Social Entrepreneur blog for the world changers
Heather Carpenter
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Posts by Heather Carpenter
2011 Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey Report and Symposia
Jun 14th
For the second year in a row the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research has co-produced the National Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey. This year the survey respondents included over 450 nonprofit organizations representing a variety of subsectors and budget sizes.
The report received a variety of press coverage:
Key findings from the 2011 report include:
- Although the HR function is viewed as critical within many organizations, it still remains a low priority for most organizations. Eighty-four percent of nonprofit respondents agreed that the HR function is critical to their organization’s ability to fulfill its mission, yet few prioritize the HR function within their organizations. The majority of respondent organizations (52 percent) do not have a dedicated HR professional and 55 percent rely upon existing staff to handle new programs and or initiatives.
- Nearly a quarter of nonprofits lost staff in 2010. However 60 percent of those organizations indicated that they intend to hire or are considering the creation of new positions in 2011. This finding was consistent irrespective of the size of the organization.
- When nonprofits lay off staff, 81 percent report using existing staff to fulfill the duties of the eliminated position. This is a worrisome trend as it could lead to
burnout and premature turnover. - Turnover remains low. Economic improvements are not being realized as quickly as anticipated. Findings from this year’s survey revealed that turnover remains low within nonprofit organizations. Turnover rates for respondent organizations were calculated at 13 percent compared to last year’s rate of 21 percent. This low turnover rate is an indication that the economy might not be improving as quickly for nonprofits as it is for other sectors.
- It’s still “who you know” when it comes to nonprofit recruitment. Nonprofits primarily use in person networking and newspapers to recruit job candidates. This is surprising considering the rapid growth and affordability of social networking tools over the past few years. This practice also has the potential to negatively impact diversity efforts.
The Caster Center co-organized three symposia around the country to present these key findings to the general public and bring in experts on the topic of human resource management and risk management. Last Friday, over 75 people attended the San Diego symposium. As part of the planning process, I collected best practice nonprofit HR resources and presentations from the presenters. These resources and presentations are available through USD’s IdeaEncore online library.
It’s going to be ok — the IRS is just cleaning house
Jun 10th
One of the first things I did when I worked as an Operations Manager for nonprofits was to review the organizational database. In some cases, I spent six months to a year cleaning the database making sure the records were up to date and accurate.
This is exactly what the IRS has been doing — and I’m happy about it. I think it is great that the IRS added an e-postcard filing system for small nonprofits. I also think it is about time that the IRS clean its database. Yes, there may be a few organizations that slip through the cracks that didn’t realize their tax exempt status has been revoked — if so, that is sad — because these organizations don’t know how to manage their paperwork to run a proper nonprofit organization. Oh, and I realize there are some mistakes that the IRS has made on the list. But instead of freaking out that there are $275 fewer nonprofits in the USA, let’s focus on the fact that the IRS is cleaning “house” and keeping track of the real nonprofits out there.
Updates and Musings – 3 weeks until my dissertation defense!
Apr 7th
I haven’t written a post in over 2 months — shame on me!!
I’ve often thought about writing a post but then was reminded of that looming deadline I have approaching. In less than 3 weeks I will defend my dissertation and if all goes well, I will become a Ph.D!! It has been a long road to get here but a wonderful one. I am so thankful for my amazing professors and mentors I have encountered along the way. All four years have led up to this moment — where I will defend my dissertation study and then be sent out into the world.
Words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience and how my PhD program has prepared me for my future endeavors. If you or anyone you know is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. with a specialization in nonprofit and philanthropic studies, please have them contact me. I’d be happy to share with them about my experience and the various programs that offer a similar type of experience! Each year that I’ve been in the program I’ve written about my experiences:
- Confessions of a first year doctoral student
- Confessions of a second year doctoral student
- Confessions of a Third Year Doctoral Student: Interpersonal Skills Matter the Most
- Confessions of a Forth Year Doctoral Student: Persistence Pays Off
A lot of exciting things have happened in the past couple of months including, my first peer reviewed article was published in the Journal of Public Affairs Education! It is titled: How We Could Measure Community Impact of Nonprofit Graduate Students’ Service-Learning Projects: Lessons from the Literature.
I love this work and I am really excited to see where it takes me next. I’ve been interviewing for faculty jobs in nonprofit-focused master’s degree programs — so we’ll see!!
On another note, I organized the social media team for the BenchMark 3.5 conference: The 4th Conference on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies. BenchMark 3.5 was designed to consider the development of nonprofit/nongovernmental management, voluntarism, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy as a field of study in higher education. I am so thankful for the team, which was primarily made up of graduate students from DePaul University. The social media team wrote over 30 blog posts from the conference – I’m still putting them up on the conference blog! The social media team also took numerous videos throughout the conference, which are also posted on the blog, and they tweeted the conference using the hash tag #benchmark3 If you are interested in learning more about the field of nonprofit management and philanthropy as a field of study in higher education please check out the conference coverage!!
