Nonprofit Career Trends:
Implications for 2013 & Beyond
Tara Kirkland & Tara Levy
2012 TEXAS NONPROFIT SUMMIT
SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
All contents © Greenlights for Nonprofit Success
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SESSION AGENDA
▸ Data Overview
▸ Generational Transitions at Work
▸ Top 5 Trends in the Evolving
Nonprofit Workplace
▸ Recommendations and Responses
▸ Action-Planning
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Data Wonk
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RESEARCH:
WHERE DOES THE DATA COME FROM?
▸ Greenlights surveys
▸ Young Nonprofit Professionals Network
▸ Nonprofit HR Solutions
▸ …and a lot of extra reading!
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WHET YOUR DATA APPETITE
▸ Job creation:
 43% increased their staff size in 2011 (34% in 2010)
 43% plan to create new positions in 2012
▸ Job transitions:
 Most nonprofiteers under 55 have been in their
current position for 2 years or less
 25% estimate will stay in current position 1 year or
less; 40% say 2-4 years
▸ Career commitment:
 63% committed to career in the sector
 Generally not interested in traditional professional
leadership roles (ex: only 22% interested in ED role)
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Generations:
Gaps & Gripes
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Ask me about
generational
differences!
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TRADITIONALISTS
▸ Born before 1946
▸ Now, 66 and older
 By 2020, youngest will be
75, some still in workforce!
▸ Shaped by WWII
▸ Loyalty, dependability,
sacrifice
▸ Respect for authority (Photo: George C. Marshall Foundation)
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BABY BOOMERS
▸ Born 1946 – 1964
▸ Demographic ―bulge‖
▸ Shaped by Cold War, TV (home) & ―the
computer‖ (work)
▸ Nonprofit Founders
▸ Competitive,
work long hours
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GENERATION X
▸ Born (1965 – 1979)
▸ ―Latchkey kids‖ self-reliant
▸ Shaped by: MTV, AIDS, Fall of Berlin Wall,
the cell phone
▸ ―Baby Busters‖ who
openly question
authority (―cynical‖)
▸ Free agents
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MILLENNIALS (GEN Y)
▸ Born 1980 – 2000
▸ Shaped by:
 Google, Facebook, instant access to info
 Major event: 9/11
▸ Value ―immediacy,‖ community,
tolerance
▸ ―Work as part of life‖
▸ 46% workforce by 2020!
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GENERATION 2020
▸ First members enter Workforce post-
college in 2020
▸ ―a generation unplugged‖
▸ Life lived online
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GENERATIONS AT WORK
What have YOU experienced?
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#1 Compensation:
More Important
NOW than EVER
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PROFESSIONALIZING THE SECTOR
▸ Nonprofit jobs are now a career path.
 More than 1/2 have advanced degrees
▸ Compensation is the biggest gap.
 1/3 of our respondents are ―unsatisfied‖ with
their salary more than any other aspect of their
position and career
 34% of organizations cited ―inability to pay
competitively‖ as biggest challenge to staff
retention
 66% of new nonprofiteers have student loan
debt (30% have $50,000+)
▸ “Compensation should be aspirational.”
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KEY QUESTIONS
▸ How can organizations find and plan
resources to make this significant
additional investment in their staff?
▸ What kinds of compensation are
valued by nonprofiteers, in addition to
base salary?
▸ How can nonprofits promote and
leverage the professionalization of the
sector?
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#2 COMPETING FOR
TALENT: the Going
Gets Tougher
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GROW, CHURN REPEAT
▸ Sector growing again:
43% of nonprofits are adding staff
▸ Retirement & resignations increasing
sector wide across US
 Central Texas EDs – almost 50% leaving post
in 4 yrs or less
▸ Churn continues in Central Texas:
 Most under 55 have been in current post 2
years or less
 80% of Millennials say will stay in current job
no more than 4 years
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GOT TALENT?
▸ Staff retention? What’s that?!?
 75% of nonprofits nationally have no plan in place
▸ Whither the ―Career Ladder?‖
 50% of non-EDs surveyed
were unsatisfied with
―opportunity for advancement‖
▸ Key question: How can we retain and develop an
increasingly mobile talent pool, even without
competitive salaries and clear promotion
opportunities?
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GOT TALENT?
“Personnel is a sucking bog…
I spend a lot of time working
with this person or this
department or this team, and
now it’s good, and then then get
a new job. They’re like, “thanks
for the training, bye!”
Executive Director respondent,
Daring to Lead 2011 Survey
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#3 Power to the People:
More Democracy,
Less Hierarchy
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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,
PART DEUX
▸ ―Flatter organizations incentivize
collaboration, help leaders push each
other to improve, and give new leaders a
better chance to succeed in their new
roles.‖ (YNPN)
 Working in teams cited as the top motivator
for millennials
▸ Increased focus on results, not titles
 78% do not want the ED job
 67% want to be a leader
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KEY QUESTIONS
▸ How can nonprofits evolve our leadership
to be more team-driven and inclusive?
