Nonprofit Leaders Report Mission-Critical Challenges in Annual 'State of Nonprofits' Report
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonprofits report difficulty pursuing their missions in a complex environment shaped by the current political climate and future economic uncertainty in the latest nationally representative survey of nonprofit leaders from the Center for Effective Philanthropy.
In "State of Nonprofits 2025: What Funders Need to Know," nonprofit leaders name the polarized and unpredictable political climate as one of the key challenges they face, posing risks to funding, their organizational mission and values, and the communities they serve. Nearly half also cite staffing, including difficulty with recruitment and retention, as a key challenge.
"It's vital that we reckon with the very real human toll of both the targeted attacks on nonprofits that have happened in recent months and the longer-term ripple effects of burnout in the sector," said Elisha Smith Arrillaga, vice president of Research at CEP. "This is a sector that was already under-resourced — and now we are seeing organizations stretched to their breaking point."
While most of the 585 respondents to the survey reported a balanced budget or a surplus in the last fiscal year, many express concern over uncertainty about future funding levels and increasing costs.
"Maintaining clarity of mission and financial sustainability over the next few years, in the current political climate, will be an existential challenge," noted one nonprofit leader responding to CEP's survey.
Alongside these challenges, nearly all nonprofit leaders express concern about burnout. Nonprofit leaders who identify as people of color were slightly more likely to indicate that burnout is significantly impacting their staff and themselves.
"This is a time of unprecedented challenge for the nonprofit sector," said CEP President Phil Buchanan. "Our society depends on a strong, vibrant nonprofit sector and I hope that the challenges this research reveals can inform individual donors and institutional funders alike as they consider how to best step up."
ABOUT CEP
The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide data, feedback, programs, and insights to help individual and institutional donors improve their effectiveness. We do this work because we believe effective donors, working collaboratively and thoughtfully, can profoundly contribute to creating a better and more just world. For more information on CEP's work, including its research, assessments, advisory services, and programming, visit www.cep.org.
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SOURCE Center For Effective Philanthropy