Six Organizations Fighting to Improve Nonprofit Pay and Working Conditions
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Since we published our first in-depth overview of nonprofit worker burnout and the role that funders can play in either perpetuating or putting a stop to underpaid, overworked nonprofit jobs, we’ve become aware of a number of organizations and efforts in the relatively new field of nonprofit worker advocacy.
We’re not talking about unions here, though nonprofit unionization is definitely on the rise. In addition to organized labor, there are now several efforts underway to convince funders of the fact that supporting workers’ economic needs is essential if we’re going to have a thriving, competitive nonprofit sector.
Of course, it’s easy to place all the blame for underpayment of nonprofit workers at the philanthrosphere’s feet. Part of it is also cultural, or otherwise baked into the ethos of the nonprofit world. Organizations are often hesitant to advocate for their full funding needs — to that end, as a rule, organizations working in this field also assist and encourage nonprofits to undertake such advocacy. In addition to these efforts, the National Council of Nonprofits is conducting a new survey specifically to update its earlier work on the state of the nonprofit sector workforce. The survey’s results will no doubt provide key information to nonprofit worker advocates, nonprofits and funders alike.
Inside Philanthropy has covered some of these groups, and hasn’t yet covered others. But all of them have something valuable to offer foundations and other funders that are at least open to information about financially supporting nonprofit workers, and all of them provide information that nonprofits can bring to the table when discussing their staff’s needs with funders.
The National Council of Nonprofits
Our September 2022 coverage of the nonprofit worker burnout crisis relied heavily on the results of the council’s 2021 nonprofit workforce survey, which found that of the nonprofits it surveyed, 76%, had vacancy rates of 10% or more; 55% reported vacancy rates of 20% or more, and 16% reported that more than 30% of their positions were going unfilled, with low pay among nonprofit jobs being key a contributing factor to the shortfall.
As of this writing, the council is in the process of conducting a new survey to update their original research. The deadline is May 1. If you’re employed by a nonprofit in a position related to hiring or employee retention, we suggest taking a few moments to fill it out.
All Due Respect, a fiscally sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, aims for nothing less than setting new labor standards for community organizers, including fair wages and benefits. While they are focused on a small group within the overall nonprofit workforce, their arguments easily apply to the sector as a whole. In March, we covered ADR’s Sustainable Jobs Toolkit, created in partnership with Staffing the Mission, and offering sections for both funders and nonprofits.
Fund the People, which launched in 2014, is practically a one-stop shop for anyone interested in the issues of funding and the nonprofit workforce. Fund the People has its own workforce funding toolkit with sections for both nonprofits and funders — and offers a blog, a podcast, consulting and reams of data to allow people to access the message in pretty much any media they prefer. We profiled Fund the People in November 2022.
Launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City’s #JustPay Campaign, a program of the city’s Human Services Council, was formed in response the local version of a nationwide problem: the fact that government, the largest funder of many sectors in the nonprofit universe, is also perhaps the biggest contributor to the nonprofit starvation cycle and the stagnation of nonprofit wages.
#JustPay has won some concessions in the past three years, and more recently has taken its fight to the state capitol. This campaign’s scope and target may lie outside of the usual purview of Inside Philanthropy’s reporting, but it still offers two important lessons. One is that nonprofits do have options in the face of government underfunding. The other is a potential call for funders — who, with their wealth, have no small influence on local, state and national governments — to help persuade the public sector to rethink its approaches to nonprofit funding.
Staffing the Mission is a project of Class Action, an organization founded in 2004 dedicated to ending classism and extreme inequality through a broad range of programs, including organizational trainings and workshops, webinars and original research. Staffing the Mission serves both funders and nonprofits, and partnered with All Due Respect on the Sustainable Jobs Toolkit.
The Wellbeing Project’s Funders & Wellbeing Group (FWG)
While the Funders & Wellbeing Group’s website makes no mention of the kind of bread and butter needs that are fundamental to truly being well, we’re encouraged by its mission “to explore the link between inner wellbeing and sustainable social change, to experiment with ways to put it into practice, and contribute to a culture shift in the philanthropic ecosystem.” We’ll be even more encouraged if their efforts result in funders moving their money for workers’ economic wellbeing. We covered FWG in January.
These six organizations’ efforts represent only a sliver of the vast sphere of activities being pursued by nonprofits and funders alike. But their message far outweighs their size in its importance. In a country that increasingly relies on nonprofits (and nonprofit workers) for everything from advocacy to essential services, we may well find out the hard way just how essential those workers are if funders don’t pay heed and act on it.
