Lisa (in red) poses with Laura, Megan, Angela, Robin, and Kim (from left) with their UST mugs.

Lisa- Customer Service & Enrollment

When Lisa started working with the Unemployment Services Trust (UST) in May of 2012, she was revving to go. “I was excited about the opportunity to finally—after many years of working—be doing something that actually makes a difference,” she explains.

As a Customer Service & Enrollment Specialist, Lisa spends the majority of her time talking to nonprofit organizations all around the U.S. to explain how the Trust can help lower the cost of unemployment, and to get them the information they need to make an informed decision. She prides herself in being a gateway for each new organization; helping each agency weigh their decision about whether to stay with the State UI system, opt out and reimburse on their own, or join the Trust.

“I have volunteered at retirement homes, as well as in the critical care unit working for new babies, and I feel very strongly about both the elderly and infants/children. They are the most vulnerable and innocent populations and I love helping them,” she says.

“But in my time off, I’m such a homebody,” she laughs. “I read, watch movies, do cross-word puzzles and spend time with my family and friends…and dance in the living room. In fact, if I could dance for a living, I would. I love to dance on my own to music, just expressing whatever I feel. But my absolute favorite place to be is curled up on my couch on a rainy day with a great book, my kitties around me, and someone I love next to me.”

As much as Lisa’s cats and her couch may call her name though, she’s still been bitten by the travel bug: “For years the Beatles were an enormous part of my life, and I adore them, so I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to go to Liverpool, England, and see where they began.”

Have questions for Lisa? Want to talk about why the Trust makes sense for so many different orgs, or tell her about your own Beatlemania? Tweet her @USTTrust!

We’ve all heard it time and time again: “9 out of 10 nonprofits lack a formal retention strategy.”* Nonprofits need to revise their view on employee retention. Training a new employee is expensive. Keep your employees happy to keep costs down.

But the constant stream of demands is easy to tune out. There are thousands more pressing concerns that need to be addressed first, right?

The cost of losing a talented employee who is familiar with your organization, cause, and market far outweighs the time it takes to develop and implement an effective formal employee retention plan. Worse, the loss continues to grow as you factor in the time it takes to find and train a replacement, and the time it takes them to build relationships equivalent to those lost when your former employee left.

So what’s a busy nonprofit to do?

Start small. Next time you’re looking to fill an empty position, take a close look at your recruitment strategy. Are you doing everything you can to attract recruits that will be a good fit in your organization not only when they start, but a few years down the line? The more engaged an employee is with your organization, the longer they are likely to stay (and grow) with your organization. But if you aren’t doing the small things up front, like being honest and open about your organization’s culture, chances are your organization will be waging an uphill battle to keep them onboard.

Give them a ring. Not a literal ring. But imagine employee engagement as a dating relationship; to keep your employees onboard and on track, it’s important that you both are continuously assessing the relationship, strengthening your commitment, and ensuring satisfaction. If you think employee engagement might be missing a beat, find new ways to make work more enjoyable, both emotionally and professionally for your employees. And then thank them for their hard work.

People aren’t computers, and they aren’t easily replaceable, but we all fall behind sometimes. So, how does your organization foster employee engagement?

*2013 Nonprofit HR Employment Trends Survey, Nonprofit HR, (2013), retrieved from http://bit.ly/1apm9Ph.

Do your employees wake up every Monday morning dreading the day? Or do they come to work full of energy and ideas that they’re ready to implement? If it’s the latter, your employees may well love what they do, which gives your organization a leg up over unhappy competitors. Read on for a list of 7 things that show your employees love their jobs.

