The nonprofit sector faces a hidden human resources issue that is not that different than the invisible donor challenge. At first glance, there appears to be no challenge at all, but just as digging a bit deeper reveals that there are fewer and significantly aging donors, so when you examine the demographics of those who have long made up the nonprofit sector – the Boomers and Gen-Xers – we can see the problem begin to take form. As those generations start to move toward retirement, the challenge the sector will face is whether there will be people waiting in the wings to replace them.
“Because most nonprofit employers have had employees with longevity, most employers have not started thinking about the huge workplace gap that is coming,” says Mary Barroll, president of Talent Egg. “Unless the nonprofit sector starts building pipelines to younger people, it will become difficult to compete for top candidates and may create a talent crisis.”
What this means is figuring out how to attract (and not repel) younger generations to the sector. While – as always – we don’t want to generalize or think we can fully predict what Millennials or Generation Z want, at the same time, there are demographic influences that play a role in generational attitudes and preferences. We talked with younger workers about what matters to them and why they would or wouldn’t consider a nonprofit sector career. We distilled those conversations down to eight important considerations for nonprofits who want to see their workforce renewed with younger talent.
1. Recognize that “people under 40” isn’t a homogenous group. Barroll says there are distinct differences between what Millennials and Generation Z are looking for in a career. Barroll distinguishes between the two groups with Millennials being between the ages of 22 and 37, and the earliest wave of Generation Z coming into the workforce now at the age of 22 and under. Both groups have a strong interest in the greater social good as an important aspect of their career, but have different expectations. Like Generation X, Gen Z grew up in the shadow of a global recession, and thus has different ideas about salary and work, expecting to have to put in time before advancing, while also strongly valuing job security. While flexibility is important to both groups, Generation Z is less motivated by opportunities for remote work, as their key values of relationship-building, continuous learning and gaining experience are better facilitated as part of a team.
2. Acknowledge what has changed. Alyssa Lai, co-chair, Connect the Sector, points out that “A lot has changed since my parents were my age.” This includes significantly increased student debt. A 2018 RBC report says that, since 1990, the cost of tuition at Canadian universities has nearly tripled in inflation-adjusted terms, while the government’s share of university funding has fallen by nearly half. Technology is another obvious impact, which, as Lai says, “facilitates work differently” as well as changing how we engage in the world as citizens and consumers of information. There are also more diverse ways for emerging professionals to do good, including businesses with a social profit philosophy. With nonprofits no longer having the sole corner on doing good, they need to compete with other sectors even among candidates who want to make a difference in the world.
3. Be aware of how the sector is (or isn’t) seen. The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative connects high school students with charities in an experiential philanthropy project. In their post-program evaluations, they say, “We were surprised by the number of students who still seemed to hold negative perceptions about employment in the sector, and we hypothesize that this stems from a fragmented understanding of the value of charities, and the role of the sector at large, and a broader public undervaluing of the work of professionals in the field.” This is a persistent trend among YPI students, 78% of whom reported either indifference or disinterest in careers in the nonprofit sector. Additionally, 18% of YPI participants said they had not considered a career in the sector before participating in YPI, but now would. Similarly, when Imagine Canada conducted interviews with young workers for their 2017 Young People and Nonprofit Work report, participants reflected that they did not learn about the nonprofit sector as a career avenue until they were into their undergraduate studies, and that if they had learned about this earlier, it might have influenced what their course of study.
“Patrick”, a university business student, explains, “I’m looking to work with companies that improve the lives of people in a meaningful way, and make the world a better place. That doesn’t mean I’m motivated only to work for a nonprofit but I would be open to working for a nonprofit too. There are people who might naturally be drawn to nonprofits and people who are only interested in personal gain in their careers, but there are a lot of us in the middle, who care about making an impact as part of our work. In a lot of ways, a nonprofit would be an excellent way to find a job that matches that value.” At the same time, Patrick observes “I haven’t seen any nonprofit jobs among the co-op positions at my school. My advice to nonprofits would be to be more visible.”
