Growth Frameworks
Jobs To Be Done

How Nonprofits Can Use Jobs To Be Done to Drive Impact

Qualitative Exploration

How Nonprofits Can Use Jobs To Be Done to Drive Impact

Introduction

In a crowded landscape of causes and campaigns, nonprofit organizations often face a common challenge: how to design programs, messages, and services that truly resonate with the communities they serve and the donors who support them. While mission commitment and passion are essential, data-driven insights are equally crucial for creating meaningful and lasting social impact. That’s where the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework comes in. Originally designed as a product innovation tool in the business world, JTBD has evolved into a powerful method for understanding people’s motivations – not just what they do, but why they do it. When applied to the nonprofit sector, JTBD can offer deep clarity into what community members and donors are really trying to achieve through their engagement with your organization.
This blog post introduces how nonprofits – from small grassroots organizations to established mission-driven institutions – can apply the JTBD framework as part of their nonprofit strategy. Whether you're involved in program design, fundraising, marketing, or overall mission delivery, Jobs To Be Done can help you uncover the real needs behind your audiences' behaviors. If you’ve ever wondered how to better understand donor motivations, where to focus your next campaign, or how to shape programs your community truly needs, this practical guide will walk you through the fundamentals. We’ll cover what JTBD is, why it's a fit for nonprofits, and how you can start using it to make smarter decisions – all without complex theory or industry jargon. By integrating tools like JTBD into your nonprofit marketing, audience research, and strategic planning, you can make every effort more aligned to real needs – leading to stronger engagement, more effective programs, and greater social impact.
This blog post introduces how nonprofits – from small grassroots organizations to established mission-driven institutions – can apply the JTBD framework as part of their nonprofit strategy. Whether you're involved in program design, fundraising, marketing, or overall mission delivery, Jobs To Be Done can help you uncover the real needs behind your audiences' behaviors. If you’ve ever wondered how to better understand donor motivations, where to focus your next campaign, or how to shape programs your community truly needs, this practical guide will walk you through the fundamentals. We’ll cover what JTBD is, why it's a fit for nonprofits, and how you can start using it to make smarter decisions – all without complex theory or industry jargon. By integrating tools like JTBD into your nonprofit marketing, audience research, and strategic planning, you can make every effort more aligned to real needs – leading to stronger engagement, more effective programs, and greater social impact.

What Is Jobs To Be Done and Why Should Nonprofits Use It?

At its core, the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is about understanding what people are trying to accomplish in their lives and how they 'hire' products, services, or organizations to help them do it. While typically used in business and innovation, JTBD offers valuable applications for nonprofits aiming to better connect with their audiences.

JTBD Defined in Simple Terms

Imagine someone donates to a food pantry. Are they just giving money, or are they trying to feel like a contributing community member? Perhaps it’s about setting an example for their children or acting on personal values. In JTBD terms, they’re not just donating – they’re 'hiring' your organization to help them fulfill a deeper purpose. That’s their 'job to be done.'

The JTBD framework encourages organizations to identify the progress people are trying to make – functional, emotional, or social – and what’s getting in their way. For nonprofits, this shift in perspective helps move past assumptions and see the real drivers behind actions like attending an event, volunteering, or seeking services.

Why It Matters for Nonprofits

Nonprofits operate in a unique space between community service and stakeholder accountability. To succeed, you must deeply understand both sides: what your community members are seeking and what motivates your donors and partners to support you. JTBD helps uncover those motivations.

  • Program design: Build services that solve the right problems, not just the obvious ones.
  • Fundraising and donor engagement: Connect your mission to the personal goals and emotions of your supporters.
  • Marketing and messaging: Speak directly to what your audience cares about, using their language and context.

Instead of designing strategies around demographics or broad personas, JTBD focuses on context, motivation, and intended outcomes – making it a powerful tool for nonprofit growth and innovation. It shifts the focus from 'what people are like' to 'what they are trying to achieve.'

The Role of Research

As part of your nonprofit audience research or broader market research for nonprofits, JTBD can be a guiding approach that turns scattered feedback into actionable insight. When combined with qualitative interviews or community insights studies, you can start identifying common 'jobs' that allow your team to align offerings with true needs.

At SIVO, we believe in making the complex simple. JTBD helps simplify the why behind people’s actions, turning individual behaviors into strategic direction. For nonprofits looking to strengthen their impact, it’s not just a framework – it’s a mindset shift that leads to more relevant decisions and better outcomes.

How JTBD Helps Nonprofits Understand Donor and Community Needs

One of the biggest challenges in nonprofit strategy is knowing what your audiences – whether they are donors, volunteers, or service recipients – truly need. Too often, organizations rely on assumptions, survey checkboxes, or surface-level trends. Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) offers a deeper lens, helping you explore motivations and unmet needs hidden beneath visible behaviors.

