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Mar 17

HR Focus Group Findings – Key Challenges and Opportunities for 2025

By Feature

Chelsea Ohlemiller, Charitable Advisors

Recruiting and retaining top talent in the nonprofit sector has always presented unique challenges, but as we move into 2025, organizations are facing an increasingly competitive and ever-changing hiring landscape. Nonprofit leaders recently gathered in HR focus groups, led by Charitable Advisors, to discuss the latest trends in attracting and retaining employees, shedding light on evolving candidate expectations, salary dynamics, and the impact of AI in hiring.

Here are the key takeaways from these collaborative recruitment and retention sessions:

The Biggest Challenges in Nonprofit Hiring

One of the most significant challenges for nonprofit organizations, particularly smaller ones, is salary competitiveness. Traditionally, mission-driven work and flexible benefits made up for lower pay, but today’s candidates expect higher salaries more comparable to those in the private sector. This shift puts pressure on nonprofits, especially those that struggle to offer competitive compensation and benefits.

Another hurdle is job titles that don’t translate well outside the nonprofit space. Potential candidates may overlook roles due to unfamiliar language, leading to missed opportunities for both the organization and job seekers.

Retention remains a concern in 2025, as competition for skilled professionals intensifies. Employees who once accepted lower salaries for meaningful work now seek higher pay and advancement opportunities, making it crucial for nonprofits to offer career growth pathways.

What Candidates Want in 2025

Candidate expectations have evolved significantly over the past year. While remote work remains a major draw for job seekers, many nonprofit positions, particularly frontline and program-based roles, require in-person engagement. The inability to offer remote flexibility has made recruitment more difficult, especially for these essential positions.

Encouragingly, many employees are showing interest in internal promotions and taking on more responsibility, signaling a desire for long-term growth within their organizations. This is hopeful insight, as leadership skills are in high demand. Especially considering, organizations desire candidates who can not only fulfill their job responsibilities but also build and lead teams effectively.

Salary Expectations and Transparency

Many nonprofits are becoming more transparent about salaries early in the hiring process, helping to align candidate expectations from the outset. Organizations have turned to salary and benefits surveys to restructure pay scales and explore creative compensation strategies, such as additional paid time off and unique benefit offerings. We also heard that some nonprofits have stopped posting compensation or only post a minimum salary because applicants seem confused or unable to understand that a salary range is generally based on level of experience.

Health insurance remains a major concern for job seekers entering the nonprofit sector. Some organizations are addressing this by offering innovative benefit options, but the challenge persists, particularly for smaller nonprofits with limited resources.

Turnover and Hard-to-Fill Positions

Turnover remains high in program staff roles, which often require on-site work with little flexibility, often leading to burnout and job dissatisfaction. Other positions, such as grant writers, therapists, development professionals, and financial roles, are also becoming increasingly difficult to fill.

Grant writing, in particular, has faced a growing challenge leading some organizations to turn to AI-generated proposals. While AI can streamline the grant-writing process, it still requires human oversight. Something to keep an eye on in 2025.

Consistent with last year, therapists, home-based service providers, and instructional roles remain difficult to recruit due to certification requirements and an overall shortage of qualified professionals. Meanwhile, operations positions have seen rising turnover as the field grows and competition increases.

AI’s Role in Nonprofit Hiring

The increasing use of AI by job applicants has brought both opportunities and challenges. While AI-generated resumes and cover letters have become more common, many hiring managers report that these submissions lack personalization and depth. Cover letters created with AI often appear incomplete or fictitious and fail to match the candidate’s actual qualifications to the job.

AI can serve as a helpful starting point in the hiring process, but nonprofit recruiters stress the importance of human oversight to ensure accuracy and authenticity in applications. Many organizations are training HR teams to identify AI-generated applications and ensure that technology is used to support—rather than replace—the hiring process.

Effective Recruitment Strategies

Despite the challenges, some recruitment strategies are proving highly effective:

  • Targeted Job Boards: Using job-specific platforms helps attract the right candidates.
  • Employee Referrals: Offering referral bonuses ($100–$250) encourages staff to recommend strong candidates.
  • Career Fairs and Networking Events: These remain valuable, especially for engaging younger talent.
  • Talent Pools: Proactively building a pipeline of qualified candidates allows nonprofits to fill roles more quickly when positions open.
  • Sign-On Bonuses: When feasible, these incentives make nonprofit roles more attractive.

