What's Killing Your 2025 Growth, Jnet, Jeanette Russell

Tighter budgets, fierce competition and struggling nonprofits mean it's time to do things differently. 2025 demands that founders and CEO's use a new playbook...and way of thinking.

The top 6 blindspots for nonprofit tech leaders in 2025

1. Marketing isn’t seen as a growth engine

If sales is still your primary growth strategy, you’re likely stuck in a pipeline trap.

When leadership focuses on short-term wins like quarterly pipeline, marketing gets reduced to chasing immediate KPIs instead of also nurturing future buyers and building market dominance.

It’s a serious problem when you consider that only 10% of leads are in-market to buy. This means that you need to dedicate resources to nurture the 90% who are not in market, so when they’re ready, your brand is top of mind.

While this sounds obvious, most leaders treat branding as a nice-to-have and don't understand future-focused metrics like account engagement. Some also confuse branding with graphic design.

If you don’t invest in your brand and nurture leads with valuable experiences, they’ll forget about you and pipeline will show. It's that simple.

Today’s pipeline is the result of last year’s marketing investment.

Marketing isn’t a cost center—it’s your strategic growth engine. Your marketing leader shouldn’t just be a growth hacker; they should be a builder of long-term value.

2. You sound like everyone else

Does your website lead with something like,“We help you raise more money and drive impact”? While this is indeed a value statement, it’s not differentiated value. Technology is inherently built to drive revenue and efficiency. So if you’re a fundraising tool, it’s expected that you raise money—it’s not unique.

What buyers really want to know is: How are you different from the competition?

The way you communicate this is through messaging, which flows directly from your positioning. It’s how you talk about your value across your website, in sales conversations, and through campaigns.

But messaging isn’t the same as branding—that’s how you bring your value to life (i.e., your vibe). Before you think about a rebrand, it's critical that you first revisit your positioning and messaging.

I can help.

3. You’re not targeting the most winnable accounts

Are you wasting valuable sales and marketing resources going after accounts that no longer match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?

At every company I’ve worked for, the ICP has been outdated because it shifts slightly every month. Unlike a buyer persona, your ICP isn’t something you can set and forget. If you’re not tracking those shifts and wait too long to adjust, you’re wasting resources on leads that will slow down your sales cycle and probably churn. I've seen this time and time again.

It's important to understand that your ICP isn’t just about finding the best leads—it’s about refining who makes the best customers today.

For example, if your mid-market association segments have had high churn and low ARR for the past 10 months, they’re probably not a fit anymore. Remove them from your ICP and stop targeting them (but discuss with teams first).

Remember, there’s only one ICP—not one for marketing and another for sales. Leadership must enforce a single source of truth to ensure both teams are unified around targeting the same accounts.

Read my blog for tips on identifying your ideal nonprofit customer.

4. Your positioning isn’t clear

Positioning drives everything—your messaging, brand, and even your product roadmap. It’s the single biggest factor in achieving sustainable growth. Get it right, and you’ll attract your ideal customers faster and start owning the market.

Positioning is your strategy for winning your slice of the market.

But getting it right can be tough. I’ve used best practices for years with mixed results, until I discovered April Dunford’s method. Her approach removes unnecessary research, giving you a strategy that’s uniquely yours—something competitors can’t copy and that sales teams actually love.

Here’s the basic formula:

Identify your best-fit customers
List your top competitive alternatives
Analyze the approaches of top competitors
Isolate your unique attributes
Group values into themes
Define characteristics of customers who care

Want to dive deeper? Check out my blog: "Positioning Isn’t a Statement, It’s How You Win."

5. A sales pitch that doesn’t land

Not everyone uses pitch decks, and I get it—without a compelling narrative, they can feel contrived. But what if your deck sparked a conversation about the pro's and con's of the different approaches to solving their problems, leading to deeper discovery?

This is your chance to provide a pitch that sets you apart. A few simple slides based on your positioning will help the buyer see why you’re different, and better.

Your pitch isn’t just about your unique value. You need to explain how your approach is fundamentally different from the competition.

Without that context, buyers won’t understand what sets you apart and will move slower.

The good news is that your competitors are probably missing this crucial piece—they're most likely using "challenger" or "narrative design" method without incorporating the “approach" element. It’s a major opportunity waiting to be taken.

For more on this, check out April Dunford’s book "Sales Pitch" or her podcast for practical insights.

6. You have a GTM plan, but not a process

According to GTM Partners, a go-to-market strategy isn’t a static plan—it’s your roadmap for sustained growth.

The real opportunity for transformation lies in creating a strong GTM process: a feedback loop with cross-functional teams to continuously shape and refine the plan. Even if you're a start-up with small teams, you still need a process.

Rather than each leader creating their own process to tackle growth decisions, a GTM process provides a framework to answer strategic questions. This unifies all GTM functions—Marketing, Sales, Customer Success and Product—to ensure alignment across teams.

Not having an intentional GTM process is why so many ICPs are of date. It’s not about one person deciding your ICP. Leaders need to hear from sales, product, and CS to keep a pulse on the segments that are good for business and love your product.

Steal this idea: Form a cross-functional “GTM Coalition” with sales, marketing and CS to test a new process. Start by having the group tackle your most pressing growth challenges.

Hi, I'm Jeanette—if any of these challenges sound familiar, I can help.

I've worked with some of the highest-profile nonprofit software companies to build long-term value, and market dominance. With 20 years experience, I'm well equipped to help companies attract the right customers, run targeted ABM campaigns, and build scalable marketing systems that drive sustainable growth.