Looking Beyond Demographics

Traditional audience research often segments people by age, income, or location. While helpful, this doesn’t always tell you why someone donates to your cause or chooses one service over another. JTBD focuses on context – the moment a person seeks a solution – and explores what they are trying to fix, feel, or accomplish.

For example, a young parent attending a financial literacy workshop offered by a nonprofit might not just be seeking knowledge. Their job could be, “Help me feel confident about planning my child’s future.” That’s a very different insight – one that shapes how you design and talk about your programs.

Uncovering Donor Motivations

Donors are more than just funders – they are active participants in your mission. But what job are they hiring your organization to do? By applying JTBD, you can understand:

  • What emotional outcomes they expect – pride, connection, impact
  • What situations trigger their giving – holidays, life events, stories that resonate
  • What’s competing for their attention and support

Understanding donor motivations with Jobs to Be Done can inform more personal, compelling fundraising campaigns. It also helps avoid one-size-fits-all messaging – making donors feel seen and valued.

Informing Program and Service Design

For community-based nonprofits, understanding what your audience is really trying to do can transform how you serve them. Whether you're offering job readiness programs, food distribution, or mental health support, JTBD reveals the real goals behind participation.

In a fictional example, a community member might attend job training sessions. Rather than just seeking employment, their underlying job might be “Help me feel hopeful again after losing stability.” Knowing this allows you to design programs that offer not just skills, but emotional uplift and confidence-building – aligning more closely to their true needs.

Bringing Research Closer to Impact

By integrating a JTBD lens into your nonprofit audience research – through interviews, thematic analysis, or co-creation – you begin to surface patterns that point to strategic opportunities. This is where research becomes actionable, fueling nonprofit innovation and smarter decisions at every level.

Ultimately, improving nonprofit outreach with Jobs theory is about having empathy and clarity. It allows your team to serve with purpose, aligning your mission with the real progress your audiences seek. And in doing so, you earn deeper trust, stronger engagement, and greater potential for long-term social impact.

Using JTBD To Design Programs That Deliver Real Impact

When nonprofit organizations align their programs with the underlying motivations of their audiences, they create offerings that not only serve needs but also foster long-lasting engagement. This is where the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework shines. Rather than developing programs based on assumptions or surface-level demographics, JTBD helps nonprofits understand the why behind behavior – the real reasons people seek out help, resources, or involvement.

At its core, JTBD helps nonprofits move from offering “services” to delivering outcomes. By identifying the functional, emotional, and social jobs that community members or donors are trying to fulfill, leaders can tailor initiatives that truly resonate. This people-first strategy enhances program relevance, effectiveness, and reach – all critical in maximizing social impact.

Designing Programs That Address the Right Problems

Let’s say a food bank experiences low attendance at their weekly meal distribution. A traditional approach might assume scheduling is the issue. But by using JTBD thinking, they might discover that people avoid attending because they feel judged or face transportation challenges. With that insight, the nonprofit could redesign the experience – offering home delivery or mobile pantries that match the “job” of getting food with dignity and ease.

This shift in perspective allows teams to craft solutions that address real, not just perceived, barriers.

JTBD in Practice: Guiding Program Development

Here are a few ways JTBD thinking strengthens nonprofit strategy and innovation:

  • Clarifies Purpose: Keeps programs focused on the outcomes your audience wants, instead of internal goals only.
  • Prevents Mismatch: Avoids investing in initiatives that don’t align with what people are truly trying to accomplish.
  • Drives Innovation: Reveals unmet needs that can spark new, more effective solutions.

By grounding programs in audience jobs – not assumptions – nonprofits build credibility and enhance impact. And when supportive data from market research for nonprofits is layered in, these strategies become even more powerful.

Examples of How Nonprofits Can Apply the JTBD Framework

Applying the Jobs To Be Done framework might sound complex at first, but in reality, it lends itself to a wide range of applications in nonprofit marketing, fundraising, and program delivery. Below are a few fictional examples that illustrate how JTBD can guide clearer decisions and greater community alignment.

Example 1: Understanding Donor Motivations

A nonprofit focused on wildlife conservation wanted to improve fundraising results. Initial surveys showed donors cared about environmental impact, but the team used JTBD interviews to dig deeper. They uncovered that many donors were actually driven by a desire to feel like protectors of future generations, not just support wildlife initiatives. As a result, the nonprofit rebranded their monthly giving program around “legacy building” – positioning donors as stewards of tomorrow. Donations grew by 28% over the next six months.

Example 2: Designing Programs Aligned With Real Needs

A youth services organization aimed to launch afterschool programs for middle schoolers. Instead of assuming the job was “keep kids busy,” they interviewed students and parents using a JTBD lens. Students were actually looking for ways to build confidence in social situations, while parents wanted their kids to avoid negative environments. The nonprofit created interest-based clubs (technology, music, art), with adult mentors trained in emotional support – leading to a 40% increase in participation and better engagement metrics.

