What r/nonprofit keeps coming back to
Complaints raised here by more than one person. One-off posts are not included.
148 recurring problems · 399 threads read · read since September 2026 · Reddit
Raised more than once here
Most people first.
- 98How to stop letting accounting stress ruin my life?“I was at a conference last week in a breakout session about HR issues and the discussion turned to burnout.”
- 77How to get an entry level job with no experience“One issue is that whenever I post an entry level job I get somewhere in the ball park of 1000 applications a week. I have to narrow it down somehow and looking for applicable experience is the obvious place to start.”
- 57How do I know if I can DIY a repair or need a pro?“Two examples of muddling through regret of hiring a consultant because we would have done a better job internally: rebranding the organization, and an audit of our annual fund program & donor acquisition process.”
- 50Are professional certifications actually worth the money for a promotion?“I’ve been made away of a modest professional development budget (~$1,500) from my employer... and I want to use it well to genuinely level up. Looking for ideas for what might make me more impactful in my current position”
- 46How to deal with uncooperative coworkers who don't do their work“what I’m running into with the event I’m planning is people fall through because they aren’t getting paid and it then falls on me and it’s become super stressful.”
- 44Why do I feel so overwhelmed after starting a new job?“Hi all! I'm starting at a new organization soon. I started at my current org before my pre-frontal cortex was fully developed, in an entry level role, and have worked my way up to DoD.”
- 42Why do IT jobs require impossible skill sets?“I have to wear multiple hats which I know is the norm but at this point I have my hands tied with literally everything I’m the one manning the phone, I had to create the strategic plan 4 months in with zero help from the board.”
- 40Doing the job of a higher role without the promotion or pay“I quit! Without going into detail, I was performing many duties of a role above my pay grade for a couple years. When the opportunity came to promote me into the role, they hired external instead.”
- 40Why are teachers expected to be available 24/7?“Calling people on their cell off hours seems like it's just expected. I always pick up thinking it must be an actual emergency because I truly am a team player... and it never is.”
- 37How to stop doing everything at once as property manager“each year I find myself questioning how much should we be asking of volunteers. Cause the solution to us growing always seems to be add more volunteers or ask them to do this now. Instead of hiring more workers.”
- 35Why do employers ghost you after a job interview?“I’ve just come out of nearly half a year of interviews with the Gates Foundation …multiple rounds, across time zones, with promises that “I’d hear back by Friday.””
- 34How to get a technical tax accounting internship as a rising junior“I'm first-gen, so I didn't understand how competitive traditional internships can be for accounting/finance until I walked into class the first day this semester and everyone was complaining about how internship recruitment for the summer 2027 is basically over.”
- 33Doing higher-level work without a pay raise“I'm taking on a lot more responsibility from a different/function team. I'll be learning new processes. No one has mentioned a title change to me. They've also told us we won't be getting merit raises, cost of living increases, or 401K match.”
- 33Should customer support live inside our CRM?“We currently mainly use excel spreadsheets to keep track of things (deadlines, reports, etc.) -I actually think it works fine, but my boss is set on using some more sophisticated software. We're trying monday.com but I don't find it particularly user-friendly, nor is it easy to export/import with excel.”
- 31How to quit a toxic workplace“My boss was being very hopeful, saying that if they got funding back, they’d rehire me. It bothered me a lot and I needed to cut this clean, so I told them honestly that I would be looking for other opportunities.”
- 28How to handle clients who demand refunds and bully you“I feel like these donor demands are breaking me.”
- 28How to go back to school while working full time with a family“I am considering the next stage in my career and am interested in pursuing a PhD (I already have a Master’s) but can’t afford to live off a graduate stipend.”
- 27How to handle too much work without project engineers or coordinators“I'm completely and utterly overwhelmed by the size and scope of basic project management this is going to entail.”
- 26Why am I being forced to use AI at work?“When they first introduced it I was feeling particularly insecure about my job and psychologically unsafe. So even though I wasn’t into it, I had to act like I was.”
- 25Why does fixing AI mistakes take longer than doing it myself?“Kind of shocked. What the hell are we paying for? He literally didn’t even proofread the AI results he sent us.”
What this forum worries about more than the rest
How much more often a topic shows up here than across every forum we read.
nonprofit sector40.9×nonprofits40.9×donor relations40.9×board governance40.9×