4. Go where they are. Barroll advises organizations that want to be visible to a younger demographic, “Think about the content they like, where do they go to get information and how they learn.” Increasingly, that means online and on social media. Barroll also notes that video on Instagram is the best way to reach a younger audience in 2018, not only because it is the fastest growing platform for that demographic but also because Instagram’s business model uses algorithms that deliberately increase the reach of video, increasing the impact of a nonprofit’s video campaigns on Instagram.
5. Think about myths and messaging. “Most people first encounter nonprofits through volunteer work in high school,” says Lai. “While this is good, it also often creates an underlying tone of need, that the sector is needy or lesser. This can mean that potential workers don’t see the opportunities in the sector.” Similarly, Lai notes that the myth of the martyr complex — that you need to be very selfless to work in the sector — discourages potential workers (and where it is part of the culture can repel actual workers). She notes that “selflessness is different from empathy.”
There are also false and damaging myths leaders in the nonprofit sector tell themselves about younger workers: Emily Cordeaux, research grants & evaluation specialist, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, who wrote the Imagine Canada report on young workers, says, “There’s a common perception that young people leave the nonprofit sector because they are drawn to better opportunities in business and government, but young people challenged that narrative. We heard from senior nonprofit leaders that it was inevitable that they would lose talented staff, that they couldn’t compete with other sectors. Our interviews revealed the opposite: that young workers were not drawn away by better opportunities but felt they were pushed out incrementally. Often young workers tried desperately to stay in their organization and in the sector, to try to make it work.”
6. Remember you are an employer, not just a cause. “I don’t think most nonprofits think about how to present themselves as employers,” says Barroll. “They communicate about their cause and the social good they create, and expect that to tell the story.” She adds, “It’s equally important for a nonprofit to shift their focus to say, these are our employees, and they are people with impact careers who are passionate about what they do, and they have a meaningful career path.” Barroll suggests that the best way to do this is often to use existing employees to tell their stories — using video on social media or your website — to talk about their experience, why they like to stay, and what the culture is like. “If young workers can’t see themselves in an organization, they won’t want to join.” This also means that an organization needs to think about their employees as more than simply cogs in the wheel of the cause, giving consideration to an individual’s career goals.
7. Please use technology. Today’s young workers are called digital natives because they have never known a world without Internet. But for younger workers, this doesn’t mean technology for technology’s sake; rather, as Cordeaux says, “Younger people want to work with organizations that run effectively and that means using technology to maximize effectiveness.” Of her own employer, Cordeaux says, “Our vice-president is keen on using technology to limit manual tasks that can be done more effectively with software.”
Effectiveness also extends to communications: Barroll says, “This may be a wake-up call for some organizations who need to recognize that if they aren’t using social media, they will have a hard time attracting young people, whether as workers, volunteers or donors.” She also observes that having a digital and social presence is almost always a less expensive way of reaching a wide audience of younger people. For organizations that may not be up to date, Cordeaux notes that this does not have to be something that turns prospective job candidates away, as long as an organization is transparent about this gap and is open to updating their technology.
8. Know that volunteers are often the secret sauce. Barroll recalls talking with the executive director of a fantastic organization in Halifax who recruited for volunteers, and would train volunteers and build relationships with them so that they joined the organization as staff. “Not only does this help an organization determine great employee candidates, but volunteers who engage with an organization at a pivotal time in their life can see what it’s actually like to work for an organization and have impact.” Cordeaux does caution organizations to be clear on how volunteers will be considered when jobs arise – to have policy about whether or not they will be considered as internal candidates. “I’ve seen situations where volunteers were not handled properly. This led to them feeling disengaged from the organization they were so passionate about. This is a shame because dedicated volunteers are so important to charities.”
The nonprofit sector has grown at a faster rate than Canada’s GDP over the past decade. And with an aging population, as Imagine Canada’s chief economist Brian Emmett writes, “The [nonprofit] sector delivers the social and cultural services that an aging and increasingly diverse population wants and needs.” But this means that the sector needs to prioritize understanding younger workers and attracting them, not only to renew talent but to ensure that charities are able to continue to be sustainable in the unique role they play in ensuring well-being for all Canadians.
Susan Fish is a writer/editor at Storywell, a company that helps individuals and organizations tell their story well. She has written for the nonprofit sector for more than two decades and loves a good story.
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