2025 was intense for nonprofits – and for the people who fund them.
We saw growing pressure on small organizations: tighter operating margins, staffing strain, more scrutiny around impact, and a constant need to make smart choices with limited time and money. To close the year, here are the seven most-read Group 36 articles of 2025 – a quick, practical digest of what resonated most with our audience.
Consultants can accelerate strategy, fundraising, and operations – or quietly consume resources without producing outcomes that matter. This article offers a clear framework for deciding when outside support makes sense, what scope and deliverables should look like, and how to protect decision-making authority inside the organization. It also helps leaders distinguish between “helpful expertise” and a dependency pattern where the consultant becomes the center of gravity. If you are considering a consultant – or already working with one and want a reset – this piece gives you a practical way to regain control and ensure value.
Crowdfunding is no longer a side channel. For many nonprofits and emerging projects, it’s a serious tool for time-bound campaigns, community mobilization, and donor acquisition – but platform choice shapes your results. This guide compares five major platforms through a nonprofit lens: fee structures, payout mechanics, campaign features, and where the friction tends to appear (especially when you scale). It’s designed to help you match the platform to your campaign type – rather than forcing your campaign to fit a platform. If you want fewer surprises and a cleaner launch plan, start here.
Guaranteed income continued to move into the philanthropic mainstream in 2025 – and not only as a moral argument, but as a practical policy-and-program tool. This article explains what GI is (and what it isn’t), why funders support it, and how pilots are typically structured and evaluated. For nonprofits, it clarifies what implementing partners need to think about: targeting, disbursement logistics, participant communications, and the “success metrics” funders will ask about. If you work in social services, policy-adjacent programs, or funder partnerships, this piece is a useful map of a fast-evolving field.
As global giving shifts, nonprofits are increasingly asking: where is philanthropic influence growing, and what does it take to build credibility across regions? This article looks at how Asian philanthropy often differs from Western models – in governance norms, relationship-building pathways, and the role of business and family networks. It also explains what these differences mean in practice: how trust is built, how decision-making can happen, and why some Western “best practices” don’t translate cleanly. If you are exploring international partnerships or trying to diversify funding sources, this is a strategic orientation piece with concrete implications.
This is one of the most common operational questions we hear: under fiscal sponsorship, who signs the grant agreement – and how does the money actually move? The article breaks the process down into clear mechanics: who is the grantee of record, what “restricted” means in practice, how disbursements and documentation typically work, and where funders tend to ask for extra clarity. It’s especially helpful for projects applying for grants while under a sponsor, and for funders who want assurance that compliance, approvals, and reporting responsibilities are properly aligned. If you want fiscal sponsorship explained without jargon – and with real-world process logic – this is the one.
Burnout in the nonprofit sector is no longer just about workload – it’s increasingly about chronic under-resourcing, moral pressure, and the feeling of being trapped between community needs and funding constraints. This article explores the deeper dynamics behind burnout, including moral injury: when people are repeatedly asked to do what they know is not sustainable, not ethical, or not realistically possible with the resources provided. It also reframes burnout as an operational risk – affecting retention, delivery quality, and decision-making under pressure. If you lead a small team, manage restricted funding, or are trying to keep mission work humane and sustainable, this piece helps put language to what many organizations experience.
The shift toward unrestricted funding and trust-based approaches has been building for years – and 2025 made that conversation more practical and immediate. This article explains why unrestricted dollars change nonprofit performance: they stabilize staffing, reduce fragmentation, and allow organizations to invest in systems that donors often want but rarely fund. It also addresses a common tension: how funders can support accountability without micromanaging execution, and how nonprofits can communicate progress without inflating outcomes. If you’re aligning your funding strategy, talking with donors, or recalibrating reporting expectations, this piece provides a strong foundation.
Thank you for reading – and for following our work in 2025! Wishing you a strong start to 2026 – and we look forward to staying in touch and sharing what we’re learning along the way.