Archives

Challenges with hiring, retaining, and supporting staff are common across many Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and the wider nonprofit sector. These patterns have consequences for both workers and employers, lowering employee morale, increasing turnover, and diminishing productivity. Conversely, maintaining and strengthening capacity are essential to mission-driven organizations’ ability to provide critical services to their communities. 

As shown by CDFIs in the Shared Success demonstration, improving job quality within small business support organizations presents a promising strategy: better jobs can drive better outcomes for staff, organizational performance, and the communities and small businesses that these organizations serve.

This brief illuminates how leaders from these CDFIs see job quality as a value-aligned and mission-oriented strategy to increase staff engagement, employee retention, and organizational success. It shares key lessons and takeaways that could be used to implement internal job quality practices to strengthen CDFIs and other small business support organizations.