Building resilient nonprofit teams has never been more crucial. Today I’m bringing you an enlightening conversation recorded LIVE at LinkedIn’s 2025 Nonprofit Talent Impact Summit in D.C.
You’ll hear from Betsy DiMalanta from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Dr. Luisa Boyarski from Georgetown University's Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership about what it actually takes to develop effective teams that can weather uncertainty and how to navigate today's complex talent environment.
If you’re a nonprofit leader, you’ll walk away with fresh ideas on hiring, retaining, and developing talent in the world of AI. Plus, you’ll hear Betsy and Luisa’s three critical pillars for leading through change: communication, co-creation that empowers team members, and clarity around mission.
Listen now to transform how your organization can approach talent development in uncertain times and don’t miss the 2025 LinkedIn Nonprofit Talent Report.
Resources & Links
Connect with Betsy DiMalanta and Dr. Luisa Boyarski on LinkedIn and check out the 2025 LinkedIn Nonprofit Talent Report.
Learn more about Georgetown University's Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and download their AI Readiness Toolkit for Nonprofits.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wow, this has been an incredible month.
I really enjoyed celebratingMonthly Giving Awareness Week
with everyone.
All the resources are stillavailable at
monthlygivingweekcom if youhaven't checked those out.
And to wrap up the month, Iwanted to focus on highlighting
talent the talent that it takesto do all of the work that you
(00:22):
do, all of the impact, all ofthe programs, all of the monthly
giving programs that you run.
And so, just a few weeks ago,linkedin for Nonprofits put
together two impact summitsNonprofit Talent Edition.
They had two action-packed daysin New York City and DC.
And today you are getting theinside scoop.
Listen to the keynote chat fromDC.
(00:44):
It's titled Building EffectiveNonprofit Teams to Drive Change.
So, in this ever-changing worldof work, combined with the rise
of AI, limited resources,competing priorities, do you
feel seen in this moment?
You are faced with immensechallenges, but really building
resilient workforces dedicatedto your cause.
(01:05):
So in this conversation, inthis keynote, they're going to
dive into the current state ofthe nonprofit talent landscape
as really informed by the 2025Nonprofit Talent Report.
So you'll hear from industryexperts, learn about the latest
talent insights and really leavewith a deeper understanding of
the opportunities facingnonprofit talent leaders.
(01:27):
Today and, ariana, you and Iposted on LinkedIn right after
this.
It truly hit the mark bycentering the conversations.
We don't have often enoughTalent retention, culture and
equity.
I'm very excited for you tolisten to this conversation and
then in the show notes I alsohave a link that you can go
check out the Nonprofit TalentReport as well.
(01:49):
So I hope you enjoy and thisstarts conversations within your
organization and take thoseconversations to LinkedIn to see
what others have to say.
Roll the tape.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Successful organizations who are adopting
AI do so by first focusing onpain points, so especially in
senior leadership, where maybesenior leadership isn't quite
ready to embrace AI.
How do you help them see whereAI can help them in their
day-to-day work before trying tosay, oh, let's do this huge AI
adoption system across theorganization?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
to say, oh, let's do this huge AI adoption system
across the organization.
Really excited to have ArianeYunai join us.
She is the head of LinkedIn forNonprofits and she's going to
be leading this really importantconversation around building
effective nonprofit teams.
We are going to be joined by acouple of really special guests
Betsy DeMolanta, head of globaltalent acquisition for the Gates
Foundation, and LouisaBoyalanta, head of Global Talent
Acquisition for the GatesFoundation, and Louisa Boyarsky,
(02:47):
director of the Center forPublic and Nonprofit Leadership,
right here at GeorgetownUniversity.
I'm really excited about thisconversation, so please join me.
Remember big welcome applause.
Please join me in welcomingAriana and our panelists to the
stage.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Hi everyone.
It's so good to see you here.
Only, I think, about 60 peoplein the room, all TA
professionals at nonprofitorganizations, so this is really
something special.
I think this group is going topack a punch.
I'm really excited to be hereand welcome our panelists for a
conversation I think is going tobe very timely.
I hope, as you hear theinsights from our panelists, you
see yourselves in theconversation, you see your teams
(03:32):
in the conversation, and I'mreally excited to get to hear
some insights from Betsy andLouisa on building effective
nonprofit teams to drive change.
So today we're going to bediving into the current state of
the nonprofit talent landscape,guided by insights from
LinkedIn's 2025 talent report,which we just put out Tons of
insights that came from this.
This is going to be ourguidepost for today's questions
(03:54):
and conversation.
So let's introduce ourpanelists, starting with Betsy
DeMolanta.
Betsy is a seasoned TAprofessional and HR leader with
deep expertise in solvingcomplex talent challenges and
building high-performing teams.
Betsy's work intersects talentand organizational effectiveness
, focusing on workforce planning, executive hiring and change
(04:17):
management.
Her experience spans both techand philanthropic sectors, where
she has developed scalable,people-centered solutions that
drive long-term impact.
Welcome, betsy.
Thank you, glad to be here.
We also have Louisa Boyarskyhere joining us as the director
(04:37):
of Georgetown University'sCenter for Public and Nonprofit
Leadership and AssociateResearch Professor at the
McCourt School of Public Policy,dr Boyarsky leads executive
education programs and conductsresearch on systems change and
racial equity.
She's developed customizedprograms for organizations like
USAID and the National UrbanLeague and frequently conducts
(04:58):
workshops on NGO management andleadership.
Welcome, louisa.
Thank you so much.
Excited to be here.
All right, so, to kick thingsoff, I'm going to pose the same
question to both of you.
I'm sure our audience is eagerto hear your thoughts on this.
We all know this the non-profitsector has undergone a ton of
change over the last decades acontinuous stream of
(05:19):
socio-political crises, naturaldisasters, a global pandemic all
of which has challengedorganizations to adapt and
adjust like never before.
But the one thing that'sremained the same through all of
this uncertainty, and willcontinue to remain the same in
the years to come, is the needfor dedicated, mission-driven
talent.
Years of great change andvolatility within the sector,
(05:46):
what is one thing that stood outto you when it comes to
building effective teams thatare resilient and help drive
mission-level success?
And I'm going to start withBetsy.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Great.
Well, I'm going to startalready by breaking the rules,
because I couldn't just think ofone thing, given how important
it is right now that we're allworking with teams in an
environment where we need to bereally agile.
So the three things I'mthinking about right now, the
first being communication andhow important it is to be
constantly communicating to yourteams and your employees about
(06:13):
what you know, what you'reworking on and what's going on.
I heard a statistic thatsomeone needs to hear something
nine times before they reallyunderstand it, and so for me as
a leader, while it may feelrepetitive, I appreciate that
for my team to help them movethrough the change, that
repetition is really important.
The second piece is co-creation.
So thinking about where, aswe're going through change, can
(06:37):
you bring in your team to helpthem co-create?
They will feel more empoweredif they've had an opportunity to
weigh in and help build some ofthat change that they're
navigating.
The third piece is aroundclarity.
So I don't know about you all,a lot of folks on my team right
now are looking for certainty,certainty about their job,
(06:57):
certainty about their finances.
I can't provide them thatcertainty, but I can give them
clarity around what I know I cangive them clarity around the
mission and the values of ourorganization, and so I think
about, as a leader, what is thatpostcard from the future I am
painting for them and how can Iprovide them that clarity to
help them move through thechanges that we're navigating?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Beautiful.
So that was repetition,co-creation.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Communication, co-creation and clarity.
There you go Three Cs, Three Cs.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
No, that's so important, betsy, and especially
this piece around leading withmission and vision.
One thing that we know aboutbeing a leader in uncertain
times is that, as you said, youcan't necessarily promise
knowing what the future is goingto look like, but reminding
everybody that we have thisbigger vision and goalpost of
where we're going, and while theinterim maybe in the next
(07:53):
couple of years will beuncertain and disrupting, how do
we keep our eye on that NorthStar and use that as a way to
keep reminding folks about theimportance of our work and the
impact that we are having incommunity?
So I've got three as well.
I thought about it a little bitmore like proactively, what
(08:14):
could you be doing before we getinto a crisis situation or an
uncertain time to prepare a teamto be more resilient?
