Nonprofits entered 2026 after a year marked by workforce and funding volatility. Federal funding disruptions, government shutdowns, reimbursement delays, layoffs, and record burnout drove operational instability and talent loss. In this environment, our nonprofit clients have faced a critical question: How do we build resilient teams when the operating environment remains uncertain?
Having worked with nonprofit finance, human resources (HR) and executive leaders across the sector, one lesson from 2025 was clear for the Cherry Bekaert Recruiting & Staffing team: waiting for turnover or funding shifts is too late. Resilience now requires proactive, disciplined and talent-first strategies.
Here are some staffing and recruiting strategies high-performing nonprofits use to stabilize operations, protect mission delivery and prepare for another unpredictable year.
Understand the Workforce Storm: What Changed in 2025 and Why It Matters for Hiring
The 2025 landscape reshaped nonprofit workforce realities:
- Federal funding was disrupted. Losses, delays, stop-work orders, and increased agency scrutiny all stalled hiring and forced nonprofits to reprioritize. According to Urban, nearly one in three nonprofits faced a government funding disruption in early 2025, increasing the likelihood of program and staffing cuts.
- Burnout stayed high. Key roles took longer to fill, straining internal controls and leadership capacity.
- Layoffs triggered a domino effect. Loss of institutional knowledge, workflow breakdowns and gaps in program continuity.
Our own internal poll data from fall 2025 showed only 3% of nonprofit finance and HR leaders felt very prepared for disruption heading into 2026. This fragility puts new pressure on recruiting leaders to anticipate coverage needs, speed up hiring and reduce reliance on single points of failure.
Immediate Actions for Recruiting and Staffing Leaders
Leading nonprofits now treat workforce planning with the same rigor as cash flow forecasting. Three immediate actions are helping stabilize talent operations:
- Develop 30/60/90-day headcount scenarios tied to program milestones and reimbursement schedules. Scenario planning is essential when funding remains unpredictable.
- Hold monthly workforce stand-ups across finance, HR and program teams. Boards and funders now expect visibility into hiring plans, capacity and operational risk.
- Prioritize critical coverage roles, especially in finance, grants, compliance, reporting, benefits and compensation. Delays or turnover in these areas can jeopardize audits, reimbursements or service delivery.
Build Resilient Talent Models
Nonprofits, with leaner structures than for-profits, feel the impact of a single vacancy more acutely. Modern leaders are reducing this fragility through:
- Maintaining a list of pre-vetted interim professionals: we’ve found that this allows our nonprofit clients to quickly backfill critical roles during turnover, minimizing service interruptions.
- Fractional and interim staffing: Nonprofits increasingly rely on fractional controllers, grants specialists, HR leaders, and analysts during peak cycles or compliance-heavy periods, instead of carrying full-time overhead.
- Communicating upcoming hiring priorities and timelines: Transparent communication helps keep the candidate pipeline strong and assures funders you’re proactively managing talent needs.
“Fractional support is treated as a strategic staffing tool nowadays — it’s no longer just a stopgap.”
Modernize Your Hiring Operations
2025 showed how slow or manual hiring processes can create unnecessary risk, especially when compliance deadlines are tight and candidates have options.
A specialized recruiting ally like Cherry Bekaert can help your organization modernize hiring operations without the need for new systems or process overhauls. We can:
- Centralize candidate information and communications to prevent anything from falling through the cracks in recruiting workflows. Scheduling, candidate communication, pipeline tracking and offer approvals reduce the administrative burden on already-stretched teams.
- Share best practices for running a disciplined, timely search, including pay transparency, to avoid losing candidates and accelerate decisions.
By modernizing your recruiting operations in these targeted ways, you improve your chances of securing top talent and ensure your organization is ready to meet funder expectations — without wading into broader HR or systems consulting.
Compensation Outlook for 2026
As competition for finance, HR, grants, compliance and audit talent continues in 2026, compensation remains a critical factor for attracting and retaining the right people. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, benefits now make up a significant portion of total compensation — often close to 30% — and many candidates expect transparency and clarity about pay from the start.
To ensure your offers are competitive, it’s important to regularly benchmark your pay and benefits against the broader market. While salary guides are typically geared toward the private sector, they can still provide a useful frame of reference for nonprofit roles, especially when you consider the full range of published data.
Cherry Bekaert’s 2026 Accounting & Finance, HR and IT Salary Guides are updated annually with the latest ranges and trends. Our team can help you interpret these numbers and apply them to your nonprofit’s needs — so you can approach candidates confidently and have data to share with your board and funders.
“If you show how hiring operations protect service delivery, funders pay attention.”
Conclusion: Resilience Is a Talent Strategy
Nonprofit resilience is built through proactive talent planning, disciplined recruiting operations and flexible staffing models that safeguard mission continuity amid rising external pressures.
The storm may not be over. With the right talent strategy, nonprofit leaders can strengthen their workforce foundation for 2026 and beyond.
Cherry Bekaert’s Recruiting & Staffing Services Team Is Here To Help
Resilience is both structural and cultural. Nonprofits need staffing strategies that ensure continuity and teams ready to respond to change while staying focused on the mission.
As you look ahead to 2026, focus on these three priorities:
- Proactive Talent Planning: Plan talent needs in advance to ensure coverage before disruptions occur.
- Disciplined Recruiting Operations: Streamline recruiting to accelerate hiring and minimize risk.
- Flexible Staffing Models: Adopt flexible staffing models to maintain stability through turnover, audits and funding changes.
If you want to discuss where your organization may be at risk or need a sounding board for your staffing plans, our team is ready to help. We offer practical guidance based on what works for mission-driven organizations facing similar challenges.
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