270. Pay, Leave, and Power: The Nonprofit Pay Conversation - Evan Feinberg

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This Episode is part of our Pay. Leave + Power Week on the Podcast. Explore the Full Series

Overview

Meet Evan. As the Stand Together Foundation Executive Director, he leads the chaarge on building replicable frameworks that disrupt, empower and accelerate doing good in the world. And he’s brought an entirely new playbook to the convo of compensating nonprofits - and compensating them big-time - and we want you to have it. We’ve all heard the phrases “I won’t make a lot in nonprofit, but I love having a career with meaning.” NO MORE. Tune in to get the frameworks, negotiation tips and script to help you build a strong case for better pay. Those who pour into others should be incentivized for their work - not handed scraps. Let’s elevate and equalize!

Today’s Guest

Evan Feinberg, Executive Director, Stand Together Foundation

“I hope everyone, when they find themselves in under that despair, they look around with the incredible impact uprising happening already and everywhere.”

— Evan Feinberg, Executive Director, Stand Together Foundation

Episode Transcript

Download Full Episode Transcript Here

Episode highlights

Evan’s story and journey to where he is today (2:45)
The equity problem in the sector and what Evan is seeing (6:00)
Historical and current narratives about the nonprofit sector (9:00)
How we pay people as individuals and incentivize around top performance (17:00)
Advise for fundraisers: negotiating salaries and benefits (29:00)
Evan’s advice for small organizations (39:00)
Evan’s One Good Thing: Think of the empowerment movement. (42:00)

powerful quotes

“There is a lot here that is in the favor of nonprofits.” -Evan

“First of all, this idea that the nonprofit industry is hurting right now is just not true nonprofit giving is up in our country overall.” - Evan

“ We're one of the fastest growing sectors, if anything, we might have a problem a little bit with bloating and swelling. But frankly, we're growing like like crazy as a sector. So there's a there's a lot going on here that's in the favor of nonprofits.” -Evan

“But at the end of the day, we're missing out on using this competitive advantage for one reason or another, either because we're not paying enough to attract those workers, or we're not providing a management culture in our organization that trusts and empowers our people.” -Evan

“I believe that nonprofits can and should attract the very best talent.” -Evan

“We have to change that stigma that this work is absolutely critical to driving progress together.” -Evan

“If we don't have strong communities, it's going to ultimately lead to the degradation of our of our economic sector, overall.” -Evan

“We need people to see that big vision and the importance of communities first, and then within our own structures, we definitely have to change some paradigms as well.” -Evan

“The historical reason why we look at that 10% or 20% number on administration, is because givers are desperate for measurement, that they can compare nonprofits to each other. The only publicly available data that compares across are what we report to the IRS and the IRS decided, at some point, historically, to require that nonprofits disclose how much they're spending on their staff and overhead versus their program, so to speak.” -Evan

“We're afraid to invest in our leaders, what they're worth, what they would be worth in the market, and so on and so forth. And so I think if we're gonna get past this, there's some sort of macro level things we got to change some paradigms on, and then we can get to some of the micro things within our our organizations as well.” -Evan

“I think there's a ton of risk aversion among nonprofits.” -Evan

“We have to be relentless that we care about impact, and we're going to reward the people on our team that drive more impact.” -Evan

“What are the ways in which I could create more value for the organization that would enable me to grow my compensation? If we had everybody having that conversation, rather than thinking about how do I get a different degree or a different title? To get more money or move organizations to get more money? We that would be in a revolution in the sector in and of itself.” -Evan

“I would encourage your frontline fundraiser to have a holistic conversation with their supervisor and with the leadership of their organization, on how they can create more value for the organization and to think about it in that regard, and see if they can't tie future compensation growth to maybe more broad view of, of how to create value.” -Evan

“I think if people think of nonprofits as organizations that are like agencies that push out services that we know what to do, we know how to improve people's lives today. And we just need nonprofits to deliver services, then none of this matters, right?” -Evan

“The way that even a small nonprofit can begin to transform themselves around this idea is to start using the lens of empowerment and everything they do.” -Evan

“The way to start is the conversations between supervisors and employees.” -Evan

“I think of an empowerment movement that's going to transform our communities all over the country. And I just got to be with the most influential leaders of nonprofits in the country not because of the size of their nonprofits, but because of the size of their hearts and the incredible impact of their their organization.” -Evan

“There are people that despair for our country they despair for our communities, they look at the poverty all around us the polarization all around us and they despair and I don't do that ever because I get to be around the dealers of hope out there that are transforming lives and transforming communities.” -Evan

“I hope everyone just when they when they would they find themselves in under that despair, they they look around with the incredible impact uprising happening already and everywhere.” -Evan

connect with Evan

LinkedIn / Twitter

connect with stand together foundation

Website / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube

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