Organizational and Service Demands on Non-Profits Are Growing
This article from the NonProfitTimes outline a recent survey how non-profits are struggling to meet current service and organizational demands in this pandemic-related world.
One of the aspect of the post-pandemic world I am going to be looking at is what will the nonprofit landscape look like after it is all said and done (fully realizing that it may never completely be said and done). There was always a strong possibility that many smaller and weaker nonprofits may end up shuttering their operations due to lack of volunteers, burned out staff and declining financial resources. The above article bears that out.
The big question remains, does a retracting number of nonprofits in a community mean that there are problems? Not necessarily. There are always opportunities for nonprofits to work on joint efforts or to merge completely. A smaller, but more targeted and better-managed field of nonprofits may actually be a net benefit to a community.
The World of Non-Profit Work
It’s not often that someone discusses their work relationship with the nonprofit world, let alone have that show up as an opinion piece. This piece was in the South Seattle Emerald that walks through a probably not untypical non-profit workplace.
There is no doubt that the work nonprofit organizations do is hard; it’s really difficult to meet outsized visions and missions with undersized budget and resources. But I am wondering if there is another part of this story; sometimes a part of the story that is left out.
For many folks that are employed in nonprofits, this could very well be their first job as a member of the “managerial class”. Jobs that put us behind a computer and in a cubicle; it’s more than just the constant demands of service that an accommodation or retail job puts on employees.
Some people that I have hired have claimed the job at the non-profit I run is their “first grown up job”. And with that, there are a whole list of often unwritten and unspoken rules that go with the job. For example, in this story, the young lady and a few of her co-workers thought it would be a good idea to encourage supporters to “hold leadership accountable”. Yeah, that’s really not a good strategy for a whole host of reasons.
I read the article wondering is this is a conviction of the non-profit sector as a whole or this just one of the tendencies in this sector when we often hire younger people that may not have long work experiences in these environments?
Non-Profit Hiring Slowing Down
This piece from the NonProfitTimes discussed how nonprofit hiring slowed down in September, the first monthly loss in 2021. This was just the third monthly drop since January 2020 and it’s hard to tell that if this is a permanent trend or just a blip. The sectors that saw the biggest drop were education and healthcare. It’s also unclear if the drops were voluntary or involuntary. On the same note, September saw more people quit their jobs than any other month in recent history.
The Value of Philanthropy
I found this blog post from across the pond very interesting. Philanthropy (like most nearly everything else) has become needlessly politicized. At it’s core, philanthropy is the expression of someone’s wishes and wills to meet society’s big problems. And in a democratic society, we are all free to determine what problems we want to help solve and we are all free to associate with others that want to help solve those problems we see. Demonizing philanthropists for the causes they give to and the efforts they support does nothing but allow people to question the entire philanthropic community. Philanthropy is a bedrock of a functioning democratic society, just like freedom of the press or the right to vote. Let’s do our best to keep it that way.
An Excerpt from our “Tips, Tools and Tricks”
The Pinnacle Solutions, “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter comes out every Tuesday and is available for a paid subscription for as little as $7/month. Here is an excerpt from our last version:
The cash reserve ratio is one of those figures that is a snap shot in time and best viewed by looking at this figure with trends. If this figure is moving in a larger number as you get closer to the end of the year, you are on the right track; if you see this number consistently going down as you move through the fiscal year, this is a good sign that something is amiss.
If you are searching for good information that will help you manage and lead a non-profit agency, please subscribe to the “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter! And of course, as a huge “thank you”, all of our paid subscribers will get a special gift.
What do you want to know?
One of the things I would like to add in these weekly emails is to take some time to answer YOUR questions about the non-profit world; fundraising, leadership, tools, whatever is on your mind, let me know. I’d love to dig into it! Send me an email to: pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com!
Other Ways to Connect
Did you can also be a paid subscriber to Pinnacle Strategies content on substack? Why would you want to? Through the paid newsletter, each week you will be given a tangible tool or deliverable that YOU can use to help you understand and serve your non-profit better. The first tool is about Giving Ladders. Huh? Well, become a paid subscriber for $7/month and you can learn more!
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