CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 28 — 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 and lead author of the report. “This is a sector that was already under-resourced — and now we are seeing organizations stretched to their breaking point.”
“I’m hopeful this data helps funders really take stock of what is needed in this moment,” she added.
While most of the 585 respondents to the survey reported a balanced budget or a surplus in the last fiscal year, many express concern for the future, naming uncertainty about future funding levels and increasing costs. More than half of nonprofit leaders also reported that their organization’s biggest staffing challenges stem from insufficient funding to recruit, retain, and support staff.
“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 their own burnout and report that burnout is affecting their staff. Notably, the percentage of leaders reporting concern about their burnout has remained steady at nearly 90 percent since CEP’s 2024 State of Nonprofits report. Nonprofit leaders note that burnout stems from both day-to-day work as well as the broader political climate.
Nonprofit leaders who identify as people of color were slightly more likely to indicate that burnout is significantly impacting their staff and themselves. “The need for our services far outweighs our ability to meet the need in a way that does not completely overwhelm our staff and burn them out,” said one nonprofit leader quoted in the report.
The report includes suggestions from nonprofit leaders for funders seeking to alleviate these challenges, including to provide greater flexible funding to allow nonprofits to meet pressing needs and contend with of-the-moment challenges.
“This is a time of unprecedented challenge for the nonprofit sector, which faces politicized attacks, and for individual nonprofit organizations, many of which are grappling with cuts in federal funding or extreme uncertainty about future funding,” 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 in this moment.”
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.
MEDIA CONTACT: Chloe Heskett, Center for Effective Philanthropy: chloeh@cep.org | (617) 395-4092
