The NPO sector is flooded with experienced people hopping between large global nonprofit organizations on three to six month job postings. Do not, under any circumstance, hire someone with this kind of job history for a full-time position at your startup organization. It will end with that person either leaving or you asking them to leave.

Why is this a bad decision? Two reasons.

Firstly, this person probably has a singular skill set. Your organization will need people that feel comfortable wearing multiple hats. As an example, the small organization that I founded fourteen years ago still has a team of people that have overlapping job roles. Everyone shares in project management, program envelopment, pre and post program evaluation, marketing, advertising, proposal writing and fundraising. Finance is the only job role that is truly separate, but she also shares in all of the previous roles at some point throughout the year. This is the reality at our organization, and will most likely be a reality at yours. Simply put, there is no room for a singular skill set in a small nonprofit organization.

Secondly, don’t hire people who have a history of jumping jobs, no matter what their excuse is. Your goal should be to create opportunities for long-term careers, not short-term employment. On a practical level, the time, effort and expense of onboarding new team members every three to six months will slowly bankrupt you. Your organization deserves better.

With that said, I have interviewed an unbelievable amount of people trapped in the large global nonprofit organization hiring cycle, and for the most part they all want out of this employment marry-go-round. Nevertheless, those same people do not have the necessary skill sets to work in a small organization that asks its team members to wear more than one hat. Eventually, they will get fed-up by chaos and will quit.

Avoid the hiring practices of global organizations, hire people that will be with you for years to come.