Workforce Resilience
Navigating Workforce Challenges: 2025 Trends and Solutions for the Social Sector
The social sector is at a critical juncture, grappling with persistent workforce challenges that impact both the effectiveness of organizations and the well-being of employees. From inadequate wages and growing financial hardship for many nonprofit workers, to the increasing difficulty of filling key leadership roles, nonprofits face a host of obstacles that threaten their ability to support their communities.
As the sector confronts a rising mental health crisis and workforce shortages, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions that address these issues while fostering a resilient, well-supported workforce. Join Social Current’s four-part Workforce Well-Being and Resilience webinar series, beginning in March, for insights to healthy and resilient organizational culture.
This article explores the current workforce trends within the social sector, highlighting key challenges and offering insights into strategies for navigating these complexities in 2025 and beyond.
Nonprofits are struggling to pay competitive wages and many social sector employees face financial hardship.
According to the latest ALICE Report from Independent Sector, 22% of nonprofit employees are earning below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold and are struggling financially. Inequities of the general workforce play out in the nonprofit realm as well: 34% of Black nonprofit employees and 35% of Hispanic nonprofit employees are facing financial hardship. Women, despite making up two-thirds of the nonprofit workforce, are paid significantly less than men in the sector.
We must continue to advocate for social sector funding models that cover the true costs of operations, including competitive, livable wages for all social sector employees. Social Current is leading the social impact work that is inspired by the movie UnCharitable. The effort will address this chronic underfunding in the social sector and ensure adequate resources to meet our communities’ needs while also driving sector innovation and growth.
Workforce shortages continue to impede nonprofit progress and innovation.
We’ll continue to see nonprofit staffing shortages in 2025, particularly in leadership positions. According to a recent report from PNP Staffing Group, almost 1 in 3 nonprofits struggle with retention and turnover and 59% of nonprofits said it was significantly harder to fill staff positions in 2024 than in previous years. This trend will most likely continue into the new year, as 55% of nonprofit organizations cite the inability to offer competitive salaries as a significant challenge.

The outlook for mental health care in particular shows a significant gap, with position openings projected to grow at triple the rate of all occupations over the next decade. Need is even higher in rural areas across the U.S. where approximately 122 million people do not have access to mental health services. In fact, roughly 27 million Americans with a mental illness are not receiving treatment. Mental Health organizations specializing in youth care face an even greater workforce deficit: In 70% of U.S. counties, there are no child or young adult psychiatrists and only 20% of children with mental health disorders receive the care they need from a specialized mental health provider.
Leadership gaps reveal inequities and barriers to advancement.
Interest in nonprofit leadership positions is also declining. A recent survey by the Building Movement Project shows that there has been a steady decline in interest in top leadership roles. In 2016, 50% of white and 40% of BIPOC respondents were interested in these roles whereas in 2022 this fell to 46% for white and 32% for BIPOC respondents. Though the nonprofit leadership pipeline crisis has been growing for decades, the pandemic exacerbated the issue with high turnover, burnout, and early retirements at the leadership level. Our sector is at a critical moment. We must address the barriers to leadership pipelines, including lack of mentorship and support opportunities, particularly for leaders of color, eschew rigid job requirements, and proactively address burnout and inadequate salaries, if we want to close these gaps in 2025.
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Social Current has partnered with the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) on the “Equip the Flip” initiative. This initiative seeks to create a new leadership framework that can support leaders by addressing structural racism, shifting power to authentically center community voices, and advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across the sector. Through focus groups, story gathering, and a review of the literature and lived experiences, we have been able to map the next generation of leadership competencies for human service leaders – keeping them actionable and human-centered. The competencies developed from the Equip the Flip initiative show that social sector leaders need development in the following skillsets:
- Visionary Impact: The ability to communicate a clear and compelling vision for the equitable future of people and communities served and to inspire people to act on that vision.
- Participatory Design: The ability to create the conditions to co-design and empower the community in furthering community-led goals.
- Workforce Well-Being: The ability to model and actively promote well-being for all staff and build a productive, inclusive team that works in partnership with all people and communities.
- Generative Partnerships: The ability to foster partnerships that advance community-led solutions, and together generate new possibilities, resources, and improved outcomes.
- Cultural Belonging: The ability to embrace and honor the authenticity of an individual and their own cultural experiences and practices.