1. Employees actively help one another out. When your employees regularly work together it suggests a couple of things that create a successful workplace. One, it suggests that they feel collaborative efforts are worth their time and energy, and two it suggests that they feel confident in the skills and opinions of their peers.
2. Employees regularly suggest—and implement—new ways to help your organization and your mission succeed. When your employees come in first thing Monday morning with fresh ideas they’re ready to put into action it shows that they’re not only thinking about work outside of their M-F workday, it shows that they’re committed to improving the foundation that your organization has already laid.
3. Employees like one another. Have you ever heard of the airplane test? Basically it says that when meeting—or interviewing—someone new you should ask yourself how you would feel being stuck on an airplane with them. If you’re happy to be sitting next to your companion the flight will go well. If you aren’t, it probably won’t.
4. Employees feel confident in approaching upper management with concerns and new ideas. Having a strong connection with upper management suggests that your employees not only feel valued within your organization, but also that they know that your organization will take their ideas into consideration when planning next steps—a big plus!
5. Employees happily share credit with one another. Former President Harry Truman famously said that “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
6. Employees regularly exceed expectations. If your employees are going to work because they have to, your organization may be stifled by their lack of enthusiasm and contribution, but if your employees are coming to work because they love what they do, chances are they will regularly exceed expectations because enthusiasm and hard work are a very reactionary combination.
7. Employees know what they do matters and that it makes a difference within the organization. For most employees a secure knowledge of who they are within the organization, how their work matters, and how it makes a difference to those outside of the organization equals happier work life self-esteem.

How do you measure employee happiness? Would you add anything to our list? Tell us about it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn!

Even before you finish posting your most recent job opening, resumes start pouring in. Eager candidates are ready to do whatever it is your organization needs done.

Unfortunately eagerness alone doesn’t fit the bill—candidates need the right combination of skills and experience too.

Keeping a few things in mind when screening that burgeoning stack can keep it from becoming a people-eating monolithic pile of epic proportions. These four tips will help.

1. Know exactly what criteria you’re reading through resumes for. Even if you have more than one opening at your agency, it’s important that you become familiar with the position description and what your hiring managers are looking for in each position.
2. Create a consistent evaluation process, and always stick to it. Whether you decide to create an Excel spreadsheet that lists every resume alphabetically, or organize resumes into folders of “yes,” “no,” and “maybe,” based on how they meet criteria, it’s important that you follow the same process every time. And although it may sound trivial, keeping your resume screening process consistent can help you breeze through the process, gracefully decline those who applied and aren’t qualified, and get to the next step.
3. Do a quick sort. Your first run through a resume pile shouldn’t have you hiring private investigators or even Googling a candidate’s name. As you read through resumes the first time, keep in mind what’s most important to the hiring manager and in the posted job description. If a candidate makes it past this stage then conduct a more in-depth review of their resume, check out their online presence, and schedule a phone screening.
4. Don’t forget that somewhere in one of these piles is your next great employee. As time-consuming as resume screening can be, somewhere in one of those piles is your organization’s next hire. All of your hard work will pay off when they bring in new donors, strengthen community relations, or streamline your most antiquated process.

How do you make sure that reading resumes doesn’t put a damper on your day? Tell us on Facebook!

Hiring the perfect candidate sometimes seems like it has 1,001 steps. Between sorting through all of the resumes, doing phone interviews, conducting in-person interviews, and letting those passed over down in a way that makes them more likely to apply again later, it’s easy to forget that hidden in there is one of the most important steps to making sure you do get the right person for the job.

In this day and age, the reference check has become much more than a mere formality. Shedding light on what a candidate is really like, calling references and verifying former positions and educational history helps enlighten the hiring team as to what the best, and sometimes worst, parts of working with a particular candidate are.

Underestimating the amount of information you can glean from conducting reference checks is done all too often though. Because it takes significant time and energy to call every reference, it might be easier for some agencies to look at having a third party professional recruiter talk to the references.

If this isn’t a strong option, the key to conducting the most successful reference checks lies in asking, and listening, to carefully developed questions that speak to what you most want, and need, to learn about a candidate. Making the process feel like a conversation- one where you’re up front and open about what the opportunity is and what information you’re looking to learn about the candidate- can lead to valuable revelations that help cement your decision and show you where you can best support and develop a new hire.

