Why Working Harder Isn't Working (And What Will)
Why do nonprofit leaders treat symptoms instead of root causes? It's not because you don't care. It's not because you're not smart enough to see the pattern. It's because treating symptoms feels productive in ways that addressing root causes doesn't.
When people are leaving, hiring feels like action. When grants are getting rejected, bringing in fundraising help feels responsible. When your calendar is out of control, adding project management software feels like progress.
Symptoms are urgent, visible and create immediate pain…And they come with obvious solutions that you can explain to your board in one sentence.
Root causes are different. They're slower. They're structural. They require uncomfortable conversations about things that have been true for years. And when you tell your board "we need to spend six months clarifying our strategy before we can fix our fundraising problem," it sounds like you're avoiding the real issue.
What the Framework Shows You
The diagnostic framework maps five pillars that determine organizational health: Strategy & Planning, Financial Sustainability, Systems & Processes, Culture & People, and Impact & Learning.
Most times you will experience crises on the diagonal - the fundraising problem feels like a fundraising problem, the retention crisis feels like a retention problem. But the framework shows that the real bottleneck is usually one or two steps away from where the pain is most acute.
Root Cause framework
How to use it:
Start with your symptom across the top - what's keeping you up at night?
Read down that column until you find the description that makes you say "that's exactly us." That row is your root cause.
Now read across that row to see all the problems this root cause is creating.
The colors tell you the intervention sequence:
🔴 FOUNDATIONAL means you must fix the root cause first - treating the symptom alone will fail because the root cause keeps regenerating it.
🟡 ENABLING means fixing the root cause removes barriers and makes the symptom easier to address, though the symptom may still need direct attention afterward.
🔵 PARALLEL means you can get quick wins on the symptom while fixing the root cause - those wins create the breathing room to complete the deeper work.
Common Patterns
Financial crisis: If you can't raise money and the root cause is Impact & Learning, that's red foundational. Build impact measurement before hiring fundraising help.
Systems crisis: If everything depends on you and the root cause is also Systems, notice the blue parallel cells. You can document processes now while building deeper infrastructure.
Culture crisis: If good people keep leaving, almost every root cause is red foundational. Whatever the underlying issue, it must be fixed before retention improves.
What You Need to Do
Take a step back. Look at the framework and identify your cell - not the crisis that's most visible, but the root cause that's most honest. Then ask: What would it take to actually fix this? If your answer involves months of work and uncomfortable conversations - you've probably found the real constraint. Root causes require sustained attention and organizational commitment, but addressing them is the only way to stop spending money to recreate the same problems.
Read more about the five pillars: "Why Your Best Programs Break" on the articles page.
Can You Do This Without Outside Help?
It depends on your root cause. Systems work (documentation, process design) can often be led internally if you have someone with capacity. Culture transformation and strategic clarification typically require outside facilitation because you're too close to see clearly. Financial diversification needs expertise you may not have in-house. Impact measurement needs both technical skills and objectivity.
I help organizations diagnose their primary constraint and build the infrastructure that makes everything else possible. Book time to discuss by emailing me: noella@one-advisory.com.
If you're unsure whether you need help, that's what the initial conversation is for.
You’ve got this. ✨
