If you’re seeing 20+ development roles open in Cincinnati at once, you’re not imagining it. Local job boards and aggregators are showing a steady stream of development/ fundraising openings (including senior roles) across the region. The “why” isn’t a single cause—it’s a collision of (1) donor behavior , (2) nonprofit workforce conditions , and (3) unrealistic internal expectations of what a development leader can fix without infrastructure . Friend in the local philanthropy

Here’s my admission. My daughter said, “Dad, put your phone down,” while I was driving. She’s 13. And she was right. It was a clear signal that something I’ve been telling myself is “manageable” isn’t. The Truth I’m an exhausted dad. I run my own business. I work with leaders who are carrying a lot. And somewhere along the way, I let distraction become a coping strategy. Not because I don’t care — but because I’m tired, overstimulated, and looking for relief in the smallest p

A One-Page Reality Check for Nonprofits Thinking About 2026 Most nonprofit leaders don’t avoid hard work. They avoid a very specific kind of hard work: the difficult conversations about the inner workings of things. The ones about leadership transitions. About burnout that’s being quietly absorbed. About programs we love but may no longer be able to sustain. About whether the future we talk about is truly funded or staffed to exist. I built a one-page 2026 Reality Check  as a

David Whyte reminds us in Crossing the Unknown Sea : “What you can plan is too small for you to live.” It’s a line worth carrying into...