Our Leadership Development & Strategic HR practice is dedicated to helping your nonprofit organization improve its ability to attract, develop, manage, organize and retain your staff (and volunteers). Getting the right people and keeping them energized and productive is critical to building a sustainable and high-impact nonprofit.

We offer four Service Grants in the Leadership Development & Strategic HR practice. To learn more about the scope, deliverables and target nonprofit grantee for a specific Service Grant, click on the title.

If you know you have a range of HR-related challenges, consider the HR Capacity Build. What is the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your HR system, and what changes could have the most profound impact on your ability to achieve your mission? The pro bono team establishes your baseline HR capacity, evaluates current HR performance, and delivers a prioritized action plan for improving both long-term and short-term HR function. Then, the team helps you tackle a select number of critical areas with quick-hit fixes, such as a performance management philosophy and logistics, or a training and development plan.

What would happen if every member of your staff understood your organization's strategic plan, knew how it related to your organization's objectives, and saw clearly how his or her job fit into those larger goals? How much more productive and energized would your staff be if each manager knew how to set clear goals for his or her staff, and could effectively manage people to meet those goals? If your organization is ready for a transformational project that can reduce turnover, improve employee engagement, and align each person and department towards shared organizational goals, then our Performance Management project may be appropriate.

What skills are most critical in your current workforce? Given your strategic goals, what new competencies will you need in two years, or in five? How can you identify, recruit, and develop the high-potential staff you'll need to serve as future leaders? Strategic workforce planning is critical to long-term success, but many organizations struggle even to track the institutional skills they have right now. Our Strategic Staff Development Service Grant maps your current and future needs and capabilities, giving you the tools you need to plan, recruit, and manage the best possible team.

What does an effective board mean for your organization? And once you know, how do you build that board? To create the board you need, you must connect your board strategy to your organizational strategy: define board skills and competencies for your organization's needs, rather than relying on generic board roles; recruit candidates who further your mission in a variety of ways, rather than just begging them to fundraise; find where and how to attract the right board members, rather than relying on piecemeal and word-of-mouth outreach. Our Board Recruitment Service Grant helps you outline the right board team for your specific needs, then develops the marketing tools you need to build a solid board pipeline and bring in the right candidates, consistently.