When developing your reference check questions, you should look for both hard data, such as questions about the candidates skill set, and qualitative data which will help you better understand the candidate’s communication and management style as well as their strengths and areas for improvement.

Some sample questions might include:

1. Please tell me a little bit about yourself and your relationship with XX.
2. What are the personal qualities that most stand out to you about XX?
3. How has XX impacted your organization/department/campaigns?
4. Can you tell me about XX’s leadership skills?
5. How does XX deal with conflict? Does XX tend to be successful in dealing with conflict?
6. If you did an appraisal of XX, where would you highlight areas for professional development?
7. Have any particular experiences with XX stood out to you?

Speaking with a broad list of references- personal, professional, and developmental- will help you put together the best possible picture of what a candidate would look like in your organization. Since few candidates will put down anyone that would give a less-than-stellar review of them and their abilities, drill down deep into how the reference talks about the candidate and their level of enthusiasm about your candidate for the most telling information.

Thankfully, after all of the reference checks are done, if the candidate still matches your expectations, you can finally make your offer.

Read more about checking candidates’ references.

Do they all have updated interview training?

As we learned yesterday, interviews are one of the most effective ways to determine if a potential candidate will fit well within your organization.

In fact, according to research published by DDI International, new hires who reported their hiring manager and staff interviews to be effective were 85% confident in their decision to accept the job, 42% more likely to be planning on staying with the organization, and 39% more likely to be highly engaged!

Luckily, interviewing is a trainable skill.

By providing proper education and coaching at your agency, hiring managers are able to better, more accurately present the job, your company, and how an applicant would interact with their team. And an accurate representation of the position and your organization can lower first year attrition rates, improve employee morale, and boost outlook.

To review your interview training requirements, consider the following:

• Does your organization provide a question template before the interview to help the interviewer get answers to specific, relevant questions?
• Does your organization provide a template for after the interview that helps interviewers assess the candidate with as little bias as possible?
• Do your hiring managers and interviewing staff know which questions could be deemed illegal by federal nondiscrimination standards?
• How often are interviewing staff at your organization required to refresh their interview skills?
• Do hiring managers within each department have a consistent means of scoring and evaluating applicants?
• Are hiring managers at your organization skilled at coaxing useful answers from applicants, or do they often accept vague, generic answers?
• Does the hiring process at your organization turn applicants off? Is it too long, complicated or demanding?
• How well do interviewers at your organization listen to responses?

For organizations that need to update their interview training, a quick internet search can reveal hundreds of specialized services catering to many different job requirements, complimentary tricks and tips, and many other resources.

Tell us: How often does your organization evaluate your interview and hiring procedures?

Federally mandated changes to the state-run unemployment system will be rolling into effect over the next 6 months as the October 2013 deadline looms, forcing employers to comply with stricter administration standards or face high penalties. UST helps member nonprofits comply to avoid costly errors.

– Interview Available-

Santa Barbara, CA (April 18, 2013) – In an effort to reduce potential penalties for its nonprofit employer members, the Unemployment Services Trust (UST) has launched several new efforts and technological tools to help address what is being called the federal “UI Integrity mandate.”

Passed as a part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011, the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Integrity mandate requires all employers to provide a complete and timely response to the state’s first request for information about an unemployment claim. Designed to address one of the biggest weaknesses of Unemployment Insurance (UI) funds nationwide—the persistence of unemployment benefits paid in error, which are have cost $10.3 billion in the last year—the UI Integrity Act requires full compliance from all states no later than October 21, 2013. As of today, 5 states (NE, OK, MS, IL, and WV) have enacted legislation with 6 additional states (CA, UT, NM, SD, MN, and NC) passing legislation to be enacted in the coming months. 12 states (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, CO, AZ, ND, IA, LA, KY, and VA) have pending legislation. The remaining states have yet to take any action to meet the federal deadline.

