PositivelyHR Partner Network

You noticed the problem first. Now you have somewhere to send it.

A handbook nobody has opened in six years. The best program managers leaving. Benefits costing more every year and doing less. You see it long before they call anyone. We’re building a small referral network for the advisors who notice first.

Apply to join the network See what a referral is worth
Nonprofit teams up to 500 employees HR expertise and day-to-day support for nonprofit organizations with 50 or more employees.
Mission-driven since 2016 Designed to meet the needs of nonprofits, social impact organizations, and their employees.
HR services you’ll be proud to recommend 9 out of 10 clients rate our service as 9/10 or better. 100% client renewal rate since 2023.

What a referral actually sounds like

Struggling HR has a sound, and you’ve likely heard it.

The effects of HR and people management challenges reverberate across an organization. Here are some of the signals that a client would benefit from a referral to Positively Partners.

What you would be introducing them to

All the advantages of an in-house HR department, without building one.

positivelyhr is a subscription that gives nonprofits the policies, systems and expertise to run HR well every day. We manage payroll and benefits, address compliance needs proactively, and give managers practical guidance for everyday decisions and difficult conversations. Employees get clear answers from someone who knows their organization. Throughout our work we put evidence-based practices into action to support effective people management.

HR outsourcing can mean different things, so it helps to explain how positivelyhr works. We serve as your client’s HR department, with a dedicated team that works closely with their leaders, managers and employees. We’re not a software platform, staffing agency, or professional employer organization (PEO). Your client keeps their own tax IDs, benefit plans and identity as an employer while gaining the HR capacity to support their day-to-day needs and long-term goals.

Aligned with leadership

An annual action plan built with senior leaders that identifies mission-aligned priorities and how we’ll measure progress. Your client’s chief executive sets the direction, while we manage the day-to-day HR work.

Built around managers

We help managers handle their people responsibilities with confidence, providing tools, coaching and someone to call before a difficult conversation. That support strengthens management practice and helps retain employees.

Open to every employee

Staff can reach HR by portal, email or phone and connect with a dedicated specialist who knows their organization’s mission, policies and culture. Instead of a ticket queue or a chatbot, they get support from someone who understands their workplace.

The foundation, always on

positivelyhr subscription

The ongoing HR support that keeps an organization running well every day. We become your client’s HR department, providing the people, systems and expertise that support their team as their needs evolve. Benefits are often what brings an organization to us in the first place. We work with Bennie to explore plan options, support benefits administration, and give employees personalized help finding care, understanding their coverage and navigating reimbursement.

Payroll and tax Benefits strategy and administration Compliance and handbooks Multi-state registration Leave administration Employee relations Onboarding and offboarding HRIS implementation and support Manager guidance and training Employee support line Engagement listening Annual action planning
The strategy layer, when it’s needed

CARE: consulting and recruitment

Once the foundation is solid the harder questions become answerable. These are separate engagements, scoped to what the organization is actually trying to achieve, and no client is required to buy any of them.

Manager and leadership development Compensation and total rewards design Organizational design Executive and professional search Performance systems Culture, trust and belonging Workplace investigations Engagement survey and analysis

Who we build this with

Advisors who sit close to the operating problem.

We’re not trying to build a large network. We’re trying to build the right forty. If you serve nonprofits and you’re in the room when their people problems surface, you’re who we’re looking for.

01

Property, casualty and EPLI brokers

Employment practices claims come from thin documentation, untrained managers and inconsistent discipline. When your client has real HR infrastructure your book performs better. Your renewal conversation is our best introduction.

02

Outsourced accounting and fractional CFO firms

You’re already working closely with your clients’ finances and payroll, and you’re often their first call when an operational challenge comes up. That puts you in a strong position to recognize when a client needs more HR support and to connect them with a trusted partner.

03

Nonprofit strategy and capacity-building consultants

Every org assessment you run surfaces the same finding: the people systems can’t carry the strategy. You name the gap. We’re the team that closes it, without you having to staff it.

