Nonprofits want to retain young employees. Young employees want to advance in their careers. But few charities have the resources to send many staff members to training courses or to run the kind of full-fledged leadership-development programs that corporations have.
Leadership training need not bust the budget, though. Consultants at Bridgespan and CompassPoint recommend that nonprofits offer low-cost on-the-job training and mentoring. Indeed, there are many ways nonprofits can incorporate professional development into their daily operations.
And it’s vital that they do so: Training and professional development were the benefits most requested by people applying for nonprofit jobs, according to a PNP Staffing Group report that surveyed organizations in New York and Washington.
1. Get ideas from the strategic plan. The goals for growth that nonprofits outline in their strategic plans can be a good starting point for considering what kinds of leadership and professional training to offer employees, says Marc Pitman, whose consulting firm produces the Nonprofit Sector Leadership Report. A strategic plan can prompt such questions as: What programs will require new leaders in the future? What skills will those leaders need?
2. Create cross-generational teams. Pairing senior and junior employees on projects can transfer knowledge organically. For example, the Meyer Memorial Trust recently started using teams of people with different levels of experience to make grant-making decisions instead of having just one program officer making the decision. Every grant area now has a team consisting of a director, program officers, and a program associate who all contribute to the work.
Working in teams provides a “pipeline” for professional development to staff members who “might aspire to a role to which previously they didn’t have an entry point,” says Candy Solovjovs, director of programs for the trust.
3. Take advantage of board members’ skills. Individuals are often invited to serve on nonprofit boards because of their professional skills. Mr. Pitman recommends inviting board members to give employees training sessions in their areas of strength.
“It could be a great way to engage board members with your staff,” he says.
4. Give “stretch” assignments. Giving junior employees assignments that stretch their limits helps them grow and enables managers to identify which employees are likely to succeed with more responsibility. For example, at Women in Distress, a domestic-violence nonprofit in Florida, managers put a fundraiser with high potential in charge of the capital campaign instead of hiring outside consultants to do that job.
5. Encourage job shadowing. Assigning a junior staff member to follow, observe, and assist a more senior employee can prepare the former to assume a leadership position and prepare the nonprofit in case the latter leaves the organization. For example, the executive director of Living Room, a nonprofit in Georgia that helps people living with HIV/AIDS find housing, had been training another employee in the details of his job when he unexpectedly died. When the trainee assumed the top job, the transition was smooth, said Audrey Krumbach, the charity’s director of donor relations.
6. Hold professional-development workshops. Taking time out of the workday to teach new skills to employees can be beneficial for both them and the organization, Mr. Pitman says. It can be doubly valuable from a leadership-training perspective if employees run these sessions. That’s what happens at the Cara Program, a job-training nonprofit in Chicago, where, once per quarter, staff members plan professional-development days.
How do you train employees in-house for leadership positions? Tell us at Resources@philanthropy.com.
