Staffing & Human Resources

The freshly cut grass glistens in the morning sun, a light coating of dew is on your cleats as you trudge from the dugout to the plate — it’s the top of the first, and you’re ready to hit a home run for your nonprofit. The talent journey begins.

When I stepped into the leadership role at Chicago Scholars more than a year ago, I began searching for other nonprofit leaders of color so we could share and learn from our common experiences in navigating the nonprofit landscape. I knew I’d have to look far and wide for these peers, as it’s common knowledge in our world that diversity is lagging at the highest levels.

The Great Resignation has hit the C-suite — maybe yours. This phenomenon had been slowly percolating for years. Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z put “happy” at the top of their priority lists even before the pandemic. And, let’s be frank, we made fun of them.

I know what you're thinking: "My team isn't broken. Thank you very much." You may be surprised to hear that it doesn't matter if your team is functioning well or not; everybody could benefit from a bit of team building.

Nonprofit executive directors need to know what can make their organizations thrive. Think about what personal skills you need to improve, especially if you are interested in enhancing your job performance or if you aspire to the position of executive director.

The difference in time spent in the office leads to concerns ranging from decreased career mobility for those who spend less facetime with their supervisor to resentment building up against the staff who have the most flexibility in where to work. So why haven’t nonprofit leaders addressed proximity bias earlier?

If you’re a frontline fundraiser who wants to resign or has already quit, your nonprofit organization does not care about you. If it did, you either wouldn’t be thinking of leaving right now, or it would have retained you instead of losing you to greener pastures. Unfortunately, those greener pastures are an illusion. Because, on average, you are leaving for another position every 15 to 18 months in search of an even greener, more lush pasture.

If you work in the fundraising profession, over time, you will find this job gratifying and energizing. You will also find your job tiring, demanding and frustrating. During my career in the fundraising profession, I experienced a sustained high and periods of lows when I thought seriously about quitting my job.

While some major donors are helping to boost overall giving in terms of dollars, the number of donors is shrinking. There are some nonprofit leaders who take shortcuts. Some shortcuts include not building capacity — the fuel to fund their mission and the people to whom they serve.

For several decades, I worked in the charitable sector. In fact, at one point, just out of undergraduate school, I received offers to go into either government, business or the nonprofit sector. I chose the nonprofit sector as I wanted to give back to help others.