Sep 30, 2026 · 29 min · 11 segments
When a nonprofit grows faster than its structure, things start to break. Decisions slow down, roles blur, and good people get worn out. Most leaders assume it's a people problem. It usually isn't…
Dee BennoGuestTosha AndersonHostYeah, you see this sometimes it's a slow burn for organizations where they just kind of slowly start to outgrow their kind of their infrastructure and how they operate.
And sometimes it seems like it can kind of happen overnight and have the charity CFO on the financial management side.
We have to completely restructure how we're operating almost, like I said, overnight or in a very short period of time.
But inevitably, to your point, most organizations that are growing at some point hit the wall of saying this doesn't work anymore.
In your experience, what are those early signs that your organization is outgrowing its internal capacity and systems?
Yeah, so I really think a nonprofit outgrows its structure really when the scope of the work expands faster than the internal systems that are supporting it.
So you start to see unclear ownership or decision-making bottlenecks, duplicated work, leaders operating in constant, what I call triage mode.
Almost always what can look like a performance issue or a people issue is actually a structural issue.
They might wake up and realize the structure that used to work, just it's not holding anymore.
And in nonprofits especially, this happens when the mission grows faster than the infrastructure.
You know, you add programs, you're expanding REITs, increasing your goals, but internally things are still operating the same way.
Yeah, you see this sometimes it's a slow burn for organizations where they just kind of slowly start to outgrow their kind of their infrastructure and how they operate.
And sometimes it seems like it can kind of happen overnight and have the charity CFO on the financial management side.
We have to completely restructure how we're operating almost, like I said, overnight or in a very short period of time.
But inevitably, to your point, most organizations that are growing at some point hit the wall of saying this doesn't work anymore.
In your experience, what are those early signs that your organization is outgrowing its internal capacity and systems?
Yeah, so I really think a nonprofit outgrows its structure really when the scope of the work expands faster than the internal systems that are supporting it.
So you start to see unclear ownership or decision-making bottlenecks, duplicated work, leaders operating in constant, what I call triage mode.
Almost always what can look like a performance issue or a people issue is actually a structural issue.
They might wake up and realize the structure that used to work, just it's not holding anymore.
And in nonprofits especially, this happens when the mission grows faster than the infrastructure.
You know, you add programs, you're expanding REITs, increasing your goals, but internally things are still operating the same way.
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