Five Tips for Equitable and Efficient Nonprofit Recruitment
Note: Donorly capitalizes the word “White” in alignment with the National Association of Black Journalists and many other institutions.
Donorly is a White-led and predominantly-White organization. As part of our anti-racism commitment, we have been digging into almost every aspect of our operations, removing White supremacist practices and assumptions and engaging in open dialogue and experimentation around how to become an anti-racist, multicultural organization.
As we continue to grow and formalize our operational processes, Donorly has experimented with recruitment and hiring best practices. While it’s too early to say that we’ve “figured it all out,” we thought that it would be valuable to share what we’ve learned over the last year with other organizations – like you! – as we move together toward building a better world.
Below are five tips for equitable and efficient recruitment, learned over the course of about one year of focused work and study:
Your Organization’s Culture Is the Biggest Determinant
Don’t Just Update the Job Description—Update Your Approach
Perfect Objectivity Is Impossible, But Worth Striving For
Be Transparent With Everyone
Center Your Anti-Racist Values at Every Stage
Many thanks to Sharifa Johka and Equity Allies, and all the other leaders and teachers near and far we learn from every day, for inspiring this work and guiding our approach! Let’s get into it.
Your Organization’s Culture Is the Biggest Determinant
There are qualified Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) candidates out there. (This is NOT a “pipeline” issue.) The question is, how can you recruit them to your organization?
Hiring and recruitment is intimately connected with the culture of your organization. If you want to have an awesome candidate pool, you need to cultivate an organizational culture where everyone can thrive.
If your predominantly or historically White organization is also a harbor for racism, microaggressions, and White supremacy culture, potential applicants will find out. Qualified candidates will learn about you before applying through informal networks, professional connections, or by just evaluating your website, your work, your impact, your staff, and whatever else is available.
Does this worry you? If it does, you’ve got work to do. Being an anti-racist organization is more than just diversity. It’s about the deeper work. It begins with your values, which then lead your actions. For Donorly, those actions have included anti-racism trainings for leadership and staff and focused, staff-led work toward policy and operational improvements. We also are working on establishing transparent structures and affinity groups.
The specific steps you need to take depend on your organization and staff – we recommend engaging with a professional facilitator to begin your journey, as we did with Equity Allies.
Don’t Just Update the Job Description – Update Your Approach
Well, yes, please update that job description with the basics. But first, consider what skills, attributes, and experience a candidate would need to be successful. In many positions, there is more than one way to succeed. If you want to have a great applicant pool, make sure that your process leaves space for a variety of approaches, backgrounds, and temperaments.
Consider the ways that you are limiting your applicant pool. For example, many positions have arbitrary requirements, like a certain amount of formal education or experience in their field. “Vanity skills,” as they are called, are particularly pervasive in the nonprofit world, where job descriptions for entry-level positions ask for experience in specific fields, when their responsibilities are not specialized and where soft skills like taking the initiative, organization, and communication are more relevant to employees’ success.
There are some situations where prior experiences and/or connections are important, such as in a start-up environment, but even in those situations, be clear about why they are valuable. Often, requirements are just carried over from old job descriptions, without much thought put into it.
Once you start editing your job description, we recommend explicitly articulating an openness to skills and experiences not listed that could help someone succeed in the position and encourage people to apply if they feel they are a good fit.
You should also consider including information about your organization’s progress toward becoming a multicultural, anti-racist organization. Be honest about where you are on the journey – there is no need to pretend that you have it all figured out, but we recommend being open about what you’ve been working on or struggling with. Here is what we include in our job descriptions:
As we are currently a predominantly White organization, we are committed to anti-racism and are presently engaged in a long-term, ongoing journey to “live out” our anti-racist values within our organization, with our clients, and in our engagement with the philanthropic sector. You can find our full commitment on our website.
Again – do not embellish. But as long as your organization is moving in the right direction, this statement can be an encouraging sign for potential non-White candidates.
Perfect Objectivity Is Impossible, But Worth Striving For
During the review and interview processes, you and your team should try to be as objective as possible. See above – there is more than one way to be successful in a position.
We’ve been experimenting with different ways to zero in on what information we need from candidates in order to get an objective evaluation pre-interview. Recently, we replaced the cover letter with two short answer, interview-style questions. One potential downside is that this can sometimes increase the amount of time and effort required to apply for applicants who would normally reuse text from previous cover letters. But the short answer questions are very helpful for us when we try to narrow down a long list of applicants.
We currently ask two questions:
In 100 words or less, please tell us a little bit about why you are interested in this position (or these positions) at Donorly.
