A Few Charities Buck Layoff Trends by Hiring Workers, Creating Jobs

Share Our Strength, the Washington charity that fights hunger, has been particularly cautious about its expenses since the recession started. But this month, the group added two new positions to help with fund raising and marketing, one to build ties with companies and the other to seek big gifts from individuals.

Chuck Scofield, chief development officer, says his charity recognized that spending money to expand its 13-person fund-raising and corporate-marketing staff was the only way to achieve an ambitious goal to end childhood hunger in the United States by 2015. The group has also seen enough interest from donors to justify the new positions.

“Absolutely, economic times are difficult, but this issue is more important to Americans than ever,” Mr. Scofield says.

Share Our Strength is one of a handful of nonprofit groups that are creating new jobs even as the country is still reeling from the worst recession since the 1930s.

While the organizations are far too few to signal any kind of resurgence in nonprofit hiring — and many charity leaders foresee financial troubles ahead — a minority of groups are moving forward with expansion plans, filling positions they left vacant when the economy cratered last fall, or adding development jobs in preparation for the busy fall fund-raising season.

People who specialize in recruiting for nonprofit jobs report an increase in business this September. Five of seven recruiters contacted by The Chronicle said the number of charities seeking their services has picked up after a sluggish spring and summer, although it is still well below pre-recession levels.

“Employers have seen that the sky isn’t falling,” says Nurys Harrigan, president of Careers in Nonprofits, which works with charities primarily in Washington and Chicago. “They have a little more confidence now.”

Still, most charity leaders say they are not feeling any sort of turnaround. Jerome Kilbane, executive director of Covenant House New York, eliminated 35 positions early this year and fears he may have to make more cuts.

“I’d like to say we’ve hit bottom, but I haven’t seen it,” he says.

And a survey of more than 250 charities conducted in January by Nonprofit HR Solutions, a Washington group that helps charities recruit and retain workers, found that roughly 42 percent planned to create new jobs this year. That figure was 20 percent less than the previous year.

Groups in the Forefront

The organizations that are expanding their work forces represent all causes and sizes. But hiring seems to be slightly more brisk for these types of groups:

Organizations that advise donors on their giving. Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, the Philanthropic Initiative, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors are each expanding the size of their staffs. Rockefeller, which is based in New York, opened an office in Chicago this month, a move it had postponed for a year after last fall’s stock-market collapse. Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, says her group has lost some clients during the recession but gained others. Some donors, she says, feel that having information to make sure they are giving wisely is even more important when resources are tight.

Groups that meet needs exacerbated by the recession. Feeding America, the hunger-relief charity based in Chicago, has created 11 new positions since July 1 and plans to add more, steps it can afford to take after surpassing its fund-raising goals last fiscal year. Many of the jobs are in the fields of fund raising and technology. Share Our Strength’s budget, too, has grown. This fiscal year it plans to raise $22-million, $3-million more than last year.

Charities with rapid plans for growth. Youth Villages, a group based in Memphis that helps troubled young people, plans to create 132 new positions in the fiscal year that began in July. The charity credits the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation for helping the group raise “growth capital” that has enabled it to expand even as some donors have pulled back. Smaller groups are growing too, such as the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, in Houston, and Wings for Kids, in Charleston, S.C.

Organizations that have won an increase in federal money, such as health groups, environmental-technology organizations, and youth charities. The House of Ruth Maryland, a charity in Baltimore that helps victims of domestic violence, created a new case-management job after getting a $500,000 federal stimulus grant. But Carole Alexander, the charity’s executive director, warns the job could disappear in a year or two.

“I worry about the stimulus money because, in some ways, it’s a false sense that things are getting better,” she says.

Groups whose fund-raising results were not as bad as feared. Oxfam America, the international aid group in Boston, cut 9 percent of positions at the end of 2008 in anticipation that revenues could plummet by as much as 15 percent. It is now recruiting for nine new jobs, many supported by grants for specific projects. Unrestricted money remains tight, but Oxfam now anticipates its revenue will decline by only 10 or 11 percent. Its staff members no longer have to receive approval from top managers to recruit for newly vacant positions, something they had to do last winter when the financial situation was even more fragile.

Organizations seeking to diversify their sources of revenue. Witness, the nonprofit group in Brooklyn, N.Y., that trains people to document human-rights abuses, is searching for a major-gifts fund raiser to help expand its revenue beyond foundations. The charity briefly employed such a fund raiser last year but put off replacing him until now out of concern for the economic situation. The House of Ruth Maryland has created two new fund-raising positions in hopes of securing more support from foundations and individuals. The organization plans to tap its endowment to pay for those hires.

New jobs at foundations remain very rare. Grant makers that are advertising jobs, like the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, are generally hoping to fill vacant positions, not create new ones.

“It’s not indicative of us going back into hiring mode,” says Marc Fest, vice president of communications, about the Miami foundation’s efforts to fill an open job overseeing social media. “This is just a position that is key to what we do.”

Lester M. Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins University’s Listening Post Project, says he is not surprised that some charities are adding jobs this fall.

Nonprofit employment has grown during the two recessions since 1990, by nearly 2.4 percent overall, as more government money flowed to Medicaid and other social programs, according to a study by his group.

But he says with so many state governments facing severe budget squeezes, this recession might not follow quite as rosy a pattern.

Indeed, the stabilization of the stock market and of consumer spending, along with other signs that the recession may be nearing an end, have not yet prompted most nonprofit leaders to consider plans to hire. Many say they do not anticipate the recovery trickling down to their organizations until well after businesses rebound.

Stephen Miller, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cecil County, in Maryland, is one such nonprofit leader. The idea of replacing jobs he was forced to eliminate this summer, much less expanding, remains a dream he cannot yet afford to entertain.

“We’re going to get through this year,” says Mr. Miller. “But I’m not seeing signs that things are turning around.”