Growing Your Team Isn't the Only Way to Grow Capacity: Insights from Sound Fundraising Strategies
When nonprofit teams reach capacity, the solution often seems straightforward: hire another person.
But in today's environment, growing capacity doesn't always require growing payroll. With the introduction of fractional leadership, organizations are exploring new ways to access expertise, move priorities forward, and strengthen their teams without adding another full-time role.
We spoke with Laurie de Fleuriot de la Colinière, CFRE, Founder & CEO of Sound Fundraising Strategies, about how nonprofit leaders can think differently about capacity, staffing, and sustainable growth.
We're also proud to recognize Sound Fundraising Strategies as the Award Champion Sponsor of the Transformative Leadership Award at the 2026 Women's Nonprofit Network Awards.
1. What capacity challenges are nonprofit leaders struggling with most right now?
There are so many! Leaders are facing long-standing sector pressures—tight budgets, talent shortages, and high turnover—alongside newer demands, like the pressure to adopt AI or risk falling behind. The stress is coming from all sides. Staff members are stretched thin across far too many functions, leading to burnout and leaving high-impact strategic priorities on hold because day-to-day operations eat up every available hour.
2. When organizations need more capacity, what's causing leaders to rethink the traditional full-time hire?
Full-time hiring comes with long-term fixed payroll costs, lengthy onboarding cycles, and significant management overhead. Beyond that, job descriptions often demand an unrealistic range of skills - expecting a single person to excel at high-level major gift strategy and granular database operations. Finding that rare 'unicorn' candidate is difficult, expensive, and risky to retain.
Plus, the shift toward remote work opened up a whole new world of talent. Organizations aren't locked into their local job market anymore—they can easily bring in niche expertise and top-tier skills from pretty much anywhere.
3. What innovative approaches are you seeing nonprofits use to build capacity and access expertise?
We’re seeing a real shift away from rigid headcounts toward flexible, output-focused models. Instead of defaulting to a full-time job posting, forward-thinking leaders are leveraging fractional executives and specialized implementation partners. This lets organizations plug senior-level expertise directly into their existing teams exactly when and where it is needed—scaling capacity up or down based on strategic priorities rather than fixed payroll.
4. Where does fractional fundraising fit within that conversation, and when is it the right solution?
Nonprofits often feel trapped in a false binary: either commit to a costly full-time hire or bring in a traditional consultant. But both options have flaws. A traditional consultant hands over a beautiful strategy deck and leaves your team to execute it alone. On the flip side, senior hires carry high fixed costs, causing many organizations to settle for junior staff who require extensive management oversight.
Fractional fundraising bridges this exact gap. It delivers senior-level strategic guidance combined with hands-on implementation, driving your fundraising goals forward without overextending your budget. It’s the ideal solution during leadership transitions, periods of rapid growth, or whenever an organization needs experienced fundraising leadership to set the course and do the work.
5. What makes a strategic implementation partner different from other types of external support?
Traditional consultants typically provide recommendations and step back. A strategic implementation partner rolls up their sleeves and executes alongside you. At Sound Fundraising Strategies, we integrate directly into your operations, embed proven systems, build internal capabilities, and ensure high-priority fundraising goals are carried across the finish line.
We like to call this “strategy to stuffing envelopes” - doing whatever high-impact activity needs to be done to move the needle on your fundraising program.
6. What's one piece of advice you'd give a nonprofit leader who needs more capacity but isn't sure what option is right for their organization?
Diagnose the bottleneck before choosing the vehicle. Ask yourself whether you lack strategic direction, specialized technical skill, or simply hands-on execution capacity. Once you define the specific outcome you need, you can select the most flexible, cost-effective capacity model - whether that is full-time hiring, fractional leadership, or other specialized support - to drive sustainable growth.
About Sound Fundraising Strategies
Fractional fundraising for small nonprofits, combining strategic planning with ongoing implementation support. Rather than receiving a plan to execute on your own, you get senior-level expertise with a dedicated partner who works alongside your team for 12+ months to implement strategies together - at junior-level cost. Learn more by visiting www.soundfundraisingstrategies.com.