Our nation’s nonprofit and philanthropic workforce is always there for people and communities through the worst of times — such as in the aftermath of devastating floods and wildfires, the ravages of the COVID 19 pandemic, food shortages, and in countless other moments of crisis and hardship. They are also there to meet everyday needs, including all manner of vital services, comfort, and support that may be otherwise inaccessible in communities across the country.
Despite being a bulwark for nearly every aspect of American life, many nonprofit workers cannot meet their own basic needs. In fact, landmark research conducted jointly by Independent Sector and United for ALICE® found over 1 in 5 nonprofit employees are unable to afford the basics — such as housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, technology, and taxes.
Independent Sector established the Center on the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Workforce as an initiative to develop shared tools, standards, and support systems to help nonprofits and philanthropies better care for their workers and strengthen the charitable sector workforce for the future.
And Independent Sector is proud to introduce the new Director of the Center on the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Workforce — Amy Shields.
Welcome to Independent Sector, Amy! Tell us a little about yourself and why you’re excited about this work.
Amy Shields
I am so thrilled to join the Independent Sector team. I have worked in the nonprofit sector for most of my career, and I’ve spent the last eight years supporting communities in addressing their workforce and talent challenges. In my experience, this work requires translating research into practice, creating multiple onramps for organizations regardless of where they are starting from, and providing a robust set of resources and peer connections that make this kind of change feel possible. The Center has the potential to transform our sector and how we attract, retain, and grow talent, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to contribute to that kind of impact.
Where does one start with such an ambitious effort as the Center?
Everything we are doing through the Center is grounded in research and vetted by experts from the sector. We have established a National Advisory Board to ensure that our work is validated by the field. We are starting by looking at what the data and research tell us about the most pressing needs within the sector. We’ll be proposing some standards and ways that organizations can assess themselves against those standards. We’ll be exploring how we can provide organizations with the resources to adopt best practices and really understand how their workforce practices stack up against peer organizations and against what we know to be ideal. Eventually, we will explore how policy impacts these standards. We’re starting with some pilot activities, but we have plans to expand the reach of this work because it will be most impactful when we can deliver it at scale for the whole sector.
How will the Center benefit not only nonprofit and philanthropic workers, but the organizations that employ them?
Our sector is only as strong as our workforce; nonprofits and philanthropy are driven by the people who staff and run our organizations. In the current context in which we are operating, we know that organizations are struggling with vacant positions and with hiring sufficient staff to deliver on their missions. If we can give organizations clearer ways to understand how their talent practices are impacting their work, and if we can offer them ways to make incremental change, we will strengthen individual organizations and the sector. I don’t think we can afford to ignore workforce at this moment, and I think the Center will be able to offer timely and necessary support to nonprofits and philanthropic organizations.
Learn more about Independent Sector’s Center on the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Workforce.
