In the world of nonprofits, the concept of "value" is often closely tied to monetary figures. Budgets, donations, and financial reports dominate discussions about sustainability and impact. However, there's an invaluable resource that often gets overlooked in these conversations: volunteers. While their contributions may not be measured in dollars, their worth extends far beyond monetary value. In this blog post, we'll explore the multifaceted nature of volunteerism and why it's essential for nonprofits to rethink how they measure the worth of their volunteers.

The heartbeat of nonprofits

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofit organizations. They bring passion, dedication, and a diverse range of skills to the table, all of which are essential for driving the mission forward. From serving meals at a homeless shelter to tutoring disadvantaged youth, volunteers play a crucial role in addressing social issues and fostering positive change in communities.

Beyond the balance sheet

While it's easy to quantify the value of monetary donations, the contributions of volunteers are often more challenging to measure. However,…

Periods of disruption occur with regularity throughout recent history. These disruptions can cause severe stress for nonprofit organizations. Examples include the Financial Crisis of 2008/2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Major events can create significant challenges in several areas:

• Fundraising: Competition for funds can increase when economic disruptions occur.  Companies and foundations can restrict their giving when investments are performing poorly.
• Human Resources: Stress outside the workplace can undermine staff cohesion.  Available resources may be limited by other factors. 
• Service Demands: In times of disruption many social service demands increase, which creates further challenges toward fulfilling the organizational mission.

Being adequately prepared when these events occur can be the difference between surviving and thriving. The framework to create the tools to succeed during disruption are grouped into three “imperatives”: preparation, action, and recovery.

Preparation

• Operating budget with positive bottom line that includes emergency savings line item.
• Build savings to reach 180 days of operating expenses.
• Negotiate all contracts to include escape clauses with manageable break fees.
• Rigorously adhere to budget, making expense decisions to match any revenue shortfalls.
• Develop an emergency budget framework…

Nonprofits are teetering on the edge. Chronic underfunding and underinvestment in capacity building have stunted growth and put effectiveness at risk. While organizations consume more capacity than they have, the demand for their services continues to surge. Additionally, disruptive events have impacted donor behavior, causing global giving to decline. To survive, nonprofits need to strengthen resource development capacities.

Many, however, think these efforts are costly, complicated, and disruptive. The model below highlights the foundations and steps for capacity-building success.

Leadership, culture, and communication are the foundations for success in capacity building. Excellent leaders know their organization, accurately analyze trends, and anticipate future needs. Using these insights, they determine which initiatives can deliver the greatest impact, enabling them to make cost-efficient decisions. 

Since capacity building involves effecting change, it is critical that leaders manage potential disruptions and encourage cooperation. One way is to model the desired new behavior. When leaders act consistently with the reforms, they promote and sustain the change. 

An organization’s culture also plays a role. It can either be a catalyst or an obstacle. Make sure that the organization’s culture is ready. By helping people understand that change is the norm, not the exception, leaders become instrumental in developing a culture that is…

Since the pandemic's onset, the nonprofit sector has faced a significant struggle with the inability to find, recruit, hire, and retain talent. The problem isn't isolated to the nonprofit sector but has felt the most significant impact. The problem facing nonprofits, though, unlike for-profit or government sector industries, is when nonprofits that focus on human services (medical and mental health, shelter, food, etc.) experience labor shortages, the nonprofit frequently must reduce services to their communities. Worse, some organizations find that they must cease operation altogether - thereby starving their communities of desperately needed services. 

This is NOT a temporary problem. 

Our labor shortage may feel that it came as a result of the pandemic, but it didn't really. That is not to ignore the statistics showing an astonishing 97 million workers left their jobs in 2021 and 2022. No, the problem has been brewing for years - the primary culprit for the current and future labor shortage is the aging baby boomer generation. The math is simple: More workers are exiting the labor force than new entries into it. The result? The U.S. Department of Labor says we should anticipate a continually shrinking labor force into 2030! Ugh.

Remember the laws of Supply and Demand? 

When labor is in short supply, the cost of that labor increases. This law is especially troublesome for nonprofit organizations that operate on tight annual…

Trust is falling in the United States. Since the 1970s, survey responses from the Gallup Poll, NORC’s General Social Survey (GSS), and the Harris Poll have recorded falling trust in both political institutions such as congress and the presidency, and nonpolitical institutions such as medicine and the press. The American nonprofit sector is not immune. An Independent Sector report revealed an 11 percent downfall in the public’s trust in the nonprofit sector.

This issue is somewhat unique to the U.S. nonprofit sector. A study assessing 31 countries actually identified a “small increase in global trust in the nonprofit sector,” from 2011 to 2019.

The stakes are high for U.S. nonprofits. Moral disillusionment theory asserts that nonprofit organizations are held to higher standards than for-profit organizations due to reputations of integrity. Thus, transgressions committed by nonprofits hold more weight. When organizations lose trust, they struggle to maximize impact. For example, the nonprofit starvation cycle, an epidemic of lackluster administrative spending within nonprofits limiting their ability to scale, is rooted in shaky donor trust.

A grim trust landscape in the U.S. begs the question: What can nonprofit professionals do to protect their organizations?

Trustworthy language

The “Four Ps of Credible Communication,” highlighted in “The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics,” provide guidelines for…