Fundraising Insight: Why Fundraisers Keep Leaving - And What It’s Really Costing Your Mission
The fundraising sector is losing its most experienced people—not because they've lost their passion, but because the system keeps burning them out. Here's what's really driving the exodus, and why it matters for every Executive Director trying to build something sustainable.
There's a conversation happening quietly in nonprofit circles. In online forums, in late-night LinkedIn posts, in hushed hallway conversations at sector conferences.
Experienced fundraisers—people with strong portfolios, loyal donor networks, and a genuine love for the mission—are explaining away a string of 18-to-24-month stints on their résumés. They're carefully choosing their words in interviews. They're wondering how to tell the truth without looking like the problem.
And the truth is: they weren't the problem.
The Short Stint Stigma Nobody Talks About
Here's something that rarely gets said out loud in hiring rooms: the average nonprofit development staff tenure is 16 to 18 months. That's not an outlier. That's the industry norm.
And yet, fundraisers with multiple short stints still walk into interviews bracing themselves. They rehearse answers. They pre-empt the raised eyebrows. They try to explain growth opportunities and toxic environments without sounding like they're making excuses—even when every single thing they're saying is true.
The double standard is real, and it's exhausting.
Experienced fundraisers who know the data, who have advocated for more humane hiring practices on search committees, still find themselves fumbling through interview questions designed for a workforce reality that no longer exists—if it ever did.
This isn't a résumé problem. It's a sector problem.
What the Data Is Actually Telling Us
Let's be honest about what's happening at scale.
According to a recent 2025 study by the Association of Fundraising Professional, 41.5% of Canadian fundraisers reported seeking new positions, with compensation as the primary driver and work-life balance close behind. That alone should be alarming.
But the picture gets darker.
The Social Impact Staff Retention (SISR) 2026 data paints an even more sobering picture across the U.S. nonprofit sector:
70% of nonprofit workers are actively looking for or considering new jobs—compared to 43% across all industries
Among fundraising and development staff specifically, 72% are seeking new opportunities
Of those planning to leave, 60% cite "too much responsibility without adequate support"as their primary reason
Only 35% plan to stay definitively working in the nonprofit sector—the rest are leaving entirely or aren't sure they can sustain a career in the field
Let that last number sink in. This isn't just turnover. This is talent flight from the entire sector.
And the people leaving aren't the ones who stopped caring. They're leaving because they care—and they've run out of capacity to keep caring in conditions that were never designed to support them.
Why "Too Much Responsibility Without Adequate Support" Is the Real Crisis
When 60% of departing fundraisers point to the same reason, that's not coincidence. That's a systems failure.
Here's what that lived experience actually looks like inside a small nonprofit:
A development director hired to build a fundraising program—but also asked to manage events, write board reports, update the website, and cover reception when the admin is off sick
A fundraiser who comes in energized and ready to build relationships with donors, only to discover the donor database is a disaster, there's no gift acknowledgement process, and the ED needs three grant applications written by the end of the month
A team of one, expected to deliver the fundraising results of a team of five, with a budget that doesn't stretch to cover even basic tools
The title says "development." The job description says something else entirely.
And when that fundraiser burns out and moves on—when they take their institutional knowledge, their donor relationships, and their hard-won expertise out the door with them—the organization starts over. Again.
What This Costs Organizations (Beyond the Obvious)
Research on nonprofit staff turnover shows that replacing a development coordinator typically costs between 117-143% of their annual salary when you factor in recruitment, onboarding, productivity ramp-up - and that’s before considering the ongoing costs of maintaining the position. We’re currently working on a document with the full break down of these costs.
But the real cost of development staff turnover goes beyond recruitment fees and onboarding time. It includes:
Donor relationships that go cold while you search for a replacement
Fundraising momentum lost—campaigns paused, grants missed, year-end appeals gone out late or not at all
Board confidence eroded every time the development seat turns over
ED bandwidth consumed by supervision, onboarding, and gap-filling—which means less time for programs, partnerships, and the strategic work only an ED can do
For small nonprofits operating with lean teams and tight margins, a single development staff departure can set an organization back by 12 to 18 months of fundraising progress.
And then the cycle begins again.
The Structural Problem Nobody Wants to Name
They can't afford to pay competitively enough to attract and retain senior fundraising talent. So they hire junior staff—and then wonder why results are slow and supervision needs are high. Or they hire mid-level fundraisers at full-time cost, load them with unrealistic expectations, and watch them burn out and leave within two years.
Small nonprofits face an impossible bind.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director—who got into this work to lead programs, serve communities, and build mission-driven organizations—ends up absorbing more and more of the fundraising function themselves.
That's not a staffing problem. That's a structural problem.
The sector has normalized a model that was never built to succeed. And the most experienced fundraisers—the ones who've seen how it plays out across multiple organizations—are voting with their feet.
They're not leaving because they've given up on the mission. They're leaving because the system keeps asking them to do the impossible, and then penalizes them in interviews for having moved on.
What Sustainable Fundraising Support Actually Looks Like
If 60% of fundraisers are leaving because of too much responsibility without adequate support, then the solution isn't to hire faster or pay a little more.
The solution is to change the model.
Sustainable fundraising support looks like:
Senior-level expertise that doesn't need to be onboarded, managed, or supervised by an already-stretched ED
Clear systems that don't live in one person's head and disappear when they do
Consistent implementation—not just a strategy document that gathers dust, but someone actually doing the work, tracking the results, and adapting as you go
A fundraising function that outlasts any single hire, because it's built on process and relationship rather than individual heroics
This is exactly why the fractional fundraising model is gaining traction with small nonprofits. It's not a trendy workaround. It's a response to a structural failure—one that gives organizations access to the senior expertise they need, without the overhead, the supervision burden, or the painful cycle of turnover.
Experienced fundraisers working fractionally bring the perspective of multiple organizations. They've seen what works. They build the systems. They stay engaged without burning out, because the model is designed for sustainability from the start.
For Executive Directors who are exhausted by the revolving door, it's worth asking whether the problem is who you're hiring—or how the work is being structured in the first place.
A Note to the Fundraisers Reading This
If you're a development professional with a résumé full of 18-to-24-month stints, please hear this:
You are not the problem.
The organizations that couldn't support you properly, the impossible mandates, the cultures that burned bright and then burned out—those aren't marks against your character or your competence. They're evidence that you kept showing up for the mission even when the conditions were untenable.
You deserve to work in an environment where your expertise is valued, your boundaries are respected, and the systems around you are built to help you succeed—not just survive.
And the organizations you've served? They deserve better, too. Better systems. Better support. A model that doesn't depend on one person's capacity to hold everything together.
That's the sector we should all be building toward.
At Sound Fundraising Strategies, we work with small nonprofit Executive Directors who are ready to stop the cycle and build something sustainable. If you're wondering whether fractional fundraising might be the right fit for your organization, we'd love to have that conversation.
👉 Reach out to book a Discovery Call — no pressure, just a real conversation about where you're at and what might help.
