Nonprofit-Specific Human Resource Management

Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD of Authenticity Consulting, LLC

Introduction

There's a common misperception that human resource management in nonprofits is very different from human resource management in for-profits. Actually, the activities are very similar in both types of organizations, except that nonprofits often include human resources (staff members) who are volunteers-- staff members who are not paid compensation. Note that Board members of nonprofits are volunteers, but usually are not considered to be staff members. Those who know a great deal about nonprofits also know that the activities to effectively manage paid staff in nonprofits are very similar to those required to effectively manage volunteers in nonprofits, except for the topic of paying volunteers.

Understand Differences Between Nonprofit and For-Profit Organizations

How Nonprofits Compare to For-Profits
Free Management Library Includes Materials for Nonprofits and For-Profits (read "Different Names for Similar Concepts")

General Human Resource Management - Read This Topic First?

Because of the similarity between managing human resources in for-profits and nonprofits, the reader is advised to first review information in the topic:
Human Resource Management

Nonprofit-Specific Human Resource Topics

Human Resource Guide for Nonprofits
Nonprofit Good Resource Guide
Idealist.org long list of nonprofit HR topics
Idealist.org Common Ground
Listing of nonprofit resources from Connecticut Association of Nonprofits

Assessing the Quality of Your Practices in Nonprofit Human Resource Management

The following link is to a series of questions that you can consider to assess your practices in nonprofit management. The link is to an organizational assessment tool for nonprofits, including paid and non-paid (volunteer) staffing.
Audit and Evaluation of Nonprofit Human Resource Management (including Volunteers)

For the Category of Human Resources:

Recommended Books

For-Profit

Nonprofit

For-Profit

Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business: by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit and retain the best employees for your business. Research shows that employee turnover is often the result of poor supervision -- this book shows you how to supervise employees so that the needs of both the business and its emplyees are always being met. Includes tips and tools to effectively lead yourself, other individuals, groups and organizations. Also includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem, especially among employees of small businesses.

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.

Nonprofit

Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision With Nonprofit Staff: by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit and retain the best staff members for your nonprofit. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as a Board member or a staff member), other individuals, groups and the nonprofit organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among nonprofit staff. Explains how to cultivate a strong relationship between the Board and Execuive Director. This book is customized to nature and needs of nonprofits having extremely limited resources.