S.O.S. Funding: All Hands on Deck for a Nonprofit Workforce in Crisis - Kim Almeida, Maria Cabildo, Annie Chang, Janelle Miller, & Rusty Stahl

In this episode, you’ll get a bold, provocative new idea for investing in the nonprofit workforce—and why it may be essential to the sector’s survival. We all know that restricted project support doesn't empower nonprofits to invest in their staff. But, we argue, general operating support isn't up to this task either. Staff Operating Support (SOS) offers a new way that funders and fundraisers can strategically, responsively move money to support the workforce of grantee organizations.

We introduced the idea of Staff Operating Support during Season 8 (see link to the episode below) . Today's conversation, drawn from a webinar on March 12, 2026, builds on the previous one as Rusty Stahl presents updated thinking, including the 7 key traits of S.O.S. funding. This episode also features a silo-busting panel and audience of funders, nonprofit leaders, and intermediaries, sharing enthusiasm, critiques, questions, and additional ideas about S.O.S. funding.

Host Rusty Stahl is joined by Co-Host Annie Chang (Nonprofit Finance Fund). Rusty defines Staff Operating Support, and shares seven key traits of the concept. Annie and a panel of nonprofit of respondents unpack the ‘compounding crises’ in the nonprofit sector’s workforce —and explore what it will take to proactively address it. Alongside Annie, the panelists are Janelle Moravek Miller (Youth and Family Counseling), Maria Cabildo, The Durfee Foundation, and Kim Almeida (Levi Strauss Foundation).

From new research data to real-world results, this episode makes the case that funding staff isn’t overhead—it’s mission-critical.

• S.O.S. Funding Concept Info Hub - Fund the People
• How to Support Nonprofit Worker Well-Being - Nonprofit Finance Fund
• Financial Insecurity in the Nonprofit Workforce - Independent Sector and United Way (wiht link to "ALICE" in the Nonprofit Workforce report)
• Durfee Foundation's Sabbatical Program - The Durfee Foundation
• Well-Being and Equity as a Business Imperative research report - Levi Strauss Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

• Introducing Staff Operating Support (S.O.S.) Grants Concept⁠ with host Rusty Stahl, Fund the People
• Chasm Grows between Funder and Nonprofit Perceptions of Crisis - with Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Center for Effective Philanthropy
• Donors Invest in Health Nonprofit’s Staff -- with Dramatic Program Results - with Janelle Miller Moravek, Youth and Family Counseling
• Funding Nonprofit People & Possibility: Inside the Durfee Foundation - with Maria Cabildo, The Dur