How to Move Important Work Forward
For many small nonprofits, capacity is the first thing that comes up when there's more important work to do than people to do it.
There are only so many hours in the day. Staff are balancing programs, fundraising, communications, operations, and the day-to-day work of keeping the organization running. Add a new initiative, website project, fundraising campaign, or strategic priority, and it can be hard to see how you're going to fit one more thing in.
And sometimes, the answer really is that you don't have enough capacity. You may need more staff, outside support, additional funding, or simply more time.
But there's another part of the capacity challenge that's easy to overlook: when a project isn't broken down into clear pieces, even a manageable amount of work can start to feel overwhelming.
You can't plan your way out of a capacity shortage. But you can make better use of the capacity you have by creating structure around the work.
Over the past year and a half, we've worked with nonprofit leaders on all kinds of initiatives. The starting point varies, but we often find ourselves doing the same kind of work: taking something important an organization wants to accomplish and creating a clear path to get there.
That means figuring out what needs to happen, what comes first, who owns each piece, what decisions need to be made, and what can wait.
In practice, that clarity can make important work feel much more manageable.
A Simple Five-Step Way to Move the Work Forward
1. Define the goal
Start with the outcome.
What are you trying to change, create, launch, improve, or accomplish? What will be different when the work is successful? When does it need to happen?
One question we often use with clients is:
Why this project, and why now?
That simple question can help you get underneath the immediate request and clarify what you're really trying to accomplish.
For example, “improve our fundraising” gives you a direction.
A more actionable goal might be:
Build a more consistent fundraising program with clear revenue goals, priority audiences, a year-round calendar, and a reliable process for donor follow-up.
Now the team has a shared destination. The goal can also help you decide which work belongs in the project and which work can wait.
2. Break the work down
Once the goal is clear, identify the major pieces of work required to get there.
Start by getting everything out of your head. You don't need to figure out the perfect order yet. Just create a picture of what needs to happen.
For a fundraising initiative, that might include:
Clarifying fundraising goals
Identifying priority audiences
Reviewing and cleaning donor data
Developing a campaign calendar
Creating communications
Establishing a donor follow-up process
Think in terms of major pieces of work, rather than every individual task.
This gives you a clearer picture of the initiative and makes it easier to spot what you're missing. You may discover that you need additional information or more support than you originally anticipated.
3. Prioritize, sequence, and assign
Now look at the work and determine what needs to happen first.
A few questions can help:
What has to happen first?
Look for dependencies. What needs to be completed before something else can begin?What has a fixed deadline?
Work backward from important dates such as a board meeting, event, campaign launch, or grant deadline.What will unblock other work?
Give early attention to decisions or tasks that allow several other pieces to move forward.What can happen at the same time?
Look for opportunities to move work in parallel rather than waiting for one task to finish before starting another.
This is also the point where you clarify who is moving each piece of work forward.
For a small nonprofit, that person may be the executive director, a staff member, a volunteer, or a board member. The important thing is that someone clearly owns the work.
Bring the right people into the work
It's easy to think about a project in terms of who is doing the work and who is making the decisions. There are usually a few other people to consider, too.
Any time you take on a project, something about the way your organization works is likely to change. Maybe staff will have a new process to follow. Maybe volunteers will take on different responsibilities. Maybe people will need to start using a new tool or approach.
Those people may need to be involved at different points. Some may need to provide input before a decision is made. Others may simply need to know what's happening so they're ready when the change takes effect.
A simple RACI framework gives you a way to think through those roles:
Responsible: The person doing the work or making sure it gets done.
Accountable: The person who owns the outcome and makes the final decision.
Consulted: People who need to provide input before the work moves forward.
Informed: People who need to know what was decided or what is happening.
For example:
| Work to move forward | Responsible | Accountable | Consulted | Informed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan the annual fundraising campaign | ED | ED | Fundraising volunteers, board fundraising committee | Board |
| Update the organization's website | Volunteer communications lead | ED | Program staff, board chair | Board |
| Launch a new community program | Program staff member | ED | Program volunteers, community partners | Board |
You don't need a RACI chart for every task. Use it for the major pieces of work where multiple people are involved or where a change will affect how people work.
Have an important project you’re trying to move forward?
Schedule a free, informal, and completely pitch-free Open Office Hours and bring a project, question, or challenge. Get a fresh perspective and a few ideas for what to do next.
4. Set a few milestones
You don't need to track every detail to know whether a project is moving.
Choose meaningful checkpoints and give each one a target date.
For example:
Campaign goals approved — September 5
Donor data cleaned — September 19
Campaign messaging completed — October 3
Campaign materials ready — October 17
Campaign launched — October 31
Milestones give you a way to see progress without micromanaging every task.
They also make it easier to step back and ask:
Are we where we expected to be?
5. Review and adjust
Build a regular check-in into the project. Once a week is often enough.
Take a few minutes to look at where things stand: What’s done? What’s next? What’s getting stuck? What decisions need to be made?
Then adjust the plan based on what you know now. A deadline may have moved, a task may have taken longer than expected, or something else may have become a higher priority. Your plan should reflect what's actually happening, not what you expected to happen a month ago.
The goal is to keep the work moving and give yourself a regular opportunity to make decisions before small issues become bigger ones.
Make the Work Easier to Move
This is where a little structure can make a big difference for a small nonprofit.
When every decision, task, deadline, and dependency lives in someone's head, important work becomes harder to move. Creating a clear path forward gives everyone a shared view of what needs to happen.
And the executive director doesn't have to personally keep every piece moving.
That creates room to lead.
It also makes capacity easier to understand. When you can see the work clearly, you can see what your team can realistically take on, where additional support would help, and what belongs now versus later.
That's the real value of putting some structure around implementation.
The goal isn't more process. It's making important work easier to move.
And when the path is clear, your team can spend less time figuring out what happens next and more time actually moving the work forward.
Need a Little Help Figuring Out What Comes Next?
Maybe you know what you want to accomplish, but aren't quite sure how to turn it into a plan your team can actually execute.
Bring it to Office Hours.
Forward Cadence Office Hours are free, informal, and completely pitch-free. Bring a project, priority, or problem you're trying to work through, and we'll spend some time helping you think it through.
We might help you break down the work, figure out what needs to happen first, talk through capacity, or simply give you another perspective on what's been keeping you stuck.
No sales pitch. No obligation. Just a chance to get some focused time with someone who can help you move the work forward.
