What to consider as a…
Director Who is Trying to Raise Funding for Personnel Needs
We believe funders play a key role in improving working conditions for community organizers. As the main keepers of the resources that support organizing work, funders need to be more aware of the real costs of the work and the tough choices that directors are forced to make when allocating resources.
How to talk to program officers about the cost of doing the work
The trend toward trust-based philanthropy is encouraging, pushing more funders to consider general operating support grants without strict constraints on project-specific support. But, we have found in our donor organizing work that many program officers are not sure how to engage in conversations about staff wages, HR policies, and other internal organizational dynamics without worrying that they’re intruding on a director’s autonomous decision-making.
And yet, the directors we’ve spoken with say they’re unsure if their funders support directing resources toward personnel needs. Some directors even worry their funders still follow a former philanthropic norm that stipulates no more than 30% of resources should be allocated to overhead. These dynamics would be alleviated with more transparent conversation about staffing needs and, ideally, reassurance from funders that resources can—and should—go towards investing in organizing teams.
“One of the hardest parts of this job is prioritizing programming, which makes our org what it is, and staffing, which makes our programming happen. It’s a constant see-saw to keep our doors open and I wish there was a way I didn’t have to constantly make that choice.”
— Executive Director
Some effective tactics we have seen:
- Communicate the full costs of doing the work. While the cost of living, health insurance rates, and general inflation have all increased, grant amounts have mostly stayed the same. We strongly encourage directors to be as clear as possible about what their organizations need to to both support their teams and further programmatic impact. Resource to check out: Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Full Cost Project
- Share more with funders about the current state of staff turnover and morale, as well as your goals about how you would like to support your team. Many funders won’t know to ask about these needs, but through our interviews and conversations, we have found many funders would like to be helpful to directors looking to address these concerns. Even when funders may not be able to increase their grant size, they might be able to help organize funder colleagues. Additional tools for funders can be found in All Due Respect’s “Sustainable Jobs for Organizers” toolkit.
- Many directors and organizations feel confined by the metrics to demonstrate as much programmatic impact as possible to ensure continued funding support—a very real pressure and challenging dynamic in our movement. And yet, it’s the team members and organizers who make that programmatic work possible. Communicating with funders about the need to support staff in order to continue programmatic impact might help to make the case that funds for overhead and personnel are not distinct from (and are in fact the driver of) the ability to demonstrate impact and win campaigns.
Unrestricted funding for overhead expenses is one way funding partners can support the capacity needed to help an organization grow alongside their organizing teams. Having dedicated staff to create and maintain practices around cost of living increases, onboarding, hiring, payroll, and proactive work concerning salaries and benefits can ease the stress on the other staff members who often take on this work outside of their job descriptions.
So much of what makes an organizing program successful is the ability to build on campaigns and work that continues over multiple cycles. Relationships with community members are built over time and aren’t something that can be manufactured easily. The importance of retaining organizers who are experts in their organizing work and in their communities is something directors should emphasize to funders as an investment that requires proper staff and maintained systems.