The nonprofit sector, like other sectors, has been facing high turnover. It is time to consider strategies and innovative ways to recruit good talent and retain qualified staff. High employee turnover is costly to organizations and delays mission advancement as its focus must be filling vacant positions. So, nonprofit leaders must equip themselves with the knowledge and resources that are needed for retention.

For leadership to take proactive measures, the following list is six key
strategies recommendations for consideration and implementation by leadership and management in retaining qualified staff.

Engagement

Keeping staff engaged in the organization and the mission creates a culture of purpose and meaning, resulting in staff feeling ownership resulting in a continuous involvement in the organization. Creating a culture of purpose and meaning creates a working environment that is passionate and productive internally, which would transfer externally.

Competitive compensation and benefits

Offering competitive salaries could be challenging to smaller organizations due to financial budgets; however, it is important that the compensation offered is fair and aligns with the work being done. Offering competitive compensation and benefits ensures that staff feels valued, decreasing the need to seek other employment opportunities, thus reducing turnover. Again, the importance of employees feeling appreciated…

Nonprofits provide an immense service to our communities, and are the first place many go when they at their most vulnerable.  Even so, parts of the nonprofit sector face reduced resources, increased regulation, and increased competition, putting service-based organizations in a state of vulnerability as they continue efforts to show up for community members in need while facing similar survival instincts. Data from the National Center on Charitable Statistics shows that 30% of nonprofits will fail within the first ten years, often for reasons associated with capacity building and resiliency.  The National Council of Nonprofits defines capacity building as “an investment in the effectiveness and future sustainability of a nonprofit”.

Special care and attention must be placed on understanding the deep-rooted relationship between capacity building and nonprofit resiliency.  The distinction lies in resiliency’s focus on deep, long-term, and transparent processes that align with the organization’s strengths, opportunities, and questions or needs rather than conventional capacity building which often includes half day workshops that are not individualized to organizational needs. Organizations are as unique as human beings, and without care and attention to this uniqueness, standard change techniques have a higher risk of failing.

Strategies to…

Numbers, numbers, numbers… If you’re anything less than a mathematician or accountant, they may not be your favorite, but they should play an integral role in the decision-making and impact of your organization. For prospective donors, volunteers and employees, numbers and data can provide the groundwork that stabilizes an organization’s mission and vision. It not only demonstrates what the organization has already accomplished but also establishes a trend for all the places it could go in the future. To effectively lead or participate in nonprofit work, data must be a major factor in every decision. 

How to track data 

While an organization’s mission should be its topmost priority, letting data tracking fall to the wayside in pursuit of a mission statement can harm a nonprofit in the long term. To maintain these records, data tracking should be built into everyday processes. According to Business News Daily, businesses typically collect data in three primary ways:

1. Directly asking
2. Indirectly tracking
3. Utilizing external data sources

A combination of each method is required to form a holistic approach to data recording. Consider building survey questions directly into event registrations, volunteer sign-ups, or mailing list registrations to begin collecting data about who the…

Boards have a crucial role to play in successfully advancing inclusion strategies at nonprofits. Each nonprofit serves a unique group of people with their own distinct needs. Therefore, it is imperative that every nonprofit have leadership who are well equipped to fulfill those needs, especially their board members. Like an electrical socket, boards serve as the catalyst for transferring power from its source (the nonprofit) to its desired destination: the stakeholders. It stands to reason then, that if a board adequately represents the stakeholders of that nonprofit, it may “plug in” well to properly transfer power to its stakeholders and thereby fulfill its mission with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy implementation. Thus, having a board that values and embodies DEI will be more successful at serving its community and advancing its mission.

Here are a few ways boards can advance inclusion strategies for success at nonprofits.

Develop a shared DEI vision

Boards need to invest time and effort to developing a shared DEI vision amongst leadership, along with shared vocabulary for what the organization believes “diversity, equity…

The independent sector has seen the highest turnover rates in the past decade than ever before. In a recent survey, over fifty percent of nonprofit leaders predict their employee turnover rates will increase in the upcoming year. (King, 2022) Turnover goes beyond affecting the functions of an organization; it impacts the financial standings, reputation with donors, and the community and creates a cycle of burnout. Turnover impacts the morale of current employees of an organization and creates an environment where it is easy to demotivate the staff. Nonprofit executives may also feel overwhelmed and decide to leave their organizations.

In the public sector, leaders can increase staff retainment in the following ways:

• creating an engaging workplace
• investing in recruitment
• providing opportunities for staff to move up within the organization
• supporting a Human Resources Department
• investing in training opportunities for staff
• facilitating a diverse, collaborative team

…