The Foraker Group

The existence of nonprofits, like the right to vote, are hallmarks of our democracy. When we encourage board and staff members, volunteers, donors, and stakeholders to vote, we are doing our part to be active participants in society. Regardless of our political party or who we choose, our vote is an act of standing for our missions, our communities, and for all those we serve. Imagine the impact we could have if we all voted!

As Alaska’s state nonprofit association, we proudly join with the National Council of Nonprofits and the network of state nonprofit associations that believe voting should be easy, accessible, and available to all US citizens. Nonprofits are uniquely positioned as trusted, credible, nonpartisan messengers for people who are often overlooked, under-served, and under-resourced.

Many Alaska nonprofits already encourage voting through nonpartisan action including holding registration drives, providing information on where to vote, hosting candidate forums, providing translation services, giving staff time off to vote, and more. We know there is room for more nonprofits to engage.

The Voter Engagement Guide is a toolkit for charitable nonprofits to effectively engage in elections in a nonpartisan way by encouraging stakeholders to vote and building relationships with elected officials.

Your action means more people will exercise their right to vote, and have their voices heard in our democracy. This is the time to inspire action.

Alaska communities rely on a strong partnership between nonprofits, local governments, tribes, and state and federal agencies to ensure Alaskans have access to the services they need to thrive. Foraker and the Alaska Municipal League are committed to ensuring that nonprofits and local governments receive payment on time from the State of Alaska for all grants and contracts as part of our mutual commitment to serve Alaska. In 2023, our organizations issued resolutions to advance our efforts. We need your help to understand the current impact of delayed payments. This survey will take less than 5 minutes to complete and have an impact for decades to come. The deadline to respond is September 27.

At Foraker, we believe that the nonprofit sector is essential to our democracy. More than just a system of government, the idea of democracy is the notion of free-flowing ideas that often confound us, make us think, and yes, often disagree. Democracy requires attention and conscious conversations. It is, after all, only held together by people with ideas and the rules, ethics, and values that we write and live around it. At times, disagreement is how we know our freedoms are at play. Not conflict for conflict’s sake, but the notion that this ever-evolving system needs respect, connection, and healthy debate. This is the thread that holds us together even as some want to frame it as the thing that pulls us apart.

The nonprofit sector is one of those places where we come together to uphold democracy. We freely associate with missions that matter to each of us. Inevitably that means that for every nonprofit mission you would commit your life’s work to there is another nonprofit that is likely formed for the exact opposite purpose. That is how we make space for everyone to engage in civil society.

Let’s take a look at just a few ways nonprofits lift up the ideals of democracy and small steps we can take together.

Civic engagement through volunteerism

According to AmeriCorps, in 2021, 148,537 Alaskans reported that they “formally” volunteered through a nonprofit organization contributing 9.5 million hours of service worth an estimated $299.1 million. That equates to 27.3% of residents formally volunteering through organizations. While impressive, this data is down since the pandemic and no longer places us in the top 10 states for volunteerism. Importantly, these numbers also need to include how Alaskans also volunteer beyond their role with nonprofits. This “informal” type of community service includes the 98.9% of residents who talked to or spent time with friends or family, the 55.0% who informally helped others by exchanging favors with their neighbors, and the 66.5% who had a conversation or spent time with their neighbors. You know these people! They are you and me, your neighbors, and your mission volunteers. This isn’t a place that divides us, it is the place where we find commonality and connection. And it is what makes Alaska work. You can see it on a big storm day when we are helping strangers navigate the snowy conditions without asking them first about their politics, just strangers helping each other because that’s what keeps our communities strong.

• Take a Step: Find an hour to volunteer for something you care about as part of rebuilding our civic participation post-pandemic. While volunteering rates have dropped considerably since the pandemic, we can rebuild one hour at a time.

