Everyone's a Project Manager (But No One Actually Is)

Here's what's happening: Your program manager is managing their specific program AND trying to coordinate with three other departments. Your operations coordinator is handling logistics AND attempting to keep track of organizational priorities. Your executive director is setting strategy AND trying to manage timelines for everything.

Sound familiar?

The issue isn't that your team isn't capable. The issue is that project management—real, organization-wide project management—is a specific skill set that requires dedicated focus. When everyone's responsible for project management, no one actually is.

The result? The same people getting hit with aggressive deadline after aggressive deadline. Because when there's no clear ownership of project flow and capacity planning, everything becomes urgent, and the same reliable team members become the default solution for every crisis.

Why Your Nonprofit Needs Dedicated Project Management (Not Just Program Management)

Program managers are essential—they bring deep expertise to specific initiatives and ensure quality delivery within their area. But program management and project management serve different functions. Here's the key difference:

• Program management focuses on a specific program or service area

• Project management focuses on organizational flow, resource allocation, and how everything connects

Think of it this way: If your organization is a symphony, program managers are the section leaders making sure the violins sound amazing. Project management is the conductor making sure everyone comes in at the right time and the whole piece flows together.

When you don't have someone in the conductor role, you get what many nonprofits experience: talented people working really hard on excellent individual pieces that don't quite sync up organizationally.

The Hidden Cost of Not Having Real Project Management

Without dedicated project management, organizations experience:

• Projects taking longer than they should with quality suffering under constant urgency

• Strategic initiatives getting derailed by operational firefighting

• Good ideas dying because there's no capacity to implement them properly

For your people, this means burnout from constantly shifting priorities, frustration from never feeling like they can do their "real job" well, and talented staff leaving because the pace is unsustainable. Everyone feels responsible for everything, which means no one can excel at anything.

Your Next Step

If you're reading this thinking, "This sounds great, but we don't have the budget for a full-time project manager," remember: you're already paying for project management. You're just paying for it inefficiently through decreased productivity, staff turnover, and missed opportunities.

The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in proper project management. The question is whether you can afford not to.

For nonprofit leaders, consider how much more your organization could accomplish if your talented team could focus on what they do best instead of constantly juggling competing priorities. For staff members currently handling project management tasks on top of your regular role, know that this isn't sustainable long-term, and it's not a reflection of your capabilities. Organizations need dedicated project management support to function at their best.