RESET YOUR THINKING ON ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Ever wish you could just hit “reset” on a hectic day? Or on a season of your work that feels heavy, cluttered, and out of focus?

Here’s the truth: your team feels that, too. And sometimes, the best leadership move you can make is to pause, step back, and help everyone realign around what truly matters.

If you’re in the middle of summer planning, or you find yourself with an unexpected vacancy this fall, consider it an opportunity. Instead of just refilling a role, what if you took the time to truly reset your team’s structure and focus?

Behind every successful campaign, every donor relationship, and every grant award is a team working together. And sometimes, that team needs a reset to keep moving forward with clarity and energy.

Even if you lead a small shop – or you are the shop – think about how other staff or key volunteers fit into the development structure. This isn’t about adding chaos. It’s about creating strategy and breathing room for growth.

Here are some signs it’s time for a team reset:

• Donor stewardship is inconsistent
• Major gift work keeps getting bumped for event tasks
• Data and reporting ownership is unclear
• Everyone feels busy, but results are scattered

If you’re nodding your head, you’re not alone. These are common red flags that your structure – not your people – might be holding you back.

How to Approach a Reset

What do you really want to achieve in the next 1–3 years?

• Volunteer engagement that brings joy?
• More unrestricted revenue?
• Deeper donor relationships?
• Stronger grant outcomes that actually reflect your program’s impact?

Your structure should serve today’s vision, not yesterday’s goals.

Break down your goals across these areas:

• Annual giving
• Major gifts
• Events
• Corporate partnerships
• Grant writing
• Donor communications
• Data + CRM management

Who owns what? Where are things falling through the cracks? A reset starts with honest answers. Our team at DBD Group has seen great benefits to the use of a Development Assessment to help organizations analyze the data, obstacles and concerns of the team as part of looking for those cracks, offering strategies to fill them and identifying opportunities waiting to be activated.

Titles don’t equal effectiveness. Are the gifts of your team members buried in work that doesn’t bring them joy and elevate overall results?

Realignment is a chance to let people shine where they are strongest. I got to witness this kind of realignment first-hand while helping to facilitate a recent staff retreat with a behavioral health nonprofit. Using the Working Genius framework, they were able to identify strengths in their staff team that had gone unnoticed or underutilized. The lens of the “geniuses” is helping them re-work assignments and has already served to strengthen their team with a renewed appreciation of each player. You may want to consider a Working Genius™ evaluation as part of your organization reset.

In nonprofits, back-end functions like data management, gift processing, stewardship, and research are often undervalued. But strong internal operations drive scalable fundraising. You should consider evaluating the balance of both front-facing and behind-the-scenes roles. Many times, in staff reductions, we eliminate the internal roles not understanding the harm that can be afflicted when names and recognition are mishandled, when reporting and good stewardship are set aside for later (which may never happen) and when there is little to no good research and the deployment of face-to-face fundraising is not focused on the best opportunities for success. I have seen too many nonprofits doing good work have to apologize, and relationship-rebuild really good donors when they lost their commitment to the back of their house development roles.

Evaluate results towards good ROI-YES! But don’t forget the rest, too!

The current average tenure of Development staff members is 18 months. How can you build a good donor-centered culture if your team members are always leaving? How then can you build growth pathways to keep talent engaged? Whether it’s a coordinator stepping into management or a passionate annual giving project manager stepping into a mid-major gift role, clear new experiences and growth opportunities build retention and morale.

Reset ≠ Disruption. It = Strategy.

A reset doesn’t have to be chaotic. Done well, it brings calm and focus. It renews morale, clarifies decisions, and reconnects your team to their “why.”

You’re not breaking the team apart – you’re reshaping it to be stronger for what’s ahead.

Don’t wait for burnout to force your hand.

If you’re feeling tension, bottlenecks, or even that nagging sense that “this isn’t working anymore,” or if you just received notification that a teammate is moving on, trust your instinct.

A thoughtful reset might be the boldest – and wisest – move you make this year.

What’s one area you can explore for a reset this week to move closer to your goals? Contact us for more about how DBD Group can help your organization navigate your own organizational reset.

Summer is the perfect time to step back, evaluate, and realign priorities. It is a perfect time to think through a purposeful reset of your fundraising and organizational strategies. Tips from the team at DBD Group will help you emerge energized and focused for the busy season ahead.