Small donor investment as community collaboration and action

All the data on philanthropy is clear. Since the 2017 tax reforms, we have lost our grassroots donors who used to constitute the majority of charitable giving to nonprofits. In 2021, the American Community Survey reported that 25.7% of Alaska residents belonged to an organization and 47.7% of residents donated $25 or more to an organization. While this is encouraging, it is important to note that individual giving at everyday levels is down across the country. We need grassroots giving, not because we can sustain or even maintain our nonprofit budgets based on these gifts but because the donors themselves demonstrate the power of the people that keeps our democracy in check and balance. The action of many donors investing in a cause disperses power and privilege, it invites ideas and community, and it signals a larger interest for the mission to thrive. Philanthropy means love of humankind and while it can manifest itself in many ways through time, talent, and treasure, the nonprofit sector as a whole is being persuaded through both tax reform and the will of donors to lean only into a few wealthy donors and to abdicate efforts toward grassroots or retention philanthropy. Yet, philanthropy and democracy move hand in hand. We need a strong and wide base of donors not only in each organization but throughout the sector because that is where the voices of the many live. And while moving to large donor strategies like Donor Advised Funds might be the financially savvy decision for some, it leaves in its wake a much bigger and longer-term challenge of preserving our democracy for the people and by the people.

• Take a Step: Consider making a small and/or consistent donation to a cause that matters to you and help rebuild a strong culture of philanthropy through diverse investments. Pick.Click.Give. is an Alaska treasure that is focused on this very effort. Remember to put this tool into action in 2025.

Leadership incubation and workforce development

Every day our nonprofits are a place where we grow leaders – in our boardrooms, our staff, our volunteers, and sometimes in the outcomes of our missions. We attract, retain, and grow a richly diverse pool of people who are drawn by the cause and often must acquire the skills. We are excited to share our upcoming economic report with you this fall that will fully detail all the latest workforce statistics and economic impacts throughout Alaska. But for now, it is safe to say that nonprofit employment numbers are a key factor in our state’s economy and each of those employees and all of the board and mission volunteers are learning and growing every day from their work with nonprofits. Our democracy requires thriving economies and a steady workforce – our sector is essential to those tasks.

While Alaska’s workforce shortages from the pandemic and outmigration have at least in the short term created a very difficult marketplace for nonprofits to attract and retain employees, we can shift some of the narrative to what we do offer – a place to lead with one’s heart and head, a place to do work that matters today and for decades to come, a place that builds a stronger Alaska workforce for each of our communities while having a high aptitude for innovation, adaptability, and collaboration. And we offer a sector that often leads the way in its commitments to inclusion and belonging during the day and in the systems we seek to shift.

• Take a Step: Consider the ways your nonprofit is a place of inclusion and belonging and the small steps you and your team can take together to celebrate what works while you commit to the next step. Consider how your organization welcomes people to learn new skills as board members, volunteers, and staff. Say those out loud recognizing that we often just assume this is not a gift. Watch our economic report coming soon.

Taking action with our collective power for the greater good

If we add up our volunteers, our donors, and our staff and we put them all together, that is a lot of people. And when we mobilize them, they are democracy in action. Perhaps there is nothing more powerful in our democracy than the right to vote. America and Alaska have many challenges in activating people to vote. The barriers are real and, in some states, are getting increasingly more difficult. We also know that trust in our systems is challenged, and opinions are strong. Yet, in Alaska, you can see how every vote matters in a race where often a person wins by just a handful of votes. Of course, ALL charitable 501(c)(3) nonprofits are prohibited (rightly so) from endorsing a candidate, but our nonprofits are also trusted sources of information and are often focused on access and opportunity. Extending your trusted voice to your constituency in a nonpartisan way to encourage voting is not a leap, only a step. We know staying neutral and nonpartisan can be hard or sometimes confusing to navigate so we have partnered with Nonprofit Vote to provide you with a nonpartisan voter engagement guide – because your trusted voice matters in our democratic process.

• Take a Step: We invite you to join us for the launch of this guide on September 26 at 1:30 pm to see how easy it would be to motivate your constituents to vote. We also encourage you to review the Guide and talk with your team about steps you can take.
• Take an extra step: If you want to know more about why charitable nonprofits (including ALL religious congregations) are and should stay nonpartisan, learn more about the Johnson Amendment and its role in our democracy. Take the extra step to understand why it is currently under threat and how Foraker and our partners at the National Council of Nonprofits are committed to defending it at every turn.

