June 05, 2023 Nonprofit Homeless Response Staff Struggle to Afford Housing. Will Funders Respond? June 05, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe In L.A. and elsewhere, the homeless service sector’s workers are often critically underpaid, and some are at risk of becoming homeless themselves. Part of the problem is funders’ focus on numbers over actual wellbeing.Read More
May 16, 2023 Lessons from Across the Pond: How the Living Wage Foundation Is Exporting Its Success to the U.S. May 16, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe This U.K.-based organization has had some success pushing funders to cover living wages for their grantees’ employees — and doing the same for private sector employment. Its new U.S. affiliate is also off to a promising start.Read More
May 10, 2023 In Three Decades’ of Efforts to Fund the True Costs of Nonprofits, Where Are the Workers? May 10, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe The sector has long been grappling with the “nonprofit starvation cycle,” in which organizations are never able to cover the full costs of their work. One key component of the problem has received too little attention — labor.Read More
May 01, 2023 This Bay Area Grantmaker’s Pushing for Good Nonprofit Jobs. Will Other Funders Take a Cue? May 01, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe With its new $24.5 million Endeavor Fund, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund made a point of selecting grantees committed to their workers’ wellbeing. Haas is also being loud and proud about that fact in front of other funders.Read More
April 20, 2023 Six Organizations Fighting to Improve Nonprofit Pay and Working Conditions April 20, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe Amid burnout and poor retention, there’s a growing push for funders to provide greater support to nonprofit workers. Here’s a handful of organized efforts. Read More
March 22, 2023 What Makes a Funder Worker-Friendly? Here's a Handy Report Card March 22, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe With burnout and retention struggles in the nonprofit world, more funders need to prioritize worker wellbeing among their grantees. We’ve compiled a list of criteria to determine whether a grantmaker is getting it right.Read More
March 13, 2023 What Funders Can Do to Fight the Nonprofit Worker Burnout Crisis March 13, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe Nonprofit workers are suffering. Fortunately, there’s a lot that funders, especially, can and should do to create better sector jobs. This new toolkit lays out some action items for both funders and grantees.Read More
February 01, 2023 We Went in Search of Funders Prioritizing Nonprofit Pay and Benefits. The Results Were Underwhelming February 01, 2023/ Dawn Wolfe With worker burnout surging and nonprofits struggling to retain staff, we figured there must be some funders out there making better pay and benefits a part of their grantmaking. Spoiler alert: We only found one.Read More
January 10, 2023 This Funders Group Wants Philanthropy to Take the Lead on Nonprofit Worker Wellbeing January 10, 2023/ Wendy Paris Nonprofit workers are burned out, and the wellbeing of those working to make the world a better place has been overlooked for years. A collaborative group of a dozen funders is working to change that. Read More
November 08, 2022 Fund the People is Fighting for the Wellbeing of Nonprofit Workers — and Funders are Listening November 08, 2022/ Dawn Wolfe Fund the People is a small organization out to make some big changes to how grantmaking works, prioritizing increased funding in support of staff. The group has the ear of several major foundations.Read More
October 27, 2022 Organizers Are Burned Out. New Research Shows How Funders Can Improve Labor Standards October 27, 2022/ Kevin Simowitz and Chris Cardona, Guest Contributors The front-line workers who make organizing groups work are burned out, underpaid and under-appreciated. Guest authors from Ford Foundation and All Due Respect argue that funders can and must make organizing sustainable.Read More
September 28, 2022 Nonprofit Workers Are Burned Out. Here’s How Funders Make it Worse — and How They Can Help September 28, 2022/ Dawn Wolfe Between the pandemic, political and economic crises, and years of being underpaid and overworked, nonprofit staff are exhausted. Funders often contribute to their pain, but how might they help the sector recover?Read More
September 07, 2022 Durfee Isn’t Alone: Here’s Who’s Moving Money to Support the Wellbeing of Nonprofit Staff September 07, 2022/ Dawn Wolfe A search for funders offering support similar to the Durfee Foundation’s Lark Awards, which provide relief to exhausted nonprofit staff, only turned up a handful of names. Here’s a rundown.Read More
July 30, 2021 Five Lessons for Funders From the Implosion of a Nonprofit News Site July 30, 2021/ Trip Brennan Alleged worker mistreatment took The Appeal, a nonprofit news site, from ambitious expansion plans to complete implosion in a matter of months. Here’s what funders can do to help their grantees avoid a similar fate.Read More