The Nonprofit Insider Podcast · Swim Karim

Nonprofit Consulting in the Year 2025: A Conversation with Dana Litwin, CVA

October 22, 2025·1 hr 4 min·4 clips

Dana Litwin says, "Never comply in advance" when organizations feel pressure from power grabs.

1. The Nonprofit Insider Podcast episode centers on nonprofit consulting in 2025 and Dana Litwin's view of the sector. 2. Host Swim speaks with Dana Litwin, principal owner of Dana Litwin Consulting and a CVA-certified volunteer administration expert, and Jessica Pang-Parks is mentioned as the person who helped connect them. 3. The episode asks what nonprofit leaders should do when budgets, politics, and staffing all feel unstable. 4. Dana says U.S. nonprofits are living with "high anxiety" because of federal budget cuts, shutdown conditions, and legislation aimed at nonprofit tax status. 5. She says the attacks are especially severe for smaller nonprofits, all-volunteer groups, and organizations that depend on AmeriCorps services. 6. Dana points to food banks, shelters, animal services, and environmental groups as sectors where demand is rising while resources are shrinking. 7. She says some faith-based nonprofits are being favored by the current administration, but that preference can create backlash inside communities and among donors. 8. Dana argues that nonprofit leaders are making urgent choices about compliance, staffing, and program cuts under constant uncertainty. 9. She says she is working on an AmeriCorps planning grant and has had to revise expectations as funding prospects keep changing. 10. Dana connects those pressures to layoffs, saying retainer clients have cut volunteer services budgets and some colleagues have lost work. 11. She says the same panic she saw in early 2020 and 2021 is back in 2025, especially the instinct to remove content before anyone asks for it. 12. Her repeated warning is "Never comply in advance," which she applies both to politics and to power struggles inside organizations. 13. Dana says many nonprofit workers need second jobs because the economy, policy choices, and wage stagnation have left them underpaid. 14. She cites her own 2002 nonprofit salary of about $36,000 and says current listings often still do not pay enough 20 to 25 years later. 15. She jokes about the "nonprofit executive" meme, but uses it to make a serious point about how the sector talks about itself and devalues its own labor. 16. Dana says she began consulting full time after deciding in 2018 and 2019 to bet on herself before COVID changed the market. 17. The interview is conversational, direct, and often improvised, with Swim pressing for practical examples and Dana answering in long, policy-heavy explanations. 18. Dana's tone is blunt but reflective, and she mixes labor analysis, consulting advice, and a few self-aware jokes about her name and profession. 19. People in nonprofit leadership, volunteer engagement, or consulting would likely get the most out of this episode. 20. Listeners looking for light nonprofit stories or quick career advice may skip it.

As heard by us

A candid nonprofit chat where an early name mix-up gives way to easy, lived-in conversation.

The episode settles into a candid nonprofit conversation with Dana Litwin, and it keeps the exchange human without losing sight of the guest. A small name mix-up at the start gives it a brief wobble, but the talk quickly finds its footing.

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Why you'd press play

For a nonprofit interview that feels like two colleagues catching up, with a little name-joke energy and room to breathe.

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