I was one of the Allies fortunate enough to be selected to hear Michelle Obama speak at Comerica Theater Feb. 12. I have been a longtime follower of the former first lady, but the more intimate parts of her origins I was unfamiliar with; fortunately, this event illuminated her background to me, as well as her next chapter post-White House. 

When asked by the ASU Lodestar Center for my thoughts about the event, I was quoted as saying, “I can't explain how excited I am to be in the presence of this woman. Michelle Obama, by being an educated, black woman from a working-class family, has revolutionized the role of first lady simply by being herself."

My feelings regarding this statement were along the lines of how identity plays into personal politics and personal achievements. Being the first is never easy, but being the first on a national level such as an American first lady is nothing short of borderline impossible. 

Michelle spoke candidly about her experience in the media as a target of harassment, smear campaigns and blatant lies used to discredit her and her husband. Through it all, she handled herself with grace and dignity not unlike Jackie Kennedy, but with her own sense of grounded-ness and personality that is uniquely modern. She relates her entire experience pre-fame, from growing up working-class on the South Side of Chicago, to being an Ivy League…

“Work smarter, not harder” has been the mantra I have dedicated myself to as I approached participating in three nonprofit leadership programs concurrently: Public Allies Arizona, the Nonprofit Leadership and Management bachelor’s degree and the Certified Nonprofit Professional credential through the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. Public Allies advises prospective participants to carefully evaluate their other commitments before joining the 10-month program, so planning, planning and more planning has been the only way to make all this work.

Before every semester at ASU, I would sit down with my syllabus and program every single class time, deadline and assignment I could. Then I would schedule everything else around it for the rest of the semester. This can be a challenge, trying to stay on top of deadlines and making sure I am not over-booking myself for important events and tasks. Prioritizing is one of the most important things to master when creating a packed schedule for the year. I used my communication skills and mantra to make sure “first things first” stayed a rule. I decided that my degree program and self-care were main priorities. When I approached potential Partner Organizations and Public Allies…

“When the cause is not about you and your personal greed, but the greater picture of mutual need.”

My name is Rachelle Wayne. I received my bachelor’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management at Arizona State University in 2018 and earned the Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) credential from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance student organization at ASU.

For my required Nonprofit Leadership Alliance internship, I chose to serve for a second year as an AmeriCorps volunteer in the Public Allies Arizona program at the ASU Lodestar Center, returning to Public Allies five years after I had served with Native American Connections.

The three programs – an academic degree, the CNP credential and Public Allies – together align perfectly with my personal mission statement: I work to create a world that provides everyone with the opportunity to create a quality life for themselves and future generations alike.

Under the Public Allies program, I was placed at Mentally Ill Kids in Distress (MIKID) with the objective to help build capacity within the organization. Working in the nonprofit sector for almost a decade, I have gained an interest in what it looks like to lead within the field and how leaders…

Nonprofit employees are vital in realizing an organization’s mission and goals. Even though organizations recognize the importance of nonprofit employees, the sector is the third-least engaged industry in the United States with employees that are hostile or actively disengaged. Turnover is costly; research estimates that it costs 20 percent of a midlevel employee’s annual salary to find their replacement. How can nonprofit organizations build high-performing employees?

Create a recruitment strategy

As many as 73 percent of smaller nonprofits (with an operating budget of less than $5 million) have no recruitment strategy or budget. To attract and recruit talented employees, nonprofit organizations need to implement a recruitment strategy with a recruitment brand. To create a strategy, organizations should ask themselves goal-oriented questions, including:

• Positions needed to be filled
• Desired number of applicants 
• Qualifications desired
• What type of people should be targeted?
• When should a recruitment campaign begin? 
• Can the position be filled by an internal recruit?

Within the recruitment strategy, organizations should create a recruitment brand or decide how the organization wants current and prospective employees to see the company. By defining this value, employees whose values align can be attracted and recruited. 

…

You are the manager of a nonprofit and find yourself exhausted by your efforts managing difficult staff, recruiting new staff and placing remaining energy into high-performing staff. Staff retention seems not only difficult, but near impossible to understand because of the intense amount of work. It is time to take a deep breath and consider the possibility you have approached staff retention incorrectly.

The Unemployment Services Trust (UST) administered a survey in 2015 to nonprofit executives, supervisors and nonsupervisory employees to understand factors contributing to job satisfaction, less employee turnover and more employee retention in the nonprofit sector.

The following results provide a great deal of insight into the question at hand. In this survey, results show that 48 percent of employees want to enhance job satisfaction. Additionally, UST found the importance of culture or office environment of the organization, which ranked 62.2 percent. Additional results note the importance of flexibility and work-life balance at 58.4 percent. 

Furthermore, this study found the importance of hiring and retaining correct individuals while removing incorrect hires. Although there are many aspects to consider in staff retention, these findings provide a great deal of opportunity for management to approach…