Creative Compensation

From theater tickets to lemonade parties, nonprofit managers offer innovative incentives to lift morale

It has been said that an army runs on its stomach. If that’s the case, then the scientists who battle pathologies at the Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases, a nonprofit medical-research facility in Guilford, Conn., are ready for a long, long fight.

Food surrounds them. There’s a seemingly bottomless bowl of chocolate on the desk of Janet Verney, the institute’s director of operations. Staff members who work late are given a meal allowance, and the pantry is always filled with snacks and lunch fixings.

Of course, the time comes when all those calories must be worked off. Staff members often run on the jogging trails along Long Island Sound, where the institute sits overlooking a marina. When they return, they can take a shower. And, as a reward for a long week, some Friday afternoons feature movies and popcorn.

With all those creature comforts, one might expect Rothberg’s employees to feel a bit spoiled. But if they do, they also don’t have any problem putting in the long hours for the comparatively low pay expected of scientists working at a nonprofit organization.

“We’re fighting a very serious disease,” Ms. Verney says of the organization, which is currently focused on finding a cure for tuberous sclerosis complex, an uncommon but deadly childhood ailment. “We want to make it a bright, inviting place to work, and we want to keep them going. All the extras say we value you as individuals and scientists, and we want you to do the most inspired work that you can.”

It seems to be working. “The collateral benefits certainly go a long way to enhance the overall working environment,” says Wolfgang Hinz, a researcher at the institute. “The benefits add to the already fantastic location of the institute and make it easier to come to work every day.”

Not only that, but with the emergency rations around, he says, “We are certainly hard pressed to come up with a good excuse not to finish an experiment.”

Pets, Jokes, and Naps

Those sorts of benefits aren’t usually included in large human-resources studies, but they are the kinds of things that appeal strongly to an organization’s employees, according to nonprofit managers who offer these perks.

These managers believe that letting employees bring their pets to work, or adding a dose of humor or even a chance to snooze off a heavy lunch, can help keep workers motivated and on the job longer.

“People come for the mission, but they leave because they get burned out,” says Peggy Hill, an employee-benefits consultant in Minneapolis who advises several nonprofit organizations. “The way to keep them around is to have a positive work culture, in addition to the mission. And one of the best ways to build that culture is to make work fun.”

Such benefits also provide a symbolically important way for many charities to reward their employees, even if the charities don’t have the kinds of budgets to offer more expensive perks, like year-end bonuses, says Dafna Eylon, an associate professor of management specializing in organizational behavior at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business.

“There’s something these choices symbolize, and that’s illustrative of the difference between nonprofits and for-profit companies,” Ms. Eylon says. “For the people who work at the nonprofits, it’s not all about money, but also about community — and these benefits are important in at least reflecting those values.”

However, benefits that make an office more enjoyable or worker-friendly can only go so far to tame turnover or employee dissatisfaction, some personnel experts say. Charities will have trouble retaining all but the most dedicated employees, say these observers, until they start devoting more of their resources to traditional benefits.

“We believe it’s time for nonprofit organizations to compensate people with a living wage,” says David Mersky, a Brandeis University lecturer on philanthropy and fund raising who also works as a consultant to nonprofit clients. “It’s time for organizations to say, ‘If you can’t afford to compensate people at market rate, you can’t afford them.’ We fool ourselves by saying that because we provide a better work environment, it’s OK to pay less.”

Fun benefits are no substitute for the basics, says Lawrence Wells, a project manager at the Michigan League of Human Services, in Lansing, who oversees an effort to compile advice about worker benefits for nonprofit employers in his state.

But even the basics can be tough for charities to cover, he says. For example, in his state, tough financial times have meant that “many organizations are just trying to hold the line,” he says. “They’re more worried about helping employees pay for prescription drugs, or incorporating a savings benefit.” Instituting creative benefits, he says, may not be a priority for groups that find themselves strapped for resources.

Just the Ticket

One way to make nonprofit work more fun is to connect perks to a charity’s mission. For instance, says Ms. Hill, arts groups sometimes offer their employees free or discounted tickets, or trade tickets with other organizations — allowing their workers to explore cultural opportunities that they might not otherwise be able to afford. At the nonprofit Round House Theatre, in Bethesda, Md., staff members receive four free tickets on the first night of a show’s run, and then have the opportunity to purchase several more for $10 apiece — a big discount from the $40 per ticket that some Round House shows cost.

“It encourages them to see the value of what they’re doing,” says Ira Hillman, the theater’s managing director. “And it makes it more affordable for someone who’s stuck at the compensation levels of the not-for-profit arts world. Many of these people are pretty young, it’s their first or second job, and the reason they’re working here is because of their passion for the theater in the first place.”

At the same time, the Round House exchanges tickets with other groups, from Washington to Philadelphia. According to Mr. Hillman, the exchange also helps the theaters pack the house on off-nights.

“When I was working with the Kansas City Ballet, I went to things on a weekly basis,” says Martin Cohen, director of the nonprofit Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative. “Symphonies, operas, art openings — we would almost weekly offer each other about 10 tickets.”

Going to the Dogs

Those kinds of benefits, which often do not require much financial sacrifice on the part of the employer, have the added advantage of helping to support the organizational mission in the short run and the entire realm of cultural institutions in the long term. But they are not the sole method of — or reason for — using small benefits to create an enjoyable work setting. For many organizations, creating that environment is a means to an end: If employees like where they work, they might stay longer.

