Our organization is growing rapidly, and while our core business activity--riparian restoration--remains the same, our funding is shifting from government grants to private for-profit contracts (40/60). Recent employee departures and difficulty in meeting recruit goals have forced us to reevaluate our compensation strategy. As a hybrid organization, should we continue to base our salaries on nonprofit surveys, or should we raise employee salaries to match our for-profit competitors? The organization has the financial resources to increase salaries, but we are unable to locate wage surveys that combine data on organizations that conduct both nonprofit and for-profit activities. -John Carlon, President, River Partners, Chico, Calif.
I'm familiar with your problem because I've consulted hybrid organizations. To date, I haven't located any compensation studies that address these kinds of entities. I do suggest that you focus on private sector salaries, since your employees will work with those clients, competing with private sector employees in their work product; and you want them to be competitive in skills. However, you may not be able to meet private sector compensation and have to reach some kind of compromise. The balancing factor in attracting people with somewhat lower compensation is recruitment strategy. You might position your organization as highly desirable because it has certain traits that for-profit entities don't.
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