For those coming into the nonprofit world from corporate communications, perhaps the most perplexing realization is that most nonprofit communications teams don’t draft and manage their own budgets. But they should!
According to the 2024 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, only 36% of nonprofit communications teams draft and manage their own budgets. Another 19% manage a budget given to them, but they do not create that budget.
Another third (35%) may be able to access funds controlled by others outside their team (17%) or “find” the money within the organization (18%).
We see that the most effective teams do draft and manage their own budgets; the least effective teams must find the money.
With respect to nonprofit communications team models, Internal Agency and Centralized teams are most likely to be responsible for drafting their own budgets. Fundraising and CEO-led teams are most likely to have to find money or to say they have no access to funds.
