Changemaker Conversations: The Podcast for Nonprofit Leaders · Alyssa Conrardy and Lindsay Mullen

Fix Your Funding, Part 3: Take On Scenario Planning

·23 min·1 clip

Programs, people, and operating expenses are the three places nonprofits usually look to cut first.

Changemaker Conversations returns to scenario planning as part of its three-part series on fixing funding. The hosts connect it to the reality of nonprofits facing declining revenue and rising demand. Rather than staying abstract, they break the work into a sequence leaders can actually follow. First, define the scenarios that matter. Then put numbers around them. Then decide what action each threshold should trigger. The conversation keeps circling back to the value of specificity. A scenario is not useful if it stays fuzzy. A threshold has to mean something real. If revenue drops by ten percent, what happens first? Which programs are protected? Which ones might be reduced, paused, or eliminated? What staffing changes would need to be considered? What expenses can be cut without creating more harm than they solve? The hosts treat those as planning questions leaders need to answer ahead of time. They also note that naming a feared scenario out loud can make it feel less daunting and more manageable. That matters because it helps people think before they are under pressure. The episode keeps returning to the idea that good financial management practices are what make thresholds meaningful. You cannot act on a scenario if you do not have reliable ways to track the numbers that would signal it. That is why the earlier episodes in the series matter here as groundwork. The hosts build on the idea that fixing funding begins with understanding what is wrong and then planning for what might happen next. This installment expands that work into a planning habit. It is about creating consensus before a crisis, not after it. The tone stays measured throughout. They focus on making uncertainty legible. In that sense, the episode is as much about organizational discipline as it is about fundraising. It gives nonprofit leaders a way to discuss hard tradeoffs without being forced to decide in the moment. By the end, scenario planning comes across as a tool for steadier organizational decision-making and clearer staff conversations. It is a practical closing note to a series built around fixing funding with more intention and less friction.

As heard by us

A practical framework for making nonprofit funding risk discussable before it turns urgent.

This episode presents scenario planning as a practical leadership habit for nonprofit teams, with Lindsay Mullen and Alyssa Conradi laying out a simple way to name bad, worse, and catastrophe cases, set thresholds for each, and decide in advance what should shift if revenue dips…

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Turn funding anxiety into decisions you can actually make.

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