Over the past year, I traveled across the country on a national Listening Tour to hear from nonprofit and philanthropic leaders like you about our sector’s trends, challenges, and opportunities. I heard a similar message in each of my conversations: our sector’s workforce is in critical need of support.
I heard that nonprofit workers are depleted, under-resourced, and flat-out exhausted. Yet, our workforce consistently leans into every crisis and responds to every call, just as we did during COVID-19, keeping communities alive.
Let’s not forget that the nonprofit workforce is the third-largest private workforce in the nation, made up of 12.5 million people who work at more than 1.8 million nonprofits. We’re responsible for delivering over 5% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Yet, the majority of nonprofits currently have more vacancies now than compared to before the pandemic, as research from the National Council on Nonprofits shows. Budget constraints, burnout, and lack of quality childcare continue to create barriers to recruiting nonprofit employees — nearly two-thirds of which are women.
Dr. Akilah Watkins
When nonprofits don’t have the workforce to deliver critical programs and services, individuals and communities across the nation suffer. And when we look for solutions to strengthen our workforce, data are a critical component to informing effective policies and strategies.
Our annual calculation of the value of a volunteer hour, for example, helps us quantify the enormous value volunteers provide. While putting a dollar value on volunteer hours will never do justice to their true worth, charitable organizations use this calculation to quantify impact for funders, raise awareness of volunteer programs, and show how volunteers are an important component of their workforce.
From volunteers to employees, we need robust data about the sector’s workforce. However, there’s still a glaring gap: a lack of timely nonprofit wage and employment data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes detailed data on jobs across various industries every quarter, through its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. Covering more than 95% of U.S. jobs, these reports help public officials and industry leaders make economic, financial, and policy decisions.
Despite publishing data for many sectors, BLS does not provide quarterly data for nonprofits. Instead, it only releases nonprofit sector data every five years. This means nonprofit employers and public officials must make decisions about essential services, organizational strategy, and workforce projections without up-to-date or precise information. The most recent nonprofit data was released in 2017 — leaving a significant gap in knowledge about workforce changes during and after the pandemic.
Independent Sector is mobilizing a coalition of nonprofits working with Congress and the Biden Administration to secure federal funding to correct this data inequity. Nonprofit leaders need access to quarterly wage and employment data to understand their workforce trends, develop informed strategies, and ensure communities across the nation receive vital programs and services.
The deadline for Representatives to weigh in has passed, but Senators can support this effort by signing on in support of “FY25 BLS Funding for Nonprofit Data.” First, they need to hear from you! You can help by looking up your legislators and using this template to make the case for nonprofit workforce data before May 8.
Together, with the right data, we can build a stronger, healthier nonprofit workforce — one that is equipped to strengthen civil society and ensure all people in the United States thrive.
Dr. Akilah Watkins is president and CEO of Independent Sector.
