Posted on March 24, 2023

By: Jeffrey Reynolds

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Long Island relies on community-based nonprofit organizations to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, heal the anxious, support the depressed and addicted and otherwise help our less-fortunate neighbors.

Just like everyone else, popular Island-wide charities like Long Island Cares, the Sunrise Association (and its popular camp for kids with cancer) and my own Family and Children’s Association – along with smaller niche organizations like the Backstretch Employee Service Team of NY, which provides health services to workers at Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga racetracks – all had to power through COVID.

At FCA, our teachers, social workers, mental-health and substance-abuse counselors, residential workers and other direct-care professionals don’t work from home. While others contemplated new hobbies and posted “quarantini” recipes, our staff showed up every day, prioritizing other families over their own and struggling to stay healthy, physically and emotionally.

In short, nonprofit workers stepped up. But now that the worst days of the pandemic are behind us, more and more of them are stepping out.

Some of them are jumping to other organizations for incremental salary increases or taking their chances with telehealth startups. But many are leaving health-and-human-services altogether – choosing retail, customer service or even Amazon package delivery, all better for their pocketbooks and maybe their hearts.

A global workforce study by McKinsey & Company confirms that this reshuffling goes beyond the “Great Resignation” and the nation’s low unemployment levels. The July 2022 report says that 72 percent of workers who left their public sector/nonprofit jobs in the past two years went to work in another industry – or left the workforce altogether.

Chronically low wages and increasing job insecurity, matched with skyrocketing inflation, probably pushed some social workers to the brink. The persistent lack of affordable childcare options likely played a role as well, especially since 75 percent of the nonprofit workforce is female.

Factor in COVID and its aftermath, and the exodus becomes obvious.

“Nonprofit organizations are having to continually confront burnout among employees who haven’t had a break from the escalating need in three years, and whose own trauma and experiences associated with the pandemic are impactful in their lives,” says Rebecca Sanin, who leads the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island.

As National Social Work month comes to a close, a new study published in the journal International Social Work finds that an alarming 40 percent of surveyed Canadian social workers reported symptoms of depression – four times higher than the general population. One-fifth of those surveyed believe they have PTSD and 15 percent report an anxiety disorder.

Study researchers conclude there’s a “need for workplaces to develop policies and practices … supporting social workers and their wellbeing.” Sure, but that’s not as easy as it sounds, considering dwindling pandemic-related government relief, cautious nonprofit doners spooked by a looming recession and always-increasing demand for counseling, case management, housing and other mental-health services.

Bottom line: There are fewer people struggling to do more work. More than half of nonprofits surveyed recently by accounting and advisory firm Forvis said that their ability to deliver programs and services has been hampered by staffing shortages – and 78 percent are pulling out all the stops to fill staff vacancies.

Many organizations have increased salaries and boosted benefits to get staff in the door, hoping that financial support will continue to be there. Others have prioritized flexible work arrangements, professional-development opportunities and organizational commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Meanwhile, health-and-human-services advocates are pushing New York State for an 8.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment for frontline staff, while Suffolk County used $1.25 million of its opioid settlement funds to support new training for credentialed addiction and substance-abuse counselors.

And the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island just hosted a first-ever nonprofit job fair that matched more than 200 job-seekers with opportunities at 75 regional nonprofits.

Like most big trends, the exodus from the nonprofit sector is complicated. But giving staff the same livable wages, quality healthcare benefits, fair working conditions and equitable opportunities we promote in our mission statements might help bring them back to the work they once loved.

Jeffrey Reynolds is the president and CEO of the Garden City-based Family and Children’s Association.