Findings by region
How change management practices vary across regions
Predictable regional gradients rather than sharp divides
Regional differences in how nonprofits manage change are clear but largely predictable. The State of Change Management in the Nonprofit Sector 2025 survey included responses from more than seventy countries, revealing familiar gradients rather than unexpected contrasts. The same core challenges appear across regions, but their intensity and expression shift with context and resources.
Resource gradient
Regions with stronger funding bases — including North America, Western Europe and Australia/New Zealand — tend to report more structured approaches to managing change. Frameworks, formal roles and specialist teams are more common. In lower-resourced regions, change practices are leaner and more improvised, with flexibility and trust networks often standing in for formal systems.
Capacity constraints
Staff overload and limited budgets appear everywhere, but they are felt most acutely in lower-income regions. Respondents describe the same tension in different forms: high motivation, limited means and the constant challenge of doing more with less.
Drivers of change
Funding shifts dominate globally, but the secondary drivers vary. In higher-income contexts, compliance and digital transformation feature prominently. In lower-income settings, crisis response and culture change are more often cited as catalysts for adaptation.
Certification patterns
Formal change management training is concentrated in regions with more developed professional networks and funding systems. Respondents from North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand mention certification most often. Elsewhere, leadership or management training fills a similar role in building readiness for change.
Confidence and speed
Across all regions, smaller organizations adapt faster and express greater confidence, while larger ones slow down under complexity. This size effect overshadows most regional variation and underscores a consistent truth across the data: agility depends more on scale and structure than on geography.
Additional regional breakdowns and visualizations may be shared in future updates of the study.
What stands out
Regional differences follow familiar lines of resources, structure and access rather than culture or geography. The consistency across continents suggests that what most shapes change capacity is not where nonprofits operate, but the conditions under which they work. Context matters — but the fundamentals of effective change travel well.