White Paper - Governing Workforce Health

The nonprofit sector has lost at least 22,757 documented full-time positions between January and June 2026 alone, concentrated heavily in health care and employment services, and independent analysis suggests the true figure is considerably higher — one review of hospital and health system layoffs found 15,000 to 20,000 positions eliminated at just 51 institutions, well beyond what appears in official layoff tracking. Sixty-five percent of nonprofit organizations report active staffing shortages, and 60% of nonprofit leaders say attracting and retaining skilled people will be one of their toughest challenges through 2026. This is not a temporary staffing dip — it is a structural workforce crisis, and it is happening almost entirely outside formal board oversight.