Some nonprofit boards, executives and other leaders continue to employ out-of-date or disproven assumptions about the nonprofit workforce. These implicit assumptions, while often accepted widely, impair the ability of nonprofit organizations to invest in their own people, and endanger the mission and programmatic work of the organization. In order to secure and deploy resources for staff development, you may need to engage in dialogue with your colleagues to surface these myths and help them recognize the usefulness of alternative frameworks.<\/p>\n
This tool is meant to help you turn these obstacles into opportunities. Based on what we\u2019ve heard in the field, we\u2019ve summarized five myths. With each, we offer a brief counter narrative and resources to help your organization learn more and shift its thinking.<\/p>\n
In order to begin a dialogue at your nonprofit, you may wish to use Talking Talent for Nonprofits<\/strong><\/a>, which can help you start an internal conversation about how your colleagues perceive the value of investing in staff members and the entire team.<\/p>\n To further that conversation, you may find it useful to distribute the following pages, copy and paste the text into your internal writing, or suggest some of the readings or resources provided in the Learn More<\/strong><\/a> section.<\/p>\n If your organization prioritizes staff development, your will be able to find or raise money for staff development.<\/p>\n Nonprofit budgets are moral documents — they are testimonials of the values and priorities of an organization and its leaders. If boards value their staff members, they can demonstrate it in their fundraising and spending plans.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a matter of how much, but how money is deployed. Nonprofit income tends to be cobbled together from heavily restricted resources. This often leaves little margin for staff investments. In this context, it is up to nonprofit boards and executives to prioritize, plan, budget, and fundraise for staff development expenses, and ensure that restricted resources include funds restricted for the purpose of staff development. It is up to nonprofits to ensure that funders do not define staff development out of the budget. Moreover, it is up to nonprofit leaders to invest unrestricted resources in their team.<\/p>\n Nonprofit people are nonprofit programs. So investing in staff (including administrative and managerial staff) is an investment in program. When organizations disinvest from staff and plow funds into program, they actually risk weakening their programs. Underinvestment in the team creates fertile ground for staff burnout, which damages performance and is costly in both financial and human terms.<\/p>\n The actual direct cost of programs tend to be relatively small in comparison to personnel expenses. Spending the majority of a budget on compensation (which may still be below market), without spending resources on the development of employees, is like putting all your assets into purchasing a house and never painting it, fixing the roof, etc.<\/p>\n When it comes down to it, nonprofits can invest in their people without directing significant financial resources. It is a matter of the time, thought and energy managers take to provide feedback, professional development planning and implementation, stretch assignments, cross-functional learning opportunities, and external networking and learning opportunities. All of this can be done with existing dollars.<\/p>\n Many nonprofit boards and staff teams have simply never made the time to proactively discuss the state of staff development, and the needs or desires they have about how an investment should be made in their team.<\/p>\n With this attitude your staff is more likely to burn out, programs won\u2019t be as good as possible, and your organization won\u2019t be able to achieve its mission.<\/p>\n This type of organizational culture in nonprofits leads to feelings of being overwhelmed, staff burnout, dissatisfaction, and high turnover. Nonprofit professionals are unable to effectively deliver the programs and services that their communities need. The myth becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that ends up harming nonprofits, their causes, and broader movements. Taking the time to invest in nonprofit people is one of the most valuable investments that can be made to help nonprofits to fully deliver on their missions.<\/p>\n To address this myth we invite you to use several resources outlined below.<\/p>\n Asking for funding to fill the gaps in capacity can feel tanta- mount to saying you\u2019re not good enough to do your jobs or to manage the grants you have received. Many nonprofit leaders work in the sector because they have a desire to serve others. Asking for funding to help your sta \u2014and yourself\u2014grow and develop can feel selfish, even though it is essential.<\/p>\n If your organization does its planning and uses \u201cstrategic vulnerability\u201d, you can be successful at securing talent investments from funders who care about your work. Talent investments can result in increased levels of organizational e ectiveness and performance. Therefore, it is critical for nonprofits to seek funding to develop sta .<\/p>\n Internalized Oppression > Exploitation<\/strong><\/p>\n To address this myth we invite you to use several resources outlined below.<\/p>\n Nonprofit fundraisers believe that most funders see investing in programs, not people, as the priority. Many say they are discouraged from even asking for a conversation on the topic. Grantmaking guidelines, requests for proposal, and grant budget templates tend to minimize talent development in favor of underwriting products, programs, and results.<\/p>\n To address this myth we invite you to use several resources outlined below.<\/p>\n While investing in your team doesn\u2019t guarantee they will stay indefinitely, when you prioritize their growth and development you help to increase their job satisfaction. This supports them staying with the organization and doing their best work.<\/p>\n Fund the People believes that in the nonprofit sector, staff naturally come and go. However, this should not stop nonprofits from investing in professional development for their staff. The more an organization is able to support its team members, the more it is able to recruit and retain excellence, build high performance, move under-performers out, and enable former staff to lead in other institutions. The key is for nonprofits that invest in their staff\u2019s professional development to develop strategies and practices to institutionalize the knowledge these staff members have gained. This will allow for the wisdom of transitioning staff to remain with the nonprofit.<\/p>\n As the Pierce Family Foundation states in their field story<\/a> \u201cwhen talented individuals move from one organization to another, they are further benefiting the sector overall because they are sharing and applying the skills and knowledge they\u2019ve learned more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n The following resources provide helpful information to combat this myth.<\/p>\n Introduction Some nonprofit boards, executives and other leaders continue to employ out-of-date or disproven assumptions about the nonprofit workforce. These implicit assumptions, while often accepted widely, impair the ability of nonprofit organizations to invest in their own people, and endanger the mission and programmatic work of the organization. In order to secure and deploy resources … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":291,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-none.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P8xk77-f","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"amp_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions\/1842"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundthepeople.org\/toolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Myth: \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough money to invest in our staff.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Reality: It is a matter of priorities and intention. Dollars will flow from there.<\/h4>\n
Learn More:<\/h4>\n
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2. Myth: \u201cWe don\u2019t have the time to invest in our staff. We\u2019re too busy trying to survive. The day-to-day work comes first.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Reality: You are prioritizing immediate needs such as paying for programs or maintaining cash flow over longer-term, less tangible investments in staff.<\/h4>\n
Learn More:<\/h4>\n
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3. Myth: \u201cIf we talk about our talent development needs, we will look weak and selfish.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Reality: Talent development is a scary topic to discuss openly with your board members and funders.<\/h4>\n
Learn More:<\/h4>\n
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4. Myth: \u201cWe cannot ask. Our staff development needs are not something funders want to talk about. They think of it as overhead.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Reality: Funders who support your work may invest in your talent if you show that it is a priority for your organization, and make a compelling case.<\/h4>\n
Learn More:<\/h4>\n
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5. Myth: \u201cIf we invest in our staff, they\u2019ll gain skills and then leave or be poached by another organization.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Reality: When there is limited room for advancement or growth, your staff begins to feel stymied and pursues other opportunities.<\/h4>\n
Learn more:<\/h4>\n
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