By
Impactpool 2025
Across Africa, millions of people living with HIV are hurt by funding cuts. Supplies are diminished; access is demolished. Death toll predictions are climbing.
In Brazil, Venezuelan migrants and refugees are facing the cessation of over 30,000 public health services.
In Afghanistan, decimated UN midwife care threatens millions of pregnant women — in a country already battling one of the world’s highest maternal death rates.
In Syria, 2.5 million people face food ration cuts that’ll plunge them into severe hunger.
It's a bleak time for humanitarian organizations, with huge funding shortfalls representing a dire human cost.
Organizations are attempting to mitigate with reserves and fundraising but humanitarian architecture is being decimated. Countless programs are being suspended; staffing slashed; offices scaled down.
But humanitarian workers can’t afford to lose hope. Funding might have stalled but crises definitely haven’t. However unenviable the global aid situation, organizations must keep focus on their mission. Underneath the scale of the numbers are individual lives changed; stories rewritten.
The best way to serve those people is to keep doing what we’re doing, as efficiently as we can. Recruiters are no exception.
Funding cuts hurt hiring — but there’s opportunity here too.
Thousands of jobs have already vaporized. International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council and Norwegian People’s Aid have all announced mass layoffs after the freeze, draining decades of field expertise overnight.
But recruitment hasn’t flatlined.
The European Commission alone unveiled an initial €1.9 billion humanitarian budget for 2025. Many programs are still ongoing, and we’re seeing many new jobs appearing daily on the Impactpool community.
Talent profiles are shifting, as organizations reallocate funds and mobilize people towards the most urgent projects. And attrition, of course, never sleeps.
Before the funding freeze, 95% of nonprofit CEOs were already worried about staff burnout and nearly 50% said vacancies were already hard to fill. Last year, one-third of nonprofits struggled with retention and 59% said hiring got tougher.
These continue to be major challenges for humanitarian organizations — even more so, with tighter budgets and reduced recruiting headcount.
Recruiters operating on a skeleton budget must make every dollar count, to help organizations keep the lights on during dark times.
But there’s a big opportunity here too. Recruiters’ actions now aren’t only essential to help protect longevity. They’re also a chance to future-proof, to position the organization to better accelerate hiring once the hiring flood gates reopen.
Doing more with less: a framework
1 – Strip out process friction
When budgets are tight, every duplicative feedback round and lost candidate costs money you can’t spare.
But our State of Global Impact Sector Hiring report shows organizations typically struggle here.
Almost two-thirds of impact-sector candidates have decided not to complete a job application for an opportunity they’re interested in.
The main issues are the length, complexity and user experience of the application process.
Over a third of candidates have considered withdrawing from the recruitment process for a job they’ve applied for.
The biggest cause is poor communication, with 40% saying this was an issue and 29% citing poor transparency.
Those are drop-outs organizations can ill afford at the best of times, let alone right now.
Taking the time now to evaluate your recruitment practices can give a much-needed efficiency injection today — and also set-up the organization for a more successful future once hiring returns to full-throttle.
How can you condense the interview process? Our data shows 48% of candidates expect only two interview rounds and 17% expect only one.
How can you accelerate hiring? 45% of candidates expect impact-sector hiring to take 1 to 2 months. Can you do more to meet those expectations?
How can you communicate better? 40% of candidates have withdrawn an application because of poor comms from the employer. That’s an easy win.
How can you improve your tools? 25% of candidates have abandoned an application because of the recruitment platform. That’s an avoidable misstep.
2 – Focus on employer branding
During business-as-usual, we hear many humanitarian organizations expressing the desire to be more proactive but having no time to take that step back. Teams often get stuck into a cycle of reactive recruitment, focussing on short-term tactical hiring over longer-term strategies like employer branding.
With urgent headcount requirements decreasing, this could be the silver lining. The stronger your employer brand, the more sustainable your recruitment longer-term.
Now could be a great time to:
Review your mission, purpose, vision and values
Expand and improve your careers site
Develop your social media and recruitment marketing content
Evaluate your digital presence and reach
Nurture existing relationships and stay front-of-mind
Strengthening your employer brand needn’t be costly, and it can translate into major savings down the line as you attract more, better applicants to your roles for less.
3 – Build surge-readiness for tomorrow
With decades of expertise pulled from the field and programs decimated, there’ll be mountains to climb in the future. Organizations must keep an eye to that future and build readiness now.
Even if you’re not actively deploying right now, building and engaging talent pools of qualified professionals is a sure-bet.
Create more certainty over skills and location coverage, even when you’re besieged by uncertainty
Enable you to pivot fast as program funding and requirements change, mobilising the people you need more efficiently
Counter the inevitable skills shortages when everyone starts hiring again at the same time.
Keep jobseekers engaged and maintain trust, right when trust is being eroded. Candidates will remember tomorrow who was present today.
Organisations that build and nurture candidate communities now can move from months to weeks when funding is finally freed.
The real ROI of smarter hiring
Every day a position stays unfilled costs programs money and momentum — right when you can least afford it.
Organizations that combine leaner hiring processes, proactive talent pooling, and strong employer branding can expect to see double-digit improvements across competed applications, application volume and time-to-hire, plus progress against ever-present gender and nationality diversity goals.
And they can achieve it with smaller teams and tighter budgets than before the freeze.
But that’s not the real ROI. The real ROI is what we’re all in this for.
It’s the young mum who can change her baby somewhere clean and safe. The parents who don’t go hungry so their children can eat. The pregnant woman with anaemia who’s supported with a safe delivery. The GBV survivor living receiving life-saving mental health support.
These are the individual stories to hold to, when the times feel dark indeed.
Read how Impactpool can help impact organizations transform recruitment.
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