Podcast | L&D Lessons From Non-Profit Organisations | Heather Burright

Heather Burright is the Community Manager for the Non-Profit L&D Collective, host of the Learning for Good podcast, and delivers instructional design and leadership development for nonprofits.

So, it’s safe to say she knows this space well! And she joined us to explain some of the best insights and lessons other L&D pros can take from the nonprofit space.

Expect to learn whether it’s easier to connect people to purpose in non-profit organisations.

Lessons on building leaders in these organisations, why non-profits tend to invest more in learning, how they approach storytelling, why they have to prioritise buy-in because there are certain things they can’t mandate, and much more.
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How to connect:

Find Heather on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-burright/

Subscribe to Heather’s newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/nonprofit-l-d-insiders-7056631980473397248/

Listen to the Learning for Good podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learning-for-good-l-d-solutions-and/id1621971310 

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Watch the Episode

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Listen on Spotify

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Four L&D lessons from non-profit organisations 

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1. Why nonprofits need to build buy-in and how they do it.

Heather explained that a lot of larger nonprofits have a federated structure, which means that there's no direct reporting line between the local organisation that you see in your community and whatever their kind of corporate national global offices. 

And this means they can’t really mandate anything, so they have to work really hard to create that buy-in.

“One of the things that I recommend and use when I'm working with nonprofits like this is that we want to involve those local chapters early in the process so they feel heard. 

“And so you know that whatever you create is going to meet their needs. And so they feel like they're part of the process, right? 

“There's a saying that says people hate change done to them, but they love change done by them. So how can we ensure that people are involved in the process and feel like they are part of whatever that change or that training is going to be?.”

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2. People in nonprofits feel connected to purpose, but watch out for this.

“I think my only word of caution is just that when we rely too heavily on that connection to impact and we don't care for our employees in other ways, like salary or development, flexibility, work-life balance, right? All of these things.”

And it’s important not to rely too heavily on the fact that people want to work here and might expect to receive less pay or benefits.

“I think there's a huge opportunity to be competitive when we combine great pay and benefits with our impact story, as long as we're also taking work-life balance into consideration so we're preventing burnout. 

“Because sometimes there's a tendency in non-profits, right, like you care, you care so deeply, and so it's like just do a little bit more, just do a little bit more, and we do see a lot of burnout in the sector.”

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3. The challenge of developing leaders in nonprofit organisations

“I mentioned that a lot of the larger nonprofits are federated. And so that comes with some challenges to developing leaders because it becomes harder to access those leaders. They're not actually on your payroll, so it becomes harder to access them.”

Which also makes it harder to understand their local context and local area! And with no direct reporting line, you’ll often find that there are competing priorities.

So normally, when you do get them involved in a learning experience, they are still doing all those other things and putting out fires.

“And then I also think there's a bit of a return on investment question. If they're paying to attend the training, for example, how are they going to know that it's actually worth it, that it's going to be valuable to them and their role in their chapter? 

“And then along those same lines, it's really difficult to measure when you aren't actually in the same organisation.”

4. Non-profits invest more in learning for these reasons…

“I'm not sure if it's because we tend to pay less in nonprofits. And so we're kind of dangling the development piece as a benefit. Or if it's because we just care deeply about our mission and so we want people to be their best. Or if it's because we have so many frontline staff who are serving our customer base. 

“But the data consistently points to nonprofits spending more per learner than corporate. So a training magazine article, I believe from 2023, reflecting on 2022 data, shared that nonprofits spent $1,105 per learner in 2022. 

“And that was compared to $751 per learner in mid-size companies and $481 per learner in large corporations. So I'm not sure why, but that is not the first data set that I've seen related to per learner spend and nonprofits being a higher amount.”

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