I hate to be the bearer of yet more bad news at a time when many nonprofits are worried about how the recent election will impact their finances. Sure, some may benefit from “rage giving” to causes that are at greatest risk as they did in 2016, but others have good reason to fear deep cuts in federal and state funding.
That fear is not a reason for nonprofits to back off of fair pay.
It’s downright shameful that 1 in 5 nonprofit workers struggle to pay their bills.
Those data come from the Independent Sector and the research organization, United for ALICE. ALICE stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” – people who earn too much to be considered “in poverty” but still can’t afford the basics where they live. The two organizations teamed up to produce a report that “rigorously analyzed[s] publicly available data to understand the financial status of the country’s 13.9 million nonprofit employees.”
The ALICE report tells us that 32% of folks who work for “social assistance” nonprofits fall into the financial hardship category. And since 45 percent of nonprofits operate programs that focus on people and families living below the federal poverty level that’s a ton of financially stressed workers.
Sadly, but not surprisingly Black and Hispanic workers had it the worst with more than 1/3 classified as being in financial hardship regardless of the type of nonprofit that employed them.
PLEASE THINK ABOUT THIS.
Fair pay isn’t a gift. It should be a given for any nonprofit.
Start by sharing the ALICE report with your colleagues and board members. It’s very short and to the point. Use it to begin meaningful discussions about your organization’s values and finances. Then develop a plan for fair pay throughout your organization. That might mean redistributing money within your organization to ensure that those at the bottom aren’t stuck in unlivable wages.
At a time when the world seems to many of us to be filled with meanness, let’s start working on changing it by addressing inequities within our own organizations.
The time for change is now.
It begins with us.
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Pat Libby is a change management consultant working principally with nonprofit corporations. She is author of The Empowered Citizens Guide: 10 Steps to Passing a Law that Matters to You, Oxford University Press, The Lobbying Strategy Handbook, second edition, Oxford University Press, and Cases in Nonprofit Management, SAGE. She has served as an academic, senior executive, board member, and consultant to innumerable nonprofit organizations and foundations for more than three decades.
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