Labor shortage hits nonprofit organizations harder than other business sectors

Council of Nonprofits in the News

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Workforce

#Relief4Charities

Rick Cohen is the chief operating officer for the National Council of Nonprofits.

The National Council of Nonprofits is the nation's largest network of nonprofits. In October 2021, the network posted an online survey to gauge the scope of the labor shortage problem.

“We're still down more than 500,000 nonprofit employees from the beginning of the pandemic, that's half a million people who are helping people in their community and we need those people back,” said Cohen.

He said there are various reasons that nonprofits are hurting more than private businesses when it comes to employee shortage, citing it’s partly due to burnout but mostly because they can’t raise wages to attract more workers.

“Nonprofits are really boxed in because we want to raise wages, but the funding just isn't there,” said Cohen.

He said nonprofits can only raise wages if funding is sufficient.

“A lot of nonprofits operate with government contracts that pay a certain amount, and those contracts aren't being renegotiated to allow nonprofits to pay their workers more, and so we can't really compete when Amazon or Target or Walmart raise their wages,” said Cohen.

Source Name: 

News5 Cleveland

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https://www.news5cleveland.com/local-news/help-wanted-ohio/labor-shortag...