To ensure that the reform yields the necessary savings, there will be penalties on employers for non-compliance. Any employer that fails to provide a complete and timely response to a claim loses any hope of relief from charges attributable to that claim—even if the employer ultimately wins the claim.

Further, if the state identifies a pattern of failure to provide complete and timely responses, negligent organizations and their claims administrator are at risk of permanently losing valuable protest rights and/or facing monetary penalties.

To address these new liabilities, the Unemployment Services Trust (UST), which helps more than 2,000 nonprofit employers nationwide to reduce the cost of unemployment claims, is conducting regional seminars and state-specific webinars for its members. Through its partnership with Equifax Workforce Solutions (WS), UST’s educational opportunities will allow its nonprofit members to examine how changes to the national UI integrity laws will affect them and to gather helpful tips to improve overall win ratios when protesting improper claims. On average, this type of diligence reduces an employer’s claims costs by 15% each year.

In addition to the seminars and webinars, UST’s nonprofit members now have access to a unique unemployment claim dashboard called CaseBuilder, which was launched by WS earlier this year. “This online dashboard will allow organizations to gather and submit documents and details in a fast, secure environment for all stages of the unemployment process,” reports Workforce Solutions. Current members who utilize CaseBuilder have significantly increased their ability to comply with state requests in a timely manner—which will be extremely pertinent as states begin to integrate UI Integrity legislation into their practices.

Finally, members of UST are already reaping the benefits of “SIDES,” the State Information Data Exchange System that 24 states have implemented, with more scheduled throughout 2013. SIDES is a secure, paperless system which allows UST members and their claims administrator WS to better provide necessary details and documentation at the time of an initial claim filing. Here is how it is helping UST member organizations:

• It’s electronic, so it’s more secure than paper documents.
• Electronic delivery of claims from the state will increase the amount of time employers have to respond to requests for separation information.
• SIDES was specifically designed to require details as a part of the response. Providing the details up front will save time by reducing additional requests for information.

“All employers will be on the hook to respond to every unemployment claim, every time,” says Donna Groh, Executive Director of UST. “We’re trying to establish best practices that ensure our member nonprofits are ahead of the curve—so they can avoid penalties down the road.”

About UST: Founded by nonprofits, for nonprofits, UST is the largest unemployment trust in the nation, providing 501(c)(3) organizations with a safe, cost-effective alternative to paying state unemployment taxes. Equifax Workforce Solutions (WS) is UST’s partner to provide members with claim administration, audits of state charges, and hearing representation if a member’s claims protest goes to court. They also provide educational seminars and training materials to UST member agencies throughout the year. Visit www.ChooseUST.org to learn more.

Robin (right) and Lisa feel peaceful as they take the tram.

Robin- UST AP Specialist/Claims Analyst

In 1976, Robin’s parents did the unthinkable. They drove across the U.S.—from Southern California to Montreal, Canada—with 3 small children in tow.

For days they stopped at historic landmarks across the East Coast letting their children experience the excitement and historic fervor of some of the most famous historic landmarks in the U.S., including the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty and many others in Washington D.C., before attending the Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Still her favorite childhood memory, it’s possible that this early exposure to the many different cultures of the U.S. helped ground her in her hometown of Carpinteria—where the UST administrative office is located—and led her to UST where she enjoys working with state agencies on behalf of our members.

“I knew UST would be a perfect fit for me,” Robin says, “the challenges of working with state agencies on behalf of nonprofits and providing the best customer service that I can is something that I love doing every day.” And, she sheepishly admits, “I loved the idea of working in my own community. I’ve lived here all of my life, but I’ve never actually worked in town.”

But with only 3 stoplights, and a downtown area that is only about four blocks square, it’s not surprising that Robin had never before worked in town—even if her Grandmother’s portrait does hang in the town’s historic museum.

Have questions for Robin? Want to swap Olympic memories with her? Tweet us @USTTrust!

Know your priorities before you begin negotiating.