And so one thing that I've seena lot is that cross-functional
training can be so important,because when we get into
disruptive situations, that'soften when you also see changes
in personnel or availability ofpeople to be on the job, and so
(08:39):
if you wait until then, it's toolate, and that means your
development team, maybe onlycertain people, own certain
relationships, and that'sproblematic.
You may have certain keypartnerships where you only have
one person who's that lead andthey haven't shared that
relationship and built trustwith other people on your team.
So how are you thinking aboutmaking your team more
(09:01):
cross-functional, making surepeople can step in for each
other if they need to step out?
It's a good practice regardless, but it really helps in these
times to be more resilient.
Another piece of that is alsojust having a really good
knowledge management system sothat people know where they can
find information if certainfolks are out of the office and
(09:21):
can't easily be contacted.
The second thing is creatingspace for creativity and
innovation.
In a time like this, we have tobe creative, we have to be
thinking outside of the box, butwhen you're stressed and you're
anxious, it's really hard to dothat, unless it's already
somewhat part of your DNA.
So how are we thinking aboutcreating those spaces in our
(09:42):
organizations where people aregiven the time to think
creatively, to innovate?
That can be maybe one Friday amonth where you have that time
to come together and to sharethese ideas that have come up
across your staff.
It could be having a certainpercent in the budget every year
that says, hey, you know what?
Yes, we need to fund ourcurrent programming, but how do
(10:05):
we provide funding as well fornew ideas?
I will say I've been talking tocolleagues at Georgetown and
we're all seeing this as areally important time of
innovation for the university.
And how are we letting peopleknow that it's important to be
taking these risks at this time?
But also, how do we make surethat people feel supported by
(10:25):
the organization to do that?
And then the third piece andthis is more of an immediate
what's happening now in thistime of change, is we need to
allow time for staff to feelgrief and loss when we have to
make change or close downprogramming.
And we've had a series ofcommunity convenings here in the
DC area, led by my centerrecently, and what we've been
(10:48):
hearing from folks is thatthey're pretty certain that the
whole nonprofit sector is notgoing to survive this, and that
means we have to think seriouslyabout mergers and acquisitions,
about strategic partnerships,about thinking about how do we
continue to serve communities,but maybe in a very different
way than we've done it before,and that is going to come with
(11:09):
grief and loss.
There are real emotions thatare built up in having to make
those kinds of very seriouspivots and it's important that
we understand that and make thespace for that, because if you
don't, it is really hard toavoid burnout among staff when
you're asking them to createthat change.
So making sure we're not movingtoo quickly to act,
(11:31):
understanding that people reallyneed that time to process.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That's so important, and we're going to talk a lot
more about innovation and aboutthe changing landscape, so let's
stay on the topic ofuncomfortable technologies
coming our way.
Luisa, I want to hear a littlebit from you so you are training
the next generation of studentswho are going to be entering
the nonprofit sector, shapingthe future and leveraging many
(11:56):
of today's emerging technologies, like AI, which we're all going
to be talking about a lot today, and I want to hear from you.
We know our nonprofit customersare benefiting from some of our
tools generative AI features tohelp with repetitive tasks like
candidate searches and outreach, allowing recruiting
professionals to focus oninterviewing, screening
candidates and other importanttasks that are involved in the
(12:17):
TA process.
We're also seeing customersempower their teams to use
LinkedIn Learning's new AIfeatures to develop customized
on-demand learning paths,freeing up time for their L&D
teams to focus on more strategicwork.
So let's bring it back to you.
So let's talk about as yourstudents learn and develop the
skills they need to leadeffective nonprofits.
How are they thinking aboutleveraging AI in their current
(12:41):
or future roles, and how arethey thinking about how that
applies to managing their ownteams one day?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, really great question, and I'll note that we
have future leaders who are partof our graduate programs at the
McCourt School, but in mycenter we actually work with
current leaders in the nonprofitsector, and so we're seeing in
real time how nonprofit leadersare adapting and adjusting.
We just put together an AItoolkit for nonprofit leaders
(13:07):
and in doing that, weinterviewed a bunch of
nonprofits and did some minicase studies, and the one thing
that we found was thatsuccessful organizations who are
adopting AI do so by firstfocusing on pain points.
So, especially in seniorleadership, where maybe senior
leadership isn't quite ready toembrace AI, how do you help them
see where AI can help them intheir day-to-day work before
(13:31):
trying to say, oh, let's do thishuge AI adoption system across
the organization?
And so, for example, one of ouralums of our program was saying
he had been practicing using AIwithin his own department, but
when he brought it up to thesenior leader, they were pretty
reticent.
A lot of nonprofits are reallyconcerned about security and
(13:51):
data security related to AI, butalso biases and what that might
do to data analysis, and so hesaid well, instead of starting
there, he said well, what is itthat's most challenging for you
in your day-to-day work.
And she said, oh my gosh, it isso hard to find documents in
our knowledge management system.
And he said, well, you know AIcan help with that, right?
(14:12):
And so by showing her how AIcould solve the problem that she
was facing, it made her muchmore open to talking about okay,
how else can we use AI?
So I think what I'm hearing,then, is you can't just have a
one approach fits all for how toadopt AI in an organization,
because that's when you're notreally listening to each
(14:34):
individual's needs and interestsand also concerns.
But the other thing that wefound in this toolkit is there
are three areas that we'rereally seeing AI being adopted
in the nonprofit space.
So the first is an operationalefficiency, and a lot of that is
what you were just talkingabout.
Right, how do we make a lot ofthese tasks that are repetitive
(14:56):
easier to do?
But we also have opportunitiesto use AI in service delivery
and in advocacy.
So we're seeing thatorganizations are using AI to do
data analysis, to do programassessment and real-time
evaluation.
So we, just at our communityconvenings, had people
note-taking at tables.
So we, just at our communityconvenings, had people
(15:33):
note-taking at tables.
We put those notes through AIas well, as advocacy groups are
using it to draft social mediaposts and calls to action.
Doing that initial draft, itjust pulls things out faster,
and if you train your AI well,it can really make a big
difference really quickly.
So we're putting together thissign-on letter, and one of our
partners was like, oh, we'lljust run it through the AI tool
(15:55):
that we've been training onnonprofit fundraising and
development and we'll see whatit puts.
And it just did a great job.
It just took all of the thingswe were saying but made it
soundbites and made it focusedand made sure that it was punchy
, and I was like man, this wasgreat.
So opportunities there.
And then the last piece is indecision making, and so we're
(16:17):
looking at AI to help withscenario modeling Hugely
important right now as we'retrying to consider what are
different futures for ourorganizations, looking at data
analysis that can be used fordecision making as well as
financial forecasting.
So lots of great ways to beusing AI.
Just the importance, though, ofremembering to have really
clear AI policies so staff knowwhen do we want you to be using
(16:42):
AI, when do we not?
What does that mean in terms ofwhich data we want you to put
through AI which do we not?
And then, lastly, ensuring thatthere's ongoing training,
because it's changing all thetime, ensuring that there's
ongoing training because it'schanging all the time.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
This is so valuable, and one of the things that we
learned in our nonprofit talentreport is that the demand for AI
skills has increased by 2.6,yet the supply has only
increased by two times.
So the fact that we'reupskilling our students and
future nonprofit leaders to beready to face that change is so
important.
So, betsy, we're going to bringit to you next and talk a
little bit about how thisapplies to the TA side of the
(17:19):
house.
We all know there's a growingneed for AI fluency across a
sector.
We just covered quite a bit ofthat From your perspective at
the Gates Foundation.
What's working when it comes toattracting and retaining talent
with AI capabilities,especially when competing with
sectors that have deeper pockets?
And are there specific roles orskills you've prioritized to
(17:41):
help your team stay future readywithout?
Speaker 5 (17:43):
losing sight of your mission.
Yeah, happy to answer that, butbefore I do, I actually just
want to build Louisa off whatyou were saying, because I think
at the Gates Foundation there'ssome real-life examples of how
you're talking about bestpractices.
Some of the things we've doneto try and encourage employees
to embrace AI is one as afoundation, we've set principles
for how to use AI, but withthose principles we also set
(18:06):
guardrails, so things like dataprivacy and how we want to make
sure that if we're trying thesethings, we're doing it in a
really thoughtful way.
