April 22, 2016 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Most nonprofits — 57 percent — expect to add jobs in 2016, according to a new report, and fundraisers are at the top of the hiring priority list.
Such growth would be a 6 percent increase over 2015, when 51 percent of nonprofits added positions, according to the Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey, published annually since 2007 by consulting firm Nonprofit HR. And the 57 percent is a sharp contrast to the 19 percent of nonprofits that added jobs in 2009, when the Great Recession sent nonprofit hiring into a tailspin.
Meanwhile, 8 percent of nonprofits said they plan to eliminate positions in 2016, down from the 15 percent that did so last year.
The numbers signal that the nonprofit world is solid, says Lisa Brown Morton, president of Nonprofit HR, and continues to grow in terms of the number of organizations, programs and services, and employees.
“Job seekers are calling the shots, and nonprofits need to be ready for that,” Ms. Morton says.
Steady Progress
If the outlook holds up, 2016 will be the fourth consecutive year nonprofit hiring has increased. The most recent downturn was from 2011 to 2012, when the share of nonprofits adding new positions fell from 44 percent to 40 percent and a fifth of all groups slashed jobs in consecutive years, according to the report.
Plans to add positions in 2016 were spread across nonprofits of all sizes. Medium-size groups — those with budgets of $5.1 million to $15 million — led the way, with 66 percent reporting that they would increase their staffs. Fifty-two percent of small nonprofits and 59 percent of large ones said they plan to add positions.
The percent of nonprofits that plan to create new positions this year outstrips that of the private sector, where roughly 36 percent of companies say they plan to hire.
Nonprofit leaders need to do a better job trumpeting their organizations’ pivotal roles in the broader economy, Ms. Morton says.
“I think when people think of the nonprofit sector, they think of the little mansy-pansy thing, not really a sector,” she says. “They do nice things for people but not as a true economic force.”
The employment survey included responses from 443 nonprofits in the United States and Canada that compose a representative sample of the sector.
Nonprofits reported fundraising positions as the highest area of anticipated growth. Next was direct services, then education and community outreach, and in fourth place program management and support. Rounding out the top five were nonprofit jobs in marketing and communications and in public relations.
Staffing Challenges
For the fifth consecutive year, nonprofits reported that their inability to offer competitive salaries was their biggest staffing challenge. That was followed by nonprofits’ struggle to find qualified professionals.
It’s hardest to retain direct-service employees, the study found, followed by fundraisers.
A lack of formal recruitment strategies could be harming nonprofits’ ability to attract and retain great talent, according to the study. This is most pronounced for small groups. Nearly three quarters of small nonprofits — those with budgets of $5 million or less — do not have a strategy, while 91 percent have no budget for recruiting.
Other findings:
- 84 percent of all groups surveyed reported they do not have a formal retention strategy.
- 29 percent cited retaining staff under the age of 30 as their greatest diversity challenge.
- 59 percent reported they do not have a formal succession plan.
- 46 percent have a telecommuting policy, up from 43 percent in 2015.
Ms. Morton described the lack of recruitment and retention strategies and budgets as a “Molotov cocktail” for nonprofits, calling it “not a good combination of dynamics to maintain a strong, healthy, viable nonprofit sector.”
