Research and recommendations for effective, day-to-day nonprofit practice from ASU faculty, staff, students, and the nonprofit and philanthropic community.
As nonprofit organizations consider funding their ongoing operations, one option that stands out is receiving funding from a government agency, either through a grant or a service contract. Government agencies have been major funders of nonprofit organizations since the 1960s. Nonprofit leaders must consider the benefits and drawbacks of such funding when determining when to pursue and accept government funding.
Types of Funding
Nonprofit organizations receive several benefits from government agencies, including tax donations for charitable contributions and tax exemptions. Government agencies can also use their funds to provide grants and contract out service provision. At least a third of nonprofit organizations that file Form 990s receive government grants, and more than half of large nonprofits do so (Clerkin et al., 2025; Martin et al., 2025).
Advantages
One advantage of government funding for nonprofits is the availability of money. It is traditionally considered a stable source of income. Government funding may attract additional non-governmental funding. Finally, nonprofits that receive government funding become more financially stable (Thornton & Lecy, 2023).
Disadvantages
Governments often pay on a reimbursement basis, resulting in income delays and the potential for cashflow issues.…
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Nonprofits talk about retention all the time. Usually, the conversation starts in the same place: low pay, tight budgets, limited resources. And those things absolutely matter. But they are not the whole story. People are not just leaving nonprofits for better salaries. Many are leaving environments where they feel unsupported, burned out, or disconnected from leadership. That is not a funding problem. That is a leadership problem.
People don’t join nonprofits for the pay
Most nonprofit employees choose the work because they care. They believe in the mission and want to make a difference. This is what makes retention in the sector so complicated. When someone leaves a nonprofit role, it is rarely because they stop caring about the mission. More often, it is because something in their day-to-day experience has made it unsustainable to stay. Heavy workloads. Emotional strain. Lack of support. Poor communication. Over time, those things can outweigh even the strongest sense of purpose.
Leadership is the difference maker
Research consistently shows that leadership plays a central role in whether employees stay or leave. Not just executive leadership, but the daily experience employees have with supervisors and managers. How expectations are set. The way feedback is delivered. The method in which challenges are handled. People will stay in organizations where they feel supported. They leave when they do not.…
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Nonprofit organizations often describe their programs as accessible. In practice, many of those programs remain out of reach for the communities they aim to serve.
Across the arts education sector, participation still follows familiar lines. Students from
lower-income families, rural communities, and non-English-speaking households participate at
lower rates. This gap is not about interest. It reflects how programs are structured.
The problem is not one barrier
The issue is rarely a single obstacle. It is the accumulation of several.
Tuition is the most visible, but it is only part of the picture. Transportation, scheduling,
required materials, and even the process of asking for financial assistance all shape who can
participate. Each factor may seem manageable on its own. Together, they create a barrier that is
much harder to overcome.
As one nonprofit leader put it, “It’s not one barrier, it’s a stack of them.”
That idea helps explain why many well-intended programs fall short. Scholarships and
reduced fees can help, but they do not address the full set of constraints families face. Participation remains uneven, not because organizations lack commitment, but because access is
often added piece by piece rather than built into the program's structure.
The result is a pattern that is easy to miss. Programs appear accessible but tend to serve
those already…
Historically, volunteers have been undervalued. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the term invisible work was used to refer to volunteer labor, domestic labor, and other non-wage-earning work. As a result, a culture of underrepresentation became the norm for the volunteer workforce. Volunteer work came to be seen as business savings rather than valuable contributions.
As time progressed, organizations wanted to account for the contributions of their volunteers. Volunteer hours became the most popular metric for demonstrating volunteer contributions. It started with counting hours, and eventually, organizations realized the quantifiable relationship between volunteer hours and monetary savings, transactional volunteering. Independent Sector publishes state and national averages of the monetary value of one hour of volunteer time for non-professional general tasks. The 2026 report values the national rate at $36.14 and the Arizona rate at $35.27 per hour of volunteer time. The true value of volunteer contributions cannot be measured in terms of money alone. It needs to be connected to program outcomes, mission statements, and strategic objectives.
Both quantitative and qualitative metrics are needed to convey the full picture of how volunteers positively impact the organization by helping to meet organizational goals. Transactional volunteering needs to become strategic volunteer engagement. Then there needs to be a cultural shift,…
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The most valuable asset a nonprofit has is trust. Without trust, advancing its mission becomes nearly impossible. While barely more than half of Americans report trusting nonprofits, that trust is increasingly fragile. Growing skepticism toward government, high-net-worth donors, and even the rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping how communities relate to nonprofit organizations.
Additionally, nonprofits are facing increasing financial pressure. While donations continue to grow, the overall number of donors has declined, particularly at lower giving levels. This, while demand for services continues to rise. The result is a deeper reliance on the very systems that people distrust: high-net-worth individuals and government funding.
Compounding these challenges is the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. Tools such as chatbots and large language models are reshaping how people engage with information and evaluate credibility. As AI-generated content floods online spaces, organizations must meet their communities’ needs in ways only the nonprofit sector can, through authenticity and human-to-human connection.
How, then, can nonprofit organizations build and sustain trust in this environment?
As nonprofits face growing threats to trust, including political instability, skepticism toward high-net-worth donors, and the rise of artificial…
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