Technology Staffing Model
Estimate the size and structure of your fundraising technology team based on organization type, scale, and operational complexity.
Organization type
Organization profile
Complexity factors
Select all that apply.
Recommended team size
5
full-time equivalents
About this model
This calculator estimates staffing based on organization type, three scale indicators, shared service arrangements, and operational complexity factors. The model distributes recommended FTE across four functional areas: leadership and strategy, systems and platform administration, data and analytics, and support and enablement.
Organization type shapes the output significantly. Higher education and healthcare organizations often have central IT departments that absorb infrastructure, integration, or help desk functions, reducing the dedicated headcount needed in the fundraising technology team. Healthcare foundations in particular trend toward smaller dedicated technology teams as cloud CRM adoption and health system IT partnerships reduce on-premise administration. Nonprofits typically operate without that shared-service layer, so the full staffing need sits within the development operations function.
The output is a starting point for organizational planning. Actual staffing depends on budget constraints, vendor support models, process maturity, and decisions about what to staff internally versus outsource. Fractional and contract roles are noted where they commonly substitute for dedicated FTE.
The model draws on staffing patterns observed across research universities, liberal arts colleges, academic medical centers, health system foundations, national nonprofits, and community foundations with annual philanthropic revenue ranging from under $10M to over $1B. Benchmarks from CASE, EAB, KCI, NTEN, Kindsight, CCS Fundraising, and Marts & Lundy informed the scaling constants.