Publication Date

Spring 5-3-2023

Document Type

Student Project

First Advisor

Schatteman, Alicia

Degree Name

B.A. (Bachelor of Arts)

Department

Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies

Abstract

The nonprofit sector is experiencing a growth in professionalization, and as such it is important to pay attention to keeping employees engaged at work to be able to compete in a competitive job market. As most nonprofit employees do direct service work, keeping employees engaged should be a primary focus since the sector is known for burnout. Not only is work engagement essential for employee retention, but due to the intensity of the work to meet the mission of the organization, keeping employees engaged is better for the overall health of the organization. If employees are engaged in their work, then they will be actively engaging the community, which is another primary focus of nonprofits. Previous nonprofit research has primarily focused on employee work engagement or community engagement. Therefore, this case study bridged the gap and researched to what extent employee work engagement is related to an organization’s community engagement within a nonprofit. This study used the Utrecht work engagement scale to measure work engagement, and in addition to this, community engagement was measured using interviews and by analyzing the organization’s website and Facebook. For the purpose of this case study, the mental health nonprofit organization Family Counseling Services of Northern Illinois located in Rockford, Illinois was used. The size of the organization is considered small, they employ 6 administrative staff, and 17 clinicians. The results of this study could contribute to knowledge within the nonprofit sector and could lead to more focus on working conditions for nonprofit employees in what is considered a high burnout career doing direct service with communities.

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