Why Continuing Education Is Important for Nonprofit Staff
Let’s face it. Hiring is a pain.
The networking… the advertising… the interviews… the paperwork… and then (cue dramatic music)… the decision.
Hiring is risky. Does the new hire fit in and “play well with others?” Are they productive? Can they work independently? Are they everything they said they were in the interview?
Hiring is also expensive—and deceptively so. Yes, there are costs you can see, like advertising, but it’s the hidden costs that build up quickly. Interviews take time—and time is money. Nonprofits are often very democratic in their decision-making process. After screening a flood of resumes (which takes time for at least one person, maybe more), there’s multiple levels of interviews with increasingly costly staff, from administrative assistants to executive directors.
Oh, and let’s not forget the reference calls to people who are either set up to say nice things, or those who don’t want to be held morally or legally responsible for your hire.
So, why bring up the pitfalls of hiring in an article about continuing education? In order to pursue your mission effectively, you’ll need the support of a well-built-out nonprofit team. And as the saying goes, “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.” Or, plainly put, training is cheaper than hiring.
Some studies put the cost of hiring at as much as 30% of the new hire’s salary! Compare that to the average cost of annual training for in-house staff, at $1,286 per learner. Even at twice the average, training existing team members saves you a lot over hiring new.
But that’s just one reason why you should embrace training for your nonprofit staff. Let’s explore a few more.
1. Training impacts your marketing strategies.
Most people don’t connect marketing with training, but there’s a solid line between them.
First, making training opportunities available is just good internal marketing. The reason is simple: humans want to grow. We’re blessed and burdened by being (arguably) the most intelligent species on the planet. We can get a lot done, but we can also get very bored when we’re not engaged—and boredom leads directly to poor job performance.
You want people to come to work excited about what they do. Your mission is a major part of that. Every person needs to feel that they are contributing the best they can, and learning new ways to contribute keeps up the excitement.
Second, there’s external marketing. Your staff and volunteers go home. They encounter family and friends. What’s the first question they’re asked when they hit the door at home: “How was your day?”
Of course, not every day will go swimmingly, but the general theme needs to be that your mission is important to them despite any daily troubles. Training, like mentioned above, is part of that.
And there’s more. A well-trained mission provider, like a social worker or office admin, and especially anyone who has direct contact with clients, reflects positively on your organization in the community. That phlebotomist who makes home visits to draw blood may be the only experience your patient has with your nonprofit on a regular basis. If it takes them five jabs to get a sample, that patient will tell her friends not to use your services. And word gets around.
2. Training reduces liability.
Do you work with children? How about the elderly? Do you maintain trails in the woods? Do people enter your building for services, or do you send staff out to their location?
Let’s face it, the potential for things to go wrong is everywhere—and if something does, can a lawyer be far behind?
It’s an unfortunate reality of our world today that you and your organization are expected to be perfect. And it’s not just because you may be sued or to keep your insurance rates low. The 24-hour news cycle, and hyper-competitive local networks look for stories like these to investigate. Problems with nonprofits get particular attention because nonprofits exist for the public’s good.
Solid training lessens your risk. Whether you’re providing the latest techniques to line workers who carry out your mission directly with clients, offering ethics training to your entire staff, or making sure that your facilities volunteers know the right way to shovel snow for their own safety, the more and better you train your team, the less you put your organization at risk.
3. Training is often required.
There are specific roles in your nonprofit that must seek training, whether to update their licenses or to work with vulnerable populations. Accountants, teachers, medical professionals, and social work personnel are among those whose state, provincial, or even national governments require specific training to maintain their status.
Then there’s non-required, but important certifications that look for continuing education, like fundraisers with the Certified Fund Raising Executive (or CFRE) designations.
4. Training impacts ratings.
The Better Business Bureau’s Standards for Charity Accountability, one of several charity rating programs, calls for regular assessment of whether a nonprofit is meeting its mission goals. This document states the following:
“A charity should regularly assess its effectiveness in achieving its mission… an organization has defined, measurable goals and objectives in place and a defined process in place to evaluate the success and impact of its program(s) in fulfilling the goals and objectives of the organization and that also identifies ways to address any deficiencies.”
Untrained or poorly trained staff can’t meet these standards, so it’s critical that you invest in continuing education and professional development to increase your ratings and accountability with supporters.
5. Training keeps up with change.
The world changes quickly—and so do jobs.
This past year changed the world in ways that we are just now starting to realize. There’s no doubt that your nonprofit is different than it was in January of 2020. Everyone felt the impact on a personal level—not just in their own health and the health of loved ones, but in how they do their job.
While sudden, this isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon. Jobs change all of the time, but usually more incrementally. According to The New York Times, in the 1890s, there were 40 buggy whip makers in Westfield, Massachusetts—also known as “Whip City.” Today? Only one. It was a slow but inevitable decline as autos and trucks replaced horses and carriages for transportation.
While your nonprofit and its jobs probably won’t go the way of buggy whip makers, it’s important that you keep up with the latest in methods, service delivery techniques, and personnel support systems. Remember, there was a time when computers, if you had one, were bulky and run exclusively by specialists, and cell phones were a novelty. Can you afford to be without them today? Or, a better question—does your staff use them to their full potential to deliver your mission?
These are just a few reasons why staff and volunteer training in your nonprofit is essential, rather than a luxury. As a learning organization, you’ll retain hires and attract the people you want—making hiring, if you have to do it, much less expensive. But none of this is as important as how training positively impacts your mission and how your constituents feel about how you carry it out. In other words, mission is always your number one priority, and effective and ongoing training is the way to get there.
About the Author
Matt Hugg, President and Founder of Nonprofit.Courses
Matt Hugg is an author and instructor in nonprofit management in the US and abroad. He is president and founder of Nonprofit.Courses, an on-demand, eLearning educational resource for nonprofit leaders, staff, board members, and volunteers, with thousands of courses in nearly every aspect of nonprofit work. He’s the author of The Guide to Nonprofit Consulting, and Philanders Family Values, Fun Scenarios for Practical Fundraising Education for Boards, Staff and Volunteers, and a contributing author to The Healthcare Nonprofit: Keys to Effective Management.