And then we've set check-ins,so we have monthly times for
employees both to share howthey're trying AI, but also to
provide education and trainingsand tips and tricks to help
people as they're on thisjourney.
(18:27):
And I think what's so importantabout the model that we are
trying at the Gates Foundationis it's empowering the employees
, which then increases trust forpeople to try and adopt and use
new things.
So, from the recruitingperspective on the AI side, what
I'll share and I experiencedthis both when I was recruiting
(18:47):
in the tech industry as well asnow in the nonprofit side it's
really important, as you'rethinking about AI talent, to
think about what talent requiresfamiliarity with AI.
Versus what roles are AI roles?
Thinking about how to use it,how to encourage our teams to
(19:15):
use it?
But that is very different froman individual that actually
needs to have the technicalexpertise to develop AI
solutions, and so I'd encourageyou all to think about that
differentiation, because it's inthat differentiation where you
can customize your recruitingand your talent management
strategies to address those morecompetitive roles.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
All right, louisa, let's bring it back to you.
So we talked a bit about yourstudents, and we also know from
our report that both hard skillsand human-centric skills are
highly important.
So we're kind of bringing itback to the things that are
familiar, the familiarity thatour employees may have.
How do you ensure that yourstudents or the nonprofit
(19:56):
leaders that you teach are ableto successfully navigate new
technology, and how do you thinknonprofits can adapt this
approach when developing theirown teams?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Really good question.
Sorry, I forgot that I have amicrophone.
So, yeah, I think it's reallyimportant that we remember to
combine both the hard and softskills when we're thinking about
team effectiveness.
One of the areas that I focuson with our nonprofit leaders is
helping develop a sharedlanguage around workplace
(20:26):
behaviors so that we can helpteams adapt to different
situations and call on thestrengths of different team
members when they're needed.
And so this means clarityaround basic things like
communicating, which we coveredbefore, and giving and receiving
feedback, which is reallyimportant, because not every
team member is going to be readyto make decisions or pivot at
(20:49):
the same speed, and so havingopen communication.
And also, especially around AI,being able to say, look, I'm
not ready for that next step, orI don't feel prepared, or I
know the team wants to move thisway, but these are concerns I
still have, and making it clearthat those are welcome comments
(21:10):
as opposed to oh well, you'rejust against the process or our
ability to adapt.
And then I think it's alsointeresting, when we think about
bringing in staff with strongAI backgrounds, how that might
be intimidating for currentstaff, so how those folks are
coming in with a differentlanguage and a different way of
(21:30):
thinking and finding ways toempower existing staff.
One by highlighting the skillsthey do have, so that it doesn't
feel like, oh, ai is now moreimportant than some of these
community-based skills that youbring to the table, but also
figuring out how to reallybridge the gap between the
language and knowledgedifferences of those folks.
(21:51):
One thing I always remember iswhen we talk about tech teams
and IT, there are always peoplewho say, well, there's that
person in the middle who's doingthe translation, and just
thinking through, who is thatperson?
Or do we need a person likethat, as we're bringing in
really highly skilled AIprofessionals and mixing them
into a different culture ofpotentially very community-based
(22:14):
, very people-centric staff andorganizations.
So that's just something I'vebeen thinking about.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, I think what you say there is so important,
and I've been hearing that a lotabout the intimidation factor,
so I'm glad you were able totouch on that a little bit,
luisa.
So the beauty of leveragingthese new technologies is that
it allows us to spend more timeon people-first approaches, so
clearing the space for us tothink about the ways that humans
need to be doing their jobs inTA and saving on administrative
(22:44):
tasks.
This stat blew my mind as wellfrom the report job openings on
LinkedIn that did not require adegree increase by 14%, which
signals that nonprofits areslowly but surely adopting a
skills-based approach versus adegree-based approach to
attracting new talent I love.
So I'd like to pose this nextquestion to you, betsy, as the
(23:06):
shift towards skill-based hiringis becoming more prevalent in
the nonprofit sector how has theGates Foundation adapted its
recruitment to focus oncompetencies over traditional
education requirements and anyoutcomes you've observed from
this shift?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Yeah.
So when it comes toskills-based hiring, a couple
things I think about.
One I think about with skills,it's really important to take a
holistic approach.
So it's not just what are theskills you're hiring for, but
making sure as you identifythose skills, those will grow
with the employee.
So you're bringing in skills athiring, onboarding, performance
(23:41):
, all those important momentsthrough the employee life cycle.
Now, with that it can become arather daunting task because it
becomes a much bigger programthat you're trying to solve for.
So what we're trying to do atthe Gates Foundation is think
about what are our short-termsolutions that we can take
advantage of, but then how willthose stitch into a longer-term
approach?
(24:02):
And so one example at thefoundation we have over 500 job
profiles given the complexity ofour roles, which is a lot.
If you think about buildingskills for 500 profiles, that
could take a good few years.
So we actually found a way toclick up.
While we have over 500 profiles, we actually only have three
different career tracks, sothat's manager, professional and
(24:25):
support, and so we've investedtime in building skills and a
hiring assessment for thoseskills based on those three
tracks, acknowledging that 60 to70 percent of those skills
aligned to those tracks willalso be relevant for the
individual jobs, and it's madeit a much more manageable
approach.
My hope is, as we do morearound skill building, that we
(24:48):
improve quality of hire becausewe're working around the
packaging a candidate can bring,whether that's their pedigree,
their background, and we'rereally truly assessing what are
the skills that are required tobe most impactful in the job.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I love that.
And I can't believe that we'realmost at the end of our
conversation, but we still havea lot of insights.
I think we're going to get outof our speakers today and
surprise we're going to beturning the mic over to our
audience as well, to contributeto the conversation.
So I want to start by askingthis last question and again,
we're going to pass the micaround.
I want to hear from many of youin the audience today.
We have a roaming mic, by theway, so I think someone will be
(25:25):
running around with that.
All right, betsy and Louisaquestion, we'll start with you.
What are you most excited orhopeful about when it comes to
the future of talent acquisitionor development in the nonprofit
sector?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
All right.
So I think this is somethingthat isn't necessarily changing,
but it is something that we seethat, as the country goes
through different times ofuncertainty, we often get an
influx of folks into thenonprofit sector.
Get an influx of folks into thenonprofit sector we saw it with
the economic decline in 2008,where all of a sudden, we had
(26:03):
folks with a very differentbackground than you would
normally see a nonprofit seekingout nonprofit work and I think
the positive of that is thatwe're bringing in we will have
this opportunity to bring in newfolks who have new ideas, who
can help with some of thecreativity and innovation which
is going to be necessary for ourorganizations to weather this
storm and come out stronger thanthey were before.
So a lot of it is just aroundthis diversity of perspective,
(26:26):
experience, skill set, and Ithink it's going to help us
address some of these communitychallenges that continue to
persist, and one of the thingswe talk about more and more
within our trainings is theimportance of working across
sector.
So if we can be bringing inpeople who have been in other
sectors, who can help usunderstand how best to have
(26:47):
those cross-sector partnershipsand who to approach and what are
potentially good partners forour work.
That's going to help us have abetter chance at addressing some
of these really big systemicproblems that we face around
poverty and education andhousing, for example.
So I'm optimistic, despite thefact that this is obviously a
(27:10):
challenging time, but I thinkagain, it gives us new
opportunities to rethink who weare and what we do and how we
best show up for our communities.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
That optimism is so important.
I want to hear from you too,Betsy.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Yeah, I'll build off, louisa, what you said.
I think for me, it's innovation.
I really do believe that whilechange can be hard, it is an
opportunity, that while changecan be hard, it is an
opportunity.
And as I look at the GatesFoundation, I talk to peers and
colleagues.
I think we're in this uniquemoment where we're moving from
(27:45):
very structured and traditionalorganizations into a much more
fluid environment, and so, withthat, I think about what am I
doing myself as a leader toprepare?
How am I getting theinformation to think about where
my team needs to move to?
And then what am I doing tosupport my team?
Make sure they have the rightskills, make sure they're
(28:08):
understanding where we're going,allow them to also help build
with me.
