How Prioritizing Recruitment Can Benefit Fundraising Efforts

If you’re part of the 71% of nonprofits that have seen an increase in demand for programs and services, chances are you wear many hats to keep your organization up and running. Between fundraising, maintaining strong relationships with donors, managing volunteers, and running your programs, you have more than enough on your plate. 

If your team members are regularly spreading themselves too thin, recruiting more helping hands is the best choice for your beneficiaries and mission. Adding skilled team members is an investment in your nonprofit’s capacity, allowing you to tackle challenges down the road.

In this guide, we’ll review why nonprofits should prioritize recruitment and build a dedicated strategy. As we review these advantages, consider which areas of your organization need additional support and might benefit from a robust hiring strategy. 

What makes up a recruitment strategy for nonprofits?

Before we get into the benefits of recruitment strategies, let’s review some essential elements: 

• Long-term goals and objectives to help you prioritize recruitment efforts
• Employer branding that clarifies what working for your organization looks like
• Recruitment channels that help you source the best candidates
• Engagement and retention tactics to keep candidates engaged throughout the hiring process into onboarding
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) to help your nonprofit define success and stay on track
• Employment benefits to attract and retain top talent
• Recruiting technology to streamline your hiring process

Now that you have an idea of what should be part of your recruitment strategy, here’s why you should have one. 

Benefits of Having a Recruitment Strategy

1. Improved Quality of Hire

According to JazzHR’s data-driven recruitment guide, Quality of Hire is one of the most important indicators of your organization’s recruitment success and overall effectiveness. By creating a concerted recruiting strategy, you can establish exactly what skills, traits, and experiences the ideal candidate should bring to the table. Take a look at these two hypothetical scenarios that show the difference between a nonprofit using a recruitment strategy versus one that isn’t:

• Nonprofit A lacks a strong recruitment strategy. They’re looking for someone with experience marketing fundraising events, but they don’t specify the exact qualifications they’re looking for and post vague job descriptions that attract a wide variety of marketing applicants. Therefore, the candidates with the best skillsets can’t find the opportunity and don’t apply. The interview process takes much longer, as the nonprofit has to sift through more applicants. Eventually, they settle on candidates who aren’t the best fit for their needs.
• Nonprofit B has a strong recruitment strategy. They’re also looking for event marketers, but they know which sourcing channels to use, have a consistent interview process, and establish firm criteria for successful candidates. This way, the nonprofit saves time without compromising on hiring quality.

By putting some time and energy into effectively reaching your ideal candidates, you’ll improve your Quality of Hire and save time in the long run by narrowing your candidate pool.

2. Added Capacity

Nearly 75% of nonprofits have reported job vacancies in the past year. As mentioned earlier, your nonprofit needs enough hands on deck to keep everything running smoothly. Here are some new areas your nonprofit can focus on that might not already be on your radar with improved capacity:

• Next-gen digital marketing. Did you know your nonprofit can leverage $10,000 worth of marketing credits for free each month through the Google Ad Grants program? Getting Attention suggests hiring a digital marketing coordinator so you can leverage emerging marketing opportunities for nonprofits like Google Ads.  
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships. CSR partnerships with businesses can bring your nonprofit significant revenue, but sourcing sponsorships and promoting opportunities to donors can be a lot of work. A dedicated team member can work around the clock to spread the word and find the best partnerships for your organization. 
• Grant writing and management. Grant writing is more than just completing grant applications. A grant manager can write grant proposals and conduct the necessary relationship management to ensure you can secure repeat funding in the future.

To determine which additional roles you should hire for, discuss your nonprofit’s current goals with your broader hiring team and prioritize which roles to fill accordingly.

3. Accessibility of Useful Tools

Two of the most significant barriers to hiring—especially for nonprofits—are time and money. After all, spending time on other projects can detract from pressing mission-critical activities. 

But what if your nonprofit could hire efficiently without breaking the bank? That’s where applicant tracking systems (ATS) can help. An ATS allows your organization to visualize exactly where each candidate falls in the hiring process with automated workflows, making recruitment more efficient.

If you’re concerned about cost, don’t be! Some ATS and other recruiting tools are custom-built for small businesses and nonprofits. Not only are these solutions affordable, but they’re more straightforward and user-friendly than more feature-rich solutions meant for large organizations.

4. Improved Retention Rates

With one of the highest burnout rates in the workforce, many nonprofits constantly have to acquire new talent. However, by putting more time and effort into your recruitment strategy, you can find candidates who are more likely to stay on your team long-term.

Your recruitment retention rate is a key contributor to your overall recruitment return on investment (ROI). Here’s how you can focus your recruitment strategy on retention:

• Ask candidates about their long-term life or career plans. For example, if your nonprofit is focusing on long-term retention, a key contender for a role who reveals that they’re headed to law school in two years might not be a great fit.
• Highlight unique employment benefits. Benefits are an important factor in keeping employees motivated and engaged in their work. Lead with your most appealing benefits, such as paid time off and competitive compensation.
• Gauge cause connection. If a candidate reveals a personal connection to your mission, they’re more likely to do right by your organization through challenging times.

After recruitment is over, make sure to keep up with your employee retention efforts. Send your employees surveys to check their satisfaction, and implement any feasible suggestions that will improve your retention rate.

Whether you need to hire an auction coordinator or an office manager, a recruitment strategy tailored to your goals and objectives is the best asset you have to improve retention and quality of hire. It will take some time to fully hone your approach, but once you do, it’ll be easier than ever to assemble your dream team.