To that end, consider Glendale Human Services Council, in Arizona, where a visitor might be greeted by any number of dogs on a given day, including a one-eyed Australian shepherd mix named Kanga, who is owned by the charity’s executive director, Paige Garrett.

Allowing workers to bring their pets to the office is just one of many ways that Ms. Garrett tries to make her employees feel at home. She says that allowing employees to dress casually, and enjoy paid days off on their birthdays and after they complete large projects, is a reflection of the way she would like to be managed.

Ms. Garrett’s five employees work with the elderly and help develop programs that are then handed off to Glendale city agencies. She says the days off she gives workers are a way of helping them avoid burnout. Turnover has dropped in the five years she has run the council, she says, and she believes it is a result of managing workers with respect for their comfort. “I’ve worked for places where there’s a strong line between work and home, and places where there isn’t, and I liked the ones without the line better,” she says.

Ms. Garrett isn’t alone in that preference, according to Ms. Eylon, who says a fun attitude, one that respects workers’ personal needs, is one that can help an organization develop loyalty.

“When employees find an organization that sends a strong message to its employees, it increases their willingness to contribute,” Ms. Eylon says. “I think it’s through the concept of ‘fit.’ When you feel your qualities are appreciated, you’re more likely to engage in those behaviors the organization needs of you. And when the message to the employees is that we view you holistically, as a whole person, we recognize that you have some needs and we respect that, you’re more likely to feel that appreciation.

“There’s self-selection with people who go to nonprofits,” she adds. “They’re making choices of balance, and it makes sense for nonprofits to respect that.” While giving that sort of flexibility to employees might seem like a way to reduce their efficiency, it might actually improve it, according to Ms. Hill, the consultant. She believes that creating a less-stressful office is likely to cut down on employee illness and absenteeism.

“We’ve seen so many studies saying a large percentage of all sickness and disease is either directly or indirectly caused or contributed to by stress,” she says. Giving workers a chance to have some fun, she says, can go a long way toward helping to reduce employee stress.

Lightening the Load

Sometimes a sense of humor can be a useful weapon against high turnover. For Susan Killeen, human-resources director at Lifetrack Resources, a rehabilitation and vocational therapy center in St. Paul, and the staff of more than 100 she serves, keeping things light is a way of coping with the fact that her organization has been losing workers through budget cuts.

When rumors of layoffs began two years ago, Ms. Killeen was able to head off any whispering by having a lemonade party and briefing for the staff — as in, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. It boosted employee morale, she says, and helped keep ties to the organization and the personal relationships built within it strong.

“Instead of ignoring the fact that this was happening to the agency, it just gave everyone a chance to talk about it, to bring the departments together, and say to the whole agency, ‘We’re not letting anyone go because they’re bad employees, it’s because of the funding,’” says Diane Heldt, Lifetrack’s immigrant employment coordinator.

“It was very well accepted by the staff,” Ms. Heldt says. “We had layoffs in my department, and everything I heard from the people we laid off was very positive.”

Ms. Killeen, who has worked at Lifetrack for seven years, calls it “by far, the friendliest place I’d ever been to. But there’s been a stronger motivation, as budgets have decreased, to make it a more fun place to work.”

In between casserole bake-offs and the annual January barbecue, as well as the regularly awarded “Holy Mackerel” prize (a stuffed fish), given to recognize employee achievement, Ms. Killeen finds time to conduct surveys of her employees.

“Of course we ask about health insurance, but we also ask things like, do you feel valued, do you have a best friend at work — and that gets to the ‘are you comfortable at work’ part of it,” she says. “And we’re doing well. Workers stay longer; they refer their friends to come to work with us. And even without any heavy handedness, they willingly choose to give to our organization. And they participate in our extracurricular activities.”

Personal Time

In its efforts to create a friendlier office, Peninsula Habitat for Humanity, in Redwood City, Calif., focuses on helping its employees enjoy their personal time.

The charity gives workers a monthly $200 allowance it calls its “quality of life” benefit. Through this option, the home-building organization’s 13 employees are eligible to be reimbursed up to $200 per month for expenses like gym memberships, yoga classes, Internet access, and health-care payments not covered by the organization’s insurance plan.

The money might simply be considered part of an employee’s salary, according to Mary Boughton, the executive director — except that the paperwork required of the benefit, and the discussion it engenders, indicates to workers that their employer is indeed interested in their having lives outside of the office.

“If you talk about it as $2,400, it’s really just robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Ms. Boughton says. “But it makes a statement because of what it’s there for. People remind each other of it. They say, Well, you could use your quality-of-life benefit for those classes or that massage. It’s nothing dramatic by itself, but all the little pieces add up to something dramatic.”

In addition to the quality-of-life allowance, Peninsula Habitat for Humanity allows employees to keep flexible hours, and also has a weekly soup day, when one employee brings in a pot of homemade soup for everyone to share.

That’s not to say that these ideas are catching on like wildfire. But, says Baillee Serbin, a human-resources consultant to nonprofit groups in Marin County, Calif., they can go a long way toward giving workers a positive feeling about their work. “The question is, ‘Why are people happy with their job?,’ not why are they unhappy,’” Ms. Serbin says. “And these kinds of environmental bonuses give them a whole other set of things to point to and say, ‘This is why I like working here.’”

“Everyone is working for money,” Ms. Serbin adds. “But when they start looking around to leave, it’s not about the money, it’s about their satisfaction level. Money is just the bait on the hook that reels them away.”