If you’re a nonprofit leader, I hope you spend some time every day on social media and check out the posts and comments from people who work in the industry.

Even though I have a busy schedule of travel and meetings, I try to check out what’s happening on nonprofit social media groups because it helps me stay on top of what’s happening in the industry straight from the source.

I’ve been keeping an eye on how team members who work for nonprofits are treated, and based on my unscientific experience, I’ve seen a pattern related to the top reasons they leave organizations. Turnover has been an issue in the nonprofit sector for a long time, and it seems like it continues to be a challenge.

The following are five of the reasons I have seen continue to create a situation of high turnover levels within charities and non-profits.

• Money: Are you surprised that this is at the top? Non-profit teams care about society, which is why they choose careers in the sector. Team members in nonprofit organizations earn less than someone doing the same or similar work in the for-profit industry.

Your team is the most valuable asset you have in your organization, and you have to treat it as such. What does that mean? It means giving them everything they need, all the resources, to get the job done. That could be a comfortable work environment, modern hardware and software, and, yes, competitive salaries.

Cash flow is not only important to your organization, but also to your team members.

• Leadership: I wish things were different, but they are not. Many nonprofit leaders (including board members) don’t know how to lead. Leadership is a quality you know when you see it.

There are many definitions of leadership, but they essentially share the following qualities: vision, transformation, excellent communication skills, care and concern for team members, respect, and consistency.

There’s no way to avoid it. You can’t be successful at anything, including having a thriving, sustainable nonprofit without leadership. CEOs have to set the course, as do boards of directors. And once they have established the vision, they have to stay with it consistently every day. Leadership involves inspiring and motivating others to follow.

• Too much workload: I believe in hard work, but some of the stories I’ve seen on social media groups and heard over the years are, honestly, ridiculous. If you work at one of my social enterprises, you know that we encourage our team members to take the time they need to recharge their batteries and deal with things in their personal lives. That means we encourage weekends off, if team members are sick, we’d rather have them recover at home than come into the office, and of course when there are critical personal issues, we tell them to focus on that, and we’ll be here when they come back.

I often see nonprofit employees giving away their time because they have unreasonable workloads. Weekends and evening hours are common because in many groups there seems to be an expectation that well-meaning team members will give their time without expecting anything (ie money) in return. The workloads are too heavy, but people want to keep their jobs because they need to and they also care about the cause. It’s like a long guilt trip.

Saying there is no money for overtime, creating unreasonable workloads, and then having unspoken expectations of working for no money is just plain wrong, and is something I think is very common in the industry. Leaders tell their team members, “Go home.”

• Without Mobility: So many nonprofits are so small. The fact that many nonprofits are unable to grow and scale limits job opportunities for employees within the charitable sector. I know of many organizations that have had team members they loved, but because they don’t have the money for expansion, there hasn’t been anywhere for bright, energetic, committed staff to come into the organization, even when you wanted to stay.

There is a particular group on one of the social media platforms where there are members who are energetic and committed to the work that they do. However, I have often seen within this group someone who asks their colleagues for advice on how to stay within a cause they love when there is no movement to any position in management or elsewhere.

Talented, hard-working, and committed team members are essential to any workgroup or organization. It is a significant loss when they leave, but they would have wanted to stay because they no longer have challenges (or are paid very little) and there is no room to move within the organization.

• Communication: I am a great believer in communication. I am someone who prefers to pick up the phone or eat with a team member and talk to them. Why do so many CEOs miss the opportunity to communicate and interact well with their direct reports and junior staff as well?

Communication, especially from directors and managers, is essential to increasing productivity. Walking around the office, being respectful, seeing people face to face, and cutting back on emails and texts are all “old school” forms of communication, but here’s the thing: they work. Even in the digital age, people are people.

Teams still want to be inspired by hearing their leaders and managers talk and motivate them. People still want to hear the tone of your voice and see your body language to provide context. The art of personal communication is not dead. It is a differentiator and sets great leaders and managers apart from everyone else.

There are other reasons I’ve seen why nonprofit teams quit, including lack of mentors, culture, and lack of recognition. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you probably have more. No matter what happens, leaders and managers in the nonprofit sector must keep in mind that it is better to retain their high-quality employees than to lose them.