Six Sources for Finding the Best Nonprofit Professionals: Through On-line Research
by Rebecca Worters, President of Capability Company
You’re looking for a top administrator for your nonprofit. Do you just run employment ads and hope for the best? Hardly.
To do an excellent search you need to research and proactively recruit candidates who have the qualifications and fit you’re looking for. But where do you find those people? One tactic is on-line research. Done correctly it can help you quickly find and recruit the best candidates.
Fortunately, most information about nonprofit organizations is public. That means you’ll have to do less digging to find nonprofit candidates than corporate candidates. Still, here are some tips that can help you find the right candidate faster:
1. Look at like organizations’ websites. If you are looking for staff in a certain area like health, arts or environment, simply visit the websites of that type of organization to get names and phone numbers and usually email addresses of staff members. Call those people. Even if they aren’t interested they may know colleagues who are.
2. Associations. The best way to target candidate for a job function, such as fundraising, is professional associations’ websites. While they won’t give you names or contact information for their members, it may be an excellent venue to place a targeted classified advertisement. Some associations allow you to search a bank of resumes for free after placing a classified ad.
3. Niche job boards such as NonprofitOyster.com offer a targeted advertising and allow you to enter criteria for candidates that might be a match for your position.
4. Some websites, such as ZoomInfo.com, compile biographical information and work history on millions of professionals. A recent search in Zoominfo.com netted more than 600 people who had the CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive) designation. Subscriptions to such services can be costly, but it’s free to enter a name you already know and see what pops up.
5. Social and professional networking sites such as Linked In may be useful for expanding your network of potential candidates. If you are not already a member, you can join for free. If you can find one nonprofit professional who is willing to link you to others, you can spread the word about your position and target individuals for personal email introductions.
6. Google someone. A good old Google search can yield interesting information. It may not be the most targeted approach, but it may lead you to your next great hire.
These on-line research resources are not comprehensive, but many of these resources will lead you to others. The internet can be a fast and effective way to target the right professionals to work at your nonprofit.
