For 20 years, NGO Recruitment has been an executive search and recruitment trailblazer for the Australian and APAC NFP sector. Visionary founder and director of NGO Recruitment, Richard Green reminisces about his early days and reveals his team’s greatest achievements.
What initially inspired you to carve out a long and successful career in the NFP sector?
In my twenties, I spent a year in Europe and remember being horrified by emerging pollution concerns such as acid rain, the depleting ozone layer and climate change. I came back to Sydney with a drive to work for an environmental cause in some way and joined Greenpeace as a fundraiser shortly after. This was an incredible first step into the NFP sector. I didn’t realise it then, but my exposure to best practice fundraising at Greenpeace influenced the rest of my 15-year career with NGOs such as UNICEF and later when recruiting fundraisers for the not-for-profit sector.
How and why did you go on to establish NGO Recruitment?
I was working as a fundraising consultant for the Fred Hollows Foundation, and when it was time to hand over my strategy, Clive Miller, who was the fundraising manager at the time said, ‘Do you know anyone who could implement this? Could you recruit someone for us?’ As it happened, my brother Michael ran a recruitment company, and I thought, why not? So, in partnership with Michael, the Fred Hollows Foundation became my first client. Thank you Clive! And with a lot of hard work and determination, NGO Recruitment grew from there.
How was the market at the time?
In the early days, there were a couple of established NFP sector recruiters in Victoria, given there’s a more significant culture of philanthropy in and around Melbourne. But in Sydney, we had no direct competitors. I knew there was an opportunity to specialise in this sector and to offer real fundraising recruitment and consultancy expertise. Today, the market has matured. NFPs now have access to a wide range of extremely knowledgeable NFP sector recruitment specialists. This new layer of competition and choice is proving to be a positive development for the sector.
Why do you think NGO Recruitment is now such a well-respected sector partner?
People come to us and want our advice, and we discuss what’s best for their organisation. Essentially, our clients treat us like a consultancy, not just a recruitment agency. We now have many longstanding client relationships and sometimes we’re the only constant from a recruitment perspective. After 20 years, we often know more about an organisation’s history than the current leadership. We’ve also recruited broadly across the many NFP sub-sectors, sourced board chairs, CEOs, entire senior leadership teams, and are now renowned for our depth and breadth of sector knowledge. Organisations come to us for senior and hard-to-fill roles, and we always deliver.
What have been some of your greatest achievements in the last 20 years?
Every time we make a placement, it’s a great achievement. Over the years, with each placement, we’ve slowly built a respected brand trusted by a sector which can sometimes be understandably cautious when partnering with external suppliers. Since we opened our doors, we have recruited thousands of diverse people for our clients, from international NGOs campaigning for human rights and Indigenous health bodies to grassroots organisations delivering disability services and more. The trusted relationships we have developed with Indigenous organisations in particular continues to be very rewarding.
We have also achieved excellent results for our climate action and environment clients in the Asia Pacific who are working tirelessly to tackle the enormous global challenge of climate change. The APAC region is an immature candidate market, so we’re often required to recruit from outside the sector. We are extremely strategic in the way we conduct our searches, and our APAC desk is now one of the best in the business. I continue to be very proud of my team and the work we do in Australia and internationally.
So what’s next for NGO Recruitment?
With the current economic climate and ongoing skills shortages it is hard for NFPs to find good candidates on their own, so NGO Recruitment will continue to provide a valuable service. NFP organisations have responded to us so positively over the years, and know there’s a real benefit in working with us to recruit hard-to-find people.
We’ll continue to grow organically as new opportunities present themselves. We’ll also remain focused on maintaining our high service levels and positive consultative approach. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next 20 years bring!