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April 15, 2026
Nebraska’s nonprofit sector plays a central role in the state’s economy and community well-being. Nonprofits employ roughly one in ten workers statewide and generate more than 23 billion dollars in annual revenue, delivering essential services including health care, childcare, housing, and workforce development. In many rural and frontier communities, nonprofits serve as primary service providers, supporting both local quality of life and economic stability.
Yet workforce shortages are placing increasing strain on this sector. Recent survey data indicate that 61.2 percent of Nebraska nonprofits report job vacancies, with nearly half experiencing more openings than before the COVID-19 pandemic. These shortages are especially pronounced in administrative and development roles, positions responsible for financial management, grant writing, and compliance. While often less visible than frontline staff, these roles are critical to organizational capacity. When they remain unfilled, nonprofits may struggle not only to deliver services but also to secure and manage the funding that sustains their operations.
These roles also support the everyday systems that allow nonprofit organizations to function effectively. Administrative staff manage budgets, payroll, reporting deadlines, data systems, and communication with funders and partners. Development staff identify grant opportunities, prepare proposals, track deadlines, and maintain donor relationships. In larger organizations, these tasks may be divided across several employees. In smaller rural nonprofits, however, they are often concentrated in one or two positions. When those positions remain vacant, other staff must shift time away from direct services to cover basic operational needs. That tradeoff can reduce the number of grant applications submitted, slow reimbursement processes, and limit an organization’s ability to plan beyond immediate community demands.
This challenge is particularly acute in rural Nebraska. Of the state’s 93 counties, 88 are classified as rural and 30 as frontier, where low population density, limited labor pools, and housing constraints complicate hiring. Many rural nonprofits operate with small staffs, where employees take on multiple roles spanning program delivery, financial management, and fundraising. In these contexts, the absence of even a single administrative or development staff member can significantly limit an organization’s ability to pursue new funding opportunities or maintain compliance with existing grants.
More broadly, rural Nebraska communities face long-term demographic challenges, including population decline in a majority of counties and aging workforces. The share of prime working-age residents between ages 25 and 54 declined from 39.1 percent in 2011 to 36.9 percent in 2021, further constraining hiring pipelines.
The COVID-19 recovery period illustrates how these capacity constraints can shape economic outcomes. Pandemic-era federal relief funding reached Nebraska through a wide range of programs and agencies, including the United States Department of the Treasury, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, and Small Business Administration. Accessing these funds often requires navigating multiple application processes, preparing detailed budgets and program plans, and meeting ongoing reporting requirements. These administrative demands place a premium on staffing capacity, particularly in organizations already operating with limited personnel.
County-level federal spending data suggest that engagement with these funding streams varied across Nebraska. Larger and more institutionally developed counties appear to have participated more extensively across multiple funding types, while smaller and more rural counties show more limited engagement. Table 1 illustrates these differences using selected counties across the rural and urban spectrum.
Table 1. Pandemic Era Federal Funding Activity by Selected Nebraska Counties (FY2020 to FY2024)
Illustrative county types are descriptive categories assigned by the author.
Source: USAspending.gov county-level search results for FY2020 to FY2024. Author summary of award counts.
Lancaster County, for example, recorded hundreds of pandemic-related awards across multiple agencies and funding types, reflecting the presence of major institutional actors, including universities and health systems, that are better positioned to navigate complex federal funding systems. In Hall County, a regional hub with more moderate institutional capacity, funding included a mix of grants, loans, and direct payments, including infrastructure and health-related investments distributed through several federal agencies.
Further down this spectrum, Dawson County received a small number of awards, primarily in the form of Paycheck Protection Program loans, with no recorded grant or direct payment activity during the same period. In frontier counties such as Cherry, federal spending data show minimal participation, with only a single recorded loan during the COVID-19 period.
While differences in population and economic scale account for part of this variation, the pattern suggests that organizational capacity, particularly administrative and development staffing, may influence how effectively communities access and deploy complex funding streams. Counties with more robust institutional infrastructure appear better positioned to engage with diverse funding opportunities, while those with more limited capacity may rely on simpler and more standardized programs.
These dynamics have broader economic implications. In rural areas where nonprofits play a central role in service delivery, staffing shortages can reduce access to childcare, health services, and workforce development programs, factors that directly affect labor force participation and local economic resilience. At the same time, limited administrative capacity may constrain the ability of communities to capture external investment, including federal and philanthropic funding intended to support recovery and growth.
Addressing these challenges will require targeted strategies that strengthen nonprofit capacity alongside broader workforce development efforts. Investments in administrative staffing, training programs, and shared services, such as regional grant writing support, back-office partnerships, or fiscal sponsorship models, could help smaller organizations compete more effectively for funding. Community colleges, Extension programs, and statewide nonprofit associations could also play a role by expanding training in grant management, financial reporting, and nonprofit administration for rural workers. Funders can contribute by simplifying application and reporting requirements for small organizations and by supporting capacity-building costs that are often excluded from program grants. These steps would not solve every rural workforce challenge, but they would reduce barriers that prevent smaller nonprofits from translating available funding into long-term service capacity.
Nebraska’s nonprofit workforce shortages are not only an organizational issue. They also represent a broader economic constraint. When nonprofits cannot hire, communities may struggle to access resources, deliver essential services, and sustain long-term development.
In this way, nonprofit capacity functions as a form of local economic infrastructure, shaping not only service availability but also the ability of communities to attract, secure, and deploy external investment.
Daniela M. Mattos
Assistant Professor of Practice
Department of Agricultural Economics
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
dmattos2@unl.edu