Cultivate runs All Hands, the largest talent matchmaking program in social impact – giving us access to enormous amounts of data about the state of the job market.
That’s why we’re sharing our top findings from 2025.
📌 But first: while candidates are getting scooped up quickly ahead of the midterms, employers are still struggling to find high-quality, vetted applicants alongside managing an influx of AI-powered applications.
Now, read on for the insights:
📈 5 ways the social impact job market changed in 2025:
👋 Executive-level talent started searching to shift roles between election cycles: We vetted 800 new senior-level candidates actively looking for their next leadership role – a higher-than-usual number of job-seekers with 10+ years of experience.
🔼 Q1 and Q4 remained busy hiring seasons: We consistently see significant hiring happen in Q1, when many organizations have refreshed budgets and strategic plans. All Hands saw a significant uptick in Q4 2025 as organizations prepared for the 2026 election and stalled funding began moving in response to the Trump administration.
🪴 Functions focused on infrastructure and growth thrived: IT, Operations, Software Engineering, Marketing, and Accounting had the most new jobs on the All Hands job board. The sector has been investing in building functions that enable our orgs to run most effectively. We believe this will pay off.
💻 Remote roles far outpaced roles in major cities: While Washington D.C., New York City, and San Francisco remained top locations for in-person roles, there were 140% more remote roles than all three metro areas combined. If you’re an employer on the fence between in-office, hybrid, and remote, consider where you can retain some flexibility for those remote-first candidates – you’ll be in good company.
💰 Philanthropies, organizations with membership models, and government contractors scaled dramatically: These organization types were more immune to the funding challenges that nonprofits, PACs, and startups had because of their diversified income streams.
🔍 With competition for top candidates increasing as new roles go live, now is the moment to accelerate hiring and build your superstar team:
2026 is a big year, and we need a deep bench of talented and passionate folks ready to rise to the occasion.
When you’re looking to find mission-driven talent quickly, we’ve got your back.
Thanks for everything you do to build this movement ever stronger,
–The team at All Hands, a project of Cultivate