One thing that strikes me as perhaps part of the problem with NGOs living in a world within a world is how we use the not-for-profit badge as a crutch or a justifiable excuse to offer 50-75% below market-rate salaries.

I understand and know all too well the economic realities for NGOs but there is, I think, an ingrained mind-set that assumes it’s perfectly reasonable to, in some cases, grossly underpay talented and dedicated staff under the “we’re a non-profit” banner.

That mind set has gotta change along with your point about realizing that we are competing with the deep pockets in the private sector for talent.

Doing good and saving the world starts at home.

“Again, the difference in length of tenure was most striking when examining employees who stayed less than one year at an organization.

• Organizations In Trouble reported that on average 35% of their IT staff had tenures of less than one year.

• Organizations that are Lagging Behind reported that on average 15% of their IT staff had tenures of less than one year.

• Average organizations reported that on average 4.9% of their IT staff had tenures of less than one year.

• Organizations that are Fast Followers reported that on average 3.8% of their IT staff had tenures of less than one year.

• Organizations that are on the Leading Edge reported that on average 4.7% of their IT staff had tenures of less than one year.

Because larger organizations tend to self report at higher levels of technology adoption, it is difficult to know which of these traits is related to the length of IT staff tenure, if either are related, or if it is a combination of both.”

Both IT Staffing reports can be found at: http://nten.org/research/it-staffing.