Nonprofit professionals tend to wear several hats, and often grow and shape their roles over time based on the evolving needs of their organization. From developing unique skills to creating new internal processes and more, seasoned employees can become integral, deeply valued members of your organization's workforce.

But when employees who have been with your nonprofit for a long time leave for their next opportunity, it can create unexpected talent gaps at your organization – especially if they held a position requiring technical skills.

In these situations, a robust nonprofit professional development program can be immensely valuable. By upskilling and reskilling your existing workers, you can prepare them to take over critical duties. At the same time, you can provide the rest of your team with growth opportunities that can inspire them to make the most of your learning and development program.

Follow these steps to build a plan that proactively fills talent gaps.

Make a list of the necessary skills that each role requires

Any professional development program starts with a good plan. To shape this plan – and make it easier to update as your organization’s talent needs grow and change over time –  start by creating a formalized understanding of each current or potential future role in your organization.

Make a list of every role you want to fill in your nonprofit, whether you’re currently employing someone in that capacity or not. Next to the title of the role, write up a brief description of why this role is necessary and how it contributes to your work. Then, write a list of the skills that each role requires under its description. Try to include both hard and soft skills, and get as specific as possible.

You might also consider asking the individuals who are currently in each existing role for input on which skills their roles require. They might share information about important skills they leverage that are more subtle or hard to observe from an outsider’s perspective that you might not have considered.

Leverage your list to spot skill gaps in your organization

Now that you have a list of current and potential future roles, and have a better understanding of the skills you need, it’s time to determine which of these skills you already have at your organization. A great way to tackle this is by asking each team leader to take a look at your list and then sharing which skills their team members have and don’t have.

When you notice a missing skill — either in a currently filled role or in a role yet to be filled — you’ll have identified a skill gap. You can then use this knowledge to guide your talent development plan, making sure to provide your current employees with opportunities to develop the skills you need, and positioning them along a path to professional growth.

Compare your lists to employee's priorities to look for opportunities

According to LinkedIn’s October 2024 Global Talent Trends survey, internal mobility is on the rise, and “shows that companies are discovering how leveraging internal hiring can accelerate organizational agility, employee engagement and retention, and career development,” according to LinkedIn’s Chief Economist, Karin Kimbrough.

When employees can see a clear connection between learning and opportunities for internal mobility or career advancement, they’ll be more compelled to make the most of the learning resources you offer them.

A key part of a talent development plan should be ensuring that your organization’s leaders are supporting each of their employee's professional growth through a personalized career development plan. These development paths should take both what skills your organization needs and what the employee wants to learn into account.

Approaching your nonprofit professional development this way offers the best of both worlds: you get to fill the talent gaps at your organization, and employees get a clear road map for how they can advance their careers and develop new skills.

When you’re ready to start upskilling your nonprofit workforce, LinkedIn is ready to help. LinkedIn Learning can provide you with the resources you need to design customized, skill-based learning paths for every member of your organization. Learn more here.