Building a Nonprofit….. When the Founder Wears All the Hats

When you start a grassroots nonprofit with no staff and very little money, you quickly discover who is responsible for doing all the things. You are. 

CEO? You. Fundraiser? You. Marketing department? You. 

Volunteer coordinator, program developer, event planner, website manager, social media person, grant writer, supply organizer, person who remembers where you bought the tablecloths three years ago? Yep. You. 

And sometimes your husband, your kids, your friends, and whichever wonderful volunteer was unfortunate enough to ask, “Do you need help with anything?” 

For a while, that's simply what building a grassroots nonprofit looks like. 

When I started RiseUP in 2020, we didn't have money to hire a team of people with clearly defined job descriptions. If something needed to happen, someone had to figure out how to make it happen. 

And very often, that someone was me. 

But there is a danger hiding inside all that resourcefulness: 

When one person learns to do everything, eventually everyone learns that one person does everything. 

And that's not sustainable. 

In the Beginning, Wearing All the Hats Makes Sense 

If you don't create the social media post, there isn't a social media post. If you don't send the donor email, it doesn't get sent. If you don't pack the supplies for tomorrow's workshop, someone is going to show up without them. 

So you figure it out. 

You Google things. Watch videos. Ask other nonprofit leaders questions. Create spreadsheets. Make Canva graphics. Write grants. Load the car. 

And then you get up the next morning and do whatever needs to be done next. 

That willingness to figure things out is one of a founder's greatest strengths. 

But eventually, it can also become a weakness. “I'll Just Do It” 

When you've built something from the beginning, doing it yourself is often faster. 

You know the history, the relationships, the passwords, where the supplies are stored, and why that spreadsheet is organized in a way that makes perfect sense to you and apparently no one else.

Teaching someone takes time. Delegating takes time. Answering questions takes time. 

So you think, “I'll just do it.” And you do. Again. And again. 

Until “I'll just do it” quietly becomes the organization's operating model. And that's a problem. If you want other people to become leaders, you have to give them enough room to actually lead. 

People Need to Know How to Help 

People may genuinely want to help your organization, but they need to know how. “Let me know if you need anything” sounds wonderful. 

But what exactly does “anything” mean? 

Instead of asking someone to “help with the event,” ask them to handle volunteer check-in. 

Instead of saying, “We need help fundraising,” ask someone to contact five businesses about sponsorships. 

Clear asks give people something they can actually say yes to. 

And once they say yes, let them do it. 

Which, at times, can be harder than asking. 

Your Board Cannot Be Another Hat You Wear 

Founder-board relationships can get complicated quickly. 

Your board isn't supposed to exist so the founder can say, “Here's what we're doing,” and everyone nods. 

But the board shouldn't be managing every operational detail either. Their job isn't to be in the weeds of the organization. 

The board governs. 

In a small, grassroots nonprofit, you may also need a working board—people who govern but are also willing to help raise money, develop policies, make connections, show up and roll up their sleeves and help get things done. 

That can be a necessity in the early years. It can also create confusion about roles. A board member helping set up tables at an event is volunteering. 

A board member reviewing financial statements, approving policies, and holding executive leadership accountable is governing.

And while the board is responsible for hiring and overseeing the organization's executive leader, it shouldn't be managing the rest of the staff or day-to-day operations. 

The clearer those distinctions are, the healthier the organization will be. 

Start Giving Away Your Hats 

At some point, your question has to change from: 

What needs to get done? To: Who else needs to know how to do this? 

Who else knows this donor? Who else can lead this workshop? Who else understands the budget? Who else has access to this account? Who else can represent the organization when I'm not in the room? 

You hand off one thing. Then another. 

You document something you've always kept in your head. You introduce someone else to a community partner. You give someone else the password. You let another person lead the meeting. 

Little by little, the organization becomes less dependent on one person. That's not losing control. That's building capacity and sustainability. 

The Goal Is Not to Be Indispensable 

For a long time, I was incredibly proud that I could do almost everything. 

And honestly, I'm still proud of it. 

Building something from nothing requires stubbornness, creativity, resourcefulness, and a willingness to figure things out. 

Those qualities helped build RiseUP. 

But being needed for everything isn't the same thing as leading well. 

The goal of leadership shouldn't be to make yourself indispensable. 

The goal should be to build people, systems, and structures strong enough that the mission doesn't depend on whether you're in the room. 

That's a very different kind of leadership. 

And it leads to an even harder question: What happens when you've built something that really can exist without you? 

I eventually had to answer that one too.