In 500 words or less, please describe a situation where you used the skills listed in the job description to solve a difficult or complex problem.
We also collect a writing sample alongside their resume. (We are open to any kind of writing sample, for equity purposes, so as to be open to different kinds of experience.) All of this is collected via an Airtable form on our website.
The initial reviewer rates each aspect of the application on a 1-5 scale, which can then be averaged together. We then use those ratings to choose the best candidates to interview.
Many interviewers tend to ask leading questions or favor candidates who approach work the way they do. Some interviews lean toward people who have the same background or culture. But we know these are not strong determinants of performance.
For these reasons, as well as limitations of the interview format itself, interviews in general are not good predictors of job performance. To maximize objectivity during interviews, we script our interviews. All candidates are asked the same questions, and interviewers take notes so that others on the team can compare.
After the first phone interview, we narrow once more for a second round Zoom interview and follow the same process. Our reference calls are also somewhat formulaic, although we occasionally let the reference guide the conversation and take us off script. We try to have multiple (2-3) Donorly team members involved in each interview rather than just one, to allow for a variety of perspectives.
Be Transparent With Everyone
When we say everyone, we really mean it. Be clear and open about the process with the leadership of your organization, the candidates, and your colleagues. There will be issues! Candidates will drop out. Interviews or reference calls will be delayed. It’s okay – just make sure to keep everyone in the loop.
The first step toward making your process more transparent is setting a due date for applications whenever possible. This allows you to plan out the full hiring timeline in advance and lets candidates take their time on their application. It also puts a stop to endless resumes coming in even after you’ve moved into the interview process.
One thing we’ve started to do to help candidates perform at their best during interviews is providing them with a general overview of what sorts of questions we’ll be asking in advance. For instance, in the first interview, we ask three questions to ascertain candidates’ comfort and experience with anti-racism work. Letting candidates know about this in advance lessens the shock value of this question (since the depth of our questioning on this subject is not typical) and allows them to focus on providing their best possible response.
When you provide (ample) time for the interviewees to ask you questions, be open about how your organization can improve. Remember that you are being evaluated by candidates just as much as you are evaluating them. Candidates don’t expect you to be perfect, but evasive responses will turn them away.
You should also be transparent with current employees – something we’re currently trying to do better here at Donorly. Let them know when a job is posted in case they are interested in applying. They also might know someone who is a great fit. Regardless, keeping your colleagues informed as you move through each stage of the interview process and allowing space for comments on the final candidate will help the team feel like their input is valued. Even better, it can provide you with useful information and perspectives as you make the important final decision.
Center Your Anti-Racist Values at Every Stage
No two people are completely equal; every candidate has their own unique background and experiences. As a result, bringing someone onto your team must go beyond candidates’ race. You need to do your best to understand who is both the best “fit” (accounting for all the ways that word is misused) for the position and the organization you want to become, while still centering your anti-racist values.
Many nonprofit organizations are much more White than they should be. The higher up the organizational ladder you go, the more significant the issue is. But equitable hiring is not just about diversity. When diversity is the only goal, organizations tend to tokenize their new employees. Predominantly White organizations that do not have an equitable culture or hiring process will force the issue, sometimes placing POC staff in situations where they are not supported and set up to fail.
Equitable hiring, in contrast, is about the process – the journey – of many hiring decisions, not just the result of your next one. If you do things right, and build a strong anti-racist culture, you can avoid the tokenization trap. Remember: amazing BIPOC professionals are out there. Your task is to change your White organization, fundamentally, so that it is a place where BIPOC folks can thrive – and a place where all can thrive.
When BIPOC candidates accept a job with a predominantly White organization, it is after a serious consideration of risk. What is the likelihood they will be hurt at your organization? They balance their evaluation of potential harm with the economic and professional incentive you offer (an incentive which should in itself be generous and equitable – that’s a whole other conversation). If they accept? Then you move into onboarding – and you’d better have taken care of your organizational culture!
Equitable hiring takes time, and there is always room for improvement as we continue to educate ourselves. This is ultimately a collaborative effort that will benefit your team in the long run! Keeping an open mind about what things can be improved and thoughtfully considering ways to enhance your processes are just the beginning of this commitment to anti-racism in our everyday work.
Here at Donorly, we specialize in providing interim staffing to organizations navigating development team turnover. Our consultants are equipped to step right into the work, keep things running smoothly, and even strengthen your fundraising processes along the way. This gives your organization the time and energy it needs for a successful, equitable hiring process. This way, you’ll not only be excited about your new hire, but they’ll also be set up for success and more likely to stick around long-term.