Small non-profit organizations across the country are suffering a brain drain as employees are drawn to government and private sector jobs that offer higher pay and more benefits, a new study has found.

"We're more than a little challenged," says Lynn Toupin, head of the Developing Human Resources in the Voluntary Sector project, which is studying the increasing inability of non-profit organizations to compete for essential workers.

Canada has 58,000 non-profit organizations employing a total of about 900,000 workers - the equivalent, Ms. Toupin explains, of the Canadian oil and gas and mining industries combined.

The study is still compiling statistics on turnover rates in the voluntary organizations, but it is clear they are much higher than in industry, Ms. Toupin said in an interview.

A major reason cited by people leaving the voluntary sector is the lack of benefits.

Ms. Toupin says only a third of the employees of Canadian non-profit organizations have access to retirement benefit plans and only 45 per cent have access to disability and extended health coverage or dental plans.

"Donors want to put all their money into programs and services and that is understandable," she says, "but they also have to understand the importance of providing long-term funding for salaries and benefits."

Voluntary organizations, which typically have fewer than 10 employees, also face discrimination from companies that provide group health and benefit plans and pension programs.

Ms. Toupin says jobs in the voluntary sector are "high burnout," with workers over 40 most likely to express disgruntlement over staying in their jobs and to be willing to seek higher-paying corporate jobs.
Meanwhile, "we are hearing people in front-line organizations say graduates tell them they are not interested in going to non-profit organizations."

The employees are predominantly women. A background study found the number of women in their 20s and 30s who want to work in the voluntary sector is declining at a time when their educational credentials and technological skills are in high demand by private companies and the public sector.

Ms. Toupin is running focus groups with interns in non-profits to see what would motivate them to stay. Increasingly, people in their 20s and 30s are saying they want high pay and good benefits and "interesting" work in a large organization that gives them scope for advancement.
An Ipsos-Reid survey of students done for Royal Bank of Canada in 2000 found none of those who responded expressed a preference for working in an organization of fewer?? than 20 employees, notes Warren Dow, who wrote a report on trends in the voluntary sector.

Other polls indicate that this younger generation is not as altruistic as previous generations, which means it is more difficult to recruit them to what can be "very draining, thankless and poorly remunerated jobs," Mr. Dow adds.

"We don't expect to get the high-level salaries available in the private or public sectors, but our bottom line is we want to keep people and provide for them so they are not forced to leave," Ms. Toupin says. The study, which has funding from federal ministries, the Trillium Foundation and the United Way, is co-sponsored by a coalition of voluntary organizations, United Way Canada and the Community Foundations of Canada, which is leading the project.

Fortunately, the horizon is not all dark. The study has already found there will be a large pool of senior managers and middle-aged workers who can be expected to join the voluntary sector over the next decade as corporations flatten their management structures and people seek more flexibility and greater, job satisfaction.

The poster child for this trend is Bibi Patel, who after 18 years rising to an executive position at Nortel Networks Corp. left in 2001 to join the Community Foundation of Ottawa as director of development and donor services.

If money was high on her list of priorities, she wouldn't have taken the job, she says. "I came from never-never land in high tech. It was amazing what I received in salary and benefits. There definitely is a cut when you go from high-tech to any other sector."

Like many of her colleagues who were laid off by Nortel, she considered the public sector, but "I wanted a complete change. After working for such a big organization, I wanted to work for something smaller. I wanted to work for a different bottom line, one that was values based."

From her work at Nortel, which included developing a corporate community relations program, she knew about the community foundation, one of 130 in Canada, that pools charitable gifts into a permanent endowment that assigns earnings to causes they choose to support.

She made a list of things she was looking for and suggests anyone who is interested in a voluntary sector Job use them as a guideline:

• To work with a leadership team that is really committed to its mission and its mandate.
• To work with a direct line of sight to where your work is going. Connecting donors with causes and seeing the results in the community is extremely rewarding, she says.
• To be able to apply all your skills and knowledge. "In a large organization you end up being very socialized and responsible for only one piece of a much bigger puzzle," Ms. Patel says.
• To have the latitude to influence decision-making.
• To find an organization that could offer you balance between your personal and work life.

Ms. Patel says she is relieved to no longer have a work schedule that could consume her entire life. A day at Nortel could mean getting up at 5:30 a.m. to dial up to a conference call from Britain, getting into the office with 75 voice mails waiting on the phone. There were outside meetings, team meetings and more conference calls that ate into the time available to do her work, so there was many nights that she took work home with her.

A day at the foundation may require that odd breakfast meeting, but with no bureaucratic structure it is more manageable and flexible, she said. "It really depends on what stage of your life you are at. If you have a young family those considerations may certainly be of paramount importance."

At first, her daughter didn't understand the change from a life that included a lot of corporate family parties and picnics. But Ms Patel has been able to involve the 11 year-old and some classmates in volunteer work, which they have found rewarding. "I think I can offer her a glimpse into the community that others really don't know exists, she said.