04

Interim executive and transition firms

You place an interim ED or CFO into an organization mid-transition. HR is nearly always one of the three things they find broken in week two. We can be operating before your placement ends.

05

Executive and leadership coaches

Your client’s hardest sessions are about a person they can’t manage, a team they can’t fix, or a decision they can’t document. Some of that’s coaching. Some of it’s an HR function that doesn’t exist yet.

A referral we can move on
  • A US-based nonprofit or social impact employer with 50 to 500 employees
  • A named contact at ED, CEO, COO or CFO level who knows the introduction is coming
  • A real reason to be talking now, whether that’s a problem or an ambition
  • Some openness to outsourcing rather than a search for their next HR hire
  • Budget authority in the room, or one step from it
Not a fit, and we’ll tell you fast
  • Under fifty employees. We’re not the economical answer at that size
  • An organization we’ve spoken with in the last ninety days
  • A shopper looking only for a cheaper payroll vendor
  • A request for temporary or contract staffing
  • A board that wants a report, not an operating partner

How it works

Three steps, and we do most of them.

1

You apply, we talk

Fill out the form below. We review every application ourselves. If it looks like a fit we set up thirty minutes to understand your book and tell you honestly whether we’ll be useful to your clients.

Reviewed within 5 business days
2

You make the introduction

Register the organization here first so your referral is protected, then introduce us by email when the timing is right. You control when we make contact, and we won’t reach out until you give us the go-ahead.

Registration protects your referral for 12 months
3

You get paid, or your client does

If they become a client you choose your currency: a referral fee paid to you, or a credit applied to your client’s invoice. Fees are paid quarterly on cash we’ve actually collected.

Paid within 30 days of quarter close

What a referral is worth

Two ways to be paid. You pick.

Some professions have codes that make a cash referral fee complicated. Some advisors would simply rather hand their client a discount than take a check. Both are fine, the value is the same either way, and we don’t treat one as the lesser option.

Track A

A referral fee, paid to you

For brokers, outsourced finance firms, consultants and coaches with no professional restriction on accepting referral compensation.

  • A share of what we collect from your client across their first two years
  • Weighted heavily toward year one, so you’re paid soon after they start
  • Calculated on cash collected, never on what we invoiced
  • Paid quarterly, with a statement showing the calculation
  • Nothing to claw back if the client leaves
Track B

A credit, applied to your client

For anyone whose professional code, firm policy or personal preference makes accepting a fee the wrong answer. You keep a clean recommendation and your client keeps the money.

  • A discount on your client’s fees through their first two years
  • Appears on every invoice as a partner credit, automatically
  • Nothing for your client to claim and nothing for you to disclose
  • You can choose this for one client and Track A for another
  • Your client is told you declined a fee on their behalf, if you want them told

Estimate a referral

150employees
50500
Estimated value to you over two years
—

Roughly three quarters of it lands in the first year.

A planning estimate, not an offer. Actual amounts depend on scope, complexity and how many states the organization employs in. The full fee schedule is set out in the Partner Referral Agreement, which we share before you register your first referral.

Our side of the agreement

The fee is the easy part. This is the part that matters.

You’re lending us a relationship you spent years building. These are commitments, not aspirations, and they’re written into the partner agreement.

We acknowledge within one business day

Every referral gets a real reply from a person, not an autoresponder, confirming what we received and what happens next.

You control the timing of first contact

We don’t call your client until you tell us the introduction has landed. If you want to stay on every email, you stay on every email.

You hear back at day fourteen, at proposal, and at decision

Including when we lose. Especially when we lose. You should never have to ask your own client what happened to your referral.

A quarterly report on everything you’ve sent

Every organization, its current stage, and what we owe you. Most referral programs are a black box. This one is a report you can audit.

We don’t sell what you sell

We name your scope in the agreement and we stay out of it. If a client asks us for something that belongs to you, we hand it back to you.

Non-exclusive, and reviewed every year

You keep referring to whoever serves your client best. We put a review date on the calendar annually and either renew deliberately or end it cleanly.

