Social service nonprofits had high rates of staff turnover and a hard time filling vacant positions in 2022 as the COVID-19 pandemic was ending.

Low salaries, inadequate benefits, staff burnout and a shortage of qualified job applicants were largely to blame. The staffing problems were so severe that some of the people leading these organizations were afraid that they might have to close their doors.

That’s what our research team, composed of eight social work scholars, found when we interviewed 27 social service agency managers in a metropolitan area in the Southeast.

These nonprofits provided an array of services, including care for people with substance use disorders and mental health conditions, as well as housing assistance, other kinds of health care and free food distribution.

No matter their specific focus, these nonprofit managers told us that they saw heightened demand for services since the start of the pandemic.

For example, they observed........

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