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If you’re like many of us working in nonprofit leadership today, you’re more than likely exhausted and running out of actionable ideas. Between the pandemic and workforce shortages, you are also possibly navigating reduced income, unable to resume all of your normal events and programming, and struggling to compete for funding.

The past two years have been rough for everyone. It’s said that adversity drives innovation, but for many, that well is starting to dry up too soon. So where are all the good ideas? As leaders of nonprofits, we have the power to create the perfect formula for innovation within our organizations. While there are no quick fixes, the effort and energy you put into these solutions now will be the garden for future innovative abundance.

It all starts with your organization’s mission statement. Nonprofits must have a clear and compelling mission statement that states the organization’s reason for being. It must be articulate enough to measure progress against, inspiring enough to move people to action, and still broad enough to withstand the test of time. If it has been a while since you reviewed or revised your mission statement, start here. Make sure you and your stakeholders agree on your nonprofit’s reason for being. With this clarity of purpose, the nonprofit can focus on its culture.

Every new hire is an opportunity to build the organization of your…

The video landscape is evolving, and the pandemic prompted nonprofits to consider how video is planned, produced, presented and consumed.

Video is predicted to account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. Nonprofits must not ignore the advantages that video communications have evidenced: programming, fundraising, and maintaining internal and external engagement can be achieved successfully with video when purposely planned.

The key is to utilize the organization’s resources wisely; budgeting for high-quality produced videos may not be a priority when considering the resources available. However, leadership must consider all options and then decide what works best for their particular needs. If people are not given adequate content, they will not share with others and the organization and its mission will fail to engage the community.

To get started, a single video must be prioritized and every aspect of it must be defined before moving on to the next. One question must be asked at every step of the planning process: Is video the best way to communicate the message?

Define the goal and audience

The primary goal should always be high video engagement. However, other goals may include attracting volunteers, creating organizational awareness or fundraising. The goal and audience will help define the length in…

Illustration by Yuxin Qin

Leadership succession planning, similar to donor succession planning, is often addressed when the concern arises rather than preemptively within a nonprofit organization’s fiscal year. This is a common theme that lurks in the veins of many of our organizations. Raising awareness of this critical issue faced by the nonprofit sector; evidenced with high turnover and lackluster leadership practices and training, is an important check for all professionals to be aware of, and in doing so, will prepare professionals to implement a renewed leadership model that will support organizational composition from the ground up.

Hui Li states that there are distinct differences between planned and unplanned leadership successions: “A smooth and successful transition contributes to organizational performance and sustainability, whereas a failed attempt causes resource deficits, power resistance, identity crises, or even organizational death.” In order to prevent this from occurring, organizations must create a roadmap for their organizational future, and in doing so, they may identify areas of improvement and innovation that may not have been looked at until there were gaps in leadership.

Planning for the future – or living in the moment?

Training, development and resource support are often scarce within the sector, leading to…

There is no doubt that nonprofits are driven by core values, mission and social goals. With a focus on critical issues across a diverse sector, nonprofit employees often find themselves so focused on others, that their own mental health and well-being are often forgotten.

With nearly 11 million employees working in the nonprofit sector, staff well-being is a critical concern to organizations. Employees sacrificing their health is not uncommon in the nonprofit sector, and when combined with long hours and low pay, it can lead to stress, burnout and turnover. This can be devastating to nonprofits and ultimately affect the ability to achieve impact.

Many forces have exacerbated the need for nonprofits to shift their focus to employee well-being, including the global pandemic, economic uncertainty, the wealth gap and racial injustice. These forces are creating significant challenges for nonprofit organizations. Leadership must recognize this impact on their staff and adapt to strengthen and build a more resilient workplace to achieve sustainability. Employee well-being is much more than including a wellness program into a professional's agenda. These six recommendations that nonprofit leaders can enact today will help improve staff well-being while achieving results.

1. Adjust your leadership style. Leaders need to evaluate their leadership approach to ensure the style employed is designed to positively influence and…

The nonprofit sector is built on human resources (HR): the energy, efficiency and passion of its employees. Strategic human resources management (SHRM) is a fundamental factor in making the best use of these resources.

SHRM is the intentional application of formalized policies and practices that create organizational successes by investing in the human capital of employees. It is widely acknowledged that HR management is an integral component of any successful business. However, small nonprofits face complex challenges in accessing and implementing SHRM. But nonprofit leaders at all levels can still pursue SHRM systems, even with limited time and resources. Thus, it is critical to innovatively explore how small nonprofits can succeed in SHRM.

CauseIQ identified that small organizations make up a majority of the nonprofit sector. Approximately 80% of all nonprofits have zero employees and almost 40% who do have paid staff, employ less than 10 people. 83% of nonprofits have an annual operating budget of only $250,000, according to the National Council of Nonprofits. With an overwhelming number of employees seeking to leave the nonprofit sector by 2025, the concerns surrounding HR practices in small nonprofits are more critical than ever.

Small nonprofits have limited financial resources to invest in SHRM…