If you work in Australia’s not-for-profit sector, you probably don’t need me to tell you about the workforce crisis. You’re living it. Your colleagues are leaving. Your job ads are getting fewer applicants. Your remaining staff are stretched thin, picking up the work of positions that took months to fill or were quietly eliminated.

The numbers confirm what the sector has been feeling for years. The Community Council for Australia’s regular workforce surveys show increasing vacancy rates, declining retention, and growing burnout across the sector. The people who deliver Australia’s social services, health programs, disability support, and community development are running on empty.

What’s driving the crisis

The causes are structural, not cyclical.

Pay. NFP sector workers are paid, on average, 15-20% less than equivalent roles in government or the private sector. For frontline workers — community services, disability support, youth work — the gap is often larger. When the cost of living is rising and housing costs are through the roof, the mission premium (accepting lower pay because you believe in the work) only stretches so far.

The recent increases to the Award rates for social and community services workers have helped at the lower end, but middle-management and specialist roles in the NFP sector remain significantly underpaid relative to alternatives.

Workload. The demand for social services has increased substantially. More people need support, more reporting is required, and funding conditions are more complex. But workforce numbers haven’t kept pace. The result is that each staff member carries a heavier load, with less time for the relationship-based work that most people entered the sector to do.

Burnout. This isn’t just about hours. It’s about emotional load. Working with people experiencing disadvantage, crisis, and trauma takes a psychological toll. When organisations don’t have the resources to provide adequate supervision, debriefing, and wellbeing support, burnout becomes inevitable.

Career progression. The NFP sector offers limited career pathways compared to government or the private sector. Small organisations can’t offer promotional opportunities. Large ones often have flat structures with few senior roles. Ambitious people eventually leave for sectors where their progression isn’t capped.

Funding uncertainty. Many NFP workers are employed on contracts tied to funding agreements that may or may not be renewed. The inability to offer permanent, secure employment makes it harder to attract and retain staff, particularly when other sectors offer stability.

Why it matters beyond the sector

This isn’t just a human resources problem for charities. It’s a service delivery crisis for all of Australia.

When a domestic violence service can’t recruit case workers, women and children in danger wait longer for help. When a disability support provider can’t retain staff, people with disability receive inconsistent care from an endless rotation of new faces. When a mental health service operates with chronic vacancies, people in crisis can’t access the support they need.

The NFP sector employs over a million Australians and delivers services that government and the private sector either can’t or won’t. When the workforce hollows out, the consequences flow directly to the most vulnerable people in the community.

What needs to change

Pay needs to rise. This requires more government funding, and it requires funders — both government and philanthropic — to accept that paying people properly is a legitimate use of grant money. The persistent preference for funding programs over funding people is a major contributor to the workforce crisis.

Funding needs to be longer-term and more flexible. Three-year funding cycles with restrictive conditions make workforce planning almost impossible. Longer funding commitments and more flexibility in how funds are used would allow organisations to offer permanent positions, invest in staff development, and build the stable teams that effective service delivery requires.

Technology can help with the boring stuff. Administrative burden is a significant contributor to workload pressure. Better systems for client management, reporting, and compliance can free up staff time for the work that matters. Some organisations are beginning to explore how AI tools can reduce paperwork — working with AI consultants in Melbourne to automate routine reporting and data entry so that frontline workers can focus on their clients.

Wellbeing investment is essential. Professional supervision, employee assistance programs, flexible work arrangements, and manageable caseloads aren’t perks. They’re the minimum required to sustain a workforce doing emotionally demanding work.

Career development needs attention. The sector needs to create meaningful career pathways, invest in professional development, and ensure that talented people can grow without leaving the sector.

The uncomfortable conversation

Here’s the part that nobody wants to say out loud: Australia gets its social services cheap because the NFP workforce accepts lower pay and worse conditions than it should. The sector runs on the goodwill and dedication of people who care more about the mission than the payslip.

That model is breaking. The goodwill is running out. The mission premium has been exploited for too long.

If Australia values the services its NFP sector delivers — and the evidence suggests it does — then it needs to fund the people who deliver them properly. The alternative is a sector that can’t attract, develop, or retain the workforce it needs, and the people who depend on those services will pay the price.

This is a workforce crisis hiding in plain sight. It’s past time we took it seriously.