Summary
There's scant data on how the economics of a successful civic design practice squares with its values. What's fair pay for doing this work and a fair price to pay or charge for it? And how do you start and scale a design team that values a culture of care, transparency, and empowerment -- for staff, partners, and publics -- when our shared unit of value is a dollar bill? This session will provide real numbers and tools for making your team's business model and team structure as radically collaborative, transparent, and equitable as your design product.
Key Insights
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Mission-driven nonprofits often struggle initially with financial sustainability due to underestimating overhead and non-project costs.
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Creating a transparent pay scale pegged to observable criteria helps ensure fairness and equity across the organization.
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Collective decision making on finances can be painful but leads to more just compensation and shared understanding.
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A team-based costing model better reflects collaborative nature of work than individual hourly billing in service organizations.
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Tracking and sharing all team hours, including vacation and sick leave, frames time as a collective resource alongside money.
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Nonprofit status supports mission clarity, financial transparency due to audits, and occasional access to philanthropy, all aiding sustainability.
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Balancing growth with staff wellbeing requires setting revenue goals that enable both organizational thriving and good salaries.
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Financial models need to adapt to include projects valuable for skills growth or mission importance even if less profitable.
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Linking raises across a transparent salary scale limits flexibility but maintains equity and trust within the team.
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Openness about finances within the organization prevents unhealthy pay disparities and builds collective accountability.
Notable Quotes
"Money is an invented construct. It’s a way we exchange value without handing each other fuel or food."
"We had to change our individualist American mindset of salary as private benefit into seeing revenue as a collective organizational resource."
"Our transparent pay scale has been incredibly helpful in making sure everyone knows where payroll—the primary expense—stands."
"Control over how hard you’re working and when is fundamental to human dignity."
"We track all our time, including vacation and sick leave. Hours are a collective resource like money."
"If someone wants a raise, we can’t just pay them more without moving the entire pay scale to keep equity."
"Nonprofits have no owners. Any surplus must be reinvested in the organization."
"Transparency is baked in because as a 501c3 we are audited yearly and financials are public record."
"Collective decision making can be torture sometimes because it forces everyone to have opinions they might not want to have."
"Since adopting these financial practices, we’ve seen more organizational success and better pay and satisfaction for our team."
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