Peace, Progress, and Joy: My 2026 Approach

I'm in a go-with-the-flow mode right now, taking the spirit of the season of renewal seriously. But I don't do resolutions, and I don't do intentions. They both feel too soft for me. I set goals, and this year I'm grounding them in the values I'll be focusing on in 2026: peace, progress, and joy. For me and the people around me - family, friends, clients, colleagues.

This is also the time of year to consider what to keep, what to bring on, and what to move away from. Keeping doesn't mean keeping it the same. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. It means keep it, but evolve. Progress.

Progress doesn't mean all new. It can mean moving beyond or away from. Because, frankly, if you're impeding my progress or your own, you're not bringing me or yourself joy. We'll be parting ways soon. So let me be clear about where I'm putting my energy in 2026.

What Sustainable Nonprofit Management Looks Like

I'm keeping my commitment to practical, capacity-appropriate guidance for small nonprofits, but evolving how I deliver it. For years, I've watched organizations chase industry "best practices" designed for shops with full development teams. A solo fundraiser trying to implement the same stewardship timeline as a five-person department isn't demonstrating excellence - they're heading toward burnout.

This evolution shows up in my fractional fundraising work constantly. When a client says, "We know we should be doing X," my first question is always, "Says who?" If the answer is "best practices" or "that's what big organizations do," we're having the wrong conversation. The right question is: what does your organization need, given your actual capacity and donor base? Automated email receipts sent immediately beat handwritten notes delayed three months. A simple three-metric dashboard you actually use beats comprehensive analytics you never open.

I'm bringing on more explicit advocacy for sustainable fundraising practices and stronger organizational leadership. The sector faces both a staffing crisis and a problem with management, governance, and systems.

According to the 2025 Social Impact Staff Retention survey, 67% of nonprofit employees plan to seek new jobs this year, with arts and culture organizations facing a potential exodus of 92%. The top reason? Too much responsibility without adequate support. We keep talking about staff retention in nonprofits without changing the conditions creating the crisis.

Executive directors need to make hard choices about what not to do. Boards need to understand that their role extends beyond meeting attendance to include active advocacy for the mission through thoughtful engagement. Organizations need to build systems that support staff rather than overwhelm them. Leadership clarity about organizational priorities creates the conditions for success.

Why Fractional Support Builds Capacity

This connects directly to why fractional professionals are a great fit for nonprofit organizations. When an organization brings me in for grant writing or transition management, we're not just accomplishing those tasks - we're building nonprofit capacity by reducing overwhelming workload and creating breathing room for existing staff to focus on relationship-building. Peace comes from sustainable systems. Progress requires adequate support. Joy emerges when people can focus their energy on work that matters instead of constantly operating in crisis mode.

I'm moving away from working with organizations that view their team as interchangeable parts rather than humans with limits. When a prospective client tells me they need someone to "raise $500K in six months" but can't articulate their donor pipeline, their board's engagement level, or what specific need the funding addresses - that's a red flag. When organizations expect consultants to work on commission or "volunteer time until we raise money," they're signaling they don't value fundraising as professional work requiring expertise and strategy. I'm moving away from these situations because they impede progress for everyone involved.

Strategic Choices for Small Nonprofit Leaders

Small nonprofit management faces particular pressure to do everything everyone else is doing. Limited capacity means saying no becomes a strategic necessity, not a luxury. When you're running development solo or with minimal staff, you can't compete on the same playing field as organizations with full teams. You compete by being smarter about where you focus energy.

This means keeping donor stewardship but evolving it to match your capacity. It means bringing on board engagement strategies that deliver real help rather than performative involvement. It means moving away from fundraising trends designed for organizations with resources you don't have.

The strongest small nonprofits I work with have learned to ask: Does this serve our mission, given our actual resources? If yes, how do we do it sustainably? If no, what do we do instead? That's the peace, progress, and joy approach in action.

This is how I'm approaching 2026 - with clear values guiding hard choices about where to invest my time and energy. When you ground your decisions in what actually matters, you give yourself permission to keep what works while letting go of what doesn't. You create space for progress that serves your mission and your team. The sector needs more of us to make these intentional decisions about sustainable nonprofit management.