The India Philanthropy Report 2023, co-authored by Dasra and Bain & Company, shows that 41 percent of funders aim to support capacity building and talent development of non-profits. Through different initiatives, partners, and experts – the philanthropic landscape reflects the potential to back institution-building and constructing a robust infrastructure to nurture talent and build the required capabilities for non-profits to scale.

While non-profits implement interventions for communities, there is a huge gap in how they nurture their own talent pool. There is an urgent need to do transformative capacity building support for non-profit organisations, across different stages of maturity and sectors. Through Dasra’s various capacity-building and leadership development efforts, 1,500 non-profit organisations have been supported and several of them have gone to scale, with approximately 650 leaders of 460 organisations attending Dasra’s leadership programs. The intent has been to provide safe learning spaces for non-profit leaders to exchange experiences (good or bad) and build knowledge and skills to reflect on their work and organisational growth.

Nurturing Talent for Scaling Impact, a curated session at the Dasra Philanthropy Week, featured 20 Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) that are scaling up significantly and have built successful programs over the last 15-20 years. All participating organisations voiced similar pressing talent challenges around hiring, retaining, building career pathways, and robust infrastructure. As organisations expand, there can be misalignment between the desire for accelerated scale, and the pace at which internal resilience in the form of skills, processes, and capabilities can be built. Rapid scaling may create a blind spot in nurturing this expanding pool of talent resulting in many barriers to impact.

Multitude of talent-related challenges, beginning from the recruitment stage

Constantly attracting new talent is a challenge for NGOs across many regions. To address this concern, organisations should consider establishing a structure that is adaptable to fast growth and attracting diverse candidates.

To intentionally create and provide more development opportunities, non-profits can focus on mid-level engagement and nurture their employees consistently. This approach can help employees feel valued, leading to improved retention and a positive work culture.

A great example for fellow non-profits to draw inspiration from is the 3P approach for talent strategy: Promise, Proximity, and Profile. ‘Promise’ ensures alignment with the organisation’s and individual’s purpose. ‘Proximity’ addresses hiring from communities, and ‘Profile’ enables the organisation to hire candidates from the community without undue importance on academic qualifications. Educate Girls, founded by Safeena Hussain, developed this strategy. Non-profits can adopt a similar approach to align talent strategy with values and purpose. Prioritising skills and experience over academic qualifications can help non-profits build an inclusive workforce to address complex social challenges.

Developing and retaining talent, building better career pathways

As an organisation grows, so should the employees. Developing and retaining talent and building career pathways is key for growing organisations. Employees that feel valued will stay at the organisation. However, NGOs often find it difficult to chart specific career pathways, especially when they hire individuals with specialised skills that may not necessarily align with the organisation’s needs.

To intentionally create and provide more development opportunities, non-profits can focus on mid-level engagement and nurture their employees consistently. This approach can help employees feel valued, leading to improved retention and a positive work culture. Non-profits should ensure team members understand the organisation’s mission and their roles to create a sense of shared purpose which will enhance morale and performance. Lend A Hand India (LAHI), co-founded by Raj Gilda and Sunanda Mane, is an example of a non-profit providing active development opportunities by funding and encouraging employees with more than two years’ experience to start ‘mini -a-hands’, promoting leadership development. LAHI’s approach fosters employee ownership and cultivates a pipeline of future leaders.

Enabling and empowering the next-in-line

Transforming a mid-level employee into a leader is a challenge. NGOs struggle to systematically plan for leadership development opportunities and create a conducive work environment to address mental health and burnout issues. Founders of non-profits often find it challenging to design succession plans, as they may struggle with the idea of ‘letting go’ and delegating responsibilities.

Empowering and enabling the next-in-line leaders can involve providing leadership development opportunities such as coaching or mentoring to senior staff members. Non-profits should better focus on succession planning via the capacity building and engagement of the second in line. This can help ensure that there is a smooth transition of leadership and that the organisation’s mission and vision remain intact.

Creating a conducive environment

Enabling a nurturing environment in an organisation for its people to thrive, grow, and succeed is not just the founder’s responsibility. It is a collective vision – a path of collective efforts that multiple stakeholders need to embark on.

Peer learning initiatives like exchange programs and leadership boot camps create opportunities and equip the second-in-line to address unknown challenges. Collaborative safe spaces for NGOs can prove to be conducive to identifying common challenges and co-creating solutions. Partner networks and intermediaries can play a key role in convening multiple stakeholders to create this safe space for non-profits. To support HR operations, organisations can establish digital platforms to share resources and best practices, including a digital archive for the best HR and Talent practices.

Building stronger institutions together

With the support of many philanthropic initiatives, non-profits have succeeded in building internal capabilities to deliver impact. Many non-profits scaling successfully have garnered the attention of more philanthropists who are moving towards unrestricted grant making, with a significant shift in aspirations towards investing in network strengthening.

As the sector strives for a billion Indians to live with equity and dignity, the ever-growing need for building stronger institution continues. As we move towards building a nation of thriving communities and accelerating India’s pace to achieve the SDGs for 2030, we all must answer the clarion call to build robust infrastructures and empower those working in the non-profit sector.

Neera Nundy is the Co-founder and Partner at Dasra India, a strategic philanthropic organisation.