People Operations in Uncertain Times: 4 Challenges Mission-Driven Orgs Faced in 2025

This year, we saw more uncertainty and volatility than in years past. Political instability, funding freezes, and threats to 501(c)(3) statuses created chaos in the nonprofit world, to put it lightly. Amidst pervasive morale issues, organizations were forced to pivot their strategies on a dime — often with no idea whether things would work out. 

We continue to see leaders attempting to do more with less, often with emotionally depleted teams and dramatically reduced operational clarity. But we've also seen something incredible: Care is being centered. Leaders are making hard decisions with the utmost concern for the people being affected. Despite everything, there is hope. 

As we reflect on our client work in 2025 — over 4000 hours spent across 40 projects — we wanted to share four of the most common challenges we saw, along with solutions to address each of them. Our hope is that by sharing things that did work this year, we can keep moving forward in a care-centered way.  

Challenge #1: Pivoting in real time 

This year, agility was key. Past playbooks won't work in the face of legal threats, political violence, and consistent harassment. Funders themselves were often unsure of the "right" move to make, so nonprofits had to carry on without a sense of stability. 

However, as one of our clients learned firsthand, People Operations has to remain a priority to keep everything else running smoothly. As a large labor union, our client found itself facing systems and compliance issues that cropped up because the union was singularly focused on external work and its members. As a result, internal operations took a back seat, creating risks and reducing the capacity for sustainable growth.

To address this, we right-sized People Ops, creating infrastructure that fit the union's unique culture, rather than imposing unnecessary bureaucracy. Through operational assessments, HR consulting, leadership development sessions, and team-building work, we closed compliance gaps while improving staff morale and freeing up leadership capacity.

Key takeaway: Even high-performing, mission-driven organizations need internal systems that match their scale. "Right-sizing" is about fit — building structure that supports, not constrains, movement work. 

Challenge #2: Focusing on urgency at the expense of people

Focusing on team members and their individual well-being is more important than ever. When urgency takes the wheel, burnout follows closely behind — and we can't ever win if we're burned out. 

We saw this play out with a large U.S. nonprofit that faced burnout as it sought after extremely ambitious goals, moving through numerous large projects and significant changes to its brand and structure. In the shuffle, the team lost its connection to the bigger "why." People forgot why they'd signed up for this work to begin with, and they felt distant from each other. 

Through our work with the client, we realized that there was a lack of central organization for projects, roles, and goals that was driving many of the problems. To help them reconnect, we facilitated a focused leadership retreat — one of six we led this year for organizations. 

Together, the leaders took time for reflection, realignment, and rebuilding relationships. Everyone emerged refocused and re-energized, with a sense of clarity around their mission, and ideas of how to structure things going forward to support it.

Key takeaway: Make time to connect. Don't let urgency keep you from remembering that people are the heartbeat of your organization. And don't settle for quick fixes that only address symptoms. For example, if you've got communication issues, creating a standardized norm for calls might seem helpful, but does it really address the root, or is it just treating the symptoms? 

Challenge #3: Staffing, talent sourcing, and recruitment 

Nonprofit restructures and layoffs created an oversaturated job market, with tons of highly qualified candidates available. Yet in our recruiting efforts, screening over 2000 candidates and conducting 159 interviews, we also found that the sheer volume of applicants and sea of hastily-thrown-together applications made it hard to identify the right talent. 

As we searched for the right hires, we stepped in sometimes to serve in a fractional People Operations capacity. With one of our social good tech clients, this allowed them to stabilize without sacrificing quality or culture. In the meantime, we worked to outline new organizational structures and ways to work. 

We ultimately filled the client's open roles through direct sourcing, a tactic that we used for many of the 17 leadership roles we recruited for this year. While finding the right person was a priority, we also spent time strengthening the goal setting and onboarding processes so that new hires were set up to succeed. 

Key takeaway: There's still a ton of exceptional talent out there in the market right now. If you have budget and role clarity, this is the time to act. If you're outsourcing recruitment, look for an organization like DevelopWell that builds in the infrastructure that will allow your new hires to thrive in the future. 

Challenge #4: Keeping everyone grounded in the face of uncertainty 

In times of massive change, coaching keeps everyone grounded. One of our clients, a philanthropy organization, was dealing with difficult culture challenges alongside their already-intense humanitarian work. Low staff morale and discontent were starting to impact collaboration and quality of work. 

We started by conducting 360 reviews for key leaders, giving them current data on how their teams and stakeholders view the company's leadership. Then, each leader received 1 on 1 coaching sessions to dive deeper into the findings and create action plans to address things that needed to be changed. 

Pairing coaching with 360 reviews helps busy leaders hone in on what needs to happen next. Instead of just delivering the feedback and leaving it at that, the coaching took it to the next level, giving leadership a dedicated space to process the information and iron out next steps. 

Key takeaway: Consider investing in coaching to make feedback more actionable. In times of uncertainty, this kind of grounded support helps leaders re-center and show up more effectively for their teams. 

There is hope, even when the odds are stacked

Despite the constant barrage of horrible headlines, there is good news. Yes, leaders are being faced with extremely hard decisions — but we continue to see folks evaluating their choices with care for people at the center. 

Even more reassuring? Every single one of our new partners came to us this year through referrals from another client we'd worked with. That level of trust from past DevelopWell clients proves that when you do the work from a values-aligned place, people notice. 

The organizations we worked with in 2025 found ways to adapt, stay grounded, and keep people at the forefront, even when things felt shaky. If you're facing challenges similar to the ones we've discussed, this is your reminder that you don't have to do it alone. DevelopWell is here to advise and support you as you navigate the challenges ahead in a values-aligned, people-centric way.