Delayed But Not Defeated
The Hidden Costs of Nonprofit Work
Nonprofit organizations are the backbone of our communities. From sheltering families in crisis to advocating for tenants’ rights, we step in when no one else will. But for all the good we do, the funding systems that support our work are often broken — burdened by bureaucracy, delayed reimbursements, and unrealistic expectations about what it costs to keep an organization afloat.
As someone who has worked at nonprofits for almost 2 decades, I know this struggle intimately. I’m literally sitting at my desk right now, trying to get invoices processed and paid — chasing down delayed reimbursements for services that have already been delivered to people in need. I’m fielding questions from government employees who seem more concerned about formatting on an invoice than the actual work we’ve done to keep families housed.
These are invoices for staff who showed up for clients in crisis. For hours spent counseling tenants on the brink of eviction. For legal representation that prevented homelessness. And yet, months after submitting the paperwork, we’re still waiting to be paid. Meanwhile, the staff need their paychecks. The lights need to stay on. And I'm expected to lead — to keep morale up, to maintain quality services, and to do it all without the financial cushion most private sector organizations take for granted.
This isn’t unique to me. It’s a systemic issue affecting nonprofits across the country. Funders — especially government entities — often cap administrative costs at arbitrary percentages, ignoring the reality that payroll systems, HR compliance, data collection, rent, and leadership itself are not luxuries; they’re requirements for delivering high-quality services.
We are asked to be visionary and scrappy, but also fully compliant and audit-ready. We are praised for doing "so much with so little," as if that’s a sustainable strategy — or something to aspire to.
It’s time to stop romanticizing nonprofit sacrifice.
If funders want programs to thrive, they need to fund the whole organization. That means timely payments. That means investing in infrastructure. That means trusting the leaders they’ve chosen to support — not nickel-and-diming them while demanding miracles.
Because we are doing the work well. And we could do even more, if the systems designed to support us didn’t so often stand in our way.
To funders and partners: Let’s fund the work and support the providers. Let’s be compliant and compassionate. We don’t have to choose.
But if we continue to build systems that starve the very organizations doing the work, we’re not creating change — we’re creating collapse. Nonprofits aren’t failing. They’re being failed.
It’s not too late to do better.