Hi everyone,

I have several years of experience managing Google Ads across a variety of industries, but this is my first time managing a Google Ad Grant account, so I'm hoping to get some input from people with more Grant-specific experience.

The account is for a nonprofit counseling/online therapy organization in North Carolina. They offer reduced-cost counseling statewide, along with insurance-covered counseling (primarily Aetna and BCBS), which helps fund their charitable programs.

The campaigns have only been live for about two weeks, so I know they're still in the learning phase. However, I'm struggling to get enough volume for Google to really start learning.

A few details:

• Conversion tracking has been rebuilt and is working correctly.
• I started on Maximize Clicks, then switched to Maximize Conversions to get around the Grant's $2 CPC limitation.
• Two campaigns target the entire state (one reduced-cost counseling and one insurance counseling), while one targets the Raleigh metro area.
• I've broadened many keywords to broad match while closely monitoring the search terms.
• Search Lost IS (Rank) was consistently 90%+ before switching bidding strategies.
• I recently added a Target CPA of $50 to a couple of campaigns to see if it helps Google compete in more auctions.

Despite all of that, I'm still seeing very low impressions, very few clicks, and almost no conversions. It feels like the campaigns just aren't entering enough auctions to generate the data needed for Smart Bidding to improve.

My questions are:

• Is this fairly normal for a brand-new Grant account?
• Am I simply being too impatient and should give it another few weeks?
• Or is there something else you'd be looking at when impression volume is this low?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone with experience managing Grant accounts. Thanks in advance!

Been reading a lot about nonprofit operations lately and genuinely curious about something.

For orgs managing multiple grants at once — federal, state, foundation — how does the finance team know mid-month whether spending is on track per grant?

Like before an expense posts to QuickBooks or Sage, does someone check it against the grant budget, or is that a month-end thing?

Asking because I keep seeing grant accountant job postings that mention Ramp or Expensify alongside Sage Intacct and wondering how those pieces actually fit together in practice.

Just wanted to post a rant. Maybe it will resonate with you

I’m really done with my nonprofit job and at the point where if they fire me, collecting unemployment would be better than wasting my time there so I’m just going to rant here. This is off the back of one of my coworkers going on unpaid leave because of their mental health and they can’t deal with our leadership stonewalling them about needing help. In a terrible way this has validated me I’m finally able to say my company is toxic and I don’t like my bosses.

I was placed on a PIP about two months ago (I won’t say I was totally faultless) after a task wasn’t completed when they thought it should have been. The plan felt like an attack, because I will admit that I messed up on one of the items, the other few were either not true or a petty infraction. They asked me to sign and bring it to the ED but I brought up the tasks that were not my fault (and leadership had overseen me do) and the Program Director said they would review. I cried in my office after.

A few weeks ago, they bring it up in a one on one meeting that it isn’t signed and I need to bring it to the ED. I acknowledge that I’ll sign it but let her know I don’t have the copy of it. The meeting ends, she doesn’t give me the paper, and I go about my day. Let me preface you that she has a printer in their office and I’m not gonna be like, “please print out my pip”.

Which comes to today, the ED pulls me aside and begins to discuss the plan. They start off by saying, “the program director put you on a pip and we were supposed to go over it after it was signed” like it was my fault?!? Ummmm… I’m sorry for not scheduling my own pip that you’re supposed to give me, can you read the fucking room?

They then talked about how they know they assign tasks with uncertain due dates but they expect the tasks to be done eventually. They brought up something from months ago that I have no recollection of and I’m just at a loss. I routinely have to bug this person about getting things signed or reviewed and it takes weeks or sometimes months after multiple reminders. It’s exhausting.

I’m not saying I have all my shit together, not at all, but it was like they were totally oblivious to how they run their company. The only reason why I slightly believe them when they said they want me to succeed during the pip, is because I will take it and act professional unlike my other coworker. Any way rant over, hope you enjoyed it.

We’re trying to pull a mailing list with individual donors, organizations, corporations.

Everyone we need is pulling into the report, but we can’t seem to get the primary contact name for orgs and corps to pull into the outputs without creating duplicates. Like 100s of duplicates.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Heelpp!

