If you’re running a nonprofit or small business in Canada and you need senior-level help but can’t justify another full-time hire, you’ve probably noticed there’s a whole vocabulary around flexible hiring that nobody explains clearly.
You see job postings for “fractional CFOs,” agencies offering “interim executives,” consultants pitching “project-based engagements,” and contract professionals on LinkedIn, and it all kind of blurs together.
Here’s why the distinction matters: these models solve different problems. Hiring the wrong type means you either pay for more than you need, don’t get what you actually need, or waste time on a structure that doesn’t fit your reality.
A Halifax nonprofit trying to modernize their donor database needs something different than a Fredericton manufacturer whose Operations Director just quit. A Charlottetown professional services firm looking for ongoing finance leadership needs something different than a St. John’s tech company running a 6-month digital transformation project.
Let’s clear this up.
The Direct Answer
The difference comes down to time commitment, scope, and how integrated they are with your team:
Fractional: Ongoing senior leadership role, part-time (e.g., 1-2 days/week). They own a function on your team – Finance Director, HR Manager, IT Lead. Embedded in your organization, accountable for results in their area.
Contract: Defined engagement to deliver specific work or fill a role temporarily. Could be project-based (3 months to overhaul your HR policies) or time-bound coverage (6 months while you search for a permanent hire). Clear scope, clear end date.
Interim: Temporary full-time (or near full-time) leadership to fill a gap urgently. Usually happens during transitions: your CFO quit, you’re restructuring, you’re in a crisis. They step in, stabilize things, then step out.
Project-Based: Hired to complete a specific initiative with clear deliverables. Build a new financial reporting system. Launch a digital fundraising campaign. Lead your CRM implementation. Done = gone.
Which you need depends on your problem: Do you need ongoing leadership in a function? A specific project completed? Emergency coverage? Let’s break it down.
The Four Models, Actually Explained
FRACTIONAL: Ongoing Part-Time Leadership
You need someone to own and run a function on your team, but you don’t need them 40 hours a week.
Real example: A 150-person community services nonprofit in Nova Scotia has a bookkeeper handling transactions, but nobody interpreting the numbers, building forecasts, or managing funder financial reporting. They don’t have enough finance complexity for a full-time Finance Director, but they need more than a bookkeeper.
Fractional solution: Hire a fractional Finance Director at 1.5 days/week (12 hours). That person owns the finance function: month-end close, cashflow forecasts, board reporting, funder compliance, team training. They’re on the org chart. They attend leadership meetings. They’re accountable for results.
This isn’t someone who reviews your books quarterly and sends recommendations. This is your Finance Director. Staff know their name. They make decisions. They show up to board meetings. They just work compressed hours.
Time commitment: Regular ongoing schedule (weekly or bi-weekly)
Integration: High – they’re embedded in your team structure
Best for: Functions that need consistent senior leadership but not full-time attention (finance, HR, operations, IT, marketing, fundraising)
CONTRACT: Defined Engagement for Specific Work
You need someone to deliver specific outcomes within a set timeframe. Could be project work, could be temporary role coverage; the key is there’s a clear scope and end date.
Real example: A 200-person manufacturer in New Brunswick is expanding into new markets and needs to overhaul their HR systems: compensation structure, performance management, compliance documentation. They have an HR coordinator but nobody with senior HR expertise to design these systems.
Contract solution: Hire a contract HR professional for 6 months to redesign their HR infrastructure. Clear deliverables: new comp framework, performance review system, policy documentation, manager training. When it’s done, the engagement ends. The HR coordinator can maintain what was built.
The contract professional works with the team, understands the business and builds the systems but everyone knows this is time-bound work with a finish line.
Time commitment: Fixed duration (3-12 months typical)
Integration: Medium – they work with your team but aren’t permanent structure
Best for: Specific initiatives with clear deliverables, temporary role coverage, building systems you can maintain internally
INTERIM: Emergency Full-Time Leadership
You need someone to step into a senior role immediately because of an urgent gap: resignation, termination, restructuring, crisis. They stabilize things while you figure out your permanent solution.
