What the public doesn’t see: Raising the profile of nonprofit workers

In an earlier “Mission over myth” article, we noted how the overhead myth ignores the importance of expenses such as staff salaries. One assumption behind that myth is that nonprofits are—or should be—run by volunteers, not paid staff.

When nonprofit workers aren’t seen, their work can be undervalued and unappreciated. At a time when nonprofits are under financial pressure—facing layoffs and closures—supporters, the public, and elected officials need to see the essential role nonprofit workers play in their communities.

Nonprofits employ the third largest workforce in the United States

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, nonprofits accounted for 12.8 million jobs, or 9.9 percent of all private-sector jobs. This makes the nonprofit sector the third largest employer in the U.S., behind only the retail and manufacturing sectors.

Beyond the services they provide in their communities, the nonprofit workforce makes a significant impact on local economies. According to the National Council of Nonprofits, U.S. nonprofits spend nearly $2 trillion annually, including more than $826 billion on salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes. And nonprofit staff pay taxes on their salaries, as well as sales taxes and property taxes, benefiting local, state, and national economies.

Four in 10 nonprofits are volunteer-run

It’s true that most nonprofits have no paid staff or only a few. Among nonprofits that file IRS Form 990, 43% are completely volunteer-run, and another 27% have 10 or fewer staff members. Only 9% have 81 or more employees. If we just look at numbers, there are 75.7 million volunteers nationwide, far outnumbering the 12.8 million nonprofit employees.

However, nonprofit workers cannot be replaced by volunteers, who put in just 66 hours a year on average. According to AmeriCorps, the nearly five billion hours of work volunteers put in annually is the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time employees. That’s not nearly enough. And volunteers generate labor valued at less than 20% of what paid nonprofit staff earn each year.

Clearly, the misperception that nonprofit work can be done solely by volunteer labor needs correcting.

Nonprofit workers are trained professionals

Moreover, nonprofit staff are irreplaceable in that they’re highly qualified professionals—who have gained expertise through education, training, and/or lived experience.

Nonprofit workers tend to have higher educational attainment than workers in the for-profit and public sectors or the self-employed. In 2022, 32.7% of nonprofit employees had a master’s degree or higher, 21.3% had some college education or an associate’s degree, and 31.9% had a bachelor’s degree.

In addition, 34.6% of nonprofit staff had a certification or license, compared with 24% of workers overall. Nearly half of certified or licensed nonprofit workers were health care practitioners or in technical occupations.

Nonprofit workers’ lack of visibility can undermine mission delivery

The size, impact, and expertise of the nonprofit workforce are invisible to most of the public. How does this affect nonprofits and the communities they work in?

When donors assume nonprofits run solely on volunteer labor, they’re less likely to fund the salaries of full-time staff—the very people who make mission delivery possible for many organizations. That can mean community needs for access to food, shelter, mental health care, and other vital services are not met; qualified nonprofit workers are laid off; and the local economy suffers.

In reality, nonprofits have long suffered from staff shortages, given budget constraints, rigorous job requirements and heavy workloads, and staff burnout. Today, when full-time staff are stretched thin as demand for services continues to grow, volunteers are as invaluable as ever. But full-time nonprofit workers need to be seen; their contribution to the local community, economy, and society need to be supported.

Change the narrative: Spotlight nonprofit workers, who drive the mission

To help raise the profile of the nonprofit workforce, you can:

• Talk about how paid staff contribute to your organization’s mission.
• Make individual staff part of your impact story. Don’t just describe the programs in the abstract.
• Keep your Candid profile up to date with staff and leadership data, so potential donors and funders can see the real people behind the work.

If nonprofit workers remain invisible, the public will go on assuming that nonprofits can run on volunteer labor.

To drill down further, you can use Candid’s Tableau dashboards to find out the size of the nonprofit ecosystem in your congressional district—the number of organizations, number of employees, and total nonprofit revenue—as well as the number of nonprofits and employees in your state and how they would be affected by federal funding cuts.

This article is part of our “Mission over myth” series seeking to break down myths and misconceptions about the nonprofit sector.

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