Taproot Foundation, in partnership with SHRM Foundation, is bringing skills-first hiring to the nonprofit sector—at scale. Through Skills-First Hiring for Nonprofit Impact, a new initiative made possible by funding from Walmart, Taproot and SHRM are mobilizing pro bono HR expertise to help nonprofits modernize hiring practices and build stronger, more equitable teams. The nonprofit sector is the third-largest employer in the U.S. It’s time it hired like one.
Across the country, employers are rethinking what qualifies someone for a job. Instead of relying on a single signal, they’re looking at the full spectrum of skills, competencies and talents people build over a lifetime—through school, work, and life itself. It’s a long overdue shift that could reshape how talent and opportunity connect.
Today, more people are building valuable skills through more pathways than ever—apprenticeships, community colleges, military service, and early work experience. According to Britebound, fewer than half of U.S. high school graduates now plan to go directly to college, down from nearly three in four just eight years ago. But when employers need to quickly narrow a large applicant pool, they often default to familiar signals—degrees, job titles, referrals—that help manage volume but can obscure extraordinary talent in the process.
A skills-first approach changes the lens. Instead of filtering candidates out early based on a narrow set of signals, it helps employers surface the full range of skills they could bring to the role.
Major companies like Walmart are leading the charge; they’re doing away with degree requirements, building comprehensive skills taxonomies more nuanced than simple job titles, redesigning interviews to assess competencies instead of connections, and creating clearer pathways for promotion based on skills. But while the private sector accelerates this shift, nonprofits risk being left behind—not because they resist change, but because they often lack the human resources capacity to make the transition to skills-first hiring and advancement practices.
It’s a massive missed opportunity: the nonprofit sector is the third-largest employer in the U.S., comprised of over 12 million people, according to George Mason University’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise. If nonprofits were better equipped to embrace a skills-first approach, they could tap into the full spectrum of talented candidates and increase their ability to build strong, mission-driven teams.
“Nonprofits are one of the country’s largest employers and among its greatest champions of economic opportunity. It’s time their hiring practices unlock that potential.” – Cat Ward, Taproot CEO
The Gap: High Stakes, Thin Capacity
Nonprofits are being asked to do more with less. They face rising community needs, tighter budgets, and fierce competition for talent. Yet, as champions of opportunity, they are uniquely positioned to lean into skills-first hiring practices and help advance a workforce model that values capability over credentials.
Imagine what’s possible if the nonprofit sector unlocked the vast pool of skilled talent whose abilities are often built outside the signals hiring systems have historically relied on. Skills-first hiring is a smart strategic play. It can decrease cost per hire, expand candidate pools, increase retention, and strengthen pathways for advancement.
But implementing skills-based hiring requires work: rewriting job descriptions, redesigning interview processes, retraining hiring managers, aligning promotion pathways, and managing change. For nonprofits with small—or even one-person—HR teams stretched thin, this can feel out of reach. Resource constraints shouldn’t stop nonprofits from joining the skills-first transformation and accessing a more robust, highly qualified workforce.
The Fix: Skills-First Hiring for Nonprofit Impact
Taproot is launching Skills-First Hiring for Nonprofit Impact, in partnership with SHRM Foundation and with the support of Walmart.
Taproot and SHRM Foundation share a core belief: great talent fuels great impact—not only in workplaces, but across communities. Together, we’re tapping into SHRM Foundation’s network of HR professionals—especially those with expertise in change management, inclusive hiring, and skills-first talent management practices—to provide strategic pro bono service and support nonprofits with the training and hands-on guidance they need to adopt skills-first hiring practices.
This initiative is designed to form a cohesive cycle of learning, practice, and amplification:
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Skills-First Hiring Pro Bono Consultants—including SHRM members and HR professionals sourced through Taproot’s network of pro bono consultants—will apply skills-first hiring practices in real, mission-driven nonprofit settings. |
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Nonprofits will receive tailored, high-impact HR guidance to implement inclusive, skills-first hiring strategies and tools. |
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The sector will gain practical case studies, learning, and proof points to accelerate adoption. |
At the heart of this work is SHRM Foundation’s Skills First Future, which has built robust training and resources to help HR leaders shift to skills-based talent practices. By pairing that expertise with Taproot’s proven model for scaling nonprofit capacity through pro bono service, this partnership can spark a sector-wide shift in how nonprofits approach talent.
“We’re tapping into SHRM Foundation’s best-in-class resources and tools and bringing that to the nonprofit sector. It’s great for nonprofits and it’s great for people,” says Ward.
“Activating our members to bring our skills-first expertise to nonprofits is the perfect next step for us—and Taproot is the perfect partner to do it with.” – Wendi Safstrom, SHRM Foundation President
The Impact: A Stronger Nonprofit Workforce
Skills-First Hiring for Nonprofit Impact has the potential to transform under-resourced HR functions into strategic engines for mission advancement and set a new standard for nonprofit hiring practices—one that prioritizes inclusion, skills, and sustainability.
The nonprofit sector exists to expand opportunity, dismantle inequities, and strengthen communities. Who could be better positioned to lead the skills-first movement?
Embedding skills-first hiring into nonprofit organizations:
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Unlocks opportunity for millions of workers whose resumes are full of skills and competencies that aren’t easily summed up in a degree, job title, or connection. |
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Centers hiring where it should be: on the skills and capabilities of a person. |
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Strengthens mission-driven organizations with deeper, more diverse talent pools. |
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Reinforces nonprofits as engines of economic mobility—not just service providers. |
With support from Walmart—a longtime champion of breaking systemic barriers to worker advancement—we have the momentum and resources to build something lasting. And with SHRM Foundation as a partner, we have access to the largest association of HR professionals in the world.
What we haven’t had until now is a coordinated effort to connect this expertise directly to nonprofits ready to evolve.
It’s this unprecedented partnership that will support the SHRM Foundation’s bold goal of transforming hiring and advancement practices for 100,000 employers and 500,000 HR professionals—while expanding access to cutting-edge, skills-first talent practices for nonprofits nationwide.
“This partnership is about recognizing the full spectrum of talent that exists beyond a degree. We are investing in a future where skills are the primary currency for career success, and there is no better place to begin that transformation than in the nonprofit sector,” says Patti Constantakis, Director of Corporate Philanthropy at Walmart.
Ready to get involved? Whether you’re a nonprofit looking to modernize your hiring or an HR professional ready to put your skills to work, reach out to us here.
SHRM Foundation
SHRM Foundation mobilizes HR and employers in their essential role to take action around complex societal issues that impact the workplace. As the nonprofit arm of SHRM, the world’s largest HR association, SHRM Foundation empowers HR to build more expansive talent pipelines, address upstream social driver challenges to ensure cultures of care and create thriving workplaces, and strengthen the HR field. With a unique capacity to bring employers to the table, SHRM Foundation partners with companies, foundations, nonprofits, and government to drive measurable change through research-informed programs, leadership coalitions, and peer support. Together with SHRM’s nearly 340,000 employer members, SHRM Foundation is building a world of work that works for all, where all talent and workplaces can prosper and thrive. Discover more at SHRMFoundation.org.
About Philanthropy at Walmart
Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Wal mart and the Walmart Foundation. By leaning in where our business has unique strengths, we work to tackle key social issues and collaborate with others to spark long-lasting systemic change. Walmart has stores in 27 countries, employing more than 2 million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. Walmart.org is helping people live better by supporting programs that work to accelerate upward job mobility for frontline workers, address hunger and make healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality, and build strong communities where Walmart operates. To learn more, visit www.walmart.org or find us on Twitter @Walmartorg.
