When Nonprofits Hear “Revenue,” They Hear “Sellout”
Three ways leaders can cut through fear, clarify the role of money, and replace anxiety with alignment.
You’ve seen it. You’re in an all-staff meeting. Sharing good news. A new grant, a successful fundraising campaign. You mention the word “revenue,” and the room changes. Shoulders tighten. You can almost see the adrenaline spikes.
I’ve been there. More than once.
In fact, it’s been around as long as nonprofits, I suspect. The Peabody Education Fund is usually identified as America’s first “modern” nonprofit. It was founded in 1867. That’s a long time, but the question is the same today: What does revenue mean for a nonprofit? And why does it freak staff out so much?
A Little History
Twenty years ago, Harvard Business Review asked the question directly: “Should Nonprofits Seek Profits?” Their answer: earned income is attractive because leaders are deeply committed to their missions and want to escape the constant frustration of chasing philanthropic support.
Makes sense on paper, but it never settled my own staff.
I remember at Lehigh Valley Public Media, I lost count of the meetings I was in (and sometimes just sat through as the presenter would drone on) trying to explain to team members: Yes, it was “no money, no mission.” But every time we talked about revenue, it was like you could cut the tension with a knife. Staff worried a finance conversation meant cutbacks. Worse, they feared a revenue conversation would siphon attention and energy from the mission itself.
The Nonprofit “Profit” Problem
Anxiety, in this case, is never just about jobs. It’s also about some key beliefs:
Selling out fear. Most people in the nonprofit sector join it for the “good cause,” not the glory or the money. Talking about “revenue,” “surplus,” and “profit” starts to sound like trading their soul to the devil.
The scarcity mindset. Organizations that scrape by and count pennies every year create staff who see any financial conversation as a prelude to cuts, not a discussion about investment and growth.
The transparency trap. When staff can’t figure out how the organization’s financial model works, they fill the gaps with worst-case thinking.
The National Council of Nonprofits puts it more bluntly:
“The term ‘nonprofit’ is a bit of a misnomer. Nonprofits can make a profit (and should try to have some level of positive revenue to build a reserve fund to ensure sustainability.) The key difference between nonprofits and for-profits is that a nonprofit organization cannot distribute its profits to any private individual (although nonprofits may pay reasonable compensation to those providing services).”
That’s the crux of the issue. When staff hear the word “profit” they assume it has to be an either-or with the organization’s mission. Leaders, on the other hand, know some surplus is essential.
But where does that leave nonprofit leaders? If you’re in charge of a nonprofit, how do you talk about finances so that it lowers anxiety and increases trust?
Frame Revenue as Mission
First, what we’re not. Revenue in a nonprofit is not about enriching shareholders. Success is not a stock price, it’s the impact the organization has as it pursues its mission.
Or, to put it more bluntly: Money is just oxygen.
Without revenue, nothing else in the organization happens.
Or, even more bluntly: a coffee shop makes revenue to cover expenses and pay out the rest as profit to the owners. A nonprofit makes revenue to cover expenses and channel every extra dollar into the mission.
Also, for the record, no barista at your local nonprofit is taking their surplus in the form of stock options.
Revenue Is Mission Fuel
A good way to think about this: the mission is the destination. Revenue is the fuel that moves an organization toward that destination. No fuel, no movement. The better the fuel, the further you can go.
At PBS39, we saw this play out when we launched new programming for Spanish speakers a few years back. We didn’t do it just because we had a good idea. We did it because the revenue—the combination of philanthropy and earned income—was there to make it real. Revenue was the reason we could serve more people, in more ways, and more effectively.
To borrow some expert phrasing: nonprofits should “build a surplus to fuel their mission” rather than seeking “shareholder value.”
Talking Revenue With Your Team
As much as we know the right analogy, it’s still a question of implementation. Here are three ideas that work to make the above reframing a daily part of your organization:
Connect every dollar to outcomes. No more dry financial reports. If you have a “good news, we hit our $100,000 fundraising goal” moment, don’t stop there. Don’t just celebrate dollars. Say, “Because we raised $100,000, we can now reach 50 more children with literacy tutoring this year.” Always, always connect money to mission and impact.
Make the ‘fuel’ analogy visual. At your next all-staff meeting, display a graphic of a gas tank. Label each revenue source—grants, donations, earned income, etc.—as the fuel going into the tank, and label the vehicle with the name of a core program it powers.
Give a basic budget tour. Run a “Budget 101” brown bag lunch. Walk through some basic terms for where money comes from and where it goes. Nothing beats transparency in fighting financial anxiety.
Anxiety to Alignment
This is the story nonprofit leaders need to tell internally. Staff don’t need a budget, they need clarity. Show them that revenue isn’t an end in itself, but the fuel for their mission, and anxiety will turn into alignment.
Money isn’t the mission.
But without money, the mission won’t move.
Revenue anxiety isn’t going away on its own. But leaders who reframe it as impact fuel can change the culture. What strategies have you used to make money conversations less stressful for your team? I’d love to hear in the comments.
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