Nonprofit Challenges: Abuses
While Fortune 500 companies--and the “corporate world” in general--tend to have pretty terrible reputations for lack of work/life balance, many nonprofits could go toe-to-toe with them in the ranks of “most toxic work cultures” due to their frequent misuse of hardworking volunteers, miserly pay, bloated workloads, and long hours required of their employees. This isn’t even counting the years of abusive donors introduced into the culture, where employees are made to feel they must do and put up with anything to not lose that holy donation dollar that the organization professes to not be able to live without.
Along with their nonprofit status, organizations can blur lines that today even sizable Corporations would be hard-pressed to get away with. Many of these rules depend upon an honor system by the administrations to avoid abuse. Yet, some use this same caveat to advance toxic behaviors within the leadership, employment base, donor base, and more. For instance, there is no “law” against an employee of a nonprofit “volunteering” additional hours of their time to the organization in another department. Many nonprofit employees have one official title but rarely stick to only that one department’s tasks due to the requirements to keep the place running with as few employees as possible. The line of where one job ends and another begins gets blurred--specifically when there are no official specifications written down anywhere and can easily be manipulated by Executive staff.
Already overworked and then further guilted into “volunteering” for more hours in order to be a “team player” is one of the top concerning things I’ve heard from countless nonprofit employees. The fact it isn’t so much a complaint as a stated fact proves how far this particular abuse is infused as some sort of inevitable part of the culture.
When it comes to donor abuses, the published stats speak for themselves. A study by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2018 found that nearly ¼ of women in fundraising alone reported experiencing harassment, with 65% of them reporting that at least one of their harassers was a donor. The same study noted that though 91% of fundraising professionals are optimistic that their organization would support them if they reported such abuse, 71% of those who actually experienced sexual harassment and reported it said their organization had done nothing. 35% even felt negative impacts on their careers through even reporting their incidents of harassment in the first place. When money and power muzzles the abused, toxicity that will thrive, and it can and will spread across even the Executive and Board level (35% of sexual harassment reports are regarding Board Members, according to the same AFP report.)
These are two instances where the abuses of nonprofit culture can easily slip into the cracks, establishing long-term footholds. These abuses can be particularly harsh when people who have a heart for public service are already dealing with the low pay, long hours, hand-me-down tools. Not to mention magician-like expectations to build and elevate community services and outreach programs from scraps of left-over funding and whim-based donations. Supporting these employees as they support the community should be a mandate of every nonprofit. To retain their talent, protect their mission with purposeful intent, and serve the community they are built to serve... which, by the way, includes the employees who work there.