What nonprofits offer to the evolving world of work

The patient effort of understanding problems — this is something people enjoy being a part of, if it is truly valued.

By Kristi Rendahl
DECEMBER 14, 2021

JEFF WHEELER, STAR TRIBUNE
The pandemic has exacerbated the problem of people leaving nonprofit work, while also deepening the severity of the issues the sector aims to address. Above, food was served at Loaves & Fishes’ Hopkins location in 2019.


The Star Tribune recently reported on the "Great Resignation" in the nonprofit sector ("Nonprofits grapple with sudden staffing shortages," Dec. 6), an unsurprising turn of events given that 75% of employees in the sector are women and that millions of women left employment due to COVID-related child care and school routine disruptions. Nonprofits also are struggling to address the staffing shortage as they compete with for-profit businesses that offer more attractive pay and benefits.

Some organizations are offering generous vacation time and flexible schedules and even are proposing tuition reimbursement in order to improve their odds at finding candidates. Many nonprofits, though, possess something more enticing than even these: the opportunity to create solutions for the problems of our time.

For years the nonprofit sector has discussed the impending exodus of baby boomer generation executives through retirement, along with the leadership and experience gap that would result if we weren't careful. The global coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated this possibility, while also deepening the severity of the issues the sector aims to address: chasms in academic achievements; health inequities; access to technology; hunger; poverty rates; and gender, racial and ethnic inequalities, all of which exist within the United States and are more pronounced on a global scale.

We are no longer simply inviting new staff, board members and philanthropists to join the playing field, because the field has undergone seismic changes. We cannot assume that the same approaches will remain as effective in this new paradigm of awareness and experience.

In addition to traditional pay and benefits, nonprofits are wise to highlight what should be the core, messy work of any organization seeking to have a social benefit, which is, before anything, defining the problems that keep us awake at night. It sounds straightforward, especially if you are pressed to prepare talking points for a one-hour meeting with a prospective donor or are working toward a grant deadline the following day at noon, but it is in fact the most difficult step. And I believe it's the work that people would relish being part of.

Precious little about our society incentivizes a nuanced approach to designing solutions, because we lack the collective patience to develop consensus around what the problems even are. This is the exciting work that can draw the great, creative minds we need — as long as it is actually valued and not sabotaged by shortchanging the process. No one wants to be a cog in a wheel, and the nonprofit sector risks treating people as cogs as much as any for-profit production line.

A mentor once emphasized that organizations become what they reward. If nonprofits reward overextending and operating in crisis mode, which has been necessary but unsustainable, then they will retain staff who do so until they are burned out. As we move into a distinct era, lessons of a global pandemic still mounting, nonprofits must reward other ways of working and their supporters must stop expecting organizations to function as if every last thing is both urgent and important.

We need to reward people for focusing on the work of understanding problems — we need more research, community engagement, collaboration across issues and ideas from those most affected. We do not need more rewards for solutions that exclude voices necessary for deep understanding, reactive approaches to fundraising or siloed decisionmaking, all of which have been adaptive strategies for survival in the sector, but which work counter to the complex and complicated work of defining problems.

Organizational structures are evolving away from strictly pyramid, top-down hierarchies. There is more recognition of differing lived experiences and how that informs people as leaders, followers, donors, clients, or all of the above. It is not sufficient to assume that people come to an organization with the same set of expectations, motivations or even tolerance for problematic systems rooted in outdated and unspoken values.
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It's true that most people want to earn a living, save for the future, maybe buy a home, take a staycation or visit a new place, all while being mentored and respected as a peer colleague. I wonder if they would also like to be invited into more big conversations that have the potential to redefine and transform the community rather than sustain the status quo. It's a risky proposition, I suppose, but messy work always is.

Kristi Rendahl is an associate professor and director of the Nonprofit Leadership Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato.