Join the Talent Justice Pledge

More than ever, we need to protect and invest in the equity, effectiveness, and endurance of the nonprofit workforce. 

Together, we can overcome the growing nonprofit workforce crisis and build just, equitable organizations in which nonprofit people get the support, stability, and well-being they need to serve their missions and communities.

The Pledge Commitment

Pledge Signers Commit to These 5 Practices:

Listen, learn, and seek to understand the specific challenges facing the nonprofit workforce in my/our organization (nonprofits), grantee organizations (funders), and/or constituents (intermediaries).

This will allow me/us to be aware, and responsive to, the need for and value of investing in the nonprofit workforce. This includes bringing a clear-eyed, intersectional racial equity lens to all my/our talent-investing efforts, to ensure that nonprofit work is accessible and sustainable for people across lines of race, gender, ethnicity, class, age/generation, ability, and other diverse dimensions of the workforce.

Educate fellow staff and board members about why it’s essential to invest in the nonprofit workforce.

This may begin with sharing what you have learned through Fund the People's resources, including lessons from current reform efforts. It should include a real assessment of what we've learned about the needs within our organization (nonprofits), grantees (funders), and/or constituents (intermediaries). It may also include the circulation and discussion of new research; bringing in speakers; participating in webinars and courses, etc.

Increase talent-investments now where possible. I/we will immediately start efforts to integrate talent-investing and talent justice into my/our leadership, management, and related practices (budgeting, fundraising, grantmaking, governance, etc.). 

This may include free or modestly priced tactics like publicly recognizing the hard work of the staff; creating more internal feedback loops between managers and direct-reports; or providing one-time end-of-year bonuses.

Work toward larger, longer-term investments. This could include planning and organizing for systematic changes.

For nonprofits, this could include efforts such as: adding the goal of becoming a ‘great workplace’ into our strategic plan; adding salary increases into budget projections; or revising board member and job descriptions so that board members are responsible for investing in the CEO who reports to them, and the CEO is responsible for investing in their direct-reports, and so forth. For funders, this could focus on shifting grantmaking policies and priorities to offer funds that pay for the costs of grantees’ staffing and people-systems. For intermediaries, this could include shifting how we talk about staffing issues when we teach DEI, governance, finances, fundraising, grantmaking, etc.

Publicly champion talent-investing and talent justice.

I/we will speak out and organize against practices that directly undermine nonprofit workers’ rights or reinforce inequities in the sector. I/we will use my/our platform to lift up the need for talent-investing and the significant value it can offer nonprofit workers, organizations, and funders.

Read and sign the full pledge as an individual or on behalf of your organization

Virtual Pledge Form
Pledge PDF

Why Sign the Pledge?

As a result of both chronic under-investment in nonprofit workers – and the impact of current social, policy, and economic crises on our sector, the nonprofit workforce has entered an era of existentially dangerous burnout, worker shortages, and retention challenges.

In an increasingly tenuous political climate, we have an opportunity to take a collective stance that nonprofits and their funders can only be effective with a diverse, well-supported, sustainable, and engaged nonprofit workforce.

We invite you to sign this pledge as a public commitment that over the next year you or your organization will intentionally invest in an equitable, effective, and enduring nonprofit workforce. “Investing” in this case does necessarily equate with providing funding and there are many actions that anyone can take within their sphere of influence.

Read more about the issues

FTP's Talent Justice Initiative
Talking About Nonprofit Job Quality

FAQs

Who Can Sign?

Anyone who has a stake in or connection to the nonprofit sector in the United States is encouraged to sign. The pledge may be signed by an individual or on behalf of an organization.

What Is Talent Justice?

Talent justice entails a set of practices and outcomes that utilize investments in nonprofit staff to advance intersectional racial equity across the nonprofit career lifecycle. Talent justice seeks to transform organizational cultures to maximize access, advancement, and ascension in nonprofit careers for people of color, women, young people, and other diverse constituencies that compose America.

To build more equitable organizations that effectively leverage the talents of all nonprofit professionals, funders and nonprofits must be willing to invest in the transformation of sector-wide and organizational systems, cultures, and practices. Part of this work necessitates challenging those who wield power in the sector and the exploitative practices that extract labor from employees in the name of doing more with less resources.

You can learn more about talent justice by exploring Fund the People's Talent Justice Initiative website and these resources:

  • Webinar Series
    Topics include an overview of the initiative, Investing in Equitable Onramps to Nonprofit Careers, Investing in Equitable Strategies for Nonprofit Advancement, and Investing in Equitable Ascension into Nonprofit Leadership.
  • Talent Justice Toolkit
    The resources in the Talent Justice Toolkit can be used by nonprofits and funders to increase their investments in talent justice at all stages of the nonprofit career lifecycle.
  • Fund the People Podcast California Talent Justice Initiative Playlist
    Episodes cover California and national topics, including: When Staff Thrive, Communities Thrive: A Nonprofit Wage Revolution (with Nneka Payne, Executive Director of Choose 180), Nonprofit Staff Resilience and Wellbeing in Turbulent Times (with Loretta Turner, Do Good Leadership Collective), A Model for Systematically Improving Nonprofit Workplaces (with Arum Lee Lansel,  ALL-in 4 Impact)

What Is the History of the Talent Justice Pledge?

In 2024, Fund the People began holding convenings in California with nonprofits, funders, intermediaries and other nonprofit stakeholders to spark investment in the state’s nonprofit workforce. A series of regional discussions culminated in the Talent Justice Summit in December, where attendees met for multiple days to 1) Gain perspective on the problem; 2) Consider ‘solutions’ based on cutting-edge ideas and efforts in the field; and 3) Develop concrete action plans to test-out ideas and integrate ‘solutions’ into our work.

The Talent Justice Pledge was first shared at the end of the Summit as a way to wrap-up our time together with a sense of forward motion. It is now open to signers from across the country.

You can learn more about the full California Talent Justice Initiative here.

Where Can I Find More Research on the Nonprofit Workforce?

Here is research we've gathered from across the field to inform the talent justice conversation and show the need for investment in the nonprofit workforce:


How Can I Learn More?

If you are interested in learning more, please email info@fundthepeople.org

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