The Growing Importance of Soft Skills and Cultural Fit

Hiring managers emphasize that soft skills, including communication, adaptability, and passion for the organization’s mission, are becoming just as important as technical qualifications. Many nonprofits are open to candidates with transferable skills who may not check every box on a traditional job listing but align with the organization’s values and goals.

Job-Seeking Advice for Candidates

For job seekers looking to stand out in the nonprofit sector, our nonprofit leaders suggested the following practices can make a difference:

  • Submit a Thoughtful Cover Letter: A personalized, well-crafted cover letter is critical. AI-generated, generic submissions won’t suffice—hiring managers want to see authenticity and a clear connection to the mission.
  • Research the Organization: Candidates should demonstrate knowledge of the nonprofit’s mission and values in their applications, and especially in interviews.
  • Prepare for Interviews: Having insightful questions ready and addressing hiring managers by name shows initiative and professionalism.
  • Follow Up: Sending a thank-you email to the interview panel leaves a lasting impression and reinforces interest in the role.

Interestingly, on Charitable Advisors ED/CEO searches, less than half of candidates submit cover letters, despite our clear request – yet 80% of those interviewed have included a cover letter. So.. either the stronger candidates take the time to write cover letters or resumes alone don’t serve job seekers very well. Among those who received actual job offers, we believe that 100% had submitted a cover letter—highlighting its crucial role in the hiring process.

Looking Ahead: A Call to Action for Nonprofits

As the nonprofit job market evolves, organizations must adapt their recruiting and retention strategies to remain competitive. Salary transparency, leadership development opportunities, and creative compensation structures will be key to attracting and retaining top talent in 2025.

While challenges persist, nonprofits that prioritize strategic hiring, invest in their people, and foster strong workplace cultures will continue to build resilient and impactful teams. By staying attuned to candidate expectations and leveraging effective recruitment tactics, nonprofit leaders can ensure their organizations thrive in the years ahead.

Thank you to the dozens of nonprofit organizations that attended our Nonprofit Recruitment Sessions. Your knowledge, experience and personal data will help support our efforts in the new year.

May 01

In ‘The Room’ where it happens: Setting the space for interpersonal communication

By Sponsor Insight

by Christy Shepard and Jan Frazier of Planning Plus, LLC

Before the recent days of remote and hybrid work models, work was conducted in very static and finite methods and places. The paradigm shifts from employer-driven to employee-driven decision making and work life integration has afforded today’s worker choices and options for work engagement, participation, and lifestyle.

Employers are competing for employees at record levels and remote and hybrid work models are very attractive to multiple generations of people. No longer do we need to be “in the room” where it happens, as we have access to people and information like never before. Technological tools have broken barriers and stigmas, allowing workplaces to build healthy and dynamic organizational cultures that support the goals of the business and people that work in them. But with information and decision making moving through organizations at the speed of light, how do we ensure we are still making “the room” for the necessary thought and decision making to effectively problem solve?

‘The Room Where it Happens’, sung by Hamilton’s Aaron Burr in the popular Broadway musical, expresses many of the downsides workers have faced in the great transition from work from ‘working from home.’ Recently we have been involved in several significant projects involving multiple people where the work was done via emailing, texting, phone calls, Zoom, etc. Rarely were all players “in the room” at the same time. This led to delays in creating consensus solutions and became quite inefficient. Email may be efficient, Zoom is a step above, but where is the “room” for creative thinking, brainstorming, back-and-forth discussions? We may get the work done, but is it the best work we could have done?

Well before the Internet, Zoom, and other technological tools we have today, in 1989 the textbook Organizational Behavior by Robert Kreitner and Angelo Kinicki was published (Richard D. Irwin, Inc.). Based on their research, a Contingency Model for Selecting Communication Media was created by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel. In this model, they compared the appropriate media to use for communication information based on the richness of the medium and the complexity of the problem or situation. Fast forward to 2023 and we recognize that their principles still hold true.

Richness of the medium refers to how a message may be received and the level of interaction that may follow. We know that emails, written reports, and other forms of mechanical communication are generally impersonal, may or may not be read, and may or may not elicit any observable responses. Communication that involves more face-to-face communication, whether in person or via Zoom, allows the speaker to observe nonverbal communication as well as receive immediate feedback.

Over the years, the original model by Daft and Lengel has been updated but its essence has not changed. The figure below illustrates the information richness of different information channels.

Principles of Management – Open Textbook (umn.edu).

As you think about communicating information with your team or throughout your organization, identify how complex the situation is and match it to a more appropriate forum for discussion.

In this post-COVID work world, employees have become quite comfortable working from home, and we have seen articles where in some cases productivity has not been affected. But productivity alone should not be the deciding factor. We continue to encourage our clients to bring folks into the workspace at least weekly, to allow for critical interpersonal communication and decision making to happen when everyone is in the room.

Jul 06

For nonprofits, moving forward requires looking back

By Sponsor Insight

Research reveals top concerns among nonprofits as they work on recovering from pandemic

by Leslie Wells, assistant director of communications, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI

New research on COVID-19’s impact on the nonprofit sector finds that organization leaders who want to find a way forward must first look back at how they have weathered the pandemic thus far. While the past 15 months have been a challenge for every sector, associate professor/researcher Marlene Walk is optimistic about the future of nonprofits.

“It’s very interesting how nonprofits rose to the challenge while still serving those in need,” says Walk, who teaches at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental at IUPUI. “For many smaller nonprofits, this was a survival situation for both their clients and them as well.”

After analyzing data and examining trends, Walk has three pieces of advice for nonprofits as they navigate the return to work and the future of their organizations:

  • Ask employees for their opinions, including about remote work and whether it can/should continue.
  • Determine which organizational practices can be improved upon.
  • Evaluate which new technologies adopted during the pandemic should be institutionalized.

Walk and O’Neill student Abby Klippel recently worked with Mandi Stewart, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, and Kerry Kuenzi, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, to analyze 77 COVID-19 impact reports collected through the National Council of Nonprofits. These reports detail how nonprofits have operated since March 2020. The data analysis covers more than 23,000 nonprofit organizations across 43 states.

The team released its updated report on May 5, 2021, focusing on three areas of impact: financial indicators, human resources and employees, and the most common COVID-19 concerns.

Survey results: Common COVID-19 concerns

Organizations in 13 states answered questions about their most pressing issues. Among them, finances were the most common COVID-19-related worry for organizations in nine of those states.

Nonprofits in eight other states ranked “struggling with how to safely offer services during a global pandemic” as their top concern.

Lastly, nonprofits in six states were primarily worried about their own organization’s human resource considerations, including their employees’ job status, salaries, and overall well-being.

The human toll

That third area is Walk’s primary research focus — the employee side of the equation.

Previous studies from Johns Hopkins University showed the nonprofit sector lost about 13% of its workforce from March 2020 to February 2021.

“That mirrors what we see in our research,” Walk says. “It will take years for that workforce to recover that number of lost workers.”

She says while large organizations will likely be fine, how smaller organizations handled the pandemic will have a big impact on their future.

“We’re really interested in the employee perspective,” Walk explains. “How do they perceive their organization’s changes? If a nonprofit laid off 20% of its workforce, how does that impact those who are still there?”

Their research found that many nonprofit workers saw their hours reduced, their pay cut, and, in some cases, their jobs put on hold or eliminated. Much like in other sectors, many also saw a shift to predominately remote work.

“These organizations need to look at what worked well from an employee perspective, not just a financial perspective,” Walk says. “Our fear is that employees may feel this pandemic was such a critical incident, and that their employer didn’t handle it well, that they will choose to leave.”

Another report Walk is working on, due out later this year, seems to also show the other side of the spectrum.

“Our initial research is showing that some employees have doubled down on their commitment to the nonprofit sector,” she says. “It really depends on how they were personally affected by COVID and how they think their organization handled it. Was their psychological contract, those unwritten expectations of their organization, violated? That has a big impact.”

