How Remote and Hybrid Work Can Give Nonprofits a Recruitment Advantage

The nonprofit sector may have a competitive advantage when recruiting new staff, especially fundraisers, and that same advantage can have long-term benefits for fundraising success.

Two-thirds of nonprofits report difficulty in hiring new staff, including fundraisers, according to the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Salary, benefits and working conditions remain important, but a different employment benefit can work in the nonprofit sector’s favor: the popularity of remote and hybrid working arrangements. Several recent data reports explain why.

The Harvard Business Review reported women employees are most likely to quit when remote or hybrid work is not an option — especially women between ages 18 to 45. That’s highly relevant for the fundraising profession that is 75% female, according to the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Therefore, nonprofits searching for new staff members can gain an advantage by emphasizing the availability of remote and hybrid work policies whenever possible. As more corporate employers require staff to return to the office full-time, some of these workers may be willing to shift their career paths and enter the fundraising profession to pursue their philanthropic passions while maintaining remote or hybrid work.

Fundraising had embraced remote and hybrid long before those terms became common during and after the pandemic. Fundraisers already spend much of their time outside the office meeting with donors and community partners. That flexibility has become a distinct hiring advantage.

Research shows emphasizing worksite flexibility does not harm fundraising outcomes. A study by Karen Aarestad, Elizabeth Dollhopf-Brown and Erica Dollhopf, published by consulting firm BWF, found that while more in-office days can increase the number of times a fundraiser contacts donors, they also decrease the number of gift requests and closed gifts.

Importantly, the study also found that fundraisers with fewer required in-office days are more likely to stay in their jobs longer term — and that longevity increases overall fundraising performance. Remote and hybrid work bolster fundraiser retention. Retention, in turn, strengthens donor relationships and leads to sustained fundraising success.

Accountability remains paramount, and fundraising provides simple metrics: Either fundraisers in remote or hybrid work environments are raising money —  or they’re not. They either meet their goals and contribute insights to future plans — or they don’t. Once again, in the grand scheme of the labor market, this is another advantage for the fundraising profession.

A synthesis of recent studies is compelling. Emphasizing the remote and hybrid nature of fund development can give the nonprofit sector a competitive advantage when recruiting new fundraisers, especially since those most interested in remote and hybrid work — women — make up most of the fundraising profession (which does not mean men will not be interested as well).

The allure of workplace flexibility might also attract those from other fields — professionals who can be trained on the particular techniques of ethical and effective fundraising. Meanwhile, both recent research and decades of effective practice confirm that fundraising flourishes in a remote and hybrid work environment.

The philanthropic sector does not have many advantages in the war for talent, but remote and hybrid work arrangements just might be a unique benefit for helping nonprofits retain talented fundraisers and attract new ones to the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.