Nearly three years into the Covid-19 pandemic, hiring and retaining employees is one of the biggest challenges facing Vermont’s nonprofits, according to a report released Wednesday by Common Good Vermont.
“They’re trying to be competitive with other nonprofits and even with the for-profit sector as well,” said Morgan Webster, director of Common Good Vermont, an organization that supports nonprofits and conducted the survey. “Nonprofit directors (and) boards have to make difficult decisions (about) what are they going to offer new hires and even current employees in terms of not just their salaries but their total compensation.”
Out of the 141 nonprofits who responded to the survey, 53% reported job vacancies. The greatest number of vacancies — 55% — involved the positions that provide direct help to people the organizations serve.
Mark Redmond, executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Burlington, said he used to look at what other nonprofits were paying when he was hiring or trying to retain employees.
“Now, I’m looking at the Burlington Bagel Company as my competition,” Redmond said, “because they’re paying a higher wage than I’m paying to people with a bachelor’s degree.”
The organization works with homeless youth, runaways, youth struggling with addiction and victims of human trafficking. It also runs the state’s Youth Development Program, preparing youth in foster care in Chittenden and Franklin counties for independent living, finishing high school and getting into college.
And its client list has shot up this year — from 966 people in 2021 to 1,280 currently.
Half the nonprofits surveyed reported they plan to increase the size of their staffs. The organizations reported that their top hiring challenge is competition around wages and benefits. As a result, nonprofits are offering more opportunities to work remotely, enriching benefits and offering bonuses to hirees and to employees who refer new hires.
The report took a closer look at 27 job categories at a subset of Vermont nonprofits and found that the average hourly wage for those positions was $28.47, up from $26.20 in 2020. The average compensation for an executive director was $96,741. Female executive directors on average earned 73% of what their male counterparts made. Executive directors who are Black, Indigenous or People of Color made 88% of their white counterparts’ salaries.
Three-quarters of the nonprofits offer group health insurance. The organizations report that benefits now represent 20% of total compensation, with a third reporting that they pay for the entirety of their employees’ health care coverage. Half reported paying an increase in health insurance premiums.
“The rising cost of health insurance has really been impacting nonprofits,” Webster said.
Spectrum’s insurance premiums are increasing 16% next year, Redmond said, while state grants the organization receives are level-funded. He said state grants must increase if nonprofits are to keep up with inflation.
“We cannot just keep getting the same amount of money year after year and expect to hold on to staff,” Redmond said. “There’s got to be an element of fairness and an element of adequately compensating us.”
Before the pandemic, 60% of employees at nonprofits surveyed worked in the office full time. Nonprofits now report that they anticipate that only 34% of their employees will work in the office full time a year from now.
Only 21% of responding nonprofits reported tracking information on the gender and race of their employees. At those organizations, women represent 56% of employees and 61% of senior leadership. Black, Indigenous or people of color represent 9% of employees and 6% of senior leadership.
About three-quarters of nonprofits surveyed reported having a statement that they combat bias and advance equity in hiring and compensation. And 67% reported publicly posting wages and salaries as an effort to advance equitable hiring practices.
Common Good Vermont conducts the survey every other year. More than 4,500 people are employed by the 141 nonprofits who responded. There are some 6,200 nonprofits in the state.
One in seven Vermonters works for a nonprofit organization, according to the report.
The report found that nonprofits contribute $5.7 billion a year to the Vermont economy through wages, purchases and professional service contracts.
Clarification: This story has been edited to more accurately describe the hourly wage increase in certain nonprofit positions.