2026: From Endurance to Intention
The start of a new year is often framed as a reset, but for nonprofit leaders coming out of 2025, it is more complicated than that. The past year stretched capacity, tested resilience, and exposed just how fragile many of the systems we rely on have become. As we move into 2026, the question is not how to forget those challenges, but how to lead forward without being anchored to them. There is no denying it: 2025 was challenging. For many nonprofit leaders, it pushed organizations and individuals to their limits.
And yet, 2025 is behind us.
The lessons matter, but leadership requires a mindset shift. A new year demands clarity. If we remain anchored in last year’s challenges, we limit our ability to envision what is possible now. Moving into 2026, that shift is not optional; it is essential.
This year, I am grounding myself by focusing on two things:
What I can control, where I can make decisions.
What I can influence, where I can shape or sway decisions.
These lists guide where I put my energy. They help me manage the stressors of the moment and remain focused on solutions and action rather than reaction.
Fluidity, Not Certainty: A Leadership Reality for 2026
It is likely that 2026 will be tumultuous, especially for the nonprofit sector. The unpredictability of the federal government and the erosion of systems that once felt stable make it difficult to be definitive about what lies ahead.
But if we accept that constancy is no longer the norm and fluidity is, we open ourselves to far more possibility than we currently imagine. Waiting for stability only delays progress. Building organizations that can adapt, move, and evolve is now core to the work of nonprofit leadership.
What’s Shifting in the 2026 Funding Landscape
Federal funding is beginning to roll back out, but with notable changes: more block grants and more explicit ideological requirements. Only you can determine whether those requirements align with your organization’s values and vision, and that discernment matters.
Block grants also create opportunity. They often unlock state, municipal, and sub-grant funding. This may require shifting how and where you search, paying closer attention to intermediaries, state agencies, and regional systems.
Collaboration remains critical. More foundations are funding multi-organization proposals, prioritizing alignment over isolation. This is an opportunity to consider who you could partner with to deepen, widen, or accelerate impact.
Private foundations may have more resources if the market holds, but competition is tight. With only 34% of private foundations accepting unsolicited proposals, we are reminded of what we already know:
Relationships matter.
Now is the time to prioritize cultivating relationships with foundations, corporations, and individuals, creating opportunities for them to truly understand your work: what you do, why it matters, the difference it makes, and how you know.
This is also a moment to be creative with current donors and funders. Design engagement that is authentic, relatable, and clearly demonstrates that their support is creating positive change. Treat them as partners in the work, and they will want to do more.
Create, and Create Community
My word for 2026 is Create.
Ideation and possibility can only sustain us for so long. It is time to move plans into action and remake what no longer works, expanding the spheres of what we control and what we influence.
I am also focused on Creating Community.
This work cannot be done alone. You miss out on others’ brilliance, expertise, and support when you try. No movement for change has ever happened with one person standing in a vacuum. We need people who understand the path we are on, who will hold each other up when it feels like too much, and who are committed to rebuilding the systems and structures that keep returning us to the same broken loops instead of opening roads to new possibilities.
Community is often framed as a luxury, something outside the work, something to fit in when there is time. I invite you to challenge that assumption.
Community is the work.
Within community, we are stronger, more efficient, and better supported. You do not have to have every answer when someone else in your community already does. And while we are living through incredibly difficult times, we must not lose our ability to hope, to dream, and to create the future we want and that our children deserve to inherit.
What Comes Next
If you are a nonprofit leader navigating uncertainty and looking for clarity, connection, and forward movement, I invite you to Create with me in 2026. This is a year for intention, action, and community. You do not have to do this work alone, and you should not have to.
Let’s shape what comes next, together.
