Have conversations with your Board, funders and fellow staff about how your organization thinks about funding its core mission. What kind of nonprofit are you? Does your service work directly with your clients, in which case, their salaries are going to be big part of your program offerings? On the hand, if you are a foundation or work primarily with ideas or online, you may not need as many staff and may be able to justify a smaller staff with lesser space and a greater commitment to technology and administration. How do you fund your various programs and obligations? Are you investing in infrastructure that will help your organization be sustainable? Do you have appropriate financial controls?
Work with your Board: You might consider a board retreat or at minimum, a couple of board meetings developed to Lessons for Boards from the Nonprofit Overhead Cost Project. The following resource reviews major findings from a national study and makes recommendations in four areas: financial controls, financial reporting, financial staffing and organizational effectiveness See: http://www.coststudy.org/
Develop a strategy that explicitly recognizes infrastructure needs. For advice on how to do so, see Bedworth and Howard’s article: Nonprofit Overhead Costs: Breaking the Cycle of Misleading Reporting, Unrealistic Expectations and Pressure to Conform at: https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/pay-what-it-takes/nonprofit-overhead-costs-break-the-vicious-cycle/
Make the argument for more general operating funds. See: http://nonprofitaf.com/2018/03/the-ethical-argument-for-general-operating-funds/
Engage the board in assessing organizational needs and ensuring appropriate overhead to make the best use of financial resources: See https://boardsource.org/resources/discussing-overhead-expenses-boardroom/ for a straightforward primer on managing your mission and overhead expenses.
Engage your publics and the media on rethinking nonprofit business models. See https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/03/13time-public-understand-nonproft-business-models/
Have your funders lead the effort to eradicate the overhead myth. For resources, see: https://effectivephilanthropy.org/funders-can-help-overcome-overhead-myth/
Join the nonprofit overhead Project: See: https://www.calnonprofits.org/programs/overhead/about-the-nonprofit-overhead-project/how-inordinately-low-overhead-hurts-nonprofits-foundations-and-communities/
Invest in strong and sustainable fund-raising programs: Fund-raising is an essential part of being a nonprofit. BoardSource has some excellent resources on investing in strong and sustainable fundraising programs. In short, how much are you spending to raise a dollar and IS YOUR CURRENT APPROACH, THE BEST APPROACH for you to meet your needs? For more information, see: https://boardsource.org/research-critical-issues/measuring-fundraising-effectiveness/