Rebooting Impact: Is fundraising for "overhead" a growth opportunity for nonprofits?

For decades, nonprofit leaders have been told the same thing: donors don’t want to fund overhead.

We’ve built entire fundraising strategies around hiding it, apologizing for it, or disguising it behind program expenses. But what if the reality is more complex....

What if using the right type of messaging to ask the right type of donors to fund overhead... is actually a huge untapped growth opportunity?

During a recent Proimpact LinkedIn Live, Rhea Wong planted this seed...

That tracks with the experience I had during my tenure as the Executive Director of CoachArt.

Over six years, we dramatically increased our so-called “overhead” — investing in technology, raising staff compensation, and improving infrastructure Those changes quintupled our impact.

And here’s the surprising part: we never got pushback from existing donors. In fact, only one prospective donor ever even raised a question about it.

So what if the biggest limitation isn’t donor resistance at all, but our own assumptions? Could that unlock a new nonprofit fundraising growth strategy?

How Analytical Donors Think

Rhea shared another insight that gets right to the heart of this shift: “When we’re at our best, we’re not extracting resources from people. We’re advisers helping them achieve the change they want to see.”

That framing changes everything.

If you’re speaking with a donor who approaches philanthropy the way they approach their business investments, “overhead” isn’t a dirty word — it’s infrastructure.

And at the top of what Rhea calls the philanthropic pyramid, people ultimately want self-transcendence.

For these donors, overhead isn’t overhead. It’s legacy.

And here’s the kicker: the best overhead pitches combine both sides of the brain.

You show the numbers — ROI, efficiency, scale — but you also tell the stories.

The investment is rational, but the outcome is deeply human.

An "overhead" case study of nonprofit fundraising growth? Charity:water’s “The Well”

There's been a lot of attention over the years on charity:water's monthly donor program The Spring, that features powerful storytelling and the promise of 100% of each gift going to the mission.

But less attention has been paid to The Well — a separate but related campaign that makes the “100%” claim possible by entirely fundraising for overhead.

The Well uses a very different fundraising strategy though:

• Donor personas: Business leaders and entrepreneurs
  

• Messaging: Long-term, focused on impact growth
  

• Commitment: Multi-year operational support (common among DAF donors)
  

• The funding ask: Innovation in fundraising, tech, and donor trust-building
  

• Examples of work funded: an immersive, tech-enabled donor platform called Experience Lab, donors receiving GPS-enabled transparency, investments in low-risk capital markets to grow the organization's assets.

The lesson? Overhead can be fundraised for — with the right message to the right donors.

Testing Overhead campaigns with Donor-Advised Fund donors

So where’s the best place to test an overhead-focused ask today? My vote: Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs).

Why? Because DAF donors skew analytical.

Mitch Stein of Chariot broke it down for me in terms of three personas — and one in particular stands out: the Optimizer.

Optimizers are donors who think like investors.

They want to know their dollars are being put to work in the smartest possible way. They value transparency, ROI, and efficiency. They respond to clear business cases.

Sound familiar? This is exactly the type of donor who lights up when you pitch overhead not as a cost but as an investment multiplier.

So if you’ve ever wanted to test an overhead fundraising appeal, your DAF donors are the perfect place to start.

Frame the pitch around one transformational investment — a new software system, a marketing initiative to expand your audience, or automation tools that save hundreds of staff hours.

Lay out the case clearly: here’s the spend, here’s why it matters, here’s how it multiplies impact. DAF donors are ready to hear it.

How to explore this strategy at your org

If we can "reboot" the way we talk about overhead, we may just unlock the next era of nonprofit growth!

With the right donors and the right framing, it may be one of the most untapped opportunities in the nonprofit sector today.

As Rhea Wong challenged us, maybe it’s time to stop treating overhead like a liability and start testing it as the smartest investment we can offer donors.

What would you test first if you could pitch overhead as an investment?

If you want to dig deeper into strategies like this, I invite you to:

1. Join the Proimpact ED Hive — a monthly community where Executive Directors connect with peers, share insights, and collaborate on strategies.

   
   

2. Register for the Proimpact ED Summit in October — a virtual gathering of Executive Directors to collaborate on next year's plans together.
   

3. Check out Rhea Wong's Big Asks Gifts Program for coaching on how to act like a "philanthropic advisor" to potential donors and raise bigger gifts!