To be clear, none of these issues side with one political view or another. Instead, we can feel their impact on our daily engagement within our communities. Collectively we can see them as the fabric we weave together with each choice and every action over generations in this often messy and imperfect democracy. We can lean into fear or despair or division or divisiveness, or we can respond individually and as organizations by taking small steps that matter.

Walking with you,

Laurie

P.S. Learn more about what we believe here.

This month we released our Salary and Benefits Report & Dashboard. While we have been producing these reports for nonprofit decision-making since 2003, this year our report is bigger and better than ever thanks to a partnership with the state nonprofit associations in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Certainly, this type of data has been useful in the past but right now the nonprofit workforce is at the nexus of events that likely will result in a lasting shift for current and future employees. We have reported over the years on the challenges nonprofit employees and employers face, which sadly have not changed much because few organizations ever feel like they are fully staffed or financially flexible enough to deploy the team they have in all the ways they think would be best. The long-standing issues are now exacerbated, and new ones have surfaced since the height of the pandemic which has resulted in a highly competitive environment to recruit and retain staff.

Whether you dive into the data or not, we encourage you to consider how these issues impact the choices you make to recruit and retain staff, how you write and execute policies and expectations for nonprofits in government grants and contracts, how you choose to volunteer to support existing staff efforts, how you donate to help support the ability of nonprofits to compete in the marketplace for the best and the brightest to perform essential work in our communities, and how you decide as an employee to navigate a complex environment marked by hurdles and opportunities.

None of us are alone in this space. Together, as employers, policymakers, volunteers, donors, and employees, we all have a role in creating a vibrant economic landscape for nonprofits to do their best work on behalf of us all.

Let’s dive into just a few of the largest hurdles (and a few opportunities) we face in Alaska’s workforce and what our study’s findings confirm we are experiencing:

• An average 8% out-migration of Alaska’s workforce between the ages of 18-54 in 2023, as reported by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development, further exacerbating the state’s workforce shortage. Note in your search through this report how jobs are paid from one state to another. Does this match your expectations and assumptions?

