When a national initiative set out to advance workforce equity across the nonprofit sector, its leaders needed to understand how years of advocacy and experimentation were translating into real systems change. Funders and practitioners alike sought evidence of what was working — and guidance on how to align future investments to strengthen the nonprofit workforce at scale.
Northly partnered with the initiative’s leadership to evaluate its multi-year Talent Justice effort, combining national survey data, interviews, and landscape analysis with insights from more than 300 nonprofit, philanthropic, and intermediary leaders. Through this evidence-based assessment, we surfaced the conditions enabling workforce equity progress and identified the systemic barriers that continued to hold organizations back.
Our findings not only documented impact but also clarified strategy. The evaluation produced a framework for funders to measure progress, allocate resources more effectively, and tell a stronger story of impact to the field. By translating data into insight and insight into action, Northly helped reposition workforce equity as a cornerstone of nonprofit effectiveness — and as a lens through which funders could build a stronger, more sustainable social sector.
