The Development Hiring Spike Isn’t About Growth. It’s About Strain

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 community summed it up perfectly, “Orgs hire a relationship person and then expect them to build the plane while flying it”—is basically the sector’s open secret, and it shows up again and again in retention and workforce research. I think this is true, but a bit more complicated in this particular moment.

Round and round the philanthropy jobs go, is this normal? Maybe...

What’s actually driving the churn

1) Donor dollars are up (in pockets), but donor counts and retention are still a problem

Recent Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) reporting shows patterns like: dollars rising modestly while the number of donors—especially small-dollar donors—declines, and new-donor retention remains weak.

That’s a brutal combo for development teams:

• You’re under pressure to hit goals.

• The easiest “volume” donors are thinning.

• You have to do more cultivation work per dollar.

So organizations respond the obvious way: hire more development capacity (or replace churn) and hope the new person unlocks growth.

2) Nonprofit staff burnout and vacancies are widespread, and it’s hitting leadership roles hard

Multiple national snapshots show nonprofit leaders reporting high concern about burnout and persistent difficulty filling vacancies. Center for Effective Nonprofit's State of Nonprofits 2024 found burnout is a top concern and that nearly all leaders express concern about staff burnout.

Meanwhile, Candid’s employee survey work points to a workforce that is thinking about leaving, often citing too much work/too little support, limited growth, unsupportive management, and pay/benefits as drivers.

Development roles are especially vulnerable because the work:

• is public-facing and emotionally loaded,

• is tied to hard numbers,

• and often expands to “everything revenue-adjacent.”

3) A structural mismatch: expectations vs. infrastructure

This pattern is widely discussed in the hiring/retention ecosystem:

• Organizations recruit a fundraiser for relationships and revenue…

• then expect that same person to build/repair systems (CRM hygiene, donor journeys, stewardship, reporting, appeals calendar, board engagement, grant engine, events, etc.)

• while also producing results quickly.

Nonprofit HR, for example, cites unrealistic expectations and lack of organizational support as common contributors to turnover and recruiting difficulty in development roles.

And you see similar logic in sector-wide “capacity” commentary: fundraising growth concentrates where the organization has the operational capacity to support it, and smaller orgs are more likely to see flat/declining results.

What this “season” of rapid development hiring likely means in the next few months (Cincinnati lens)

Here’s the forecast I’d bet on—based on the research patterns above, plus how hiring cycles usually behave around year-end performance and Q1 planning:

1) More postings, not fewer—and more “re-posting”

Expect a visible wave of:

• backfills (people leaving),

• “new roles” that are really rebrands of an old role,

• and roles that get reposted after 60–120 days because the candidate pool doesn’t match expectations.

This is consistent with workforce crisis signals (burnout + vacancies + retention stress).

*** So all my friends looking for roles, ensure expectations are clear at the organization, and start the conversation about the backbone set of capacities the org has for fundraising year round. And know that there will be more coming in April-May.

2) A quiet pivot toward interim, fractional, and outsourced infrastructure help

When the “relationship person” model fails, organizations often experiment with:

• interim/fractional development leadership,

• outsourced grant writing,

• outsourced donor ops/CRM cleanup,

• campaign counsel “lite.”

Not because they love consultants—because they need a bridge while internal hiring stabilizes. If you are in this boat, please ensure that someone with systems thinking is teamed up with your relationship person to enable true success.

3) Boards will get louder about revenue—and that pressure will land on EDs and VPs

CEP and other sector research has been consistent: leaders are operating in complex conditions, with staffing/burnout and financial sustainability anxieties intertwined.

So in the next few months, you’ll see:

• more “aggressive” targets,

• more scrutiny of development ROI,

• more tension about “why aren’t we growing?”

Which can push more development leaders out.

4) The organizations with strong donor operations will separate from the pack

FEP-style trends tend to reward orgs with:

• strong retention systems,

• disciplined stewardship,

• segmented communication,

• and clean data.

Organizations without that backbone will keep trying to hire their way out of it—then burn people out.

THREE HARD QUESTIONS EVERY NP SHOULD BE ASKING BEFORE HIRING

1. “Are we hiring a person to compensate for systems we’ve chosen not to build?”

Hard truth: If you haven’t invested in systems, you’re not hiring a fundraiser—you’re outsourcing your organizational debt to a human being.

2. “What part of this job do we secretly expect to work nights, weekends, and inside someone’s personal relationships?”

Hard truth: If the job only works when someone’s whole social universe becomes the organization’s, you’re not offering a role—you’re demanding a lifestyle.

3. “If this hire doesn’t hit the number in year one, will we assume they failed—or that our assumptions were wrong?”

Hard truth: Organizations that confuse hope with forecasting burn through people.

If the answer is “we need them to hit the number fast,” then what you’re really saying is: we need a miracle, miracles aren't sustainable hiring strategies.

If you’re about to hire and want to make sure you’re setting the role—and the person—up to succeed, I’m happy to talk. ryan@friendlysidekick.com