As we step into 2026, many nonprofit leaders are taking time to reflect, plan, and position their organizations for impact in the year ahead. Whether you finalized your plan at the end of 2025 or are doing so now, this is a moment to think creatively and strategically about what will drive sustainability and success in the coming months.

In that spirit, we asked several members of our consulting team to share the trends they’re seeing across the sector and the guidance they’ve been offering to organizations navigating today’s challenges.

Sustainable Revenue: Winning Through “Small Ball”

Carol Buckhout—grants lead —notes that one challenge remains nearly universal: developing and maintaining sustainable revenue streams that reliably support mission‑critical work.

Her consistent advice to clients is to build a diversified funding strategy, supported by thoughtful, consistent communication with donors throughout the year—not only at appeal or application time. These touchpoints don’t have to be elaborate or expensive, but they should be meaningful.

Carol also reminds us that major wins often grow out of a series of small ones. One of her healthcare/human services clients is on track to meet their fundraising target largely because of a steady stream of smaller grant awards, even as they cultivate funders capable of making larger investments. It’s a philosophy she likens to “playing small ball”—stringing together reliable base hits rather than waiting for the dramatic walk‑off home run.

One of Carol’s early mentors shared this with her:  “It’s okay to be running out of money. It’s not okay to be running out of ideas.” A compelling, well‑planned idea that meets a real community need opens doors—far more than a generic “please help us” message ever could.

Board Engagement & Strategic Alignment

Heather Perry—senior consultant across campaigns, fundraising solutions, and search—sees Board engagement as another recurring challenge. Many Boards care deeply about their missions but struggle to fully understand the organizational challenges they face or how to translate strategy into action.

Looking ahead to 2026, Heather underscores the impact of emerging public policy changes and emphasizes the importance of new, strategic thinking that centers on:

• Collaboration over competition
• Focusing on core strengths, not trying to be “everything for everybody”
• Reframing the idea of scarcity, especially in communications with donors

With every nonprofit communicating in “crisis language,” donor fatigue is real. Today’s supporters are savvy; they understand the environment and increasingly value collaboration rather than competing narratives of urgency.

What This Means for Nonprofits in 2026

As you plan for the year ahead, our consultants’ reflections point toward several guiding principles:

• Develop diverse and sustainable revenue strategies.
• Communicate consistently and meaningfully with funders.
• Cultivate ideas that are clear, compelling, and responsive to community needs.
• Strengthen Board understanding and ownership of both challenges and solutions.
• Focus on collaboration, clarity of mission, and doing core work exceptionally well.

These insights reflect what we are seeing across the sector and what we believe will position organizations for resilience—and impact—in the year ahead.

Reading and Listening for the New Year

Many of the A|R team chimed in for what they are reading and listening to on podcasts.

Local newsletters/sites:  Kentucky Nonprofit Network, The Lane Report, LinkNKY, Greater Cincinnati Nonprofit News

National Newsletters/sites: Chronicle of Philanthropy, Council on Foundations, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Forbes (for their nonprofit content), Kaiser Family Foundation

Podcasts: At the Table with Patrick Lencioni, Nonprofit Leadership Podcast hosted by Dr. Rob Harter, Nonprofit Hub Radio, Nonprofits Now: Leading Today

Books:  “Making a Case Your Donors will Love” by Jerold Panas, “Hope for Leaders in the 2020s” by Hope Zoeller and Joe Desensi, “How to Change” by Katy Milkman, and if you are a fiction fan, read “Theo of Golden”. It is a simple story of giving and listening and will be sure to warm your heart!

Feel free to share your reading and listening list with us.  We would love to hear from you!

Look for us to be back in 2026 with our monthly newsletter content and posts on LinkedIn and Facebook.