And so, between myself, tryingto paint that future, bring my
team along.
I'm really excited,acknowledging that there are
bumps and challenges along theway, but I'm excited for those
problems.
I think they're reallyinteresting and exciting to
(28:29):
solve for.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
This is great.
I think it's really importantfor us to send off all of you to
the rest of the day with someof that optimism and hope for
what's to come in the sector,because we're sure there's going
to continue to be a lot ofchange.
I'd love to hear from you.
Did we pass the mic around?
Anyone want to jump in?
What are you excited or hopefulabout?
Speaker 7 (28:50):
Yes, so I just wanted to share that.
You know we are a team around250 people right now and we were
just developed the strategyplan for the next 10 years and
we were all together to discussabout.
From you can say executive levelto everyone.
You know all the board membersand everyone was there to design
(29:11):
the how strategy for the next10 years should look like.
So I just want to want to knowfrom you you know, uh, when we
design the strategy for thenon-profit who work with the
youth and also with the women,so you know, as you see, there
is a culture, background and thedifference in the languages, so
we have to make sure how the aineed to be used for us and what
(29:35):
are the limitation we shouldkeep on it like, if you have see
, everyone is providing you aitools, but there is a fear in
the staff also what we shoulduse or what we should not use,
because might be because of thetraining, as you said, there is
need of training to the staffalso what we should use or what
we should not use, because mightbe because of the training, as
you said, there's need oftraining to the staff also.
But somewhere it also found thatif we give a training to, they
(29:55):
will, you know, just be dependon the, you know on the charge
gpt and just writing the reporton that way.
So I just want to know what youthink, what kind of strategy we
should have with the staff.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, I'm happy to start.
So one of the things I was alsothinking about and this came up
in our workshop last week withour AI toolkit for nonprofits
somebody said, well, not only dowe need to be worrying about
training the staff, but we haveto worry about training the
people that we're serving.
And one of the things we sawwhen technology and the internet
(30:29):
came out.
Originally, it led to a hugeeconomic gap, so the people who
had access did better and yousaw the people who didn't have
access, the gap in income grewbetween them, right, and we
don't want that to happen withAI.
So I think we need to bethinking about not only how are
we training our staff, but howare we making sure that the
(30:51):
youth that we are working withunderstand AI and understand a
number of different things right, Like how to assess information
that they're finding online anddecide whether this is valid or
not?
How do they and we are doingthis in our coursework at
Georgetown how do we let themuse AI tools so they can learn
(31:15):
what they can do for them andwhat they can't do for them, and
have that actual conversationso that they're learning about
the tools in real time.
The tools are going to continueto exist, and so I think
avoiding them doesn't reallyserve anyone's purpose.
But being really thoughtfulabout how are we helping people
analyze the tools, not just usethem, but understand what is the
(31:36):
tool saying it's doing and whatis it actually doing?
So we do that a lot, especiallyin our research work, to say,
okay, what is the differencebetween asking a question that
you kind of have a sense of whatthe response should be and then
being able to assess theresponse, versus asking a
question about information youknow nothing about and then
relying on AI to have told youthe right thing?
(31:58):
Right?
These are very differentscenarios and I think that
that's what we need to help ourstaff, but also the people we're
serving, be able to have thatkind of critical analysis.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
That judgment is so important.
The only thing I'll add thereis we've had to get much more
intentional about a technologyinventory, so looking at what
are all the tools we're usingand then being much more agile
with the review of that.
So, instead of looking at atool over a two or three year
(32:31):
period even from a contractingperspective, really getting more
into every six months, let'scheck in what are the tools
we're using.
Are they still serving what weneed them to?
How have those tools themselvesevolved?
Because so many of our partnersLinkedIn is a great example
(32:52):
they're providing new featuresthat we need to stay up to date
with, and so looking at in amuch more agile schedule,
checking in what are we using.
Is it serving what we need to?
Using our network to understandwhat others are using, what new
tools are coming out, and thenbeing in a more fluid
environment of okay, we're goingto roll off this tool because
it no longer serves our need andwe're actually going to pilot
this new tool and see how itgoes.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Great ad-libbing, ladies.
That was not in the scripts.
I love it.
Do we have time for one more?
Okay, any other brave souls inthe audience?
Thank you for that.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
Thank you very much.
My name is Greg Hutchins.
I'm the head of talentacquisition for the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation.
I have a question related to AI, particularly around ethical
usage of AI, as we still try todrive innovation in our work,
knowing that AI can be used in avariety of different ways.
What processes, guidelines oneof you mentioned guardrails what
(33:48):
are you putting in place tomake sure that there is still a
focus on true innovation and notrelying on solely the output
from an AI algorithm?
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah, I'm happy to start.
So, as I said, I think what'sbeen important for us at the
Gates Foundation is having boththe principles of here's what
we're aspirationally workingtowards with this technology, as
well as the guardrails, andthose guardrails are really in
close partnership with our legalteam on these are the do's and
don'ts and where not to use it.
(34:18):
And then we are really trying toengage almost a growth mindset,
I would say, with our teams ofthese past 12 months we've
talked about this is a time ofexperimentation.
So, take the principles, takethe guardrails and then test and
try but bring those learningsback.
And that's where I think whathas been so critical is those
(34:39):
regular check-ins to cometogether as a team and say, hey,
what are you trying?
And hey, did anyone hear aboutthis or see this new feature?
And it's in those moments tosome of the kind of ethical or
more ambiguous situations thatwe don't yet have answers for,
that's where we're able tobetter identify as a team.
Hey, these are the good moments, keep going, we're gonna build
(35:03):
off of those.
And hey, love that you triedthis.
But we actually, because ofthese reasons, want to move more
towards this direction.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, and I think that there are a couple of
things I would also share isthat one of the things that,
when we were considering the AItoolkit, was that most AI
approaches focus on ahuman-in-the-loop approach,
which says humans need to bechecking in in the places that
we think AI might have thesebiases or might have some issues
.
Focus on a human in the loopapproach, which says humans need
to be checking in in the placesthat we think AI might have
these biases or might have someissues, so making sure that they
(35:33):
are in the loop.
What we decided, though, wasthat, because of our
mission-driven organizations, wethink humans have to be at the
top of the loop, right?
Humans need to be makingdecisions at every stage of how
AI is being used, not justchecking in to make sure it was
doing what we thought it wasgoing to do.
And then there are just certaintypes of AI that you want to be
really careful around.
One is chatbots.
(35:54):
They can be very helpful, but,at the same time, a lot of our
organizations and the people weserve kind of believe that
they're going to be interactingwith a human being, and,
especially when they'revulnerable populations, we want
to be really careful about whenit's human interaction and when
it might not be.
(36:15):
The other thing I heard was justbe transparent as much as you
can, and so just tell peoplethis is how we're using it, this
is when we're using it, this iswhat we're using, and that way,
at least people are aware andthen if there are concerns, they
can tell you.
As opposed to it being usedwithout that kind of
transparency, then it's reallyhard to get feedback from folks
(36:37):
to know how they feel about theuse of AI, and I think we also
just need to get people used tothe fact that AI is going to be
used in certain situations.
But what we found with thetoolkit was that there's some
organizations, because of thetype of work that they do, that
they really don't see theirorganization moving beyond using
AI just for efficiency purposes, and that's fine, especially as
(37:00):
we're continuing to learn aboutAI and some of the potential
biases and concerns, andespecially those who are trying
to push towards an area of usingit for decision-making, really
taking the time not just tounderstand AI and the kinds of
prompts you're using and howthose could lead to biases, but
also how your data could just be.
(37:22):
The kind of data you'reinputting can lead to biases.
So I had heard an example wherean organization said oh, we're
hiring and let's just put all ofthe resumes of our current
staff into AI and say picksomeone who would fit well in
this organization.
Well, it turned out thisorganization was working in an
(37:45):
area where there weren't thatmany women who were part of the
staff, so the AI tool just didnot put forward any female
resumes because they said well,you didn't want women, you don't
have women on your staff, youhave very few, and so it's just
understanding that what you'reasking and how it's processing
that ask, and so those are justsome examples of things to keep
(38:07):
in mind.