The realities of working in a nonprofit organization
Jan 25th
I love working in the nonprofit sector!! There are many well paid jobs and career opportunities in nonprofit organizations. However…there are certain realities of working in nonprofit organizations that employees must understand in order to sustain a career in the nonprofit sector.
The reality is the majority of nonprofits operate with budgets less than $500k; they are small businesses with limited resources. Even organizations that have $1mil or $2mil budgets have limited resources, especially when it comes to staff training and development. In last year’s Nonprofit Employment Trends survey we found that only 4% of nonprofits with less than $1mil have a human resource manager. The majority of organizations have an executive director or other senior staff member who manages the human resources function in addition to their other responsibilities. We also found that the majority of nonprofits use current employees to staff new initiatives. This puts increased demands on employee time and less time for employee development.
These realities often conflict with the needs and wants of employees, especially younger workers. Younger workers often think and express “my boss needs to teach me, mentor me, develop me as a manger.” Case in point, Maria Walker’s article More than Just a Boss. Yeah, Maria’s tips are great to sustain younger employees longer than 12 months in an organization, but are these tips really realistic? Maybe 1 in a 100 organizations have a boss who truly mentors and develops their employees, but the realities of the current state of nonprofit organizations, prevent younger workers from having a boss like that. I am totally supportive of trying to change the way that nonprofits currently operate. In fact, I believe all nonprofits (and all companies for that matter) should operate like Southwest Airlines. Southwest is known for putting their employees first and as a result, their employees are happy workers! Many nonprofits are a long way from operating like Southwest, so in the meantime employees need to be flexible and find ways to thrive in the current realities of the workplace. Or, employees can purposefully seek out nonprofits that focus on employee development, of few of these organizations do exist!
One of the main ways that employees can thrive in their careers in the nonprofit sector is through tapping into personal and professional development opportunities outside of their organizations. In How to be a Nonprofit Rockstar, Rosetta and Trista explain 50 ways employees can seek out professional development opportunities, many of which are OUTSIDE of the walls of their own organization. Case in point, I would not be as successful as I am today if it wasn’t for all the professional development that I obtained outside of the workplace. These professional development opportunities included networking, blogging, graduate education, etc.
My theory of change in the workplace
From my experience, I believe there is a change continuum that exists in the workplace. The younger the person, the more they want and push for change. But this push for change often conflicts with experienced workers who are comfortable with how things are. Older workers might push for change but at a lower rate than younger workers. If younger workers are patient and wait it out for a couple of years, they can adapt and grow as the organizational environment around them adapts and grows.
What do you think? Do your experiences match up with the realities of the nonprofit workplace? Do you agree or disagree with my theory of change? I want to hear your thoughts.
So you want to teach at the university level….here are some strategies I’ve learned
Jan 12th
Many people romanticize about becoming a college professor or teaching in a university setting, but don’t realize what it really takes to be an effective instructor.
The majority of grad students are enrolled in PhD programs that don’t teach them how to teach so they have to learn to teach by trial and error! Four years ago I was asked to serve as Teaching Assistant for the nonprofit finance class. I was excited to be able to start teaching, but I have to admit I really struggled. I’ve since improved A LOT but this is because of all the feedback and support that I received from my professors and mentors. They taught me key teaching strategies to become an effective instructor.
For those of you interested in dabbling in the teaching profession or becoming a professor, here a few teaching strategies that I learned (from my mentors and professors) and I use in the classroom setting.
1. Be prepared: I learned from my mentor that it takes AT LEAST three hours of preparation for every one hour of teaching. In order to be successful you MUST carve out time to prepare for each class. Each week I prepare pages and pages of teaching notes. I also do a practice run through of my teaching notes at least once before I teach each class session. During the practice run I work through any glitches or inconsistencies in my notes.
2. Be interactive: I was mentored and developed as an instructor in a very applied learning environment. When I create my teaching notes each week, I make a conscious effort to add discussion questions and group activities.
3. Be organized: This strategy was told to me during one of my faculty job interviews. Students want professors who present learning objectives at the beginning of each class and teach with a clear beginning, middle. and end. I am still improving in this area and I am so thankful that I have a very organized co-instructor who creates learning objectives for each class session along with the agenda for each class.
4. Be flexible: I learned this strategy the hard way. Many things can happen during the class session that you cannot always prepare for. For example, for one class I guest taught in I had planned a very interactive discussion but for some reason the students did want to speak and respond to my discussion questions. As a result of this experience I learned that I ALWAYS need to prepare additional lecture points, in case students don’t answer my questions.
5. You don’t have to know everything: This was the hardest thing for me to learn. I know a lot, but when I teach students sometimes ask me questions that I don’t know the answers to! That’s OK. My mentor taught me to say, “let me look that up and get back to you next week” (and actually follow up with them the next week) or ask the student “why don’t you look that up and tell me what you find”.
The most important strategy in teaching is to prepare as much as possible but understand that you cannot prepare for every situation! Teaching is often organic and evolving. I am continually learning and developing as an instructor. Do you agree/disagree with the strategies I have listed above? If you teach, what strategies have you learned to be an effective instructor?
Best Blog posts of 2010
Dec 31st
I am in the middle of writing my dissertation book right now and trying to finish it by the end of February!! To make up for the lack of blog posts I’m writing while I’m working on my dissertation, here are my top blog posts of 2010.
Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees
Research on the Nonprofit Workforce: Here’s a Brief Overview
New to Volunteer Management: Here’s a Brief Overview
New to Nonprofit Finance and Accounting: Here’s a Brief Overview
Three VERY IMPORTANT Manuals for Nonprofit Organizations
Happy New Year!
ARNOVA 2010: Nonprofit Research that Builds Theory and Informs Practice
Dec 5th
I made a conscious decision to not LIVE blog the ARNOVA conference. I wanted to reflect on the various topics and themes that emerged during the conference before blogging about them. I did tweet during the conference.
One of the main themes of the conference was the struggle between research that builds theory and research that informs practice. I applaud ARNOVA for organizing sessions on Friday afternoon that had a practical application and focus. I attended a session about learning organizations, where Angela Bies and Jeffrey Brudney (Editor of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly) presented about the frequency in which NVSQ publishes articles related to nonprofit practice. They concluded that only 32% of NVSQ articles are related to practice. No surprise, I was disappointed by this small percentage. However, several of my colleagues put this percentage in perspective and stated that other journals publish far less articles related to practice, and the field needs scholars who advance theory as well as scholars who advance practice.
The closing plenary speaker, Lynne Huntley, President of the Southern Educational Fund, also brought up the issue of research being related to practice. She expressed that researchers need to recognize the position and privilege that we come from when we do research. This is also known as the emancipatory view of knowledge. She urged us to consider how those working in nonprofit organizations might create research questions differently than scholars in academia.
The topic of research related to practice is something that I think about constantly. For me it’s not an either/or but I personally want to do research that has both theoretical and practical implications. For example, last year I conducted a national survey of people’s perception of nonprofit careers. This research informed Idealist’s Nonprofit Careers Month Initiative. While developing this survey, I also worked with Jessica Word, a professor from University of Nevada, Las Vegas to include questions about Public Service Motivation theory. Our goal was to see if Public Service Motivation theory could be applied to those working in the nonprofit sector.
My New Website – Thanks to the Super Talented Will Hull!!
Nov 29th
I am happy to announce that after many years of a VERY static website, I have now have a dynamic new website that is easy to update!! I am so pleased that Will Hull agreed to design my website and deal with my sometimes perfectionist nature for the past three months.
Will is an awesome emerging leader in the nonprofit sector. He is a recent MPA grad from George Mason University and currently works at the League of Conservation Voters as their Manager of Grassroots Fundraising and Online Advocacy.
Please check out my new site, tell me what you like, or don’t like. I’m always looking for ways to improve. The goal of my new site is to make all the resources and links more accessible to you!
Check out Will’s blog where he writes about the process of designing my new website! Thanks Will, you rock!!
MY BLOG HAS MOVED AS OF 11/24/10
Nov 24th
My blog has moved and is now part of my new website: http://www.nonprofitalternatives.org/page/blog
Choosing a Dissertation Topic
Nov 23rd
Someone recently asked me to blog about the process of selecting a dissertation topic.
Selecting a dissertation topic is like choosing a PhD program. You want to select a topic that is the right fit for you. Your topic should be:
- Interesting to you
- Manageable (something that you can actually complete)
- Relevant to your field
My first dissertation topic idea focused on the Leadership Certificate Program that I was developing for John F. Kennedy University in the Bay Area. Due to budgetary reasons, this certificate program did not come to fruition so I had to come up with another topic idea.
The topic that I ended up selecting for my dissertation was the best fit for me because it related to the research studies that I had completed while working in the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research.
In the first semester of my PhD program I completed a literature review, titled: “How to measure the community impact of nonprofit graduate students’ service-learning projects.” The literature review set the stage for an extensive qualitative research study that I completed during the 2nd year of my PhD program. I interviewed 19 nonprofit organizations to determine the impact and use of master’s students’ applied projects. After I completed the local study, I wanted to study impact and use of experiential education within nonprofit organizations at a national level.
I originally planned to complete a much more extensive study of experiential education and its impact on the nonprofit community (isn’t this always the case with dissertations?!?) but my dissertation committee helped me get back into reality. I honed my dissertation topic into a study that was much more manageable and something that I could complete!
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