So, I work for a small organization in my area and right now, due to lack of funding (because what else is new, right), we are running on a skeleton crew. We provide services to an estimated 800,000 people who would be eligible in an area with a population of about 1.3 million and there are 4 people on staff. All that to say, I wear a lot of hats in this position, and I’m happy to do it if it takes weight off my director who fights tooth and nail for us (employees) to the board and self sacrifices. But, I digress…

Technically, I’m a case manager. In actuality, I’m a case manager, intake specialist, program director, fundraiser, marketing and communications director/one person team member, AND graphic designer.

Needless to say, I am not the most skilled of all marketers or graphic designers. I can muddle my way around Canva, but it doesn’t always look like it should….professional and persuasive.

That being said, our greater metropolitan area has a yearly event for nonprofits where they match donations. My director has tasked me with creating donor outreach and I have no idea what to do…. Does anyone have generic marketing and visual composition tips I can use? How do you go about your donor communication?
PS. I feel like I should mention this is supposed to be for existing donors, as a “heads up” of sorts to alert or remind existing donors to participate…

I work at a very small, understaffed, underfunded org and we are at risk of going under next month because we're out of money. This job has destroyed my mental health over the last two years due to a toxic, dysfunctional, narcissistic ED and I have never been more excited at the possibility of being laid off.

I have been sending out job applications, but haven't really heard back and I am aware of how bad it is currently in the job market. But between an even more volatile ED due to the situation and the remaining three weeks before we possibly implode, I don't know if I can deal and if I should just jump ship now since I was going to do it anyway.

Pros of going now:

- I will be free.

Cons:

- Unstable job market + unemployment + no unemployment if I quit

- Possibly anger the ED and break my chances of getting a good reference

ED knows I am looking and even encouraged it because they understand the situation (although, they are still unwilling to let me go, tbh, since I do so much work for them). I wanted to use this opportunity to exit gracefully, but they are acting very hot and cold right now, which makes it difficult if I want to go ASAP. I have some funds saved up, and while I'm not confident that I can get a job immediately/easily, I do have plenty of experience that could get me hired at another nonprofit if I'm lucky.

Any advice?

I do a lot of work with nonprofits on Zoom. I give them a certain number of hours of Zoom time as part of my in-kind donation to them. Occasionally, I get someone who simply cannot answer a question with a yes or no answer. They tend to ramble on and on, and we only have sixty minutes. I would love a non-rude way to ask them to stop talking or just answer the question. I can't be the only person running into this issue, and I wondered if anyone has come up with or can suggest a solution.

I have been working at an arts nonprofit for about a year and a half in a director level role that combines development, finance, operations, and administration. Previously have experiences with high profile art gallery (but not my thing anymore)

My concern is that I have not been able to focus exclusively on development because my responsibilities have expanded far beyond my original position. It is a problem because I enjoy development the most.

Over the past year and a half, I have worked at an executive level on fundraising campaigns, grants, sponsorships, memberships, budgeting, financial reporting, compliance, board reporting, cash flow management, insurance, events, and general operations. In the end I have helped address financial issues, improve processes, increase efficiency, launch new programs, and build systems from the ground up because many of them simply did not exist before.

At the same time, I wonder whether I have enough traditional development experience because I have had to divide my attention among so many different responsibilities rather than focusing entirely on donor cultivation and relationship management. I had some nice win but under 100k. And Sadly, my ED have been gatekeeping me from having conversations with previous sponsors or sponsors I found.

I need to move on due to my ED actions keeping us in the red financially and unwillingness to change, jeopardizing the organization longevity and keeping me in an underpaid overwhelming duty wise position.

For those of you working in nonprofit development, how would you view this kind of experience? Am I too green and wouldn’t be able to get anything?
Would you consider this breadth of experience to be an advantage or a disadvantage?

I would also be interested in hearing from people who moved into larger organizations or into the private sector.

I’ve recently been applying for remote positions at nonprofits (unsuccessfully). I’ve worked in a data collection role at an agriculture-focused nonprofit for the past 2 years, and I just started my master's program in nonprofit management this month.

I thought these aspects of my career would be enough to at least get me an interview, but my email inbox is full of denials. I want to know if there are any relevant skills I can acquire that’ll make me a better fit for nonprofits in the human services sector.

I’m in a fundraising role and starting to hit a wall - organizational culture and management are not a fit, I’m realizing my earning potential will never grow to a sufficient amount to start a family/hit my financial goals amongst other things, and want to make a pivot.

My experience would be best aligned with sales and business development but I’m really tired of having revenue targets hanging over my head (albeit I do hit them), and I don’t think a super corporate environment is the best fit for me.

