Don’t Let Knowledge Leave Because of Nonprofit Turnover

Those reasons aren’t exactly eye-opening revelations for most that have experience in the nonprofit world.  Still, that 67% number is significant.  Turnover is a major issue that all organizations have to overcome, but its affect seems to be amplified for nonprofits, especially those with small staff size and limited resources.

I have my own personal experience working in a small nonprofit with losing crucial information and contacts because of turnover.  Information can walk right out the door with your outgoing leadership if your organization isn’t prepared.  But perhaps more important than the tangible data and phone numbers are the relationships that can leave.

Let’s say your ED, development director, or board member has an awesome relationship with a current or potential donor.  This person knows the organization that the donor works for inside and out.  He/she knows the names of the donors’ spouse and kids.  They are always having conversations off-line, both “work-related” and non-work-related. They become so close, your employee even gives your donor a call on their birthday!

When turnover occurs…POOF!  Those little nuggets of information disappear too, leaving your organization without a strong way to re-connect.  Any and all interactions with that donor that weren’t documented are gone too.  So if another “ask” was being developed slowly, or an introduction was about to occur to a mutual friend of your departed colleague, you’d never know.

You need a safe and secure place to keep all this information, and a super-easy method of entering interactions.  That’s a major reason why I helped found GoodCloud to store all of that personal information simply.  All that important contact information can be found, added to, and edited by anyone that you want to have access.  And it exists online, not in one person’s head.

Solving problems like these is what I love about working at GoodCloud.  People come and go; that’s just how it is these days.  But small nonprofits already rely so heavily on so few people.  We want help provide a solution that takes pressure off the team, allowing the organization to not only survive, but thrive, even when leaders move on.

Like it or not, turnover is inevitable.  The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that today’s youth will hold 10-14 jobs by the time they turn 38.  Don’t let your knowledge hit the revolving door, too.