This toolkit brings together the three tools that do the heavy lifting before anyone applies: Sophia’s job description template (the foundation of the whole process), a curated list of social sector job boards to help you post strategically, and her application scoring rubric to narrow a pile of hundreds into a shortlist worth your time. Sophia Zisook has spent years helping small, nimble social sector orgs put equitable hiring into practice without breaking the bank.
From the Helia Library — based on the article Hiring with Heart and Strategy from our Coffee Chat with Sophia Zisook.
What’s Inside
Start with the JD Template — it’s the foundation. The job boards list is where you go once you’ve written it. The scoring rubric is what you reach for when the applications start coming in.
01 — Sophia’s JD Template
Sophia’s actual job description template, with every section that matters and prompts to guide you through each one: who you are and why this role, responsibilities as an outline (not a wish list), competencies split from requirements, pay range, inclusivity statement, and application instructions. Start here before you post anything.
02 — Curated Social Sector Job Boards List
A link to Mana Tahaie’s incredible Nonprofit Jobseeker Resources. A continuously updated, sector-wide list of job boards, listservs, newsletters, and executive search firms, organized by focus area and identity. Sophia recommends it because it does what we couldn’t do better: gives you a one-stop map of where your people actually look for roles. Use it once you’ve written your JD and you’re deciding where to post.
03 — Sophia’s Application Scoring Rubric
A spreadsheet with the yes/no filters + 1-5 competency scoring framework Sophia uses to cut through a pile of applications without defaulting to gut feel. Built to be adapted for any role, just plug in your competencies and requirements. Use this once the applications start rolling in.
When Resources and Templates Aren’t Enough
These tools will get you a long way. If you’re willing to slow down at the JD, post to the right places, and use a scoring system that keeps your biases out of the first round, you’ll avoid most of the expensive mistakes.
What they can’t do is tell you when your JD is drifting into wish list territory, help you calibrate a pay band when you haven’t done the full org-wide analysis, or give you a reality check on whether the scoring criteria you’ve chosen are actually the ones that matter. If you’re using these tools and still feel stuck, the issue might be something the templates can’t surface on their own.
If You Want Help With Your Hiring Foundations
Sophia Zisook helps social sector organizations put equitable hiring practices into action — from JD design and pay bands through scoring rubrics and interview structure. She’s refreshingly direct about where most orgs go wrong, and especially good for small, nimble orgs that need this done well without breaking the bank.
She’s a good fit if:
- You want to redesign your hiring process from the JD down, with an equity lens built in
- You’re hiring for a role where getting it right really matters and you want a thought partner on the design
- You keep defaulting to the same approach and it’s not working anymore
- You want help designing scoring and screening that’s fair AND protects you from your own biases
Connect with Sophia!
About Sophia
Sophia Zisook got her start in the nonprofit sector by co-founding and scaling a national youth-serving nonprofit at 18 (originally called “Everybody Dance Now” — sorry for the earworm!). Now, through Negotiate with Sophia, she combines behavioral research with her experience building orgs from the ground up to create practical tools for nimble organizations trying to improve their hiring and for individuals learning to negotiate for themselves. A Licensed Social Worker who just moved to Madison, she’s the kind of person who’ll geek out about wage gap data AND give you the exact scoring rubric you can use next week.
Work with Sophia