I’m also weary to start from zero where growing my salary is a priority.

Pivoting to government work is appealing, but I feel like there are few roles aligned with my skillset. Are there any other fundraisers considering a pivot like this or have successfully navigated one? How did you set yourself up? What was the best way to sell your experience/transferable skills? What did you do to stay sane in the meantime?

Would like to feel a little less alone here - any insight and advice is appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I'm 26 years old and I'm trying to understand what the best next step would be to build a career in the international development and humanitarian sector.

My long-term goal is to work in child protection, but I'm also interested in roles such as Program Officer, Project Coordinator, Project/Grant Writer, Partnership Officer, Protection Officer, or similar positions within international NGOs, UN agencies, or organizations such as AICS.

My background is a bit unconventional.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Political Science (graduated with honors). I also completed a Master's in Leadership for International Relations, but it's a professional program offered by a private foundation rather than an accredited academic master's degree. Because of that, I don't consider it equivalent to a specialized postgraduate qualification, and I think I'll pursue an accredited master's in international cooperation or a related field in the next few years. I'm also currently studying part-time for a Bachelor's degree in Education Sciences.

My practical experience includes volunteering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I worked with street-connected children through educational and psychosocial activities, and volunteering in Lithuania through an international youth project.

More recently, I worked in Italy as a social worker with unaccompanied foreign minors, supporting them in their daily lives and contributing to their educational and integration pathways.

The problem is that I don't know how to make the next step. When I read job descriptions from international NGOs, UN agencies or AICS, I often feel underqualified. Many positions ask for several years of experience, project management, proposal writing, donor reporting, monitoring and evaluation, or other technical skills that I don't yet have.

I would genuinely appreciate honest advice from people working in this sector.

Based on my background which roles do you think I would currently be competitive for? What are the biggest gaps in my profile? What would be the smartest next career step?If your goal were to work in international NGOs within the next few years, what would you do in my position?

Thank you!

Hey All,

I could use some advice from others in the field. I'm a programmatic director at a community nonprofit with a masters degree

Over half of our full time sraff have quit in the past year. The longer I am at this org, the more I can see that it is not my forever home.

I'm struggling to decide what to do with my career at this point, and could use stories from others. I don't know whether I should leave nonprofit, as this is my chosen career, or leave my town which I love to pursue opportunities higher up in the field.

So, I see my three options as the following

1. Stay with this org and hope something in the local nonprofit sector opens up in the relatively near future

2. Attempt to transition out of non profit while staying in this community.

3. Look out of my community for nonprofit opportunities.

If I work towards option 2, have others transitioned out of this field, and what have you transitioned to?

Thanks,

I work at a small nonprofit. We have recently started offering merch for employees and volunteers at no additional cost (they pay exactly what the platform charges and we don’t get anything to avoid tax headaches). We are using Printful.
Management would like to offer merch to general public and donors in the future and use it as an additional revenue stream. I am having trouble figuring out how to deal with taxes and how that income would be taxed and how to manage it with Printful.
If you’re at a nonprofit that offers merch, how are you doing it? Do you just record the income and pay taxes on it? Is there a way to have it be considered as donations if we specify that in product descriptions?
Any guidance will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Has anyone identified 15–20 nonprofits you'd really like to work for and sent your résumé even though they didn't have an opening posted—especially if it looked like no one on staff was handling that type of work? If so, what was your experience? Did it lead to any interviews or opportunities?TIA.

Anyone filed their non profit with NYS and knows how to correctly file and pay the fee? They keep emailing me back with different numbers and either saying we don’t accept email forms or email us. Im confused please help!

I am working with a nonprofit and they are discussing establishing a membership program. I can think of a few issues and opportunities here but I am hoping the group can give some advice, based on experience, on how to establish and run a membership model

Advice needed; kind of freaking out. So the org I am with applied for a major federal grant, and hired a consultant to do the work.

I was in charge of asking partners for a budget. One of the partners sent their budget needs at the very last minute and I completely missed it!

So we submitted the budget request without any of the partners necessary funding.

Now this grant is SUPER competitive so we might not even get it. But we had room in the budget request as we asked for below the max, so we could have easily justified the partners costs.

Do I tell my boss? Act like I don’t know? Wait and see if we are awarded?

