Posted February 22, 2021 | the Jobs That Help team
Despite 2020 being an unusual year (to put it mildly), we are proud to have helped over 250 organizations fill over 1,200 opportunities last year. In addition, we saw our visitors increase by 20% in 2020 as compared to the previous year, with the site averaging more than 50,000 page views each month, and thousands of visitors weekly.
The Most Popular Jobs
Our most popular jobs of 2020 are reflected in the wordcloud above, which consists of the position titles of the 100 job posts that received the highest number of page views last year. Words found multiple times in the position titles of the job posts (such as “coordinator”) are reflected by being larger in size in the wordcloud.
The wordcloud (full-size image) reflects the diverse interests and skillsets of our job seekers, encompassing the full spectrum of experience levels, from entry-level (e.g. assistant, AmeriCorps, associate) to mid-level (e.g. specialist, coordinator, manager) to senior (e.g. director, executive, etc.), and fields (human services, communications, development, operations, administration, advocacy, education, criminal justice, youth services, animal welfare, housing services, and more).
Job Openings by Field
From the 1,200+ opportunities that were posted in 2020, we saw several changes from 2019 in the fields the opportunities were in, as shown in the graph below. The largest changes were in executive and operations positions increasing by 6%, healthcare positions decreasing by 5%, shelter and housing services positions increasing by 4%, and youth and children’s services decreasing by 4%.
The “Other Fields” in the graph above include clinical mental health, information technology, facilities and maintenance, food services, human resources, security, transportation, environmental and horticultural, and spirituality and religion.
Strength of Featured Posts
Our featured posts continued to perform strongly in 2020, gathering an average of 75% more page views and 70% more clicks to apply, as compared to job posts that weren’t featured (or otherwise highlighted on our social media channels, which now include over 3,000 followers, and cover Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram).
Our Featured Post thus continues to be ideal for positions that need to be filled quickly, are especially important to gather the most skilled or diverse applications for, or simply when budget allows.
Our Organizations’ Missions
Of the more than 250 organizations that posted opportunities in 2020, they reflect a similarly broad range of missions from those in 2019, serving many different needs, as shown in the chart below.
The “Other Areas” in the chart above include environmental quality protection and beautification, agriculture, food and nutrition, public safety, disaster preparedness and relief, and others.
We also continued to see a steady growth of new organizations registering employer accounts in 2020, welcoming over 140 new organizations to Jobs That Help last year.
Job Seeker Activity
We saw over 300 resumes posted to our Resume Bank in 2020, with our job seekers registering an average of 50 job seeker accounts each month to post a resume or access other features (such as our Job Alerts, which delivered posted opportunities directly to the inboxes of job seekers thousands of times last year).
In addition, we sent monthly e-newsletters to our 1,500+ job seeker subscribers (subscribe to our job seeker or employer e-newsletter, if you aren’t subscribed already!), highlighting the opportunities on our Job Listings and other resources and events.
Thanks to the robust range of connections, outreach, and marketing strategies to job seekers that we engage in, beyond the 20% increase in visitors we had last year, we also have continued to draw a wide audience to Jobs That Help. Roughly 1 in 10 visits to the site were from a neighboring state (especially the Chicagoland area) in 2020, and of the thousands of weekly visitors to the site, an average of 67% each week last year were first-time visitors.
Blogs & Events
We published a number of blog posts in 2020, two to provide important COVID-19 related information to Wisconsin nonprofits at critical times last year, as well as several other blog posts, which are listed below.
- Professional Development Opportunities for HR Professionals & Nonprofit Leaders (Updated for Spring 2021)
- Resources for Job Searching During a Pandemic
- Resume Templates for Nonprofit Job Seekers
Lastly, but not least, we listed over 300 nonprofit-focused career and professional development events on our Events Calendar in 2020, including a variety of events that we presented or (virtually) tabled at, as well.
(And we already have lots of excellent events listed for this year, too!)
What’s in Store for 2021?
This year looks to be yet another unusual year, with the impact of the pandemic continuing, but also a year holding a lot of promise, with vaccines providing light at the end of the tunnel for so many of us.
We are pleased to have started 2021 strong, having already listed over 250 opportunities on our Job Listings this year, with high numbers of job seekers visiting, and to have recently celebrated (on February 4th!) two years of operation. We are excited to continue our mission of providing a best in class platform focused on connecting skilled talent and nonprofit, government, and social enterprise opportunities in Wisconsin, and to continue to grow our reach and refine our services (stay posted on our e-newsletter for more this year!).
We couldn’t provide this service to the community without all of you, though, and we couldn’t be more grateful for all of your support and engagement over last year and into this one. As always, if we can be of assistance, or if you have a question or suggestion, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!