The unpredictability of the talent market and hiring trends can sometimes feel frustrating, overwhelming, and even confusing. The hiring picture looked strong back in 2016, but coming out of COVID in 2022, we saw headlines about a hiring “crisis” in the nonprofit sector, including fundraising.
By late 2024, a growing number of nonprofits were “cutting budgets, laying off staff, and even closing their doors” rather than looking to hire, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. At the same time, the Chronicle was reporting a wave of senior staff departures looking for improved work-life balance, either by consulting or moving to the for-profit sector.
But the for-profit sector is having its own workforce challenges. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have millions of open jobs.” Yet many job seekers in the for-profit sector are having a tough time landing work, according to USA Today and the NY Times. This is partly due to layoffs in the tech, travel, auto, and other sectors, including 6,200 retail store closures in the U.S. in 2024.
So, you get a range of answers about what the “workforce” picture looks like depending on whom you ask. Whether an organization is nonprofit or for-profit, some are hiring while others may be conducting layoffs. Many organizations say they urgently need to fill openings, though many job seekers say they can’t get hired.
The “workforce” that matters most is YOURS. 
In our experience, there’s a workforce out there that’s ready and eager to work—the trick is presenting the role and the organization in a way that’s competitive and will bring in a comprehensive pool of applicants. Even though it’s impossible to know in advance what a given applicant pool will look like, in the vast majority of searches we do, we’re finding a remarkable wealth of fundraising and executive talent to choose from.
So, rather than trying to get a handle on the overall workforce and talent picture, hiring organizations should be asking: What does the workforce picture look like for us? How can we attract an optimal pool of talent for this role, at this organization, at this time?
For candidates, the questions are: What kind of role and organization would be the best fit for my career and life goals? And how can I best present my skills, talents, and accomplishments in a way that fits with this organization’s view of an “ideal” candidate?
Some strategies for finding your right match:
Quality of talent has a great impact on the success of fundraising and therefore the success of a nonprofit organization and its programs. Getting it right is essential to the mission, but running a successful search can be a complex and time-consuming process. So, rather than break down all the tactical process steps, it would be more helpful to outline key principles that could help any search, no matter how the process might be run.
1. Know what you need and why.
Before going to market and beginning the search process, assess not just the organization’s current needs but also its future needs. Searches can get derailed if they start down one path and then the organization realizes later that they want and/or need something different. Clear vision and definitions help prevent role misalignment and establish precise criteria for evaluating candidates, reducing the risk of mid-search adjustments.
2. Take great care in telling your story.
The recruiting process works best when both hiring organizations and candidates can each tell a compelling story—helping the other envision what working together would be like, how they each could benefit, and how they might collaborate to fulfill a common mission.
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For our clients, we build a “prospectus” for each role, which goes beyond the job description to create a story about what working in this role would be like and how it connects to the mission. It could even include personal stories from people the candidates would be working with.
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Then, we ask each hiring manager (or Board leadership for executive roles) to write a “personal statement” that offers candidates an insider view of the organization, something they would never get just by doing external research; it’s an opportunity for the organization to appeal directly to their ideal candidates, in their own words.
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For candidates, we help them reassess how they are telling their story—i.e., thinking about what the organization is hiring for and then framing their skills, talents, and accomplishments using a narrative that a hiring manager can immediately identify with.
3. Leverage all components of Value.
Our last thought leadership series—The Great Rethink—included a comprehensive segment on how Value goes beyond salary and benefits. See Ron Schiller’s article here, Tom Herbert and Marianna DiVietro’s recommendations here; the employer Q&A with Clare McCully here; and 5 Key Insights here.
Each of these is worth bookmarking and revisiting often, as I find myself referring back to them over and over in conversations with hiring organizations about how to leverage the different components of Value.
In short, a wide range of factors comes into play in the hiring process, from dialogue to personal reflection to equitable pay to organizational values and mission, among others. This broad view of Value was validated by a recent study out of the University of Illinois, which found that, “Millennials [in nonprofit work] are advocating for the types of changes that benefit all workers, regardless of generation, such as living wages, comprehensive and affordable health coverage, schedule or location flexibility, and better management practices.”
Given the rising cost of living, money is ever-more important to hiring; but there are many levers to pull in the realm of Value that can help forge a lasting bond between a hiring organization and the right candidate.
4. Think about retention as part of the hiring process.
Candidates are looking for growth opportunities and want to know that their investment in an organization will be returned with an investment in their success. Can the organization offer a compelling picture of that commitment? Sometimes, it can help to make this tangible; I even work with hiring organizations to map out the candidate’s first 100 days on the job. If the hiring process is to be relationship-driven, rather than transactional, helping the candidate envision a successful future needs to be part of the conversation.
5. Move with efficiency.
A hiring decision should never be hasty, but in a competitive market, the process needs to keep moving or risk losing qualified candidates. As part of the intake process, we find that most organizations understand this. Yet, as the process rolls out, urgent business matters, scheduling difficulties, internal debates and reassessments (see point no. 1), along with other hurdles can slow the process down.
It’s not out of the question to lose a top candidate if the process slows too much because many candidates are applying for multiple positions. Hiring organizations often have multiple candidates to choose from, but the best candidates also have multiple options.
6. Keep an open mind and a broad outlook.
Many of our thought leadership pieces have addressed the issue of skills versus talent and not hampering a search with a narrow approach to the talent market. Given the changing philanthropic landscape—e.g., more restricted gifts, more complex gifting vehicles, etc.—it can be tempting to constrain a search with a demand for a specialized skillset. The result, however, may be the exclusion of compelling talent and candidates that bring their own important intangibles, such as adaptability and cultural competence.
Finally, we are potentially entering a new era for philanthropy as the incoming administration is proposing massive government cutbacks, which usually fall hard on safety net programs and social service organizations (e.g., family services, legal services, schools, the arts, etc.). We need only look back to eras like post-9/11, post-2008 Great Recession, and post-COVID to see how much demand spiked for both services from mission-driven nonprofits as well as talent to deliver on the mission.
The nonprofit sector has been here before, and we have always stood up to the task and delivered. The key is nailing the mission so that it resonates with supporters, and that includes talented fundraisers who can champion the mission with donors.
Contributing author:
Patrick Key, Senior Consultant, Aspen Leadership Group
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NEXT UP on February 18th: We will be joined by three nonprofit leaders to explore current workforce challenges and recruiting opportunities—how nonprofits are finding and attracting the right talent.
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