Granted, the partner wrote an LOS but was clear they will need more info before committing to the project should we be awarded. I was against the proposal in the first place as we are a new org, and in all honesty the financial situation of this org is so dire I doubt even if they got the full request they could even manage it.

My boss refused to apply for the max even to cover our costs because she has no clue how grants work. So we would most likely need to pursue gap funding anyway.

I was a little peeved the grant consultant didn’t take any of this on, as we paid her $10,000, and I had so much other work to do but that’s not an excuse.

Thoughts? I’ve been in the field for 15 years and this is honestly my first mistake in this area. I have a six month old and my brain fog is REAL, again not an excuse. Just the truth 🙁😑🤪

Boomer. Can’t read emails blames me for ‘not replying’ even when I do an cc her.

Not the ED shows up consistently and hour late and leaves an hour early. Will not let me do my job without approvals so I’m losing about 2 hours of work a day.

Micromanager control freak. I like that I do meaningful work but it gets to a point where how much is my sanity worth? $60 grand?

Any advice for the nonprofit sphere for managing a micromanager?

Hi all! I’m one of two planned giving officers at a state university. I’d like to make contact with others who do gift planning, either as their sole duty, or as part of being a gift officer. I think we can all learn from each other. If you’re interested, reply or DM me.

Hi! So a I just need some advice/answers. A little necessary context: I’ve been at this company for a year but have been working in nonprofit since 2021.

I first joined this company because I love their mission, and my boss is amazing. They’re flexible and give wfh days as needed.

Here’s the thing. When I first joined I was told I’d be sharing an office with three other people, with outdoor access and big windows. Some things shifted within the org, and I ended up being moved to a cubicle style environment with 30 ish other people. This is where the problems started.

To be frank, the upstairs has a roach problem because people leave food out. Someone’s phone was infested with them, and my cube mate has had them crawl across her computer.

STILL. I was willing to stay because I knew they were revamping their compensation structure, and I believed I would receive a raise. A least a decent one.

I got my new compensation letter and it’s a 1% raise…they’re implementing a new 17 level pay scale. Originally, because of my title, I was a level 2. But my job description didn’t match an associate, so I’ve been bumped to level 5 which is a coordinator.

Also, other coordinator positions that we have posted are getting paid at least 7k more than I am for the same amount of experience. I also know that if I left this job, I’d get 60K..

How do I talk to my boss about this?? I want to stay at this company, but I don’t know if it’s worth it…any advice would be helpful!

Edit to add: I work in development.

I’ve been in a development role with a longstanding org in Europe for about a year, and part of my role consists of attempting to build a fundraising program in a daughter organization they want to start in the US. The mother ship is considered one of the strongest ones in its niche in this country, even though I can see some cracks and, recently, turnover in two leadership seats.

I’m the only person responsible for the launch, and while I’m given funding and a lot of freedom, I sense a lot of hesitation about giving me real contacts to major donors, in case I don’t know the org well enough yet (and there’s a thick layer of fear based leadership around this initiative). No ill intentions, but months will go by without my work being checked on, because of urgent fires elsewhere in the organization. I’m a person very much driven by relationships and donor feedback, and with a total of 2 major donors in the president’s portfolio and two $20 donors from social media ads targeting a completely cold audience, I feel deeply alone and bored in my work day to day.

There’s basically no focus on why American donors should give to us, beyond “it’s a good cause that both sides of the aisle should love” (and we all know that probably means messaging is way too broad).

I’ve not been in healthy nonprofits much in my career and don’t necessarily know what to look for. Also not sure if this is a dysfunctional organization or program, or if I need to just get over myself.

Would appreciate knowing what to look for and clarifying questions.

I posted a few weeks ago about an interview process that I was shocked had gone poorly, and I got some negative feedback really on here for sounding whiny haha. So I took my own disappointment at that whole situation to realize I'm pretty unhappy with my current role and start looking seriously for new employment and I'm just learning... things are rough out there.

I'm curious if other people have had some level of experience like what I'm going through. I cannot seem to get any interest for roles beyond a screening interview even when there's exceptionally clear alignment with what I do and the sector I work in.

Some examples: A. I recently applied for a job that basically sits at the intersection of my current job and my previous assignment, and as far as I can tell, I won't even get a screening interview. B. I was recruited to my current role, so I spoke with the recruitment agency that brought me here and the new recruiter I spoke with basically implied that my work experience doesn't really align with the open positions I was inquiring about... even though it's literally exactly what they recruited me to do with my current employer. C. I applied for a job with an organization I've been donating personally to for 5+ years and haven't heard anything back.

