If you lead a small nonprofit and fundraising feels like a lot of grant deadlines, donor updates, or preparing for board meetings, you are not alone. For many new and small organizations, the biggest challenge is knowing that things need to improve, but not knowing where to start.

The good news is that you do not need a 20-page fundraising plan to make progress. You just need to fix your most pressing challenge, and only focus on that until it is done.

Start With One Challenge

When all of your tasks feel urgent, it is tempting to try and overhaul your entire fundraising strategy overnight. But more often than not, that can lead to burnout, and short-term fixes that are not sustainable in the long-term. Instead, there is a simpler approach, choose one challenge that is holding your fundraising back, and focus your efforts on solving it. Here are a few examples of common challenges:

First-time donors are not giving again. With donors who are new to your organization, you are getting the initial gift, however, that is the only contribution and there are no donor relationships being built over time.
Your board may feel uncertain about their role in fundraising. While they care deeply about the mission, some board members may not feel confident asking for donations, or may be unsure how they can best contribute to fundraising efforts.
Your team is unsure which fundraising activities are actually working. You have a combination of different activities such as events, crowdfunding campaigns, and appeals, but you are not sure what actually drives results.

A Simple Strategy to Fix It

Once you have identified one key fundraising challenge that is causing your organization the most issues, it can still feel tough to decide what to do next. You might wonder if a small step will actually make a difference, or whether it is even worth starting without a full plan in place. But the truth is, progress starts with action, even if it is a small one. And in this article, we will discuss three simple steps that help you move toward practical results, starting with just one focused challenge.

Step 1: Identify the Fundraising Gap That Needs Your Attention

When fundraising feels like it is not working, it is common to fall back on broad goals such as “We need to find more donors” or “We have to raise more money.” While those goals make sense, they are often too general to guide your team into action.

What tends to move the needle is identifying one specific fundraising gap which is the difference between what your organization is doing and what it wants to achieve. For small and new nonprofits, that gap can show up in many ways, for example:

First-time donors give once, but you want them to give again and build a lasting relationship.

Your annual appeal seems strong, but few people respond, and you want it to result in more support.
Board members care about the mission, but are not sure how to support fundraising, and you want them to feel confident and get more involved.

Instead of trying to fix everything at once, choose one part of your fundraising that is not working, and focus on that first. For example:

If you are losing donors after their first gift, there may be room to improve your stewardship strategy.
If supporters are not responding to your appeal, your messaging might not be compelling enough for those that support you.
If your board members are not actively participating in fundraising, your board members may need more training and support around fundraising.

Identifying the gap in your fundraising can help you focus your time and energy on a challenge that is clear and easy to define.

Step 2: Choose a Fundraising Task That Fits Your Capacity

Once you have named your most pressing fundraising gap, such as first-time donors not returning, it is easy to start thinking about everything you would like to improve, for example, a new donor onboarding plan or a new stewardship strategy. But if you are a small or new organization, trying to do everything at once can be too much. Instead, choose one small fix that feels realistic for your team.

For example, if you would like to improve first-time donor retention and sending individual thank-you cards or emails is not realistic right now, consider creating a basic message template instead. A thoughtful note that can be reused with small updates for each donor can save time and still feel personal. It does not need to be elaborate, just sincere and sent in a timely manner.

If you feel ready to take one small step further, consider analyzing your donor records, whether in a spreadsheet or donor software, to identify how many first-time gifts turned into second gifts last year. You do not need to analyze hundreds of rows of data. Even looking at a few records can help you spot what is working and what might need adjusting.

And by choosing a fundraising task that fits your capacity, and can be repeated, is enough to start making progress.

Step 3: Ask What Made a Difference in Your Fundraising

After you have made your small change, like sending a thank-you message or looking at your donor records for patterns, you can think about whether anything changed. Did a donor respond? Did someone give again? Did the process feel more manageable than expected? Sometimes the difference shows up right away, and sometimes it might take more time.

You can also think about how it felt to implement the change. Did using a thank-you template save you time? Was it something you and your team could see yourselves doing regularly? Paying attention to what feels doable and within your resources helps you figure out what is worth repeating.

And again, you do not need any complex systems to do this, whether you have a team or you are a team of one. It could be a note in a spreadsheet where you keep your donor records, marking that a donor responded to an update. The idea is to notice what worked, what felt helpful, and what might be worth trying again. Over time, these small observations help you make clearer decisions and build momentum in your fundraising efforts.

Which Challenge to Start With?

When fundraising feels challenging, it can be tough to know where to begin. You do not need to start with a long list of tasks. You can begin by naming one clear challenge, choosing one manageable fix, and noticing what changes as a result. This steady, practical approach is especially helpful for small and new organizations, and each small step helps shape a fundraising strategy that is realistic, repeatable, and built to grow with you.

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How Small Nonprofits Can Solve One Fundraising Challenge at a Time