You are not failing. The rules have changed.

Most social leaders we speak to are putting in huge effort to find a solution for the crisis that emerged in 2025.

They’re writing endless proposals. Building new relationships. Constantly responding to shifting priorities. Reworking budgets over and over again.

If this sounds familiar, it’s not because you’re doing something wrong.

Over the past year funding was constricted. Flexible funding is harder to secure. Expectations around proof, costs, and long-term viability have risen.

You might be thinking: ‘This has always been hard’
And you wouldn’t be wrong.

The problem is that under the increased pressure, a familiar pattern accelerates, one we collectively worked hard to move away from.

This feels necessary. Responsible even. But over time, it takes a huge toll.

Instead of deepening what works, and building towards a well evidenced scalable model, energy is spread across too many fronts: multiple pilots, constant adaptation, and no clear path forward. Strategy becomes harder to explain. Leaders carry the weight of every decision without clarity, and burnout becomes hard to avoid.

The problem is clear. The funding landscape changed. Expectations have shifted. Uncertainty is at an all time high.

The solution, however, isn’t to push harder.

The old equation

For a long time, the fundraising equation relied on volume:

Funding Certainty = More applications + More conversations + More tactics

In tighter conditions, that equation starts to fall apart.

What matters now is not how much funding you chase, but whether the logic behind it actually holds.

A useful pause is to stop asking “How do we raise more money?” and instead ask two, harder questions together:

• What does it actually cost to deliver our solution at scale?
• And who would realistically choose to pay for what, over time?

Put plainly, your funding model is not a long list of funders. At its core, it’s a way of making those two questions explicit.

The new equation

Your Funding Model = What it costs + Who pays for it

If either stays fuzzy–cost or payers–the whole model stays fragile, and exhaustion and uncertainty set in again.

Importantly, the alternative to stopping the chase is not to slow down or care less.

It means taking time to name the assumptions you’re already making. To test whether they still make sense. And to decide, with intention, what you’re actually building towards.

The pause matters. Without it, leaders keep running while the organisations stay dependent on short-term wins. This is the exhausting and now unsustainable cycle.

A clearer funding model doesn’t solve everything. But it gives leaders something many are missing right now:

• A defensible story they can use with boards, funders, and teams.
• A way to say no without guilt.
• And a path based on choice, not just survival.

The pressure will sound very familiar to many, if not most. You’re not alone.

Razor-sharp clarity is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s part of good leadership.