The end of our mnemonic prioritizing what you want most in your benefits and salary package at a new nonprofit is often the hardest. It requires that you legitimately sit down and determine which benefits are the most important to you and where you have the most wiggle room.

For instance, the title of your position more important than the amount of money you make a year? Is an extra $3,000 or $5,000 of salary a make or break issue for a position that you would love to have?

Prioritize

If you get too hung up on a single point in the negotiation process, it can slow everything down and create issues that may haunt you later down the line.

And remember, if you do anything out of line in the negotiation, or if anything in your package is seen as excessive, controversial, or deemed “special interest” there may be problems down the line when it comes to managing your team and working with other stakeholders throughout the organization. So, if you don’t think something in your package is worth fighting for long after negotiations are over, consider leaving it out.

What other tips do you have for negotiating a nonprofit compensation package? Are there things that you can’t live without? Tell us about them on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn!

Yesterday we began by explaining how research can give you a better idea of what negotiations will be like—and what items you most want to negotiate—during the pre-hire stage, so today let’s “Focus on the Future.”

Because, as you know sometimes jobs come along that are simply too good to turn down, so in these cases it’s even more important that you recognize the difference between what you need, what you want and where the difference is.

Focus on the future in your negotiations to make sure you don’t get stuck in your financial past.

Focus on the Future

If you can, evaluate the non-monetary points of the compensation package to determine if they help fill the gap. Maybe you are able to take a leave of absence every year, or you can create flexible working hours that allow you to work during the times that make the most sense for your life. Since the monetary portions of any compensation package are often the most stringently reviewed—and the least likely to pass muster—look at the amount of value that is gained from other components of the proposed compensation package.

If even this doesn’t pass your compensation test, consider whether you (and the organization) would be interested in revisiting the package a few months down the line when you have shown your worth. It’s possible that the decision makers may be more inclined to offer you better perks if you have proven yourself a valuable member of their organizational team.

What other tips do you have for negotiating a nonprofit compensation package? Are there special things that you don’t think you’d be able live without in the future? Tell us about them on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn!

Megan C.- Customer Service Representative

A sunset Megan captured outside her house last week! How gorgeous is that?!

After starting out with UST’s Accounts Payable department, Megan C. was excited to be offered a position as a Customer Service Representative in February. “I was excited about helping nonprofits potentially save money on their operating costs after having volunteered with nonprofits in the past,” she explains.

“I worked with MDA and helped with their Fill the Boot and Winter Wine Down campaigns. And although I still haven’t had the chance, I’ve wanted to work with the Make-A-Wish foundation since they helped my cousin, who was battling an unknown cancer, ”* she says.

“My cousin was 19 when he passed away and really into gaming, so the Make-A-Wish foundation redid his room and decked it out with all sorts of entertainment and gaming systems that he was then able to play. It made a big difference to him.”

Growing up with a large family, Megan treasures her memories of summers on Cape Cod and at the beach, Thanksgiving with her whole family present, and her grandparents’ stories of growing up in Greece. “Being half Greek, and hearing their stories throughout my own childhood, my grandparents have easily convinced me that I want to visit and experience the culture first hand.”

Have questions for Megan? Tweet her @USTTrust with the hashtag #MeetUSTMondays!

*About 5 percent of those diagnosed with cancer have a previously unrecognized form.

A Nonprofit HR white paper by Gerard P. Panaro, Attorney-at-Law, Howe & Hutton and Lisa Brown Morton, President/CEO, Nonprofit HR Solutions

With a possible government shutdown still looming on the horizon, many organizations who receive government funding are probably reviewing their plans for staffing during this period. And as uncertainty continues, it’s important to ensure you are fully aware of the legal implications of any actions you take.

Organizations have a number of options depending on their situation though. Affected organizations may determine that they cannot afford to pay their employees during the shutdown so they may chose to furlough staff, reduce pay, or require employees to take leave (using accrued, advanced or unpaid leave). They may also send their employees to mandatory training. But what if too many employees of a protected class are effected by decisions? Or if employee’s exempt status is violated when requiring time off?

