COVID-19 may be in the rearview mirror for most, but it’s left Rhode Island’s nonprofits with a rocky, challenging road to navigate.
A 2024 survey by United Way of Rhode Island Inc. and the Grantmaker’s Council of Rhode Island found that nonprofits were confronted with many of the same big challenges last year that they’d grappled with in 2022, as community needs continue to climb and federal funding evaporates.
Redefining Higher Education: The Strategic Imperative of a Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree
For over a century, the structure of undergraduate education has remained largely unchanged—typically requiring four…
Learn More
The annual survey of 329 organizations pinpointed areas that still bedevil nonprofits: finances, capacity, recruitment and hiring. Salaries and burnout top the list, and among the toughest jobs to fill? Fundraising and finance.
Since local nonprofits employ almost 70,000 Rhode Islanders – about 17% of the state’s workforce – this can lead to downstream effects for the financial ecosystem.
Nancy Wolanski, director of United Way’s Alliance for Nonprofit Impact, says difficulties around hiring have been building for some time. Part of it is due to overall staffing challenges with people leaving, she says. Wolanski also noted that one “largish” organization has been without a chief financial officer for eight months.
“Maybe five years ago, they might have stayed, but now there’s a lack of investment in the sector,” she said. “Some [of it] is generational as people retire, which has been accelerated by the pandemic. You need the same level of expertise, but a for-profit business can offer more money and it may not be possible for nonprofits to match that.”
An executive director at a small nonprofit who can only devote 10% of their time to fundraising can’t steer development strategies and the cultivation of donors. It’s why so many of these organizations don’t outlast their founders, Wolanski says.
Median salaries for financial and fundraising managers alike are daunting numbers for small nonprofits to crack as well. Data from the R.I. Department of Labor and Training shows such salaries ranging from approximately $148,000 for financial managers to $150,000 for fundraising managers.
Wolanski says that in these particular areas, there simply aren’t enough accountants overall. There are also skilled fundraisers on the older side who make a good living, she says, and there are others right out of college who will take the salary but don’t have the experience and are saddled with debt.
United Way is expanding its year-round giving program to support these organizations, and offers grant-writing training, among other programs. Even then, though, staff members need to have time available to take them. “When it comes to training, there isn’t a formal pipeline,” Wolanski said.
In fact, many nonprofit leaders have taken a roundabout route to the top of their organizations. One example is Kelly Nevins, who graduated from the University of Rhode Island with an English degree. She’s now CEO of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, which advocates for gender equity through systemic change.
Since the pandemic, the Women’s Fund has had three development directors, Nevins says. Each search took three to four months.
It also affected the organization’s bottom line.
Case in point, the $541,446 in revenue it raised in 2023 climbed to roughly $562,000 this year. The difference? Having a new director in place since January to focus on bringing more dollars into the nonprofit.
“We had tons of interest, but we got people who didn’t have the experience and we need someone who knows what they’re doing,” Nevins said. “In a larger organization, you may have people who specialize. In a small nonprofit, we don’t have that luxury; we’re working hard to offer a competitive salary and it’s taken a while [to hire]. The people who have those skills get paid pretty well and [it] makes it hard to attract them.
“By the time we hired our current development director, we increased the pay significantly and … [removed] grant writing as part of the job [requirements]. The good news is our investment in this candidate paid off. She’s a rock star.”
During those periods when the Women’s Fund was without a development director, Nevins stepped in and took on grant proposal writing, along with her other work. “I muddled along. For example, we cut back to one major fundraising event a year from two,” she said.
Nevins’ experience may sound familiar to Community MusicWorks’ Kelly Reed. The Providence-based organization builds relationships between children and professional musicians through music education and performance. As managing director, Reed juggles several responsibilities daily at the organization.
“When I was hired 10 years ago, the organization needed someone to take finances to the next level. I didn’t have that background and we’re not in a position to have a CFO [chief financial officer],” Reed said, “but we do have an accountant on contract and financial advisers to help and whom I oversee. I’ve learned a lot. I’m also events and [human resources] manager and I supervise the cleaning company.”
Community MusicWorks brought on its first development director in 2015, a critical decision since it was starting to fundraise for a new building.
“It’s a difficult hire because small and even midsize nonprofits often don’t have funds to pay a development director,” Reed said. “Those who are attracted to the job believe in the mission and are probably taking a pay cut to do meaningful work.”
Additionally, it takes 18 months for someone in that position to cultivate relationships, Reed says. Typically, a development director may move on soon after for better pay. “We’ve been lucky to have incredible fundraisers in the last 10 years,” she said.
When Tonya Johnson arrived at the Olneyville Housing Corp., doing business as One Neighborhood Builders, earlier this year, then-CEO Jennifer Hawkins needed to reorganize the finance department to reflect the organization’s growth. The Providence nonprofit, which builds affordable housing and encourages community development, had two employees in the finance department handling day-to-day operations but needed two more senior people for positions that had been vacant for some time.
“My objective was to fill them,” said Johnson, senior vice president of finance and operations. “You’re competing with other organizations and if people have a lot of skills, they have a lot of offers.”
Job candidates will question what the position offers – salary, benefits, location and working remotely are important.
“As an employer, how do we make the organization inviting, where people want to work?” Johnson said. “I had to point out that these finance positions had been vacant, but we’re a leader and growing. We want to be a model of good practices. It’s important to be honest.”
Johnson says during that hiring phase, One Neighborhood wasn’t competitive and it was costing time and resources. The organization revised its recruitment strategy, posting the openings in nontraditional places and working with contacts in the community, including working with a recruiting firm. Both positions are now filled, Johnson says.
Erica Busillo Adams, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Rhode Island chapter, agrees that the state’s nonprofits are working harder with fewer resources.
While it’s hard to quantify exactly how much money organizations are losing from these staffing shortages, Busillo Adams says a front-line fundraiser will, on average, double their salary by the end of their second year, and even more by the end of year three.
And if that front-line fundraiser departs the organization, it loses more than just an employee.
“If you lose that fundraiser before the end of year three, that’s $200,000-plus in revenue you might lose – and that’s just one person,” Busillo Adams said.
She also nods to the lack of diversity in the fundraising field, which is not new. Systems of philanthropy come from a “white-centric place and of privilege,” Busillo Adams said.
As more CEOs and upper-level executives retire, Busillo Adams says it’s important for these organizations to think about transitioning to the next generation. The nonprofit sector hasn’t thought about it because they’re confronting more-immediate challenges. Nevertheless, they need to plan, Busillo Adams says.