Financial stressors

When it came to the financial impact of COVID-19, Walk admits the team wasn’t surprised by the findings. Many organizations reported individual donations and membership fees were down. In fact, 90% of responding organizations in Nevada saw individual donations plummet and 68% of nonprofits in Texas saw a decline in earned income.

Grant revenues were down as well. Nearly 35% of respondents in Texas reported a delay in grant processing, which can affect cash flow. About 16% of those in Connecticut saw a reduction in state grant funds.

But one of the hardest hit areas were arts-related nonprofits.

“It’s important to keep in mind that nonprofits are really diverse,” Walk says. “How an organization was impacted really depends on what types of nonprofits we’re looking at. The arts sector was hit very hard because they often have outward-facing events as a main source of revenue. Having concerts virtually is just not the same.”

In fact, 90% of West Virginia’s responding nonprofits reported cancelling events due to pandemic precautions, while the same was true of 25% of nonprofits in Alabama and Georgia. Reports like these indicate that the arts sector is the slowest sector to recover, with studies projecting it will take at least 18 months for it to bounce back.

Walk stresses that it’s important to focus on more than earned income, though. She uses social services as an example of organizations that were hit from both sides.

“Social service organizations had to adjust to drops in volunteers, increases in demand and expenses to provide for clients, and shifts in procedures due to distancing and cleaning requirements,” she explains.

Respondents in Missouri indicated an average expense increase of $302,417 per nonprofit during the study period, while Pennsylvania respondents indicated a total estimated $95.3 million in additional operating costs.

Looking ahead

Between the numbers, Walk sees signs of hope and further proof that the nonprofit sector is resilient and capable of adapting to change.

She points to the increase in collaboration, resource sharing and partnership development during the pandemic that helped nonprofits survive and serve their clients. Some smaller nonprofits even added health care to their employment packages, which would be a positive trend — if it sticks around.

“There will be collateral damage, unfortunately, but I tend to be more positive than negative,” Walk admits. “I think the sector as a whole will recover and continue its mission to serve.”

To read the full article and access the data tables, visit States of COVID-19: Synthesis of State-level Nonprofit Reports on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Jun 21

Developing a successful hybrid-work model

By Sponsor Insight

By Cody Lents, Partner and Change Manager at COVI, Inc.

Empower employees with choice
As vaccinations trend up and restrictions trend down, a significant number of workers are set to return to the office in coming months. Your extroverted employees are undoubtedly excited. However, their introverted counterparts may not share the same enthusiasm. So, how can you maximize morale and culture to enable the best performance out of both groups?: A thoughtfully-designed hybrid Work-from-Home (WFH) model that prioritizes both the needs of your organization’s employees and processes.

Lay the groundwork for success
The first critical step in transitioning into a hybrid WFH model is developing and communicating processes that level the playing field for both in-house and remote workers. Set clear expectations about your organization’s internal communications, cyber insurance, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, etc., to ensure that remote workers don’t feel left behind compared to their in-person colleagues.

While remote work can be an opportunity to cut “traditional” office costs, leverage it as an opportunity to invest in your workforce. Consider using what your organization saves on overhead to provide your employees with a stipend to make working remotely more comfortable. This allows employees to outfit themselves at home with equipment like an ergonomic chair, an extra monitor, noise-canceling headphones, etc.

At the office, consider re-developing your organization’s layout to better accommodate a hybrid approach: dedicated “open-space” plans for those in and out of the office, private offices for focused work, and spaces specifically designed to encourage collaboration/socialization both face-to-face and virtually.

Invest in your infrastructure
The next critical step in transitioning your organization to a hybrid approach is ensuring your infrastructure is capable of handling the needs of employees working in different spaces. Now may be the time to upgrade your organization’s software to the enterprise level so that you can take advantage of security, communication and collaboration features.

Migrating your organization’s servers to the cloud is another way to streamline efficiency for your remote workforce. This makes it easier for your employees to collaborate and share files via a centralized location in which they can upload/save their work to.