Real example: A 300-person nonprofit’s CFO in Prince Edward Island resigns abruptly during audit season. The board needs someone to manage the audit, maintain funder confidence, and keep finance operations running while they search for a permanent replacement. They can’t afford 3-4 months of financial chaos.
Interim solution: Hire an interim CFO full-time (or 4 days/week) for 4-6 months. They run finance, manage the audit, steady the ship, and potentially help recruit and transition to the permanent CFO.
Interim is about urgency and full engagement. This is emergency coverage at senior levels. They have full authority to make decisions because the situation demands it.
Time commitment: Full-time or near full-time, typically 3-6 months
Integration: High – they’re acting as the role, making decisions with full authority
Best for: Urgent leadership gaps, transitions, crisis stabilization, major organizational changes
PROJECT-BASED: Specific Initiative with Clear Deliverables
You need someone to lead a defined project from start to finish. This isn’t ongoing function management, it’s a specific initiative with a beginning, middle, and end.
Real example: A 100-person professional services firm in Newfoundland is implementing a new CRM system. They need someone who knows CRM implementations to lead the project from vendor selection, requirements gathering and configuration to data migration, training and launch. Once it’s live and adopted, the project is done.
Project-based solution: Hire a project lead for the CRM implementation. Duration: 5-7 months. Deliverable: functioning CRM with clean data, trained users, and documented processes. The firm’s internal team maintains it after launch.
The project lead isn’t there to run your technology function forever. They’re there to deliver this specific outcome, then they’re gone.
Time commitment: Project timeline (3-9 months typical)
Integration: Medium – they lead the project, work with your team, but aren’t permanent
Best for: Technology implementations, major process overhauls, strategic initiatives with defined outcomes
How to Figure Out Which You Need
Ask yourself these questions:
- Is this ongoing or one-time?
- Ongoing function that needs consistent leadership → Fractional
- Specific project or system build → Project-Based
- Emergency gap or transition → Interim
- Defined piece of work with clear end → Contract
- How much time and intensity does this need?
- Part-time ongoing (8-16 hours/week) → Fractional
- Full-time but temporary (3-6 months) → Interim
- Intensive project burst (could be full-time or part-time) → Project-Based
- Variable depending on scope → Contract
- How integrated do they need to be?
- Embedded in team structure, making decisions → Fractional or Interim
- Working with your team but time-bound → Contract or Project-Based
- What happens when they’re done?
- They don’t “finish” – they’re ongoing → Fractional
- Someone internal takes over what they built → Contract or Project-Based
- You hire a permanent replacement → Interim
Can These Overlap? Yes.
Real situations are messier than clean categories. You might:
- Start with a project-based engagement to build a system, then shift to fractional to manage it ongoing
- Hire someone for an interim role who transitions to fractional once you realize you don’t need full-time
- Combine fractional (ongoing strategic leadership) with project-based (specific initiative) from the same person
The labels matter less than clarity on: What problem are you solving? What do you need from this person? For how long?
What to Do Next
Before you start looking for help, get clear on your actual need.
Step 1: Name the problem in plain language
- “We need someone to run our finance function but we can’t afford full-time” → Fractional
- “Our Operations Director quit and we need coverage while we hire” → Interim
- “We’re implementing a new donor management system and need someone to lead it” → Project-Based
- “We need to rebuild our HR policies and systems over the next 6 months” → Contract
Step 2: Decide what “done” looks like
- Is there a finish line, or is this ongoing?
- What does success look like in 3 months? 6 months?
Step 3: Figure out time commitment
- Hours per week? Full-time temporarily? Project intensity?
Once you’re clear on the problem and structure, finding the right person gets a lot easier. The model you choose should fit your reality, not the other way around.
SeasonedPros offers fast access to a network of business professionals ready to tackle complex challenges and drive organizational growth. Resource expertise faster with on demand talent for fractional, contract, interim or project roles. Reach out today to learn how we can help:
