Nonprofits need cause leaders who can show them the way forward. The best leaders are enthusiastic about the cause, love helping people, help their team members whenever required, and provide the proper training and knowledge for volunteers and staff.
How do we find this kind of leader?
Cause Leadership provides nonprofits and charities with two main options when searching for their next qualified leader, dynamic director, or board member – a fully managed search or a recruitment marketing search.
Fully Managed Search
A fully managed search takes care of the entire nonprofit executive recruiting process from start to finish.
Finding the perfect fit for a nonprofit is not always easy because many factors drive the job market. Therefore, it is helpful to have an industry talent search expert guide you in that market.
A fully managed search starts with a conversation. Cause Leadership comes to know each organization and their needs by meeting with stakeholders, figuring out the role details, and developing a detailed marketing packet for potential candidates.
Cause Leadership combines proactive search and outreach to prospective candidates, advertising initiatives, candidate screening, and in-person or online interviews with qualified candidates. These steps help ensure the candidates are a good fit for the client organization and narrow the choice down to a handful of preferred candidates.
Remaining engaged from start to finish, selecting the prime candidate comes after managing and participating in interviews between the search committee and the candidates, helping the client make the best choice, checking the references and backgrounds, and finally helping to negotiate an offer.
Advantages of Fully Managed Search
- A proactive search and outreach to prospective candidates
- Puts the search for ideal candidates in the hands of talent search experts
- Maximizes the time of the charity’s Leadership and Board to focus on other initiatives
- Focuses on one main critical goal of finding the next leader
- Uses a nonprofit’s resources wisely without wasting time and effort
- Fully managed searches are guaranteed to find the best fit
Recruitment Marketing
A recruitment marketing project is a scaled-back version of a fully managed search. Cause Leadership manages the initial aspects of talent attraction, including editing/writing and posting job ads, receiving and managing applications, screening the applicants, performing initial interviews, and providing information packages for a select, shortlisted group of candidates to the client.
The nonprofit then reviews a shortlist of candidates and manages the final stages of narrowing the qualified candidates down to the final choice. Cause Leadership assists in the initial assessment of the best candidates for the role. The nonprofit finishes the task by hosting the primary interviews.
Advantages of Recruitment Marketing
- Provides upfront support for ad-driven talent attraction
- Manages screening and initial candidate interviews
- More affordable option
Fully Managed Search vs. Recruitment Marketing
The main differences between a fully managed search versus a recruitment marketing involve project scope and fees.
A fully managed search project is much more involved and cares for most of the process, including negotiating a salary and preparing the leaders for their first days in the nonprofit.
Alternatively, a recruitment marketing project focuses on creating and running ads before narrowing candidates. Again, the bulk of the interviewing is up to the nonprofit. The fee for a recruitment marketing project is about one-third of a fully managed search.
How to Choose the Best Search Type for Your Nonprofit
What does success look like for your nonprofit? What role are you trying to fill?
If your talent search is not time-sensitive, budget realities limit your recruiting spend, or you need help managing upfront recruiting processes, recruitment marketing may be the best solution for your organization.
Consider a fully managed search to find your next great leader when you need a sustaining leader or someone to guide you through growth or organizational transformation
A fully managed executive search may also be best if it is a busy season and your board and hiring team need expert assistance in a more timely and focused manner.
It is always good to remember that a wrong executive hire will always cost you much more than a fully managed search the first time!
Ready to get started? Let’s talk. We look forward to hearing from you.