The experts at Nonprofit HR have put together an information packed white paper that can help make your decision making easier. Download the full white paper here.

Cheryl- Account Executive

For the past 16 years Cheryl Jones, VP, Account Executive, has fought relentlessly to help UST thrive. Responsible for all of the personal sales contacts, new business partnerships with state and national nonprofits, and the continued growth and success of the Trust, Cheryl works closely with Donna Groh, the Board of Trustees, and the 75-plus Sponsors that help make sure nonprofits across the country aware of their choices when it comes to funding unemployment.

“I’ve been in the insurance industry for more than 25 years and I jumped at the chance to work with a client whose values I identified strongly with,” explained Cheryl. “I fought hard to make Unemployment Services Trust—which was still HSUT and NNUT—my client and I still love it.

“I have always called UST my ‘Ben & Jerry’s,’ meaning that it’s a great ‘product,’ with great employees which allows you to have a lot of fun at work.”

A frequent traveler for work, Cheryl jumps at the chance to spend time at home relaxing. “I spend so much time traveling for work that when I am home I like to take it easy and be with my friends. I have been very lucky to have traveled to every state and to have met so many interesting people. I used to say that I learned geography by following the Grateful Dead around the country, but really I am thankful every day that I have a job that allows me to go places and meet so many people. I don’t know what I would do if I had to sit at my desk 5 days a week.”

Having completed her dream house in the past couple of years, Cheryl explains, “I would much rather entertain at my house than go out, so I like to use my frequent flyer miles to bring my friends and family out to see me so that I don’t have to get on another plane in my time off.”

Even her perfect weekend revolves around being close to her home, and family and friends. “The perfect weekend would be getting up and exercising then going for a walk or bike ride and having friends over for dinner; if I couldn’t do that though, I would like to be on the water either rafting, boating, snorkeling, walking along the ocean or whale watching.”

Have questions about Cheryl or want to know more about how the UST Operations Team works? Follow #MeetUSTMondays or send us your questions at info@chooseUST.org!

After spending years working at a major electronics retailer—yeah… you know… the really BIG one. Now imagine working there on Black Friday—as an Operations and Sales Manager, Adam was ready for a change.

“I really liked the idea of supporting organizations that make a difference,” he explained.

Having served the members of UST first as an Operations Manager and then as the Director of Operations, Adam has been exposed to a whole new side of the nonprofit world while working with the Trust. But his success at easily adapting to a new challenge wasn’t unprecedented—he once had to repair his fuel line with a tire patch kit and electric tape to make it home from a camping trip in Death Valley, California—or unexpected. “I appreciate the feeling that comes with overcoming an unexpected obstacle,” he explains, “and I like having the opportunity to test myself.”

Of his move to UST, Adam recalls, “I was fascinated by the variety of organizations that were members of UST: schools, museums, zoos, assisted living centers, mental health associations, symphonies, hospitals…the list goes on and on. And I realized that my definition of ‘nonprofit’ had been really narrow.”

Taking that newfound knowledge to heart, Adam expanded his volunteer and nonprofit experience by doing work with both Habitat for Humanity and the United Way which allowed him to better “appreciate their focus on the communities that they serve.”

Growing up as part of a Navy family that moved around with his father, a career Navy man, a lot, Adam also supports and admires the efforts of programs like the Wounded Warrior Project because he recognizes the need “to honor and serve those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf.”

“One of my favorite childhood memories is having my dad surprise us by coming home early from a nine-month deployment,” he remembers.

And, in fact, family features prominently in many of his stories.

He often begins stories with “My wife…”, and even goes so far as to tell new Trust employees that she features prominently in many of his stories, so that they know who he is talking about when her name pops up. Similarly, his children feature prominently in his office, with mugs designed by them, pictures, and artwork proudly displayed. And, luckily for them, Adam jumps at the chance to learn with, and teach them something that amazes them… makes for a good story as well.

