Event recap: Valuing Our Nonprofit Workforce

Amid this mixed record, the research also found gender and racial pay gaps still exist. The gender gap has narrowed, Rivera noted, but men still earned 10 percent more than their female counterparts, and while more women have moved into leadership roles, they are typically in lower-paying, smaller organizations.

The racial pay gap story is similar. High-paying roles are held by 77 percent white people and 23 percent people of color. Lower-paying roles see that flipped: 75 percent people of color and 25 percent white.

The compensation and leadership data set the tone for the discussion that followed, featuring a panel of leaders from across the sector, moderated by TSNE President and CEO Elaine Ng, that explored how the trends play out in their spheres.

For United Way of Mass Bay, which works with a vast network of nonprofits, Interim President and CEO Daphne Principe-Griffin said they’re seeing more agencies talking about how they budget for salary increases. “They’re also thinking about nonmonetary benefits, creating some flexibility because organizations come in all sizes.” But, she added, another trend she sees for organizations is “a resurgence of conversations with boards of directors about overhead rates. And, frankly… that if they’re kept so low it’s very hard for organizations to create a competitive compensation structure.”

So how does one get the Board on board? Shaheer Mustafa, President and CEO of Hopewell, Inc., offered his approach: “We tie workforce investment to broader core strategy. Ultimately our mission is to ensure that the kids and families we support are growing and thriving. And we have very clearly articulated the case that when we attract talent and invest in their growth and development, and they are growing and thriving as a workforce, by proxy the community grows and thrives.”

If a board balks at this, he offered, maybe it’s a sign of misalignment: “A budget is a statement of values.”

Beth Chandler, Director, Community Investments, Point32Health Foundation and former CEO of the YW, agreed and shared that her boards have been supportive of living wage ambitions, “but the devil is in the details.” Chandler said, as YW CEO, it was extraordinarily difficult to balance getting the salaries to where they wanted them—in the 75^th percentile—versus where they were, while thinking about other benefits as well. In addition, “We realized there were inequities, not so much based on race and gender but on specific roles. We had to do some soul-searching internally to ask, why was that? We had to be clear with staff and get them to buy in to a different strategy.”

The YW established clear ranges for roles, and a promotion would mean a salary in that range, regardless of where the person’s salary was before. It also worked hard to offer a menu of benefits that suited employees’ different life stages and were as supportive as possible, acknowledging wages weren’t yet where they wanted. “With my funder hat on,” she continued, “there are some things that Point32Health is doing—and Orlando referenced some that the Boston Foundation is doing—that can be helpful in this regard. We generally provide multiyear grants, so organizations know that for two, three, five years we will provide X amount. The grants generally are not for specific work; we trust organizations to know where they need the funds…. We don’t require they do the new thing or do more and more.”

Ng followed up: “Yes, go deep, not wide. Any funders listening, take the cue!”

During the conversation the panelists also discussed what helped them grow into their leadership positions, how to manage merit-based increases, and how we might move from thinking of a living wage to a thriving wage.