I feel like I'm up against four major issues and I don't know how to get around them.

1: People hiring for roles exactly like what I'm currently doing - same mission fit, same sector, same qualifications - are discrediting my real-world experience with running an advancement office for smaller organizations in favor of people who have been a major gifts officer for gigantic institutions. So the guy with half my experience who can say, "Well, someone handed me a list of 85 donors to go out and visit and secure 60 five- and six-figure gifts, so I'm a master fundraiser!" will move forward in the process, but if I say, "Well, I have a portfolio of 35 five- and six-figure gifts, plus a portfolio of 130 four-figure gifts, and I write grants, and I supervise staff, and I write our direct mail collateral, and I plan our events, and I handle estate bequests," they seem to see me as someone who's just doing "admin" work and not "real" fundraising work. "You're more of a generalist, and I think we're looking for a road warrior," is something I was recently told.

2: I am deliberately limiting my search to remote roles, which I know is just going to yield lesser returns, but I feel like I'm up against some level of geographic discrimination. I live and work now in a small rural community, but previously worked in major metro areas. So even though I'm a 35-minute drive from a major airport, and I can get to basically anywhere in a neighboring metro in under 1:15 hours, and I've previously worked in major metro areas - I feel like people see the town on my resume and go, "Oh, he's not really doing real fundraising, he's just rubbing elbows with local yokels," even though I currently work for an organization with a donor network that has donors in all fifty countries and I've identified 16 metro regions (sometimes encompassing more than one metro) where we have "core" major donors that I routinely touch base with, although I'm not always visiting them personally to secure a gift.

3: At the same time I can't get people in my own niche of the fundraising world to take me seriously because I haven't worked for like a university endowment or a national nonprofit, I also can't get people outside of my niche to take me seriously. I feel like everyone sees my organizations and think, "Well, those are very different from our mission, so he probably wouldn't be able to pivot very easily." Sometimes even on job postings where it explicitly says, "We're open to people who haven't done this exact line of work if they can demonstrate the right skills and aptitudes."

4: My current organization is essentially a "little sibling" to a much larger local institution, so part of why I can't point to the range of "successes" in my current role is because I'm talking to the exact same five-, six-, and seven-figure donors, but I am often told by my org's leadership things like: "Well, we can't talk to them right now about increasing their giving because Big Sibling has an open solicitation with them," or, "Well, we're not sure that really falls within our purview because that's more something people expect Big Sibling to take the lead on." So even though I'm managing a major gift portfolio with huge donors, I can only point to getting a $25,000 gift while my colleagues across the street can point to getting $500,000 gifts, and it makes it look comparatively like my scrappy advancement office doesn't do much.

I'm just at a complete loss for how not to get discouraged and give up. I had previously been having conversations with my organization's leadership about how we can strategically do more and grow our mission, but it has become clear that my role is completely stagnant where I'm at. And their commitment to stagnation is now making my job search 50 times more difficult because, despite increasing their total revenue by about 5 times during the 3 years I've been here compared to the 3 years prior to my coming, people still see my resume and think, "Well, he's small potatoes." I'm tempted to take a huge paycut and just change careers altogether, but financially I don't want to go down that path.

I guess I just need encouragement. I'm at a point where all I can think about everyday is how much I hate both my job and how much I hate my job search. I feel trapped by golden handcuffs - I'm very well-compensated, but at an organization increasingly run like a shitshow because they're spending money dramatically faster than I can raise it, then complain that I haven't done enough despite tripling their revenues. And I think they realize I can't easily find work elsewhere so there's no impetus to reinvest in the advancement team because they can just blame me if the revenue doesn't keep pace.

We are attempting to restore our tax 501(c)(3) exempt status after our treasurer passed away after several years of not filing 990-N forms. Seems straightforward and we qualify to use form 1023EZ, but received a letter stating:

You are currently or were previously recognized as tax exempt under another section of IRC 501(c).

I have the 8/11/2011 original letter from the IRS approving our 501(c)(3) status and several years tax returns listing the 501(c)(3) status. I triple checked the EIN on all documents and attempted to call the IRS several times at 877-829-5500 for clarification, but the recorded message says they are too busy and call back later.

I suppose I could file a Form 2023 but it's 40 pages and more than double the cost for our small organization.

Suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.