• The heavy burden on nonprofits adapting to workforce shortages both in their organizations and in their funding and collaborative partners. According to this study, the workforce shortage is almost double that of our regional peers.
  • Lowest philanthropic support (corporations, foundations, individuals) for all nonprofits in the country in the past 40 years. This is not only a challenge for programming, mission growth, and stability, but it has a direct impact on the ability of nonprofits to compete for employees in the marketplace across all sectors.
  • Lack of prompt payment by the State of Alaska for grants, contracts, and reimbursements means nonprofits are again unable to compete in a challenging marketplace to recruit or maintain employees and in many cases are creating an inordinate amount of stress on those currently working in the sector.
• Pandemic right-sizing to meet the demand for services. Most nonprofits either experienced an increased demand for their services or closed their doors in the name of public health during the height of the pandemic. Either way, most nonprofits are just coming out of the pandemic fog to understand their next move. For many, it looks like hiring more staff, prioritizing specific lines of business, or adjusting to a budget without federal or state relief aid.
• The dynamic of workplace designation resulting from learning (and preferring) to work from remote locations during the pandemic. This means we have a workforce that demands much greater flexibility in their personal lives and a strong desire to pick workplaces that can meet that demand, even if it means leaving the nonprofit sector. On the positive side, this also means a greater ability to employ Alaskans across the state regardless of office location, offering more flexibility and a more family-friendly environment to existing and future employees, along with a sharper focus on outcomes rather than time spent. On the opposite side, it presents a challenge with team dynamics, cohesion, and in some cases accountability. And, while the sector used to recruit and retain loyal nonprofit workers, employees are willing to forgo the sector and find other ways to give back to the community.
• A shift in the generational workforce with many long-time, senior leaders leaving their current positions creating both opportunities to rethink and restructure positions and losing long-term institutional knowledge in the churn. The result is a need for a more thoughtful process in leadership transition and a willingness to adjust and adapt the way the mission moves forward with new ways that staff want to do their work while continuing to honor and recognize each generation in the workforce.
• New overtime rules and federal OMB reforms that take effect on July 1 and October 1, 2024. Each will have both positive and challenging impacts on the nonprofit sector to comply with the new rules without new funding to match. On the positive side for some nonprofits, the 10% de minimus indirect rate for operations will rise to 15%, which will help but not solve the gap in funding by the government levied on the nonprofit sector to provide essential services.
• The lack of childcare, housing, and investment in public education and their immediate and long-term impact on employee choices. While most nonprofits cannot solve these pressing concerns directly, the influence they have on employment is present in each offer letter and every decision to stay in a community.
• Board transition and engagement that has also shifted since the onset of the pandemic. Most nonprofits can see similar trends in their board members as in their employees when it comes to the need to spend extra time and energy building and sustaining a productive and connected board team. The pandemic invited a new conversation for volunteers about where and how to spend their free time, and the result is both a reshuffling of board members in and out of organizations and a deep effort to engage those who choose to stay. This has an impact both on the overall health of the organization and also on the board-executive relationship that is central to the success of every mission.
• An all-time high in the possibility of federal infrastructure and broadband funding in Alaska, which requires public-private-nonprofit-tribal collaborations and a workforce to carry out the projects. These projects could change the way we operate in transportation, communication, health and safety, economic development, education, and more, but the pressure to collaborate, plan, request, carry out, and report on each project is immense and intense. To ramp up and then be ready to sustain what we build will be one of Alaska’s greatest collective challenges that will be felt for decades to come.
• More fluidity in the workforce between sectors since the pandemic. More and more, individuals are not just choosing between which nonprofit to work for but between working in the nonprofit sector or another sector. While our data focuses solely on those working in the nonprofit sector, we encourage you to look at comparable jobs in the for-profit and government sectors to better understand the factors that potential and current workers weigh in their decisions. Understanding how a job classification compares to other sectors could mean leading a conversation not with just salary but with tangible and intangible benefits of mission-focused work. It could also have the long-term and more global benefit of raising the expectation and ability to increase compensation in the sector overall compared to other parts of our economy.

These factors and more mean that the employment landscape is incredibly competitive. It can certainly feel overwhelming and hard to navigate. We see nonprofit leaders worried. We hear the concerns. And we recognize that most of these challenges will not be solved by one nonprofit or one change in policy, or a funding decision. We also know that we can all play a role in addressing what is in front of us.

• As nonprofit employers, we urge you to use the data not to make just one salary decision at a time but to define your compensation philosophy and your position in the marketplace. In this competitive environment, don’t forget to use the data to make necessary adjustments in salary and benefits and also highlight all the other less tangible benefits of working for a cause that matters. Additionally, having tools in place like board succession plans, staff succession plans, up-to-date employee policies, strategic plans, and a healthy workplace culture are essential building blocks in today’s workplace. We are ready to help you with all these steps.
• Donors and funders, we urge you to also see these challenges as opportunities to truly see how your investment is helping or further challenging nonprofits to do the work in front of them.
• Policymakers and state agencies, we urge you to quickly adapt to the new OMB rules of 15% de minimus for operating costs at a minimum and to PAY ON TIME EVERY TIME for work supported by your grants and contracts.
• All of us can join a larger set of voices that are advocating for better or more childcare, housing, public education funding, or any of the other larger economic issues facing our workforce and mission.

We are standing with you with data we can turn to action, with tools you can use today, with support to listen and learn on your journey, and with our advocacy voice that seeks the changes we need so we can all succeed in serving our communities. Together we will navigate our way forward.

Reach out! Join us!

Laurie

A complicated truth is that the same turnover, personal time assessment, and value propositions impacting our nonprofit workforce are also deeply impacting our nonprofit boards. The conversations about how to reignite and reengage our most essential volunteers are ever-present. While not surprising, the escalation of these discussions since the pandemic is, just as in the workforce, a reality we must accept. You are not alone in thinking about what is happening in your boardroom as the challenges are not restricted to one type of organization, geography, budget size, or mission topic.