Apply

Join the founding cohort.

We read every application. If we’re not the right fit for the clients you serve we’ll tell you that directly rather than adding you to a list.

Questions first? Email partners@positivelypartners.org.

Add your name so we know who we’re writing back to.
Add your firm name.
Add a valid work email address.
Pick the closest description.
Give us a rough range.
You can change this later, and you can choose differently for different clients.
Tell us a little about what you’re seeing.
Please complete the quick check above.

We reply within five business days. We don’t add applicants to a marketing list and we don’t share your details.

Application received

Thank you. We read these ourselves and you’ll hear back from a person within five business days, either way.

For current partners

Register a referral.

Register the organization before you make the introduction. That timestamps your claim, protects it for twelve months, and tells us not to make contact until you say the introduction has landed.

If we’re already in an active conversation with the organization we’ll tell you within one business day and the registration won’t stand. That’s the only case where it won’t.

We need to know who to credit.
Add a valid email address.
Add the organization’s name.
Add a named contact and their title.
A rough number is fine.
Pick the closest trigger so we know how urgently to move.
If you choose hold, we won’t contact them until you tell us otherwise.
Please complete the quick check above.

Acknowledged within one business day. Status updates at day fourteen, at proposal and at decision.

Referral registered

Logged and timestamped. You’ll get a confirmation by email within one business day, and we won’t make contact until you tell us the introduction has landed.

The fine print, in plain language

Questions people actually ask.

What if you’re already talking to the organization I want to refer?
Then the registration doesn’t stand, and we’ll tell you within one business day rather than letting you find out later. Our rule is a ninety day lookback: if we’ve had substantive contact with the organization in the previous ninety days it’s already in our pipeline. Anything older than that is yours.
How long is my referral protected?
Twelve months from the date you register it. Nonprofit buying cycles are slow and often wait on a board meeting or a fiscal year. If they sign in month eleven you’re still paid in full.
What if my client already has a benefits broker?
That’s the normal case and it’s not a problem. We administer benefits, we don’t have to place them, and your client keeps whoever they already use. Where an organization wants help on cost or plan design we work with Bennie, but that’s an option rather than a condition of the service.
Are you a PEO?
No. Your client keeps their own employer identity, their own tax IDs and their own benefit plans. Employees aren’t co-employed by anyone. We provide the team and the systems, and the organization remains the employer in every sense that matters to their staff and their board.
Will you try to sell my clients the services I provide?
No, and we write your scope into the agreement so it’s not a matter of trust. Positively Partners does offer consulting and executive search alongside HR outsourcing, so if your work overlaps with ours we name the carve-out before you send your first referral. If a shared client asks us for something inside your scope, we route it back to you.
Am I allowed to accept a referral fee?
That depends on your profession, your firm and sometimes your state, and it’s your call rather than ours. Broadly: brokers and outsourced finance firms with no attest relationship generally can. CPAs performing an audit, review or compilation for that same client generally can’t, and disclosure doesn’t fix it. Members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals are bound by standards that make it difficult. Attorneys face conflict of interest rules. Track B exists for exactly these situations. If you’re unsure, take the client credit and skip the analysis.
Do I have to do anything after the introduction?
No. Some partners stay involved through the whole conversation and some hand off entirely. Both work. You’ll be kept informed either way, and what you’re paid doesn’t depend on how involved you choose to be.
Is this exclusive?
No, and we wouldn’t want it to be. You should refer your clients to whoever serves them best. The agreement is explicitly non-exclusive and carries an annual review date so neither of us ends up in something that stopped working.
When and how do I get paid?
Quarterly, within thirty days of quarter close, on fees we’ve actually collected rather than fees we’ve invoiced. You get a statement showing the calculation. We issue a 1099 where required.
What happens if the client leaves in year one?
You keep what you’ve been paid. Because fees are calculated on collected revenue quarter by quarter there’s nothing to claw back. If they leave in month seven you were paid on seven months, and that’s the end of it.