Speaker 4 (38:08):
I'm sure the audience loves those real life examples.
This is great and just a quickobservation, I can see both of
the initial points you broughtup about advice you give on
navigating change be like athrough line through how you'd
guide your teams through AI.
So really nice work.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of
Missions to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review.
Wherever you're listening, yourfeedback helps us reach more
changemakers like you andcontinue bringing impactful
stories and strategies to theshow.
(38:45):
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button too, so you'll
never miss an episode, and untilnext time, keep turning your
mission into a movement.
Wow, this has been an incredible month.
I really enjoyed celebratingMonthly Giving Awareness Week
with everyone.
All the resources are stillavailable at
monthlygivingweekcom if youhaven't checked those out.
And to wrap up the month, Iwanted to focus on highlighting
talent the talent that it takesto do all of the work that you
(00:22):
do, all of the impact, all ofthe programs, all of the monthly
giving programs that you run.
And so, just a few weeks ago,linkedin for Nonprofits put
together two impact summitsNonprofit Talent Edition.
They had two action-packed daysin New York City and DC.
And today you are getting theinside scoop.
Listen to the keynote chat fromDC.
(00:44):
It's titled Building EffectiveNonprofit Teams to Drive Change.
So, in this ever-changing worldof work, combined with the rise
of AI, limited resources,competing priorities, do you
feel seen in this moment?
You are faced with immensechallenges, but really building
resilient workforces dedicatedto your cause.
(01:05):
So in this conversation, inthis keynote, they're going to
dive into the current state ofthe nonprofit talent landscape
as really informed by the 2025Nonprofit Talent Report.
So you'll hear from industryexperts, learn about the latest
talent insights and really leavewith a deeper understanding of
the opportunities facingnonprofit talent leaders.
(01:27):
Today and, ariana, you and Iposted on LinkedIn right after
this.
It truly hit the mark bycentering the conversations.
We don't have often enoughTalent retention, culture and
equity.
I'm very excited for you tolisten to this conversation and
then in the show notes I alsohave a link that you can go
check out the Nonprofit TalentReport as well.
(01:49):
So I hope you enjoy and thisstarts conversations within your
organization and take thoseconversations to LinkedIn to see
what others have to say.
Roll the tape.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Successful organizations who are adopting
AI do so by first focusing onpain points, so especially in
senior leadership, where maybesenior leadership isn't quite
ready to embrace AI.
How do you help them see whereAI can help them in their
day-to-day work before trying tosay, oh, let's do this huge AI
adoption system across theorganization?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
to say, oh, let's do this huge AI adoption system
across the organization.
Really excited to have ArianeYunai join us.
She is the head of LinkedIn forNonprofits and she's going to
be leading this really importantconversation around building
effective nonprofit teams.
We are going to be joined by acouple of really special guests
Betsy DeMolanta, head of globaltalent acquisition for the Gates
Foundation, and LouisaBoyalanta, head of Global Talent
Acquisition for the GatesFoundation, and Louisa Boyarsky,
(02:47):
director of the Center forPublic and Nonprofit Leadership,
right here at GeorgetownUniversity.
I'm really excited about thisconversation, so please join me.
Remember big welcome applause.
Please join me in welcomingAriana and our panelists to the
stage.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Hi everyone.
It's so good to see you here.
Only, I think, about 60 peoplein the room, all TA
professionals at nonprofitorganizations, so this is really
something special.
I think this group is going topack a punch.
I'm really excited to be hereand welcome our panelists for a
conversation I think is going tobe very timely.
I hope, as you hear theinsights from our panelists, you
see yourselves in theconversation, you see your teams
(03:32):
in the conversation, and I'mreally excited to get to hear
some insights from Betsy andLouisa on building effective
nonprofit teams to drive change.
So today we're going to bediving into the current state of
the nonprofit talent landscape,guided by insights from
LinkedIn's 2025 talent report,which we just put out Tons of
insights that came from this.
This is going to be ourguidepost for today's questions
(03:54):
and conversation.
So let's introduce ourpanelists, starting with Betsy
DeMolanta.
Betsy is a seasoned TAprofessional and HR leader with
deep expertise in solvingcomplex talent challenges and
building high-performing teams.
Betsy's work intersects talentand organizational effectiveness
, focusing on workforce planning, executive hiring and change
(04:17):
management.
Her experience spans both techand philanthropic sectors, where
she has developed scalable,people-centered solutions that
drive long-term impact.
Welcome, betsy.
Thank you, glad to be here.
We also have Louisa Boyarskyhere joining us as the director
(04:37):
of Georgetown University'sCenter for Public and Nonprofit
Leadership and AssociateResearch Professor at the
McCourt School of Public Policy,dr Boyarsky leads executive
education programs and conductsresearch on systems change and
racial equity.
She's developed customizedprograms for organizations like
USAID and the National UrbanLeague and frequently conducts
(04:58):
workshops on NGO management andleadership.
Welcome, louisa.
Thank you so much.
Excited to be here.
All right, so, to kick thingsoff, I'm going to pose the same
question to both of you.
I'm sure our audience is eagerto hear your thoughts on this.
We all know this the non-profitsector has undergone a ton of
change over the last decades acontinuous stream of
(05:19):
socio-political crises, naturaldisasters, a global pandemic all
of which has challengedorganizations to adapt and
adjust like never before.
But the one thing that'sremained the same through all of
this uncertainty, and willcontinue to remain the same in
the years to come, is the needfor dedicated, mission-driven
talent.
Years of great change andvolatility within the sector,
(05:46):
what is one thing that stood outto you when it comes to
building effective teams thatare resilient and help drive
mission-level success?
And I'm going to start withBetsy.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Great.
Well, I'm going to startalready by breaking the rules,
because I couldn't just think ofone thing, given how important
it is right now that we're allworking with teams in an
environment where we need to bereally agile.
So the three things I'mthinking about right now, the
first being communication andhow important it is to be
constantly communicating to yourteams and your employees about
(06:13):
what you know, what you'reworking on and what's going on.
I heard a statistic thatsomeone needs to hear something
nine times before they reallyunderstand it, and so for me as
a leader, while it may feelrepetitive, I appreciate that
for my team to help them movethrough the change, that
repetition is really important.
The second piece is co-creation.
So thinking about where, aswe're going through change, can
(06:37):
you bring in your team to helpthem co-create?
They will feel more empoweredif they've had an opportunity to
weigh in and help build some ofthat change that they're
navigating.
The third piece is aroundclarity.
So I don't know about you all,a lot of folks on my team right
now are looking for certainty,certainty about their job,
(06:57):
certainty about their finances.
I can't provide them thatcertainty, but I can give them
clarity around what I know I cangive them clarity around the
mission and the values of ourorganization, and so I think
about, as a leader, what is thatpostcard from the future I am
painting for them and how can Iprovide them that clarity to
help them move through thechanges that we're navigating?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Beautiful.
So that was repetition,co-creation.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Communication, co-creation and clarity.
There you go Three Cs, Three Cs.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
No, that's so important, betsy, and especially
this piece around leading withmission and vision.
One thing that we know aboutbeing a leader in uncertain
times is that, as you said, youcan't necessarily promise
knowing what the future is goingto look like, but reminding
everybody that we have thisbigger vision and goalpost of
where we're going, and while theinterim maybe in the next
(07:53):
couple of years will beuncertain and disrupting, how do
we keep our eye on that NorthStar and use that as a way to
keep reminding folks about theimportance of our work and the
impact that we are having incommunity?
So I've got three as well.
I thought about it a little bitmore like proactively, what
(08:14):
could you be doing before we getinto a crisis situation or an
uncertain time to prepare a teamto be more resilient?
And so one thing that I've seena lot is that cross-functional
training can be so important,because when we get into
disruptive situations, that'soften when you also see changes
in personnel or availability ofpeople to be on the job, and so
(08:39):
if you wait until then, it's toolate, and that means your
development team, maybe onlycertain people, own certain
relationships, and that'sproblematic.
You may have certain keypartnerships where you only have
one person who's that lead andthey haven't shared that
relationship and built trustwith other people on your team.
So how are you thinking aboutmaking your team more
(09:01):
cross-functional, making surepeople can step in for each
other if they need to step out?
