Staffing Boutique, Inc.

06/04/2026

Most Heads of School think their special ed hiring problem is a shortage issue.

It isn't.

There are plenty of qualified SETTS teachers in New York City.

But they're all at the DOE.

The Department of Education has absorbed almost the entire trained SPED workforce in this city. Competitive pay. A pension that does the real work.

Nobody is leaving voluntarily.

Which leaves every charter school, every private school, every alternative program fighting over the small group of teachers who aren't already locked in.

I pulled a list recently. About 500 SETTS teachers across the five boroughs that schools could realistically recruit from.

Five hundred. For a city this size.

If you're running a charter school trying to fill a SPED role for September, you're not running a normal search.

You're competing with the DOE for one of 500 people.

Plan accordingly.

06/04/2026

06/03/2026

We're excited to join our peers in philanthropy as a sponsor of Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) New York City Chapter's Fundraising Day New York 2026.

Come see us there!

Register today: https://tinyurl.com/ye2nxbnc

06/02/2026

DEI leaders, I'm calling you out.

Every time I post about hiring strategy....likes, comments, shares.
Every time I post about a woman-owned business I've met through New York City or New York State programs....crickets.

Same followers. Same network.

That's not what you say in my DMs. That's not what you say at events. That's what you do on a public feed where other people can see you.
That's the real data.

I've held my WBE certification through multiple administrations. I've watched the funding get cut, restored, cut, restored. That's how it goes.

What shouldn't move with the political cycle is who you are.

If you support WBE and MWBE programs, say it where people can see you say it. If your organization promotes DEI but goes silent publicly, or it doesn't show up in your actual hiring and vendor decisions, that's not support.

Buying from MWBEs isn't a line item in a diversity report. It's not a checkbox for a grant application. It's a choice you make with your budget, your contracts, and your vendor list every single quarter, regardless what political party is in office.

If equity is a core value, it shows up in who you pay.

Quiet during the hard part is the same as not showing up at all.

05/28/2026

Every founder hits the same wall:

Releasing control.

I know the pattern from the inside. I was good at sales when I started this firm. I had no idea how to run a business.

Fifteen years later, the part I'm still working on is the same part most founders I know are still working on.

Here's how it plays out...

A founder knows they need to delegate. They've said it out loud in board meetings and to me more than once.

Then a senior hire shows up.

Within ninety days, the founder is back in the inbox that the new hire was supposed to own.

Back in the meetings the new hire was supposed to run.
Back to making the calls the new hire was hired to make.

Not because the hire is failing.

Because letting go is harder than admitting it should happen.

The version of the business that grows is the one where the founder makes peace with not being in every room.

Most of us are still working on that part.

05/26/2026

Most people wait for the business plan. The financing. The "right time." Here's what I tell founders who call me about this:

If you've been laid off or fired, and you have an idea, jump now.

Going through another job search just to land at a place that's going to suck the life out of you for the next 20 years is the worse option.

The plan can come later. The work ethic is the part you can't fake.

If you trust the work you do, run with it.

05/25/2026

A special thank you to our Friend Sponsor, Staffing Boutique, Inc. 💙

Your support helps Hudson County CASA continue advocating for children in foster care and providing them with the resources, stability, and support they deserve. ❤️

05/21/2026

I was on a Zoom call recently where Mark Cuban said, “you can drown yourself in opportunity,” and honestly, that’s exactly what this space feels like.

There are so many firms that say they can recruit for nonprofits. And technically, they can.

But this sector is a lot more niche than people realize, and you see that pretty quickly once a search starts.

On paper, a lot of firms look the same. In practice, they’re not.

So when organizations are screening a few options, I always say the same thing.

Use whoever you want.

Just make sure they actually focus on nonprofits.

05/20/2026

Our Founder and CEO Katie Warnock discusses the psychology of job fit on The Nonprofit Show.

You can find the full show here:
https://staffingboutique.org/media

Staffing Boutique is a full service staffing agency specializing in recruitment in the and space.

Service excellence is our guarantee. This is supported by our customer service motto – Above & Beyond.

05/19/2026

I had a client come to me saying they were struggling with talent.

This was the CEO of a Newark-based nonprofit. Small team. Growing fast.

When I looked at it, everything was sitting with him.

Every program lead reported directly to him. Every decision ran through him. He was in everything.

At that point, it’s not really a talent issue.

It’s just too much sitting in one place.

So I sent out a quick note to a few education and workforce development groups I’m part of:

“Anyone open to a Chief of Staff role in Newark?”

Got a handful of responses. One candidate made sense immediately.

Education. Workforce development. Higher ed. Local.

Two interviews. Board round.

$170K offer. Done.

No long process. No overcomplicating it.

Just fixing what was actually slowing things down.