Picture it. Your office. 2026. It’s Monday morning and you open your inbox:
- A major government grant is delayed 90 days.
- Insurance renewal comes in 22% higher than expected.
- An international funder has shifted priorities—and reduced your grant.
- Your largest donor wants to redirect their gift.
- Two key employees leave and replacing them costs more than expected.
Individually, none of these must become a crisis. But together, they can change the financial picture quickly. You have 30 days of unrestricted cash. What do you do first?
That is the question of resilience. Not because nonprofit leaders have failed to plan, but because the environment keeps changing: revenue is less predictable, costs are harder to control, funding priorities shift, risks emerge after the annual budget is already approved. Financial resilience isn’t simply having enough money in the bank or a balanced budget. Even budgets that look balanced on paper can still have moments of vulnerability. And while we can’t plan for every possible scenario (that would be unrealistic – and exhausting!), it can be comforting to know what you can do when Plan A takes a hit, or stops working altogether. Having choices can be the key difference between reacting to a challenge and navigating one. It’s that fiscal flex: knowing what you can pause, protect, adapt, or change…and when.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Growing up, I loved reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. The story would go along its journey until the reader was met with a decision point where every option opened up a range of paths and outcomes. There was never one “right” path, just different actions, each leading to a different possibility. Financial flexibility works much the same way: when faced with a fiscal challenge, creating multiple plans and options gives you the ability to adapt, make informed choices, and choose the path that best supports your goals while maintaining alignment with the organization mission and current priorities. Let’s dig a little deeper a couple of the scenarios in Monday morning’s email and explore some possible options.
Resources for supporting well-being, tending to environmental grief, and navigating change:
TREC’s new resource collection, Leading In Times of Uncertainty
Upcoming webinar series,Tending to Environmental Grief, hosted by Sky Island Alliance
Scenario 1: Your biggest funder is late. You have payroll in 24 days.
A major government grant is delayed 90 days but it’s the funding stream that typically covers a majority of payroll. The pressure is on given the time-bound constraint, so what can you do to take action now?
Plan B: Buy some time.
Identify spending that can be temporarily paused or delayed without compromising the mission. Know which receivables can be accelerated and which expenses are non-negotiable. Set a cash threshold that triggers action:
- Which discretionary expenses can be paused for 30, 60, or 90 days?
- Can planned purchases or projects be delayed?
- Which vendor payments or contracts have flexibility?
- What receivables could realistically be accelerated?
Plan C: Use financial capacity deliberately.
If the delay continues, know in advance how much reserve you can responsibly draw in addition to what minimum liquidity you want to maintain, who has authority to approve the draw, and especially how reserves will be replenished.
Plan D: Bring in another source of liquidity.
Know who you can call. Could another funder provide a bridge? Could the delayed funder advance a portion of the award? Can earned revenue or receivables be accelerated? Could board relationships be leveraged to open financing or bridge-support options?
Key Takeaway: The main objective here is not to choose one lever but to know the possible sequence of combinations of options to navigate the situation.
Scenario 2: Your costs rise – but your funding doesn’t
Let’s look at that insurance renewal coming in 22% higher than expected. The immediate (and understandable) reaction to this would be to ask, “what can we cut to cover this?” But before doing that, consider possibly exploring, “what must we sustain, and what are we willing to change?” This scenario forces distinction between those three things an organization is willing to 1) protect, 2) adapt and 3) reconsider.
Plan B: Reconsider without changing the mission.
Before cutting core capacity, identify opportunities to renegotiate contracts, consolidate technology, right-size leases and/or other properties, delay purchases, or streamline processes.
Plan C: Adapt and redesign the work.
Could a program be redesigned rather than eliminated? Could services be delivered through a partnership? Could functions be shared? Could staffing or technology change how the work gets done?
Plan D: Make deliberate choices or what to protect.
Decide in advance what is essential, what can adapt, and what may need to be paused or reconsidered. Then stress-test those choices: What happens if costs rise another 5% or 10%? What if funding stays flat for three years? Or goes away?
Key Takeaway: You don’t need to predict the future. You just need to know what matters most when the future changes.
Resilience Means Having Choices
A resilient nonprofit is one that has thought through its options before circumstances force a decision. Because Plans B…C or even D aren’t about expecting the worst, they’re about giving your organization more than one effective way forward.
Picture it. Your office. 2026 on that same Monday morning.
The emails arrive. This time, no panic. You have options and now energy can be spent on choosing your own adventure.
In Community,
Building Better Budgets
For many organizations, October is the time of year you are creating your budgets for the coming fiscal year. Environmental groups like yours need robust budgeting skills and tools for long-term sustainability and success in your mission. Having an easy-to-use budgeting tool makes developing a budget more accurate while using far less staff time to prepare it. Learn how to budget effectively by knowing which programs are solvent to make careful and strategic programmatic decisions. We will cover essentials such as how to accurately project revenue and expenses and present a clear picture of your organization.
Budget Scenario Webinar
What if budgeting could actually be…fun? Join us for an engaging, practical webinar that turns budget scenario planning into a new superpower. We will walk through the basics of developing alternative budgets that can adapt to change and are mission-aligned as well as share real-world examples, tools, and tips to help prepare for whatever comes next. Let’s plan together with purpose and stay mission ready.
Operating Reserves: Why to Have One, How to Build One, and a Sample Policy
Although most nonprofit organizations know that an Operating Reserve is essential, not everyone succeeds in building one and keeping it. This resource walks through the purpose of and common obstacles to creating an Operating Reserve and lays out a clear path to achieve it. It also includes a sample policy to assist you in establishing your own reserve funds.
Visit Our New Website
Through our new website, we’re honored to offer more support to take the bold, grounded, actions that will empower your work in the months and years to come.
A streamlined job board and referral board for easier access to opportunities and connections. TREC’s newsletters will also be posted on our website blog, and most blog posts are open for your discussion!
Explore Our Learning Guides
Tailored to your needs, offering everything from foundational insights to complex solutions in our core offering areas.
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Sheilani Alix
Financial Management Specialist
What do you hope people feel after working with you?
I hope people feel relief when we work together. Finance, in general, can be overwhelming and exhausting and we have to also recognize that an individual’s relationship to money is a deeply personal and unique experience. My goal is to show up to those moments as a partner and source of support to help get through finance adventures together.
What’s something you’re learning or exploring right now—professionally or personally?
Finding different ways to make time for intentional, gentle pauses throughout the day. My current quest involves coloring (yes, as in grab-a-coloring-book-and-a-box-of-crayons coloring!) And for an added twist, am currently learning about one-color coloring (Still & Slow makes a wonderful coloring book specifically for this). Interestingly, it’s more difficult to choose one color than it is to choose many but it’s definitely proven to be a fabulous way to take a moment, breathe and find more creativity in the day.