How to find a nonprofit job
Updated 2024-08-26. Originally published 2014-04-27 on VocationVillage.com
A reader asked me for advice on how to find a nonprofit job. To help me respond, I asked for feedback from Steven Atamian, Co-Founder of Global Brigades, Inc. and Empowered.org, and a member of the advisory board of the Certificate in Nonprofit Management program at the University of Washington.
Here are nonprofit job search tips from Atamian:
– Most nonprofit job opportunities are built out of relationships with volunteers who have showed impact. This limits the number of outside hires. The advantage of volunteering with an organization first is that you not only build relationships, you get a sense of the culture of the organization to see if it’s the right fit.
– Sometimes, the innovation and dedication of volunteers inspires the nonprofit organization to create jobs for them. In the early days of hiring at Global Brigades, people rather than positions were the focus. Interviewers asked candidates, “What are you passionate about and how can you leverage Global Brigades to manifest your passion into meaningful social impact?”
– Outside hiring happens more often for highly technical roles, often by advertising on Idealist.org via a formal interview process.
– There are opportunity costs involved in working with nonprofits instead of for-profit companies, so it is important to figure out as much as possible what the real deal is with a role so that you are not left feeling entitled and unsatisfied.
– If you are already working at a for-profit company that is doing projects related to corporate social responsibility or in partnership with a nonprofit to achieve mutual goals, the way people often get staffed on those projects is to raise their hands and volunteer. Over time, if you show high levels of unique value and you make a business case, the organization creates a permanent position.
– Atamian says, “It is a rare opportunity in this world to be paid to apply your skills to help others. If you truly want to dedicate your life to that, it will take sacrifices to compete with all the others who want the same thing.”
– In the nonprofit world, you have to be just as qualified at your specialty (whether writing or raising money or general program management) as you would have to be in the for-profit world, only maybe you need to be even more qualified in order to keep up with the complexities of satisfying multiple stake-holders (board members, clients/beneficiaries, staff, environment, etc).
– The only thing weighed greater than professional expertise is the strength of the network (contacts/relationships) that you can bring. In the nonprofit world, it is rare for people to have the same urgency for networking and relationship building that people in the for-profit world have, so if someone has this, they are at a competitive advantage to be hired. This is probably why there is such a high demand for development directors and why they are often external hires.
– This is a good article for more ideas: Making a Difference Through Volunteering & Nonprofit Careers.
Do you love your nonprofit job? If so, how did you find it? Please send me your success story for possible inclusion in a future article.