It's a good practice regardless, but it really helps in these
times to be more resilient.
Another piece of that is alsojust having a really good
knowledge management system sothat people know where they can
find information if certainfolks are out of the office and
(09:21):
can't easily be contacted.
The second thing is creatingspace for creativity and
innovation.
In a time like this, we have tobe creative, we have to be
thinking outside of the box, butwhen you're stressed and you're
anxious, it's really hard to dothat, unless it's already
somewhat part of your DNA.
So how are we thinking aboutcreating those spaces in our
(09:42):
organizations where people aregiven the time to think
creatively, to innovate?
That can be maybe one Friday amonth where you have that time
to come together and to sharethese ideas that have come up
across your staff.
It could be having a certainpercent in the budget every year
that says, hey, you know what?
Yes, we need to fund ourcurrent programming, but how do
(10:05):
we provide funding as well fornew ideas?
I will say I've been talking tocolleagues at Georgetown and
we're all seeing this as areally important time of
innovation for the university.
And how are we letting peopleknow that it's important to be
taking these risks at this time?
But also, how do we make surethat people feel supported by
(10:25):
the organization to do that?
And then the third piece andthis is more of an immediate
what's happening now in thistime of change, is we need to
allow time for staff to feelgrief and loss when we have to
make change or close downprogramming.
And we've had a series ofcommunity convenings here in the
DC area, led by my centerrecently, and what we've been
(10:48):
hearing from folks is thatthey're pretty certain that the
whole nonprofit sector is notgoing to survive this, and that
means we have to think seriouslyabout mergers and acquisitions,
about strategic partnerships,about thinking about how do we
continue to serve communities,but maybe in a very different
way than we've done it before,and that is going to come with
(11:09):
grief and loss.
There are real emotions thatare built up in having to make
those kinds of very seriouspivots and it's important that
we understand that and make thespace for that, because if you
don't, it is really hard toavoid burnout among staff when
you're asking them to createthat change.
So making sure we're not movingtoo quickly to act,
(11:31):
understanding that people reallyneed that time to process.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That's so important, and we're going to talk a lot
more about innovation and aboutthe changing landscape, so let's
stay on the topic ofuncomfortable technologies
coming our way.
Luisa, I want to hear a littlebit from you so you are training
the next generation of studentswho are going to be entering
the nonprofit sector, shapingthe future and leveraging many
(11:56):
of today's emerging technologies, like AI, which we're all going
to be talking about a lot today, and I want to hear from you.
We know our nonprofit customersare benefiting from some of our
tools generative AI features tohelp with repetitive tasks like
candidate searches and outreach, allowing recruiting
professionals to focus oninterviewing, screening
candidates and other importanttasks that are involved in the
(12:17):
TA process.
We're also seeing customersempower their teams to use
LinkedIn Learning's new AIfeatures to develop customized
on-demand learning paths,freeing up time for their L&D
teams to focus on more strategicwork.
So let's bring it back to you.
So let's talk about as yourstudents learn and develop the
skills they need to leadeffective nonprofits.
How are they thinking aboutleveraging AI in their current
(12:41):
or future roles, and how arethey thinking about how that
applies to managing their ownteams one day?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, really great question, and I'll note that we
have future leaders who are partof our graduate programs at the
McCourt School, but in mycenter we actually work with
current leaders in the nonprofitsector, and so we're seeing in
real time how nonprofit leadersare adapting and adjusting.
We just put together an AItoolkit for nonprofit leaders
(13:07):
and in doing that, weinterviewed a bunch of
nonprofits and did some minicase studies, and the one thing
that we found was thatsuccessful organizations who are
adopting AI do so by firstfocusing on pain points.
So, especially in seniorleadership, where maybe senior
leadership isn't quite ready toembrace AI, how do you help them
see where AI can help them intheir day-to-day work before
(13:31):
trying to say, oh, let's do thishuge AI adoption system across
the organization?
And so, for example, one of ouralums of our program was saying
he had been practicing using AIwithin his own department, but
when he brought it up to thesenior leader, they were pretty
reticent.
A lot of nonprofits are reallyconcerned about security and
(13:51):
data security related to AI, butalso biases and what that might
do to data analysis, and so hesaid well, instead of starting
there, he said well, what is itthat's most challenging for you
in your day-to-day work.
And she said, oh my gosh, it isso hard to find documents in
our knowledge management system.
And he said, well, you know AIcan help with that, right?
(14:12):
And so by showing her how AIcould solve the problem that she
was facing, it made her muchmore open to talking about okay,
how else can we use AI?
So I think what I'm hearing,then, is you can't just have a
one approach fits all for how toadopt AI in an organization,
because that's when you're notreally listening to each
(14:34):
individual's needs and interestsand also concerns.
But the other thing that wefound in this toolkit is there
are three areas that we'rereally seeing AI being adopted
in the nonprofit space.
So the first is an operationalefficiency, and a lot of that is
what you were just talkingabout.
Right, how do we make a lot ofthese tasks that are repetitive
(14:56):
easier to do?
But we also have opportunitiesto use AI in service delivery
and in advocacy.
So we're seeing thatorganizations are using AI to do
data analysis, to do programassessment and real-time
evaluation.
So we, just at our communityconvenings, had people
note-taking at tables.
So we, just at our communityconvenings, had people
(15:33):
note-taking at tables.
We put those notes through AIas well, as advocacy groups are
using it to draft social mediaposts and calls to action.
Doing that initial draft, itjust pulls things out faster,
and if you train your AI well,it can really make a big
difference really quickly.
So we're putting together thissign-on letter, and one of our
partners was like, oh, we'lljust run it through the AI tool
(15:55):
that we've been training onnonprofit fundraising and
development and we'll see whatit puts.
And it just did a great job.
It just took all of the thingswe were saying but made it
soundbites and made it focusedand made sure that it was punchy
, and I was like man, this wasgreat.
So opportunities there.
And then the last piece is indecision making, and so we're
(16:17):
looking at AI to help withscenario modeling Hugely
important right now as we'retrying to consider what are
different futures for ourorganizations, looking at data
analysis that can be used fordecision making as well as
financial forecasting.
So lots of great ways to beusing AI.
Just the importance, though, ofremembering to have really
clear AI policies so staff knowwhen do we want you to be using
(16:42):
AI, when do we not?
What does that mean in terms ofwhich data we want you to put
through AI which do we not?
And then, lastly, ensuring thatthere's ongoing training,
because it's changing all thetime, ensuring that there's
ongoing training because it'schanging all the time.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
This is so valuable, and one of the things that we
learned in our nonprofit talentreport is that the demand for AI
skills has increased by 2.6,yet the supply has only
increased by two times.
So the fact that we'reupskilling our students and
future nonprofit leaders to beready to face that change is so
important.
So, betsy, we're going to bringit to you next and talk a
little bit about how thisapplies to the TA side of the
(17:19):
house.
We all know there's a growingneed for AI fluency across a
sector.
We just covered quite a bit ofthat From your perspective at
the Gates Foundation.
What's working when it comes toattracting and retaining talent
with AI capabilities,especially when competing with
sectors that have deeper pockets?
And are there specific roles orskills you've prioritized to
(17:41):
help your team stay future readywithout?
Speaker 5 (17:43):
losing sight of your mission.
Yeah, happy to answer that, butbefore I do, I actually just
want to build Louisa off whatyou were saying, because I think
at the Gates Foundation there'ssome real-life examples of how
you're talking about bestpractices.
Some of the things we've doneto try and encourage employees
to embrace AI is one as afoundation, we've set principles
for how to use AI, but withthose principles we also set
(18:06):
guardrails, so things like dataprivacy and how we want to make
sure that if we're trying thesethings, we're doing it in a
really thoughtful way.
And then we've set check-ins,so we have monthly times for
employees both to share howthey're trying AI, but also to
provide education and trainingsand tips and tricks to help
people as they're on thisjourney.
(18:27):
And I think what's so importantabout the model that we are
trying at the Gates Foundationis it's empowering the employees
, which then increases trust forpeople to try and adopt and use
new things.
