff, volunteer and board pressures; and technology adoption trends.

Here are three other quick hits from the “2025 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study,” drawn from an online survey conducted Feb. 20 to March 7.

1. Major Gifts Are Top Priority

Increasing major gifts was the highest priority for nonprofit leaders, maintaining its position at the front of the pack since it debuted as a response in 2024.

While increasing the number of large donations is enticing as a way to boost revenue, it’s important to remember that cultivating these transformational donors is a strategy with long-term payoff.

Nonprofit leaders' No. 1 priority this year was increasing major gifts. | Credit: "2025 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study" by NonProfit PRO

“Major gifts don’t happen overnight because it’s about building authentic relationships, and that takes time,” Jeff Schreifels, principal at Veritus Group, said in an email. “This is why investing in building your major donor pipeline is critical and urgent now, because your investment today will see transformational impact for many years to come.”

2. Staffing Pain Is Often a Funding Problem

Nonprofit leaders identified a plethora of challenges on the staff management side, among them being providing competitive compensation, avoiding overworking employees, and hiring and retaining high-quality staff members.

Notably, those who cited compensation as an issue (55% of respondents) also tended to cite resource constraints and fundraising effectiveness as some of their biggest leadership challenges, reinforcing that staffing pain is frequently a funding problem.

“Nonprofits often report that they are unable to fundraise to a level that allows them to suitably compensate staff, as though paying and keeping qualified staff is something extra that they would like to do if they could,” Tracy Vanderneck, president of Phil-Com, said via email. “In reality, appropriate staff compensation and dedication to fundraising should each be a primary organizational focus, and strategic plans should reflect dedication to these fundamental goals. When employee compensation is of central strategic importance to the board of directors and the nonprofit’s executives, and they are all committed to creating a culture of philanthropy that helps to raise the appropriate level of funds, then the organization is less likely to encounter issues with ability to pay staff at the level their expertise warrants.”

3. Volunteer Challenges Differ by Nonprofit Size

When asked about volunteer-related challenges, 40% of nonprofit leaders cited having the staff capacity to manage volunteers as an obstacle, making it the overall top challenge in this area. Midsize nonprofits in particular reported this as their biggest volunteer-related issue.

Meanwhile, smaller organizations struggled more with finding and training volunteers, and larger organizations were more likely to report difficulty creating opportunities — or to report having no volunteers at all.

Staff capacity to manage volunteers was the largest obstacle for nonprofits when it came to volunteer-related challenges. | Credit: "2025 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study" by NonProfit PRO

“As organizations grow, the volunteer challenge evolves — small organizations can focus on creative recruitment and training; midsize ones on strong volunteer management; and large ones on designing meaningful roles that tap their scale for greater impact,” Jeff Jowdy, president of Lighthouse Counsel, said in an email. “Volunteers are at the heart of our sector, and mission-driven organizations need to remember their value and invest in providing meaningful opportunities.”

For more findings and insights, download our “2025 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study.

And for a deeper dive into fundraising trends, including donor acquisition and retention, year-end giving, digital fundraising and more, keep an eye out for NonProfit PRO's complementary “2025 Nonprofit Fundraising Study.” This report, now in its second year, is set to come out soon.