Lynne Toupin
Executive Director, HR Council for the Voluntary & Non-profit Sector

Non-profits spend a lot of time securing funding, with a good portion of that going to pay employee salaries. We invest a lot in human capital as opposed to physical capital, yet we don’t always think and act strategically to ensure that we have the right people, doing the right jobs, at the right time. While ‘passion for the cause’ is an essential ingredient for working in this sector, it is no longer enough. How do you ensure that your organization has the best combination of people with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to achieve organizational results? How can your organization better integrate the skills and knowledge of both paid staff and volunteers? What are successful organizations doing to recruit and retain top talent? What do you do when you don’t have the right people? Lynne Toupin makes the case for investing in your organization’s human resources.

Five good ideas

1. Align skills, knowledge and interest with the jobs to be done
2. Pay competitive salaries and benefits
3. Plan for succession
4. Develop and sustain a culture of ongoing learning
5. Integrate your human resources – both paid and unpaid

Five good resources

1. Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins, HarperCollins
2. A People Lens: How your Organization Can Adopt a People First Philosophy, by Colleen Kelly, Executive Director, Volunteer Vancouver
3. Non-profit Jobs Need Better Pay by Rick Cohen, Nonprofit Quarterly on-line version
4. The New Volunteer Workforce, by Eisner, Grimm, Maynard & Washburn, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2009
5. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

About Lynne

Lynne is the executive director of the HR Council for the Voluntary & Non-profit Sector, a national body that works with organizations, educators, labour and government to identify and address issues related to paid employment in the voluntary and non-profit sector. She has led a number of national non-profit organizations over her career including organizations as diverse as the Canadian Co-operative Association and the National Anti-Poverty Organization. She co-chaired the Accord Table for the Voluntary Sector Initiative, which led to a written agreement between the Government of Canada and the voluntary and non-profit sector. Lynne also gained insights about work in both the private and public sectors, having served on the MacKay Task Force on the future of the financial services sector in Canada and working with the provincial government in Manitoba. Lynne has a Masters of Education from l’Universite de Montreal and has worked in the field of education in Manitoba as a teacher, school principal, curriculum consultant and Special Assistant to the Minister of Education.