Nonprofits are finding new ways to move forward amid persistent pressure. Taproot’s 2026 Nonprofit Pulse Survey finds confidence rising even as funding pressures persist and demand keep climbing, and skilled human support is what’s actually closing the gap, even with growing AI adoption.
The nonprofit sector is the country’s safety net, stitched together by hand: the food banks, shelters, legal aid clinics, and community organizations that step in when other systems fall short. That role has never mattered more. As funding tightens, demand climbs, and the tools available keep changing, nonprofits are absorbing the shock on behalf of the people and communities they serve and finding a way to say yes anyway. Their resilience is a public good the rest of us depend on, even when we don’t see it directly.
Last year told a story of a sector in crisis. Taproot’s 2025 Pulse Survey landed in the middle of abrupt policy shifts and funding disruption, and the data reflected it: confidence was low, and the ground kept moving. This year’s story is different, but it isn’t “things got better.” It’s that nonprofits have adjusted to a harder baseline, and they’re finding their footing inside it.
To understand where the sector stands, Taproot launched its 2026 Nonprofit Pulse Survey this spring. From April to June 2026, we heard from more than 400 nonprofit leaders and staff, representing a wide range of causes, budgets, and regions.
The message this year: even as AI adoption and automation grow, nonprofits are learning firsthand that it isn’t a substitute for human capacity. What’s closing the gap, and what’s always closed the gap, is something much more familiar: people.
A Sector Under Strain Remains Confident
Nonprofits aren’t succeeding because the pressure has eased. They’re succeeding in spite of it. Confidence is up substantially this year, even as many of the same underlying pressures persist.
Funding pressure hasn’t eased.
When asked to name their single biggest challenge, funding and resource constraints dwarfed everything else:
- 63% of respondents pointed to funding in some form, as their biggest challenge
- 41% cited longer-term sustainability specifically; 22% cited immediate funding needs.
- 53% of executive leaders expect an increase in funding in 2026, up from 37% in 2025.
That funding pressure isn’t just more intense this year, it’s showing up in different forms: where the money comes from, when it arrives, and how far it stretches. Government funding dependency and cuts were the most common theme in open-ended responses, ahead of any other topic. One respondent described “severe government funding cuts” forcing a disproportionate share of staff time into fundraising and partnership development instead of programs; another described diversifying “deeper outreach to individual donors rather than government funding” as a direct response.
Demand keeps climbing.
At the same time, demand for nonprofit services continues climbing:
- 89% of executive leaders expect increased demand for programs this year
- 79% expect an increase in client support requests. That gap between rising demand, flat funding, and limited capacity is exactly where resilience is being tested most
- Only 33% of respondents believe their organization has the resources it needs to adapt to the moment; 44% disagree outright
That gap between rising demand and limited resources is exactly where nonprofit resilience is being tested.
Confidence is rising anyway.
Despite the pressure, nonprofits report growing confidence in their own ability to deliver:
- 64% of respondents agree or strongly agree they’re confident their organization will meet its goals this year, up 19 points from 2025
- 75% of executive leaders expect an increase in organizational performance in 2026, up from 65% last year
Nonprofits report real, tactical wins driving this: new donor strategies, sharper board engagement, and more intentional use of pro bono and skilled-volunteer capacity that are starting to add up, even without a single easy fix. That gap, between what nonprofits have and what they’re determined to do with it, is where the extraordinary part of this data lives. One respondent summed up the whole posture: “We will continue to do more with less funding. People need to be served and supported, so we will find a way to make it work.”
Takeaway: This is not a sector that recovered. It’s a sector that adapted to operating under strain. But resilience isn’t the same as capacity.
AI Adoption is Growing, but AI Alone Isn’t Enough
Nonprofits are turning to AI more than ever this year, but the data tells a more layered story than simple adoption growth. Nonprofits are experimenting seriously with AI, and finding it helps at the margins without closing the capacity gap that funding and demand pressures have opened up.
AI Comfort is up. Confidence isn’t.
Adoption is real and rising:
- 37% of respondents now describe their attitude toward AI as proactive, up from 29% in 2025
- The share not using AI at all dropped from 22% to 13%
But growing comfort with AI hasn’t translated into confidence that it solves the underlying problem. When asked what kind of support would help their organization use AI more confidently, no single option was seen as helpful by a majority of respondents: not training, not funding, not vendor guidance. Only one type of support, use-case-specific guidance, even cleared 55%. Everything else fell short for more than half of nonprofits surveyed, suggesting the barrier isn’t just knowing how to use these tools, but knowing whether they’re actually the right tool for a given problem.
The concerns are shifting from access to trust.
Access barriers are easing. Trust concerns are growing in their place:
- “Lack of staff training” fell from 26% to 19% as the top-cited barrier
- Ethical and equity concerns nearly doubled, from 9% to 17%
- Data security and privacy concerns rose from 13% to 17%
The leaders surveyed described AI outputs that “need extensive fact checking” and infrastructure that “requires a lot of capital” to implement well. These are the kinds of hidden costs that don’t show up in a simple adoption number.
Takeaway: AI adoption is growing, but it’s only part of the solution. The gap between what nonprofits need and what technology alone can deliver is exactly where human help still matters most.
As Reliance on People Grows, Pro Bono is Stepping up the Fill the Gap
While AI adoption grows and funding pressure persists, the clearest sign of nonprofit resilience shows up somewhere else entirely: a sharp jump in demand for human capacity.
Reliance on people is climbing across the board:
- 82% of executive leaders expect volunteer involvement to increase this year, up from 69% in 2025
- 82% of respondents overall would be interested in receiving pro bono support in the next 6 to 12 months
- 44% of executive leaders expect to hire additional staff this year, up from 28% in 2025, and 61% expect to expand programmatic offerings, up from 42%
What they’re asking for is expertise.
Not abstract soft skills. Concrete, technical expertise they can’t staff for. “Our main need is generally highly-skilled technical assistance (website, communications, security, etc.),” one respondent wrote. Another described exactly where the gaps sit: “Looking for skilled-based volunteers in the areas of marketing & promotions, technology, fund development, event planning and partnership building.”
And for those already receiving it, the value is unambiguous. “We deeply appreciate the volunteers who provide pro bono work and Taproot for helping us find them,” one respondent wrote. “We would not be able to operate in this financial and political climate without them.”
That’s the gap pro bono professionals fill: not a stand-in for staff, but access to expertise nonprofits couldn’t otherwise afford or hire for.
Takeaway: Nonprofits adopting AI where it’s useful, but what closes their capacity gaps is the judgment, relationship-building, and adaptability that pro bono consultants bring.
Activating Expertise for What Comes Next
Put together, this year’s Pulse data traces a single arc: funding is straining in new and more specific ways, AI is helping at the margins without solving the underlying capacity problem, and the thing moving the needle is people.
This isn’t a story about the sector bouncing back. It’s a story about nonprofits building an operating model that holds up under sustained pressure, season after season, without ever putting down the work in front of them.
That’s the capacity gap 82% of executive leaders are betting pro bono consultants will help close this year.
The resilience of nonprofits is something they built, deliberately, by turning to the resource that’s always been their foundation: people willing to show up and do the work.
Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, a skilled volunteer, or a funder, this is the moment to invest in that resource. The organizations who close the gap this year won’t be the ones with the most AI tools. They’ll be the ones with the deepest bench of people ready to help.
