Nonprofits generally pay less than other options, government or private sector. With high costs of living and a super tight labor market, nonprofits are seeing a double whammy.
See an article by Kohli from the Boston Globe, In a tight labor market, nonprofits are losing out.
They need to raise wages rapidly to employees, but starting at a low level to begin which means that employees are pressured to go into the government or private sector — sometimes with a 2x or 3x salary increase.
The great COVID disruption may have multiple other macroeconomic impacts on nonprofits; some may help or aggravate the issue of tight labor squeeze. As the article discusses, many nonprofits — say food pantries and youth services — may find the needs increasing dramatically.
Two of the biggest questions for the nonprofit are related to increases/decrease in funding, and increases/decreases in volunteers. These are good topics for future blog posts.