Example 3: Improving Nonprofit Marketing Outreach

A mental health nonprofit was struggling with low engagement on its digital campaigns. Using JTBD-thinking, they asked: “What brings someone to seek out our resources online?” They discovered that visitors were often trying to regain a sense of control after a personal crisis. This insight led to messaging centered around restoring balance and empowerment, instead of general mental health benefits. Click-through rates and time on page both improved significantly.

Takeaway

These examples – though simplified for illustration – show how a deeper understanding of community and donor jobs can guide effective nonprofit strategy. It’s no longer about simply promoting services; it’s about aligning with the audiences’ goals and situations. Whether you're focusing on donor engagement, nonprofit growth, or designing services with dignity and empathy, JTBD offers a fresh lens to drive change.

Getting Started: Simple Steps to Use JTBD in Your Organization

Ready to start using JTBD to strengthen your nonprofit strategy? You don’t need a major budget or advanced tools to begin. At its heart, Jobs To Be Done is about listening differently – with curiosity and purpose.

Step 1: Choose a Focus Area

Begin by identifying a specific challenge or opportunity you're working on. This could be improving donor retention, understanding community participation, or shaping new services. Having a clear focus allows you to gather the right insights.

Step 2: Talk to the People You Serve

Conduct 1-on-1 interviews or small group conversations. Instead of asking what someone likes about your service, ask what they were trying to accomplish when they decided to engage with you. What triggered their decision? What outcomes were they hoping for?

These conversations reveal the underlying jobs – emotional, social, and functional – that drive behavior.

Step 3: Look for Patterns

As you collect responses, look across interviews to identify recurring themes or phrases that hint at common jobs. Do families say they wanted peace of mind? Do volunteers mention a desire to feel useful? These patterns help you create job statements like:

“When I feel overwhelmed caring for my parent, I need support that helps me feel capable again.”

Step 4: Translate Jobs into Action

Use the patterns to refine program design, adjust messaging, or tailor outreach. For example, if donors are seeking transparency, highlight where their money goes. If clients are seeking emotional reassurance, consider training team members in trauma-informed communication.

JTBD-inspired decisions don’t happen all at once. Start with one area, pilot changes, and grow as you build confidence.

Step 5: Use Market Research to Scale

As your organization becomes more comfortable applying JTBD thinking, layering in formal nonprofit audience research or consumer insight support can unlock deeper understanding at scale. Tools like surveys, ethnographies, and segmentation can help validate and expand on your initial discoveries.

Whether you’re innovating programs or improving nonprofit marketing, small steps using the JTBD approach can lead to big impact over time.

Summary

In this beginner-friendly guide, we explored how the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework helps nonprofits shift focus from services to meaningful outcomes. By understanding what drives donors, volunteers, and communities to act, organizations can better design strategies for programs, fundraising, and outreach.

We started with what JTBD means and why it matters for impact-driven missions. We looked at how this mindset helps uncover real motivations versus surface-level preferences in nonprofit strategy. Taking it further, we shared how JTBD improves program design and how to apply it through practical examples – from donor messaging to community support services. Finally, we offered a starter roadmap for putting JTBD practices into action, even for small or lean teams.

Whether you're looking to elevate your nonprofit innovation, deepen community insights, or align your efforts with what audiences truly want, Jobs To Be Done offers a powerful, human-centered tool to guide your next move.

Summary

In this beginner-friendly guide, we explored how the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework helps nonprofits shift focus from services to meaningful outcomes. By understanding what drives donors, volunteers, and communities to act, organizations can better design strategies for programs, fundraising, and outreach.

We started with what JTBD means and why it matters for impact-driven missions. We looked at how this mindset helps uncover real motivations versus surface-level preferences in nonprofit strategy. Taking it further, we shared how JTBD improves program design and how to apply it through practical examples – from donor messaging to community support services. Finally, we offered a starter roadmap for putting JTBD practices into action, even for small or lean teams.

Whether you're looking to elevate your nonprofit innovation, deepen community insights, or align your efforts with what audiences truly want, Jobs To Be Done offers a powerful, human-centered tool to guide your next move.

In this article

What Is Jobs To Be Done and Why Should Nonprofits Use It?
How JTBD Helps Nonprofits Understand Donor and Community Needs
Using JTBD To Design Programs That Deliver Real Impact
Examples of How Nonprofits Can Apply the JTBD Framework
Getting Started: Simple Steps to Use JTBD in Your Organization

In this article

What Is Jobs To Be Done and Why Should Nonprofits Use It?
How JTBD Helps Nonprofits Understand Donor and Community Needs
Using JTBD To Design Programs That Deliver Real Impact
Examples of How Nonprofits Can Apply the JTBD Framework
Getting Started: Simple Steps to Use JTBD in Your Organization

Last updated: Jun 04, 2025

Curious how audience-driven insights can transform your nonprofit strategy?

Curious how audience-driven insights can transform your nonprofit strategy?

Curious how audience-driven insights can transform your nonprofit strategy?

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