The past five years have been an extraordinary period of change for nonprofits. They’ve pivoted to address overwhelming and often new demands during the pandemic, adapted to calls for greater racial equity, struggled through inflation and staffing shortages, and now some face budgetary shortfalls. A new survey provides insight into the factors that impede or aid effective change within nonprofits.
The survey found that effective leadership was crucial to advancing change within an organization, and poor leadership could hinder necessary change. It also pointed to inadequate staffing and employee burnout as well as budget constraints and poor communication as impediments to change. The survey of 615 nonprofit employees — leaders, supervisors, and staff members working for social services, K-12 and higher education, and faith-based organizations — was conducted by Dickerson, Bakker & Associates, a firm that provides consulting and recruiting services to nonprofits, in conjuction with an outside research firm.
“You’ve got this strong desire for change. You’ve got this need for change. You have all of this external change being imposed on people in the nonprofit sector, while at the same time they’re being incredibly constrained with resources and it’s causing burnout, exhaustion, turnover,” says Derric Bakker, CEO. “It’s this perfect storm of a problem.”
One of the most important findings from the survey is that nonprofits need to take care of their employees, Bakker says. Nearly three quarters of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that staff exhaustion was an impediment to creating change in their organizations. Staff turnover also ranked high. More than 70 percent of respondents listed limited staffing and budget constraints as impediments to change initiatives. When asked how they would choose to allocate resources if given the chance, half of respondents said they would hire more staff.
Staffing has been among the top concerns year after year, Bakker says.
“A nonprofit’s most valuable asset is people,” Bakker says. “There’s a lot that you can do that doesn’t necessarily cost a lot of money just to make sure your people are well cared for, that your people have the resources that they need, that they’re not being overworked.”
‘Stretched Incredibly Thin’
Support from leadership was the top factor that allowed nonprofits to effectively embrace change, according to survey respondents. That was closely followed by open communication and a clear vision for change — factors that also relate to leadership.
Slightly more than half of respondents said a lack of leadership was not an obstacle to change — but 41 percent said it was.
The last several years have been hard for leaders, too, says Lara Jakubowski, managing partner at La Piana Consulting.
“This is a time of incredible challenges for leaders. We’re seeing that in the racial equity changes, the changes in fundraising, just the general demands on people’s time, the pressures from boards,” she says. “When you think about the changes that the organization needs to make, you’ve got leaders really stretched incredibly thin. It’s not surprising that shows up in the survey results as one of the challenges.”
Discipline to Plan Ahead
With so many big changes over the past five years, nonprofits have been forced to react over and over again to seismic shifts imposed on them from the outside. Now they would benefit from being more strategic about when and how they change, Bakker argues.
But emergencies like the pandemic that force change can help to ensure that changes are adopted, says Shana Carroll, co-director of the Leadership Development and Communications Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “When you’re reacting, there’s urgency to change. There’s no alternative. You actually have no choice,” she says. “That can help accelerate change.”
Still, she says, leaders have to be disciplined about strategic planning and work with their boards to make sure they are on the right path for the next year, 18 months, and even five years to come. Leaders should be recruiting people to their boards who are good strategic thinkers, and leaders should encourage those conversations with board members, Carroll says.
Of course, managing change takes resources. Bakker says that grant makers need to be more flexible about how nonprofits use their funds and not always restrict grants to programs. Organizations need to invest in technology, people, and recruiting. Funders can help groups expand their internal systems, staffing, and ability to raise money.
Some are doing just that, Jakubowski says. She says the Ford Foundation is helping new nonprofit leaders work more effectively.
“I think funders are looking to help those folks run their organizations very successfully,” she says. “I do think there are a lot of funders wanting to support change management, wanting to support a new generation of leaders, wanting to support folks who will embody and promote the kind of changes that the funders want to see in organizations.”