Have questions about Adam or want to know more about how the UST Operations Team works? Follow #MeetUSTMondays or send us your questions at info@chooseUST.org!

Angela- Customer Service Representative

After more than 10 years with UST, Angela—who moved into a newly created position of Customer Service Representative at the beginning of the year—is still excited to talk to nonprofits about UST.

“When I first joined UST I was excited about the program and my involvement in it because it’s a unique way to help nonprofits save money. I love that our purpose is to help nonprofits across the U.S. save on unemployment costs specifically so that their own missions can be furthered!” she remembers.

Always excited to help others succeed, Angela splits her time between school, work, and volunteering at the local schools her daughters go to.

“I’m very social and I like to volunteer when I can. Throughout the year I volunteer at my daughters’ schools and help out whichever way I can, whether that means working as a classroom aide, working at the annual jog-a-thon, or helping out at the snack shack during athletic games.”

And in many ways, her desire to help others comes from early childhood experiences. “I have many fond memories of my childhood,” she says, reminiscing about her walk-in closet that was outfitted with a child-sized grocery cart, all the plastic toy foods you can think of, and a wide array of cabbage patch kids with their matching carrier, diaper bag, car seat, and stroller sets.

“Not all children experience what I had as a child, which is why I feel that it is so important to give back to our community and lend a helping hand to those with less,” she explains.

And while she’s outgrown her cabbage patch kids and the fake plastic food in her closet ‘grocery store’, Angela still loves to bake—especially around the holidays!—and take care of her friends and family. “When I’m not at work or at school, I like to spend my time with family and friends and just hang out. And I make sure to take my bulldog, Chula, on walks on the Bluffs around my house a few times a week so that we don’t forget how lucky we are to live in a place with mountains on one side and the beach on the other!”

Have questions for Angela? Want to congratulate her on the new job? Tweet us at @USTTrust!

You know their names, and you may even know their voices, but we’d like to introduce you to the “real” UST team! Join us over the next few weeks for #MeetUSTMondays! >In July 2009, Donna Groh joined UST as Executive Director. With broad experience in not-for-profit organizations, associations and healthcare, she is known for her expertise with strategy development, change management, nonprofit governance and board development.

“Even before I joined UST as the Executive Director I had known about the Trust from a previous employer and felt encouraged by what we do,” explained Donna of her earliest encounters with UST.

“While I was with my former employer, Holly Smith-Jones, my predecessor at UST, was a board member for the organization I worked at and helped us make the decision to join the Trust. I remember that I liked what UST does for nonprofits, and at the very height of the Great Recession, I saw it as a challenge to join the Trust and take it forward.”

But working with the Trust isn’t the only thing that Donna does. An avid world traveler Donna has been to all continents except for Antarctica—a blemish she hopes to remove from her wayfarer record in 2014 when she will travel from South America down to Antarctica.

When at home with her dog Murphy—a constant companion—Donna enjoys cooking and entertaining. “My daughter is always in charge of cocktails and I am in charge of the buffet.”

Describing her perfect dinner party, Donna imagines an eclectic group of people that would create a great dynamic. “The meal would be catered by Mario Batali who would, of course, also be a guest.”

“I would also invite Abby Wambach, my favorite female soccer player,” Donna said, admitting that while she was a terrible player herself, she was a decent coach.

“Then I would invite Sherlock Holmes because I love the way his mind works, and Jude Law because I like the way he looks. Clive Cussler because of his adventure stories, and David Foster who has created more hit music sensations than anyone else. Bette Midler would round out the group,” she concluded.

Prior to joining UST, Donna was the Executive Director of Toastmasters International and before that Director of Operations & Business Development for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Previously she served as Vice President/COO of the Irvine Medical Center. She has a BS and Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and has completed coursework for an Ed.D in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University.

If you have questions for Donna, or want to know more about how the UST team works, follow our hashtag (#MeetUSTMondays) or send us your questions on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter!