LinkedIn has offered creative solutions to nonprofits using LinkedIn for staff recruiting since May of 2011. As the initiator of LinkedIn’s Nonprofit Solutions, I’ve spent the past year and a half traveling the world helping nonprofit HR and talent acquisition teams get more proactive in their recruiting efforts. LinkedIn Nonprofit Solutions is now helping over 150 nonprofits that have staff recruiting needs deepen their talent pipelines, reduce time to fill, lift candidate quality, and enhance their employer brands. It’s been exciting to see more and more nonprofits benefiting from our program.
At Talent Connect in October, many nonprofits gathered to share their challenges and tips. During a session on “Recruiting in the Nonprofit Sector,” DotPowerOrg founder Larry Eason facilitated an interactive session where he not only asked questions of the panel, but also invited audience members to come up and tell their stories. You can watch the video here:
The resounding theme of the session was that nonprofits can use LinkedIn to promote their mission and connect with like-minded people who may become employees, donors or volunteers.
“[LinkedIn] is not just a careers site,” said VonGretchen Nelson, diversity manager for The Nature Conservancy. “It’s more of a branding site for your organization.”
Three new case studies further illustrate how LinkedIn supports the unique challenges of nonprofit recruiting:
Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco – Senior Director of Human Resources Jessica Napier uses LinkedIn as a strategic sourcing tool. She connects with like-minded passive candidates via LinkedIn Recruiter and illustrates the organization’s mission on its LinkedIn Company Page, highlighting core impact areas on the Products and Services tab. Six months into 2012, Jessica’s recruiting spend – including her LinkedIn investment – is half of what it was at the same time in 2011.
TNTP (The New Teacher Project) – Recruitment Manager Nichole Lopez-Riley and her team use LinkedIn Recruiter to find “connectors” – people in their personal networks who can connect TNTP to high-quality passive candidates. They cultivate candidates for the long term, building a deep bench of candidates they can look to when a position opens up.
World Vision – In addition to recruiting candidates, World Vision uses LinkedIn to find board members and supporters for its organization and for coalitions it participates in. Executive Advisor David Taylor connects with NGO and supply chain professionals through LinkedIn Groups to help Sustained Global Partnership outsource global supply chain operations for the humanitarian industry.
I’m excited and proud that the LinkedIn Nonprofit Solutions program is helping so many nonprofit organizations hire star staff members efficiently. Our recipe is simple: educate nonprofits about the merits of social recruiting on LinkedIn, lower the cost barrier on our Talent Solutions and dedicate resources to nonprofit success (full time and employee volunteers). We know that the more successful nonprofits are at hiring top talent, the more likely they are to achieve their mission—and that benefits everyone.
Want to know more about LinkedIn Nonprofit Solutions? Email us at nonprofitsolutions@linkedin.com.
Topics: Talent Connect Recruiting strategy
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