Does Sexual Harassment Exist in the Nonprofit Workplace?

A few months ago, a young lady wrote to me privately to ask me to write a post about dealing with sexual harassment as a nonprofit employee. Your first thought might be, does sexual harassment even exist in the nonprofit workplace? The short answer is yes. Nonprofit organizations, while generally mission-driven for the greater good, are just as susceptible to unlawful employee behavior as any other business. Maybe even more so.  According to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, "nonprofits are not exempt from sexual harassment claims." For nonprofits, the possibility of sexual harassment can exist not only for employees, but also volunteers, donors, even board members that are a part of the organization. Just because you work for a good cause, does not mean that you cannot protect yourself from being harassed.

What is sexual harassment?

You may have had an experience at work that made you uncomfortable, but how do you know if you're "officially" being sexually harassed? The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment very clearly:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

Over half of the nonprofit sector is made up of women, while men continue to be overrepresented in leadership positions, making the possibility of a woman being harassed by a male supervisor all the more likely. But let's not forget that the proverbial shoe can drop from the other foot as well. While most sexual harassment charges are mostly filed by women, almost 16 percent of men filed complaints of sexual harassment last year. In fact, according to the EEOC, sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.
• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

Two common types of sexual harassment

If you have experienced one of the two types of sexual harassment below, you could have grounds for a complaint with your employer.

Quid Pro Quo: "Something for something;" this is the "you do something for me and I'll do something for you" type of exchange. This occurs when a job benefit is directly tied to an employee submitting to unwelcome sexual advances. For example, a supervisor promises an employee a raise if she will go out on a date with him, or tells an employee she will be fired if she doesn't sleep with him.

Hostile Environment: This occurs when an employee is subjected to comments of a sexual nature, offensive sexual materials, or unwelcome physical contact as a regular part of the work environment. Supervisors, managers, co-workers and even customers can be responsible for creating a hostile environment.

What should you do if you're sexually harassed at your nonprofit job?

1. Write down exactly what happened, when it happened, and how it happened. You will need these details for filing a complaint either verbally or in writing, according to your organization's sexual harassment policy. It may also help you separate the emotion you may feel from the actual facts of the incident.
2. Review your employee handbook for specific instructions on how to file this type of grievance. Many policies will list a special phone number for you to call if the sexual harassment involves the nonprofit's top leadership.
3. If there is no employee handbook, alert your direct supervisor immediately, unless your complaint is against that partcular person. In that case, go straight to the head of the department or the CEO.
4. If your complaint is with the CEO, go to the Chair of the Board of Directors.
5. If your situation is not resolved promptly and to your satisfaction (i.e. the harassment continues), you may choose to file a charge with the EEOC in your area.

If you are being sexually harassed at work, don't be afraid to report the behavior. If you don't report it, the person or persons doing the harassing will continue to think it's acceptable, and you will only become more miserable. Remember that nonprofits have a duty to protect you from being harassed at work, just like a corporation does. And you deserve to work for an organization that takes it seriously.

Find more about the dynamics of sexual harassment at sexualharassmentsupport.org and the Nonprofit Risk Management Center