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Real Life Examples

Can you describe the Center's commitment to nonprofit human resources practitioners?
The Center understands the importance of providing the best work culture for all nonprofit employees, and appreciates the prominence that human resource practitioners play in creating and sustaining that supportive, positive work culture. At the same time, the Center recognizes that human resource practitioners in the nonprofit sector are often required to operate out of a framework of scarcity, with insufficient means to do their jobs, thus forcing them to be very creative and resourceful if they are to achieve their goals. While this scenario of working out of a framework of scarcity is not unique to human resource personnel in the nonprofit sector, it does create its own unique challenges for them. And the Center is committed to being equally creative and resourceful in finding varied ways to support human resource practitioners as they do their jobs.

When did the Center begin offering training for nonprofit human resources?
Our training offerings in nonprofit human resources date back into the 1980s. As we expanded our workshop offerings in general nonprofit management, it became apparent that we needed to be specific in providing workshops for designated human resource professionals as well as those who were doing human resources as an "also and" to their routine job responsibilities. We started out with one workshop and then kept adding new topics and other resources as logic suggested and as demand warranted. Today, our trainings for human resource practitioners include regularly scheduled workshops, timely and topical panel presentations, a certificate in human resources, and more.

Why do you believe that this kind of training has been crucial to the communities you serve?
One of the wonderful characteristics of the nonprofit sector is that it is quite willing to think outside of the box. And, one of the places you see this most evidentially is in hiring. While first preference is always to match skills and experience with job requirements, the nonprofit sector is quite willing, if not sometimes forced, to skip the prior experience in a job and match interest, desire, willingness to learn, passion for mission, hard work, etc. to a position. Thus, we see many people in the nonprofit sector rising into management positions—be it in human resources or other areas—who don’t necessarily have the "professional" training and background on their resume but do have a passion for the mission and a commitment to work hard and learn once in the position.

The training and support we provide human resource professionals allows that new, learning-on-the-job individual to gain the expert content needed to do his/her job well, while simultaneously allowing the experienced individual to hear new ideas, shore up a weaker skill set, etc. Each then returns to his/her organization enriched and able to do more and/or better, knowing there is a support team (the trainer and the other participants in the training) at the ready should help be needed. By strengthening the human resources capability of an organization we are increasing the odds that the organization will have people in staff positions who are capable and ready to do the mission work of the organization—and to do it well. And that is what capacity building is all about.

What has the response been to the nonprofit HR training you have facilitated? What kind of feedback have you received?
We actually do two kinds of trainings: one is in a public arena where anyone can enroll and the other is customized, which we take on-site to an organization and customize the content to fit the particular needs of that organization and its staff. For both kinds of trainings, we get nothing but positive feedback on our human resource work. We see this in the evaluations that we give out at every workshop, in the enrollments for our public human resource workshops—as folks come back for additional trainings and/or refer their friends and colleagues, and in the increase in overall requests for customized workshops and the particular request for return appearances to organizations, either with the same workshop for a different group of staff or with a different workshop. Both public and customized workshops are geared to providing a blend of theory and practice, allowing folks to leave with tangible ideas that they could apply the next day, as well as with the theoretical framework and context for understanding when, why, and how to use the ideas.

When and how did the Certificate in Nonprofit Human Resources develop?
The Certificate in Nonprofit Human Resources developed in response to two interrelated things: interest and push for credentialing. Not too long after the Nonprofit Center started seriously offering workshops, we saw that folks weren’t just taking one workshop, but they were taking multiple workshops, with a little here and a little there. So, we developed our Certificate in Nonprofit Management, designed to really be an introduction to nonprofit management—a generalist certificate, if you will.

As we started offering multiple courses in a given area, such as Human Resources, we saw people taking all that were offered. At the same time, we were hearing and seeing the pride people were expressing for having received the Certificate in Nonprofit Management and their interest in more "credentials" to establish their knowledge content. Thus, in 2001, we began offering subject-specific certificates, first in fundraising, then in human resources, and now in two other areas. In the Certificate in Nonprofit Human Resources, as with all of the other subject-specific certificates, there are some required workshops that must be taken, and then electives of the student's choice. The Human Resources certificate is one of our most popular certificates.

What advice would you give to a practitioner who wants to advocate for more professional development opportunities from a local University/MSO?
Pull out the data and show the need! The nonprofit sector is the fastest growing portion of the economy, with some estimating that more than 60,000 new nonprofits are created each year—adding to the existing pool of somewhere between 1.2-1.8 million nonprofits in the country. The nonprofit workforce is a vital part of a region’s economy and makes enormous contributions to the quality of life in a community. This workforce needs to be educated, nurtured, and valued if we want it to continue to work in and serve the sector and the community. This is a golden expansion market for any organization interested in the nonprofit sector and currently not providing professional development opportunities. A university/MSO is going to be hard pressed not to respond to demand and need.

What advice would you give to a University/MSO who is interested in offering more nonprofit HR training?
Go for it! Naturally, first I'd check the market and make sure that in that particular service area there is a demand. Obviously, not all nonprofit communities are the same. But the need for human resource training within nonprofits is both vast and quite varied, from the full-time human resource professional who was trained in human resources to the one who was not, to the full-time nonprofit worker who is doing human resource work as the "also and" to her/his job who has no human resources training. Thus, it is hard to imagine a market without need. Start small, responding to the areas of greatest need, and gradually add on new components as the reputation grows. And remember, most regions have few to no opportunities where nonprofit employees can learn human resources with a nonprofit spin.

Are you available by email for any follow-up questions from Idealist readers or local universities?
Absolutely!
Laura Otten
Director
Nonprofit Center, La Salle University
otten (at) lasalle.edu