Jesse Lane founder of goodmakerU, has a message to walk you through your report to let you know whats here, and how to use it.
Scott, you came in saying the biggest thing holding your organization back is simply that you're struggling to grow — and after looking at your answers, that tracks completely. But 'struggling to grow' is actually three separate problems wearing the same coat, and until you see them clearly, they're going to keep canceling each other out. Let's get into it.
With foundations and grants as your primary funding source and 25–50% of your revenue tied to what sounds like a small cluster of funders, you're building on ground that can shift without warning. At your budget level ($500K–$1M), that kind of concentration isn't just a risk — it's a ceiling. The moment a major grant isn't renewed or a foundation shifts its priorities, you're not just scrambling to fill a gap, you're potentially making staffing and program decisions under duress. For an organization less than two years old, this isn't unusual, but it does mean that diversifying your revenue isn't a 'someday' project — it's the foundational work that makes everything else sustainable.
Your donor retention is sitting in the 40–60% range, which means you're likely working hard to bring donors in the front door while a meaningful portion quietly exits the back. At your stage, that's an expensive pattern — both in time and in the compounding loss of what those retained donors could eventually represent. You've already flagged 'strengthen donor retention and stewardship' as a priority, which is the right instinct. The issue is usually not that donors stop caring — it's that the touchpoints between their first gift and their second aren't intentional enough. With a team of 2–5 people, that's a systems and prioritization problem as much as anything else.
You described your board situation in four words: 'I can't reach my board.' That's one of the most honest and telling things an executive director can say, and it points to a structural problem that compounds every other challenge you're facing. An unreachable board isn't just an accountability gap — it means you're fundraising without ambassadors, making strategy without partners, and absorbing pressure that should be distributed across a governance structure. You've prioritized board engagement and training in your top three, which is exactly right. But engagement training alone won't fix a board that isn't showing up. You likely need a reset conversation about expectations, not just a workshop.
Here's the uncomfortable loop you're in: your revenue is too concentrated in grants, which means you need to build an individual donor base — but your donor retention systems aren't strong enough to hold the donors you do bring in. And your board, the group best positioned to open doors, make introductions, and champion your cause, is largely unreachable. So you're doing the fundraising work of a much larger organization with a fraction of the infrastructure and none of the board leverage. Each of these blockers feeds the others. Fixing one in isolation gives you limited lift. But address all three with intention — even incrementally — and the growth ceiling starts to move.
1. Audit your grant dependency immediately. Map every active and pending grant by renewal date and funder relationship strength. Identify which ones are at risk in the next 12 months and what percentage of budget they represent. You need to see the cliff before you can build the bridge.
2. Build a 90-day donor stewardship sequence. For every donor who gave in the last 12 months and hasn't given again, create a three-touch sequence: a personal thank-you (not a receipt), a mission update tied to their original gift, and a soft re-engagement ask. You don't need a CRM overhaul to do this — you need a spreadsheet and 30 minutes a week.
3. Have a direct board reset conversation. Not a training session — a conversation. Schedule individual 20-minute calls with each board member and ask two questions: 'What would make this role feel valuable to you?' and 'What do you need from me to show up more consistently?' The answers will tell you whether you have a fixable engagement problem or a composition problem.
4. Hire with retention and board leverage in mind. Since hiring key staff is already a priority, make sure at least one of those hires has donor relations or development experience. You need someone who owns stewardship so it stops being the thing that gets deprioritized when you're busy.
5. Introduce one non-grant revenue stream this quarter. Even a small one — an individual giving campaign, a peer-to-peer fundraiser, or a recurring giving ask to your existing donors. The goal isn't to replace grant funding overnight; it's to prove to yourself and your board that the capacity exists.
GoodMaker Pro is built for exactly where you are, Scott — an organization with real momentum but structural gaps that are quietly limiting growth. The tools inside Pro address revenue diversification, donor retention systems, and board engagement frameworks in a way that's designed for small teams doing big work. If you're ready to stop diagnosing and start building, this is the next move.
Get your team and your board in on this conversation. Reports like this one work best when the whole organization can tackle issues together.