So, from the recruitingperspective on the AI side, what
I'll share and I experiencedthis both when I was recruiting
(18:47):
in the tech industry as well asnow in the nonprofit side it's
really important, as you'rethinking about AI talent, to
think about what talent requiresfamiliarity with AI.
Versus what roles are AI roles?
Thinking about how to use it,how to encourage our teams to
(19:15):
use it?
But that is very different froman individual that actually
needs to have the technicalexpertise to develop AI
solutions, and so I'd encourageyou all to think about that
differentiation, because it's inthat differentiation where you
can customize your recruitingand your talent management
strategies to address those morecompetitive roles.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
All right, louisa, let's bring it back to you.
So we talked a bit about yourstudents, and we also know from
our report that both hard skillsand human-centric skills are
highly important.
So we're kind of bringing itback to the things that are
familiar, the familiarity thatour employees may have.
How do you ensure that yourstudents or the nonprofit
(19:56):
leaders that you teach are ableto successfully navigate new
technology, and how do you thinknonprofits can adapt this
approach when developing theirown teams?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Really good question.
Sorry, I forgot that I have amicrophone.
So, yeah, I think it's reallyimportant that we remember to
combine both the hard and softskills when we're thinking about
team effectiveness.
One of the areas that I focuson with our nonprofit leaders is
helping develop a sharedlanguage around workplace
(20:26):
behaviors so that we can helpteams adapt to different
situations and call on thestrengths of different team
members when they're needed.
And so this means clarityaround basic things like
communicating, which we coveredbefore, and giving and receiving
feedback, which is reallyimportant, because not every
team member is going to be readyto make decisions or pivot at
(20:49):
the same speed, and so havingopen communication.
And also, especially around AI,being able to say, look, I'm
not ready for that next step, orI don't feel prepared, or I
know the team wants to move thisway, but these are concerns I
still have, and making it clearthat those are welcome comments
(21:10):
as opposed to oh well, you'rejust against the process or our
ability to adapt.
And then I think it's alsointeresting, when we think about
bringing in staff with strongAI backgrounds, how that might
be intimidating for currentstaff, so how those folks are
coming in with a differentlanguage and a different way of
(21:30):
thinking and finding ways toempower existing staff.
One by highlighting the skillsthey do have, so that it doesn't
feel like, oh, ai is now moreimportant than some of these
community-based skills that youbring to the table, but also
figuring out how to reallybridge the gap between the
language and knowledgedifferences of those folks.
(21:51):
One thing I always remember iswhen we talk about tech teams
and IT, there are always peoplewho say, well, there's that
person in the middle who's doingthe translation, and just
thinking through, who is thatperson?
Or do we need a person likethat, as we're bringing in
really highly skilled AIprofessionals and mixing them
into a different culture ofpotentially very community-based
(22:14):
, very people-centric staff andorganizations.
So that's just something I'vebeen thinking about.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Yeah, I think what you say there is so important,
and I've been hearing that a lotabout the intimidation factor,
so I'm glad you were able totouch on that a little bit,
luisa.
So the beauty of leveragingthese new technologies is that
it allows us to spend more timeon people-first approaches, so
clearing the space for us tothink about the ways that humans
need to be doing their jobs inTA and saving on administrative
(22:44):
tasks.
This stat blew my mind as wellfrom the report job openings on
LinkedIn that did not require adegree increase by 14%, which
signals that nonprofits areslowly but surely adopting a
skills-based approach versus adegree-based approach to
attracting new talent I love.
So I'd like to pose this nextquestion to you, betsy, as the
(23:06):
shift towards skill-based hiringis becoming more prevalent in
the nonprofit sector how has theGates Foundation adapted its
recruitment to focus oncompetencies over traditional
education requirements and anyoutcomes you've observed from
this shift?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Yeah.
So when it comes toskills-based hiring, a couple
things I think about.
One I think about with skills,it's really important to take a
holistic approach.
So it's not just what are theskills you're hiring for, but
making sure as you identifythose skills, those will grow
with the employee.
So you're bringing in skills athiring, onboarding, performance
(23:41):
, all those important momentsthrough the employee life cycle.
Now, with that it can become arather daunting task because it
becomes a much bigger programthat you're trying to solve for.
So what we're trying to do atthe Gates Foundation is think
about what are our short-termsolutions that we can take
advantage of, but then how willthose stitch into a longer-term
approach?
(24:02):
And so one example at thefoundation we have over 500 job
profiles given the complexity ofour roles, which is a lot.
If you think about buildingskills for 500 profiles, that
could take a good few years.
So we actually found a way toclick up.
While we have over 500 profiles, we actually only have three
different career tracks, sothat's manager, professional and
(24:25):
support, and so we've investedtime in building skills and a
hiring assessment for thoseskills based on those three
tracks, acknowledging that 60 to70 percent of those skills
aligned to those tracks willalso be relevant for the
individual jobs, and it's madeit a much more manageable
approach.
My hope is, as we do morearound skill building, that we
(24:48):
improve quality of hire becausewe're working around the
packaging a candidate can bring,whether that's their pedigree,
their background, and we'rereally truly assessing what are
the skills that are required tobe most impactful in the job.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I love that.
And I can't believe that we'realmost at the end of our
conversation, but we still havea lot of insights.
I think we're going to get outof our speakers today and
surprise we're going to beturning the mic over to our
audience as well, to contributeto the conversation.
So I want to start by askingthis last question and again,
we're going to pass the micaround.
I want to hear from many of youin the audience today.
We have a roaming mic, by theway, so I think someone will be
(25:25):
running around with that.
All right, betsy and Louisaquestion, we'll start with you.
What are you most excited orhopeful about when it comes to
the future of talent acquisitionor development in the nonprofit
sector?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
All right.
So I think this is somethingthat isn't necessarily changing,
but it is something that we seethat, as the country goes
through different times ofuncertainty, we often get an
influx of folks into thenonprofit sector.
Get an influx of folks into thenonprofit sector we saw it with
the economic decline in 2008,where all of a sudden, we had
(26:03):
folks with a very differentbackground than you would
normally see a nonprofit seekingout nonprofit work and I think
the positive of that is thatwe're bringing in we will have
this opportunity to bring in newfolks who have new ideas, who
can help with some of thecreativity and innovation which
is going to be necessary for ourorganizations to weather this
storm and come out stronger thanthey were before.
So a lot of it is just aroundthis diversity of perspective,
(26:26):
experience, skill set, and Ithink it's going to help us
address some of these communitychallenges that continue to
persist, and one of the thingswe talk about more and more
within our trainings is theimportance of working across
sector.
So if we can be bringing inpeople who have been in other
sectors, who can help usunderstand how best to have
(26:47):
those cross-sector partnershipsand who to approach and what are
potentially good partners forour work.
That's going to help us have abetter chance at addressing some
of these really big systemicproblems that we face around
poverty and education andhousing, for example.
So I'm optimistic, despite thefact that this is obviously a
(27:10):
challenging time, but I thinkagain, it gives us new
opportunities to rethink who weare and what we do and how we
best show up for our communities.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
That optimism is so important.
I want to hear from you too,Betsy.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Yeah, I'll build off, louisa, what you said.
I think for me, it's innovation.
I really do believe that whilechange can be hard, it is an
opportunity, that while changecan be hard, it is an
opportunity.
And as I look at the GatesFoundation, I talk to peers and
colleagues.
I think we're in this uniquemoment where we're moving from
(27:45):
very structured and traditionalorganizations into a much more
fluid environment, and so, withthat, I think about what am I
doing myself as a leader toprepare?
How am I getting theinformation to think about where
my team needs to move to?
And then what am I doing tosupport my team?
Make sure they have the rightskills, make sure they're
(28:08):
understanding where we're going,allow them to also help build
with me.
And so, between myself, tryingto paint that future, bring my
team along.
I'm really excited,acknowledging that there are
bumps and challenges along theway, but I'm excited for those
problems.
I think they're reallyinteresting and exciting to
(28:29):
solve for.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
This is great.
I think it's really importantfor us to send off all of you to
the rest of the day with someof that optimism and hope for
what's to come in the sector,because we're sure there's going
to continue to be a lot ofchange.
I'd love to hear from you.
Did we pass the mic around?