Layering on the shifts in philanthropy and general volunteerism levels in this country and our state is an opportunity to pause and consider what to do next. Importantly, starting by understanding that at the heart of both philanthropy and volunteerism is the value proposition of meaningful engagement – where effort matters, where making a true difference in the world in real time is truth, where boundless opportunities exist to the donor and volunteer to be part of something bigger than oneself. These are all still available tools for us to access. Equally true, we cannot forget that board service is what happens in people’s free time. Board members could be doing anything else, but they are choosing volunteer service (and often choosing philanthropy to match) so our efforts to use our tools are essential to our success to both attract and retain boards on purpose.

Confoundingly, most of the conversations happening in nonprofit capacity-building circles are all about the staff response to board challenges, but the majority of nonprofits in this country and two-thirds of all Alaska nonprofits have no staff. We need a different conversation with different options to keep the mission moving productively and our boards on board.

To be sure, regardless of staffing levels, the research and our experience over decades are clear – the single most important factor of a high-performing organization is the quality of the board’s work. To also be clear, the staff can and often do buoy a low-functioning board for a bit of time, but ultimately it cannot be sustained so we all need to pay attention to how our boards are functioning and do our part, regardless of our role on the board or staff, to help the team succeed.

For all of you serving on nonprofit boards without staff, these five practical options can keep your board engaged and effective, and the work meaningful, and hopefully have fun while not incurring costs.

1. Be clear about the different roles of board members, unpaid staff, and volunteers

While it is never a good idea to be a paid staff and a board member at the same time, it is the norm to be both a board member and an unpaid staff member or volunteer at the same time. The trick is to know the difference between each role and the boundaries and ethics of each. A few ways to make this distinction is to recognize first that boards speak with one voice and have no individual power or authority (regardless of title or tenure) to make individual decisions. The decision is always made by the collective body. At a minimum, these decisions are legal, financial, and strategic and often include matters of public policy, messaging, and strategic partnerships. Unpaid staff have designated and specific roles that if the organization had the resources would be paid positions. These positions provide longevity and continuity of mission and organizational structure. On the other hand, volunteers (who are not board members) are often characterized by short-term and sporadic work and there are often far more of them than either board or staff. All three of these roles often come together in committees where separation of duties and reporting structure become even more important.

• A tool in your toolbox to lend clarity is a written job description. In each instance, job descriptions not only mark the significant responsibilities but also the reporting structure. For example, when are you acting as an unpaid staff member helping to set up an event and reporting to a board committee chair, and when are you the same person sitting in the board room with your peers? Short, written job descriptions help us maintain boundaries, provide clarity of roles, and help us more easily adjust when and if paid staff are hired or new volunteers join the team. Job descriptions can be for the whole board like this example or can be customized to each person. They can also be used for committees and officer positions (see below).

One extra note on potential team members: paid staff or not, it is common for nonprofits to engage 1099 independent contractors as team members. This is common to achieve technical aspects of maintaining the business such as bookkeeping, communication, events, and legal guidance, and can also be used for sporadic mission delivery. If there are no paid staff, the reporting structure, communication, and expectations can quickly become murky and complicated. First, it is essential to clarify that this is truly an independent contractor role and not a subversion of the Department of Labor rules on staffing. Then it is important to ensure written agreements are in place to save time, headaches, and hassle with your team.

2. Be clear about the role of officers

The roles of officers, especially that of the secretary and treasurer are fairly different if there are paid staff on the team or not. For example, generally, if staff are part of the mix they are building the budget, taking minutes, preparing the board packet, storing organizational documents (using a Document Retention Policy), and filing official compliance documents while the board secretary is usually just the official signer on behalf of the organization and the treasurer is usually just presenting the financial statements and/or chairing the finance committee.

• A tool in your toolbox is the job description for the secretary: In a staffed organization, the secretary is less likely to take the minutes because the reality is that whoever is taking notes is likely talking and participating less – we simply lose their voice in the room as their concentration is focused on the minutes. For this reason, in a team without staff, we encourage rotation of the role of note-taker so we don’t lose the same voice in each meeting. We also see a delegation of notetaking at committee meetings and a joint effort by the president/chair, secretary, and treasurer to get a board packet out in advance of the meeting.