- Operational Impact: The ability to manage the organization’s resources and operations in service of community outcomes.
- Political Literacy: The ability to focus on the capacity building necessary for engaging and understanding, government affairs, policy work, advocacy efforts, and legislative affairs.
Learn more about the Equip the Flip initiative online.
Organizations are prioritizing employee mental health due to increasing rates of burnout.
The most recent State of Nonprofits Survey from the Center for Effective Philanthropy reveals that 95% of nonprofit CEOs are concerned about burnout at their organization and over 50% of those CEOs reported feeling more burnout themselves than in previous years. In Mental Health America’s recent Mind the Workplace Report, Millennials and Gen-Z had the worst work mental health scores, with 59% and 71% reporting unhealthy scores, respectively.
In 2025, support your nonprofit workplace with best practices in workforce resilience and employee wellness. In addition to paying living wages and comprehensive benefits packages, offer paid time off to encourage rest and rejuvenation, offer flexible and/or less than 40-hour work week schedules, create a resilient culture by training staff on trauma-informed workplace approaches, and allocate protected time for professional growth and development.
PQI: Nonprofits are developing and updating their PQI Models to stay sustainable and mission oriented.
The term VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) is over 30 years old, and yet it is increasingly resurfacing in recent business articles and blogs as we face a very VUCA political landscape to start out 2025. VUCA in the social sector field is the new constant and nonprofits must stay agile and change-ready.
When it comes to program evaluation and continuous improvement, nonprofits are updating their Performance & Quality Improvement (PQI) strategies to be more flexible, dynamic, and gather real-time feedback for swift course correction. PQI models provide a structured approach to evaluating programs, identifying areas for improvement, and driving evidence-based decision making to improve organizational outcomes. By tracking key performance indicators and analyzing data, nonprofits can make informed decisions about resource allocation, staff training, and program design. This data-driven approach helps nonprofits demonstrate accountability to funders, donors, and the community, while also fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Check out Social Current’s webinars to design or update your own PQI plan: Introduction to Logic Models and Logic Models 2.0: Connecting Program to Action.
Partnering with Social Cooperatives: Nonprofits are promoting worker co-ops through incubation.
Another growing workforce resilience trend is an increase in partnerships between established nonprofits and worker cooperatives. Over the past 50 years, social cooperative workplace models have been on the rise. This model deconstructs traditional hierarchical organization models in favor of worker voice and participation. This typically takes the form of equal (or more equitable) distribution of profit and shareholder power. To facilitate this rise, nonprofit organizations have stepped in to incubate social cooperatives that support marginalized communities by providing funding, staff, support, and resources to launch and develop fledgling worker cooperatives. This promising partnership model combines the social mission of nonprofits with the economic benefits of cooperatives. The U.S. could accelerate the development of a more equitable and sustainable economy by following the social cooperative models of countries such as France, Italy, and the U.K., that provide legal recognition and tax incentives for social cooperatives. To learn more, check out our Social Collaborative & Nonprofit Partnerships resource handout from the Social Current Knowledge and Insights Center.
Social Current is Here to Help you Navigate Workforce Trends
We recognize that staff at nonprofit organizations are facing change, stress, and conflict on multiple levels. Political polarization, isolation, and vicarious trauma are contributing to staff feeling drained and disengaged. Our Workforce Wellbeing & Resilience During Times of Change Learning Series is a great place to develop crucial competencies that will help your workforce thrive.
This four-part webinar series will equip leaders and supervisors with foundational knowledge and skills to help their teams manage uncertainty and interpersonal conflict so they can create a healthy and resilient organizational culture. To empower their staff, participants will learn about core strategies and tactics that are based in brain science research and trauma-informed approaches.
Sessions in this series:
- Create a Brain-Friendly Work Culture: March 26 from 2-3:15 p.m. ET
- Foster Candidness through Psychological Safety: April 2 from 2-3:15 p.m. ET
- Prioritize Positive Workplace Culture Around Shared Values: May 28 from 2-3:15 p.m. ET
- Integrate Connection and Community: June 25 from 2-3:15 p.m. ET
To go even deeper, Social Current offers consulting with workforce resilience experts, train-the-trainer opportunities, in-depth in-person training, and more to strengthen your workplace culture. Learn more about our expertise and solutions.