Don’t compromise on security
With employees using a mixture of personal and company devices, it’s imperative that your organization communicates a clear security policy to ensure the safety of your data. The following three steps are a great start to a more secure digital infrastructure:

  • Determining what endpoint protection your remote workers need will aid in virus prevention. Windows Defender is a great antivirus software included in Windows 10, however, it does not meet the compliancy and security minimums of today’s security landscape.
  • Implementing two-factor authentication [2FA] is a secure way to ensure that only admins and users are allowed into accounts that would otherwise be vulnerable to cyber attacks.
  • Utilizing a virtual environment that allows devices to connect to a secure server or service, as opposed to a user’s internet connection, allows your organization to keep information encrypted, private, and safe.

Questions?
Now is the perfect time for a comprehensive technology assessment to prepare for the new-normal in our evolved workspaces. If you want to discuss what an assessment entails or if you need assistance implementing a hybrid-work approach for your organization, reach out to COVI at cody@gocovi.com for help. COVI is an Information Technology (IT) agency specializing in productivity, security, support and strategy services, located in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mar 15

Make Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) practices easy and secure

By Sponsor Insight

Save your organization a collective headache with software and hardware that make remote work easier, safer, and more secure.

by Cody Lents, partner and change manager, COVI, Inc.

With nearly 42% of the American workforce continuing to work remotely, you’ve undoubtedly had firsthand experience with an unreliable home connection, or tried connecting with a peer who has had challenges. A normally fine broadband connection can suddenly come to a grinding halt when family members and neighbors all sign on for remote work and school.

The easy solution? Higher speeds and more bandwidth. Unfortunately, that is not always available. The best alternative? A dedicated hotspot.

Establishing a reliable home connection
While mobile hotspots work great in a pinch to provide connectivity when and where you need it, a dedicated hotspot device can offer even more capability — allowing you to tap into organizational resources via a VPN pass-through, and options that enable users to block devices and “whitelist” media access control (MAC) for added security. Additionally, it allows you to make calls and use the data connection on your phone without draining its battery as a hotspot.

The Skyroam Solis (to leverage AT&T and T-Mobile networks) and Verizon JetPack are two great examples of a dedicated device that will ensure your team never experiences a glitchy, lagging Zoom call again.

Securing personal devices for work
An IBM Survey found that 53% of remote workers are on a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, using their personal devices for work. However, about 61% of respondents say their employer provided no tools on how to properly secure those devices. The use of personal devices for work puts your organization’s data at risk of cyber-attack.

Implementing a security infrastructure, such as a VPN or gateway is the best investment your organization can make to ensure the safety and security of your technology:

Virtualized remote services
Solutions like Microsoft’s RDS/Published Apps, Citrix, or AWS’ App Stream, enable organizations to allow their employees remote and secure access to their infrastructure’s resources. By tapping into their physical office PCs, employees have access to all the applications, data and resources they need to do their work — eliminating the need for any other virtual desktops/applications to accommodate teleworking. Virtualized Remote Access can provide aa safe, secure option for all.

Alternatively, Amazon offers two options that facilitate connection to your dedicated digital infrastructure via its IT management subsidiary, Amazon Web Services (AWS):

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), such as the AWS-managed VPN, enable you to create an encrypted connection over the public Internet between a private Amazon cloud and your organization’s infrastructure, allowing for the application of your existing security policies.

VPNs are a convenient connectivity option for smaller organizations just beginning with AWS, though utilizing public internet can present some security concern for those looking to better protect their data. However, such security policies are invasive and can cause issues and confusion if connected to BYOD devices without clearly articulated and accepted company policies.

AWS-Direct Connect bypasses public Internet and establishes a secure connection from your organization’s infrastructure into AWS by connecting an Ethernet cable from your router into another AWS Direct Connect router. This option is great for organizations that are seeking secure, ultra-low latency connectivity. Though the process can be more involved, Direct Connect provides a predictable network performance and 60% cost savings.

Questions?
If you need assistance making remote work smoother for your organization, reach out to COVI at cody@gocovi.com for help. COVI is an Information Technology (IT) agency specializing in productivity, security, support and strategy services, located in Indianapolis, Indiana.