Anyone want to jump in?
What are you excited or hopefulabout?
Speaker 7 (28:50):
Yes, so I just wanted to share that.
You know we are a team around250 people right now and we were
just developed the strategyplan for the next 10 years and
we were all together to discussabout.
From you can say executive levelto everyone.
You know all the board membersand everyone was there to design
(29:11):
the how strategy for the next10 years should look like.
So I just want to want to knowfrom you you know, uh, when we
design the strategy for thenon-profit who work with the
youth and also with the women,so you know, as you see, there
is a culture, background and thedifference in the languages, so
we have to make sure how the aineed to be used for us and what
(29:35):
are the limitation we shouldkeep on it like, if you have see
, everyone is providing you aitools, but there is a fear in
the staff also what we shoulduse or what we should not use,
because might be because of thetraining, as you said, there is
need of training to the staffalso what we should use or what
we should not use, because mightbe because of the training, as
you said, there's need oftraining to the staff also.
But somewhere it also found thatif we give a training to, they
(29:55):
will, you know, just be dependon the, you know on the charge
gpt and just writing the reporton that way.
So I just want to know what youthink, what kind of strategy we
should have with the staff.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, I'm happy to start.
So one of the things I was alsothinking about and this came up
in our workshop last week withour AI toolkit for nonprofits
somebody said, well, not only dowe need to be worrying about
training the staff, but we haveto worry about training the
people that we're serving.
And one of the things we sawwhen technology and the internet
(30:29):
came out.
Originally, it led to a hugeeconomic gap, so the people who
had access did better and yousaw the people who didn't have
access, the gap in income grewbetween them, right, and we
don't want that to happen withAI.
So I think we need to bethinking about not only how are
we training our staff, but howare we making sure that the
(30:51):
youth that we are working withunderstand AI and understand a
number of different things right, Like how to assess information
that they're finding online anddecide whether this is valid or
not?
How do they and we are doingthis in our coursework at
Georgetown how do we let themuse AI tools so they can learn
(31:15):
what they can do for them andwhat they can't do for them, and
have that actual conversationso that they're learning about
the tools in real time.
The tools are going to continueto exist, and so I think
avoiding them doesn't reallyserve anyone's purpose.
But being really thoughtfulabout how are we helping people
analyze the tools, not just usethem, but understand what is the
(31:36):
tool saying it's doing and whatis it actually doing?
So we do that a lot, especiallyin our research work, to say,
okay, what is the differencebetween asking a question that
you kind of have a sense of whatthe response should be and then
being able to assess theresponse, versus asking a
question about information youknow nothing about and then
relying on AI to have told youthe right thing?
(31:58):
Right?
These are very differentscenarios and I think that
that's what we need to help ourstaff, but also the people we're
serving, be able to have thatkind of critical analysis.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
That judgment is so important.
The only thing I'll add thereis we've had to get much more
intentional about a technologyinventory, so looking at what
are all the tools we're usingand then being much more agile
with the review of that.
So, instead of looking at atool over a two or three year
(32:31):
period even from a contractingperspective, really getting more
into every six months, let'scheck in what are the tools
we're using.
Are they still serving what weneed them to?
How have those tools themselvesevolved?
Because so many of our partnersLinkedIn is a great example
(32:52):
they're providing new featuresthat we need to stay up to date
with, and so looking at in amuch more agile schedule,
checking in what are we using.
Is it serving what we need to?
Using our network to understandwhat others are using, what new
tools are coming out, and thenbeing in a more fluid
environment of okay, we're goingto roll off this tool because
it no longer serves our need andwe're actually going to pilot
this new tool and see how itgoes.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Great ad-libbing, ladies.
That was not in the scripts.
I love it.
Do we have time for one more?
Okay, any other brave souls inthe audience?
Thank you for that.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
Thank you very much.
My name is Greg Hutchins.
I'm the head of talentacquisition for the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation.
I have a question related to AI, particularly around ethical
usage of AI, as we still try todrive innovation in our work,
knowing that AI can be used in avariety of different ways.
What processes, guidelines oneof you mentioned guardrails what
(33:48):
are you putting in place tomake sure that there is still a
focus on true innovation and notrelying on solely the output
from an AI algorithm?
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah, I'm happy to start.
So, as I said, I think what'sbeen important for us at the
Gates Foundation is having boththe principles of here's what
we're aspirationally workingtowards with this technology, as
well as the guardrails, andthose guardrails are really in
close partnership with our legalteam on these are the do's and
don'ts and where not to use it.
(34:18):
And then we are really trying toengage almost a growth mindset,
I would say, with our teams ofthese past 12 months we've
talked about this is a time ofexperimentation.
So, take the principles, takethe guardrails and then test and
try but bring those learningsback.
And that's where I think whathas been so critical is those
(34:39):
regular check-ins to cometogether as a team and say, hey,
what are you trying?
And hey, did anyone hear aboutthis or see this new feature?
And it's in those moments tosome of the kind of ethical or
more ambiguous situations thatwe don't yet have answers for,
that's where we're able tobetter identify as a team.
Hey, these are the good moments, keep going, we're gonna build
(35:03):
off of those.
And hey, love that you triedthis.
But we actually, because ofthese reasons, want to move more
towards this direction.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, and I think that there are a couple of
things I would also share isthat one of the things that,
when we were considering the AItoolkit, was that most AI
approaches focus on ahuman-in-the-loop approach,
which says humans need to bechecking in in the places that
we think AI might have thesebiases or might have some issues
.
Focus on a human in the loopapproach, which says humans need
to be checking in in the placesthat we think AI might have
these biases or might have someissues, so making sure that they
(35:33):
are in the loop.
What we decided, though, wasthat, because of our
mission-driven organizations, wethink humans have to be at the
top of the loop, right?
Humans need to be makingdecisions at every stage of how
AI is being used, not justchecking in to make sure it was
doing what we thought it wasgoing to do.
And then there are just certaintypes of AI that you want to be
really careful around.
One is chatbots.
(35:54):
They can be very helpful, but,at the same time, a lot of our
organizations and the people weserve kind of believe that
they're going to be interactingwith a human being, and,
especially when they'revulnerable populations, we want
to be really careful about whenit's human interaction and when
it might not be.
(36:15):
The other thing I heard was justbe transparent as much as you
can, and so just tell peoplethis is how we're using it, this
is when we're using it, this iswhat we're using, and that way,
at least people are aware andthen if there are concerns, they
can tell you.
As opposed to it being usedwithout that kind of
transparency, then it's reallyhard to get feedback from folks
(36:37):
to know how they feel about theuse of AI, and I think we also
just need to get people used tothe fact that AI is going to be
used in certain situations.
But what we found with thetoolkit was that there's some
organizations, because of thetype of work that they do, that
they really don't see theirorganization moving beyond using
AI just for efficiency purposes, and that's fine, especially as
(37:00):
we're continuing to learn aboutAI and some of the potential
biases and concerns, andespecially those who are trying
to push towards an area of usingit for decision-making, really
taking the time not just tounderstand AI and the kinds of
prompts you're using and howthose could lead to biases, but
also how your data could just be.
(37:22):
The kind of data you'reinputting can lead to biases.
So I had heard an example wherean organization said oh, we're
hiring and let's just put all ofthe resumes of our current
staff into AI and say picksomeone who would fit well in
this organization.
Well, it turned out thisorganization was working in an
(37:45):
area where there weren't thatmany women who were part of the
staff, so the AI tool just didnot put forward any female
resumes because they said well,you didn't want women, you don't
have women on your staff, youhave very few, and so it's just
understanding that what you'reasking and how it's processing
that ask, and so those are justsome examples of things to keep
(38:07):
in mind.
Speaker 4 (38:08):
I'm sure the audience loves those real life examples.
This is great and just a quickobservation, I can see both of
the initial points you broughtup about advice you give on
navigating change be like athrough line through how you'd
guide your teams through AI.
So really nice work.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of
Missions to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review.
Wherever you're listening, yourfeedback helps us reach more
changemakers like you andcontinue bringing impactful
stories and strategies to theshow.
(38:45):
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button too, so you'll
never miss an episode, and untilnext time, keep turning your
mission into a movement.
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