The difference in the treasurer’s role revolves around who is preparing the financial statements, budget, and 990 for review. One reason we often see a desire for a “treasurer for life” in unstaffed organizations is that the burden of creating and presenting the financials makes this person indispensable. However, this arrangement also creates some risk management issues for the organization that should be carefully considered.

• A tool in your toolbox is the job description for the treasurer: The reality of a “treasurer for life” is getting harder and harder to maintain. A tool to consider is co-treasurers with segregation and delegation of duties or a treasurer-elect arrangement so there is built-in rotation, mentoring, and checks and balances.

An additional practice is to encourage each board member to serve on the finance committee for at least a year during their time as a way to engage more people and provide a positive exposure to the system.

• Other tools in your toolbox are job descriptions for officers and committees: In each organization, the role of officers is slightly different. Ensuring a written current job description that reflects the bylaws but adds additional context is vital. These job descriptions focus on some standard practices of each position for nonprofits both with and without staff: president/chair job description, chair-elect/vice president job description, secretary job description, treasurer job description

3. Divide your meeting time

Few people want more meetings but if a meeting is necessary then it must focus on what matters the most. When there is no staff and the board is the primary unpaid staff support, it is all too easy to let the urgent take over the strategic, effectively eliminating all the board topics from the agenda in place of the logistics of the day.

• Two tools in your toolbox are the agenda for the board meeting and one for the staff meeting: Taking your monthly board meeting and dividing it in two allows the team to designate what matters the most in two different ways without cannibalizing the other. Each time period has its own agenda and priorities. The “staff meeting” focuses on the operational side of the work and the “board meeting” allows for the necessary strategic, legal financial, etc. conversations and decisions that are essential to a healthy and productive organization. It isn’t about more time, it is about a good use of time. Added bonus, if you have other unpaid staff or volunteers that will add value to the staff meeting portion of the agenda, it is a better use of their time to engage as well. Here are two sample agendas: Board and Staff.

4. Get on the same page

As the saying goes “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Defining success whether strategic goals, annual priorities, fundraising or communication efforts, budget, or truly anything that requires people, time, and money, the team needs a plan to stay on track and work effectively together. Without clear definitions of success and no staff to keep the team aligned, it is simply too easy to get off track and spin in different directions.

• A tool in your toolbox is a simple one-page plan: Focus on a plan that galvanizes the team, aligns committees, prioritizes the budget, and connects everyone back to what is most important. One-page versions of each of the plans mentioned here can be part of each board packet, regularly referenced in the agenda items of each meeting, and used in conversations to focus on the why and the how of the work of the whole team. Additionally, planning documents have the added benefit of managing expectations based on available time, money, and people. While these documents are highly valuable for a team with staff, they are essential for a team without staff. Without them, every road will take you everywhere.

5. Focus on culture not just duties

One of my long-standing models for board service is that of firefighters because they don’t just do their duty to put out fire and that is exactly what makes them good at it. Instead, they focus on the team and build a culture of trust and connection. They play together, eat together, practice together, and align themselves to a set of ethics and values that keep them safe and working as a team. And, they can distinguish fire from other issues they need to contend with so they put the right resources in the right places. The lessons are many and one that stands out among them all is that of a culture of trust, ethics, connection, communication, and team at the center of success.

• A final tool in your toolbox is time to center: A popular phrase, “culture eats strategy for lunch,” serves as a reminder that as we take on various duties and functions and wear numerous hats within a single organization, our primary work is to foster a culture where the organization’s purpose, values, ethics, and trust are at the heart of every decision and every action. Only then do the duties and systems we build last. Take the time to go slow to go fast by centering the team before moving ahead.

Nonprofit board service like civic engagement overall is a choice to take a deeper and more thoughtful step into society at large and our communities more specifically. It is not an easy choice, and each person goes on their own journey to decide when the time is right for them to invest in the process. Let’s all do our part to make sure the board experience is something people want to keep doing and more people choose to do every day.

Laurie

P.S. If you are ready to take the leap into board service, check out Alaska Board Match and sign up today. It’s free.