According to the 2024 Social Impact Staff Retention Report, three out of every four nonprofit employees are looking for a new job. More than half of those people are unsure they will continue working in the nonprofit sector. Rob Harter’s guest, Julia Devine, shares what nonprofit leaders can do to alleviate this retention issue.

Julia is the Co-founder of Relatable Nonprofit. The team at Relatable Nonprofit is committed to empowering purpose-driven professionals to become nonprofit consultants and grow successful businesses.

Julia shares her experience working for nonprofits and being promoted too quickly in a previous position. She states nonprofits often lack long-term staff retention plans and promote whoever is available, leading to burnout and misalignment. Speaking of misalignment and burnout, these are some of the main reasons nonprofit staff members will seek new employment. Julia believes it is vital for leaders to get very clear before hiring staff and to be very transparent with current staff to find out their needs. Looking at the 2024 report, the data indicates a high turnover rate for those working in marketing. Julia shares her thoughts on why that is the case. Julia also shares other trends she notices in the sector, that are holding nonprofits back from succeeding. She believes nonprofit leaders are afraid to change and take risks, leading to a lack of experimentation or innovation. Finally, Julia encourages professionals in the nonprofit sector to stop settling for the status quo and instead be unconventional in how they approach their careers.

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