Job Market Opening Up

To say it’s been an interesting year would be a dramatic understatement. However, I’m beginning to see signs in the philanthropic industry of things returning closer to “regular” (I’m not sure when we get completely back to “normal”). One of these changes is the opening of the job market.

For nearly a year, unless essential to a foundation or development office, there was very little opportunity for people to apply for new jobs. I had spoken to a few leaders in search firms and they articulated the drop in fundraising job listings at the height of Covid was nearly 90%

Just in the last two weeks, a really talented colleague who lost his job during Covid was hired by a fantastic organization. He is so excited to begin helping them generate major dollars in support of their mission. At the same time, I’ve had some consulting friends indicate that they are beginning to receive the more “normal’ level of inquiries to see if they are interested in leaving consulting to go back and become a practitioner.

What is interesting and a change however is the flexibility that organizations are now presenting regarding working from home and distance work. The old model of having to go to an office five days a week, thanks to Covid, seems to have come to a crashing end. A number of job opportunities use the word “remote” consistently throughout their job listings.

This is a positive for both employer and employee. Employers can find even more qualified candidates. Employees can have more job opportunities. And for those organizations that don’t find creative ways to make it easier on talented, gifted fundraisers/philanthropic leaders, it will probably suffer living in an old-world, trying to impart old principles to individuals who have many more choices.