Nonprofits Can’t Find Workers Despite Flex Jobs and Pay Boosts, Report Says

Most nonprofits already know this, and painfully so, but a new report confirms it: More than three years after the pandemic’s beginning, the hiring crisis for charities continues.

A new survey of more than 1,600 organizations finds that groups have boosted pay and introduced remote work, but many still struggle to fully staff operations and programs.

Inside the Labor Shortage

1. Executive Turnover

   Large Numbers of Nonprofit Leaders Are Stepping Down — and the Competition to Find New Ones Is ‘Fierce’

2. The Changing Nonprofit Workplace

   The Nonprofit Hiring Crisis

3. Best-Read of 2023

   The Post-Covid Nonprofit: Burnout, Chaos, and the Search for Staff and New Revenue

The report is from the National Council of Nonprofits. Key findings include:

• More than half of nonprofits surveyed reported more job vacancies now than they had before the pandemic. The bulk of unfilled jobs are positions that frequently interact with the public, often in program and service-delivery roles.


  
• Nearly three-quarters said they faced salary competition that made hiring difficult. Half said stress and burnout also were contributing to the short supply of workers.
  
• Almost two-thirds of groups said they have raised salaries; nearly 58 percent report they have introduced remote work.

Labor shortages are hurting nonprofit effectiveness, the report said.

More than 28 percent of groups reported longer wait lists for their services than before the pandemic. A mental health-care provider in Oregon reported a four- to five-week wait time after a patient’s initial assessment — a period when someone addicted to drugs, for instance, might relapse, overdose, or get arrested. An education nonprofit in Connecticut said the labor shortage forced it to close middle-school and sports programs, leaving students without key summer or after-school activities.

Staffing has been one of the nonprofit field’s most urgent issues, along with inflation, coming out of the pandemic. With national unemployment rates below 4 percent for more than a year, groups are short of fundraisers and other staff, even top executives. Some experts say that when nonprofits can’t hire for a position, they spread the work among others, increasing the risk of burnout. Organizations are working particularly hard to attract and retain young workers.