Building a Nonprofit Professional Development Program That Works
How mature is your nonprofit’s professional development program? It’s an important question to reflect upon, as research continues to reinforce the importance of investing in employee growth as a means for talent acquisition and retention, among other benefits.
LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report found that organizations with mature career development programs are far more confident in their ability to attract, retain, and grow talent. Yet only 36% qualify as true “career development champions.”
The gap matters. Employees and volunteers increasingly expect learning, mobility, and growth opportunities. When those signals are missing, they often leave, taking hard-to-replace skills with them. For nonprofits facing tight budgets and rising workforce demands, investing in career development can be one of the most effective ways to build stability, loyalty, and long-term impact.
LinkedIn's 2023 Workplace Learning Report highlights two reasons why building nonprofit professional development programs at your organization is a worthy focus:
Job skills are changing fast: Skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015 and will change by up to 50% by 2027. With so much change on the horizon, 89% of learning and development professionals agree that building employee skills will help organizations navigate the evolving future of work.
Retention continues to be a big challenge, and internal mobility is an answer: Globally, 93% of organizations are concerned about employee retention, and their No. 1 initiative for improving it is “providing learning opportunities.” Employees who have made an internal move within their organization have a 75% of staying there after two years, whereas employees who haven’t only have a 56% chance of sticking around.
Despite this, only 14% of employees say their organization encouraged them to build a new career development plan in 2023. If these opportunities are being offered, many employees are not aware of or making full use of them.
To address this, nonprofit organizations can more closely tailor their nonprofit professional development programs to the goals and interests of nonprofit talent. Read on for five ways to champion professional development at your nonprofit and keep your team ready for what’s next.
1. Connect professional development opportunities to clear career goals
The best place to start with a professional development program is aligning to the motivations of your team members. What are their career goals? Where do gaps exist in their skill sets? How can you help them prepare for roles or promotions that they aspire for in the future? LinkedIn research has found that learners who set career goals engage with learning 4x more than those who don’t.
This discovery can be built into your onboarding process to help set the stage for customized professional development plans. If the employee is unsure of what they'd like to focus on, you might suggest starting with some of the fastest-growing skills in the nonprofit space; according to the 2025 Nonprofit Talent Report, these include building presentations, data analysis, interpersonal skills, and organization skills.
Learn more on the blog: How to Use Nonprofit Professional Development to Fill Talent Gaps
According to LinkedIn research, employees’ top motivations to learn at work in 2023 was the desire to make progress toward their career goals, followed by the need to stay up to date in their fields. Designing your professional development program around these motivations can encourage your nonprofit employees and volunteers to engage with it.
Get to know your employees’ career goals and help them develop the professional skills they’ll need to achieve them. Pay special attention to how each employee’s current or aspirational roles are changing as the world of work evolves, and ensure your development programs are flexible enough to adapt.
2. Deputize managers to tie professional development goals directly to progress check-ins
Manager support can have a big impact on an employee's engagement with development programs. But 50% of L&D professionals say managers lack proper support to spearhead career development, according to the 2025 Workplace Learning Report, and only 15% of employees say their manager helped them build a career development plan in the past six months.
Put the structure and resources in place to make this a true priority. Make professional development check-ins a regular part of each team member’s relationship with their manager. Empower managers to provide the resources your nonprofit employees need to acquire the skills they want. Most importantly, encourage your managers to consider their team’s professional development one of their key responsibilities.
3. Give your team opportunities to learn anything they want
Giving employees the opportunity to pursue all of the skills they’re interested in and not just those that apply to their current role can go a long way toward incentivizing those employees to invest in your career development program.
Toronto-based nonprofit Achēv offers an example of how to make this work. After its team doubled in size, the organization suddenly needed to upskill and reskill a large number of employees quickly. Achēv’ Director of Human Resources, Marwa Gamil hoped to implement a professional development program that would fully engage these new employees from the start.
Marwa invested in LinkedIn Learning and then encouraged her team to “go bananas” by exploring the platform’s extensive suite of on-demand resources and courses.
“I mentioned that there were over two thousand learning opportunities,” she says, “and encouraged everyone to go bananas, and learn whatever they wanted to learn.”
Marwa credits this approach as a core reason that her nonprofit’s program has been successful, and advises others to follow suit.
“Organizations always plan learning initiatives based on what they think people should know,” she says, “but that doesn’t give space for people to go in and learn what they want — when you have a platform like [LinkedIn Learning], you give them the gift to explore their interests in addition to what you need from them.”
4. Make AI skill-building accessible and relevant
Naturally, AI is one of the most compelling areas for professional development right now. The 2025 Nonprofit Talent Report found that demand for AI talent in the nonprofit sector is outpacing supply; helping employees and volunteers grow their capabilities in this area is a win for both the organization and individual.
If you’re looking for a place to start with AI skill development at your nonprofit, you can find helpful resources here, including webinars, toolkits, real-world examples, and learning courses.
5. Prioritize time for professional development on the job
According to LinkedIn research, almost three out of four (74%) of employees want more time to learn during work, and say that having that time would allow them to invest more deeply in professional development resources. When career development is added on top of day-to-day responsibilities rather than built into them, it can feel like an uninviting obligation for employees. Set aside dedicated time for on-the-job learning whenever possible, and encourage managers to make sure their teams have time to learn.
Another effective way to engage nonprofit talent with your development program is to pair employees with more senior coworkers who can act as “mentors.”
By creating opportunities for mentors to train and provide guidance to their less experienced colleagues, you can make the most of your nonprofit’s human resources, foster deeper connections between employees, and improve engagement with professional development programs.
When they understand what you’re offering and that you’re truly committed to their success, your nonprofit team will be more likely to engage with your professional development opportunities. Building this understanding requires a combination of providing the right incentives, communicating effectively, and removing roadblocks.
By following these steps and making your nonprofit professional development as accessible, exciting, and fulfilling as possible, your team members will jump on board in no time — and your organization will benefit for years to come.
For more help creating the right nonprofit professional development opportunities for your organization, see how LinkedIn Learning Solutions for nonprofits can help.
This blog post was originally published on September 5, 2023. It was updated on March 13, 2026 with new information.