▸ What other elements of nonprofit
structures can be adapted to distribute
authority and promote participation?
▸ How can we incorporate staff
strategically into idea generation and
decision-making throughout the year?
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#4 Blurring Personal/
Professional
Boundaries
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BLURRING BOUNDARIES
1. The digital workplace blurs boundaries.
 Individuals generate ―content‖ & expect access
to platforms used personally
• ―the hyperconnected‖
 Organizations are responsible for managing
privacy concerns
 KEY QUESTION: How does a nonprofit make it
easy for employees who expect connectivity
while protecting brand, securing accuracy
& appropriateness at the same time?
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BLURRING BOUNDARIES
2. “Weisure” time – work and leisure are
viewed as one and the same…
 Millennials ―networked by
nature‖
 48% say friends at work
= very important
 Workplace should address life issues?
 Younger workers want continuous skill development,
for work to build better ―life skills‖
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BLURRING BOUNDARIES
3. Flexible worktime – desired, yet
delicate
 Flextime & Flexplace
 ―Third Places‖
 Survey says: increasingly desirable
 ―The third rail‖ of benefits?
KEY QUESTION: How can nonprofits
increase flexibility, but maintain fairness and
make sure work gets done?
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#5 First, do no harm.
First, do good.
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ABOVE ALL THINGS, BE GOOD.
▸ Across generations, there is a commitment
to making a difference
 ―Although many young nonprofit professionals seem
sector agnostic, they are just as mission-focused as
ever.‖ (YNPN)
 97% of full-time nonprofit leaders 55+ want to make
a contribution to society even after leaving current
position
▸ Doing good is top professional goal
 85% want to make an impact
 83% want to be involved in something important
 80% want to feel good about their work
 79% want to improve their community
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KEY QUESTIONS
▸ Can you connect all of your
organization’s jobs to your organization’s
mission?
▸ How can you cultivate your staff’s
commitment to the success of your
mission and cause, and to the success of
the community as a whole?
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Recommendations
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INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP
▸
Who will chart the
course?
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ORGANIZATIONS INDIVIDUALS
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COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
Organizations Individuals
▸ Budget for COLA and ▸ Make the case early
merit raises, as well ▸ Ask before budget
as bonus rewards cycle process begins
▸ Implement creative, ▸ Add value—and keep
mission-driven track of it!
incentives
▸ Recognize that
compensation goes
beyond salary
▸ Tuition reimbursement
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TALENT MANAGEMENT
Organizations Individuals
▸ Regularly evaluate ▸ Set 1, 3, 5 year career
performance; ensure goals & chart a course
―stars‖ are rewarded to get there
meaningfully
 Open to innovative proposals ▸ Find mentors (in &
like ―side hustles‖ outside your org)
▸ Prioritize leadership ▸ Seek out professional
development (needs now, development (current
next 3 – 5 years) job & next rung up!)
▸ Creative ways to add ▸ Prove you can handle a
―rungs‖ to career ladder? promotion through
―above & beyond‖
▸ Be prepared: succession performance
planning for inevitable
departures
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MORE DEMOCRATIC AND FLAT
Organizations Individuals
▸ Regular, clear ▸ Regular, clear
communication communication
▸ Build a culture that ▸ Champion new ideas
supports staff and practices
development and ▸ ―It’s up to you as the
team building employee to create
▸ ―Treat staff as a key the job you want, to
stakeholder.‖ (YNPN) identify what the
▸ Revise org chart and company is missing,
consider alternative and what the
models company needs, and
be that.‖ (Forbes)
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BOUNDARY BLURRING
Organizations Individuals
▸ Clear social media ▸ Over-communicate to
guidelines to clarify make sure you
expectations
understand workplace
▸ Can org culture, policies
allow for more expectations
connectedness, ▸ Champion new ideas
flexibility? and practices that
▸ Effective flextime create community
programs must be fair,
performance-based ▸ Model accountability,
▸ Can your org become a ―mission first‖ attitude
resource for ―life‖  Track performance
issues?
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MISSION-DRIVEN GOODNESS
Organizations Individuals
▸ Connect job ▸ Again, consistent,
descriptions and clear communication
evaluations to impact to demonstrate
accountability and
▸ Support and promote expectations
employee involvement ▸ Find clarity about
in the community as what gives you
whole satisfaction and
meaning
▸ Ask good questions
during interview
process
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Action Planning
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QUESTIONS? DISCUSSION?
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KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING!
▸ Go to
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▸ Find this session
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▸ Ask us
questions,
comment on the
session, and
share your own
ideas on career
trends
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Thank You!
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