Some advice for young non-profit workers

I just finished reading an article on the Chronicle of Philanthropy entitle “Young Workers Seek Ways to Improve Nonprofit Work Force“. I thought it was a great article for young people like myself who are interested in a non-profit career but are afraid I won’t be able to make ends meet if I get a non-profit job due to low salaries, especially for people just starting out.

The article talked about how in a survey showed that most young professionals interested in non-profit are also afraid of the low wages and feel that things to to change so that non-profit organizations are more competitive with for profit companies. The article said that in reality, if you are comparing the salaries of non-profit organizations with those of companies of similar size, there is not a huge difference. It also suggested that non-profits need to make up the salary gap in other ways such as with professional-development opportunities that many young professionals are looking for.

I also thought it was interesting that the article had a quote from Robert Eggar in it, when we had just talked about him in class not very long ago. In the article, Eggar says:

“You all have completely got to redesign charity in America, 100 percent, top to bottom,” he said, adding, “There’s no big pot of money out there that’s going to allow you all to get paid a good wage unless you go out and develop it. What I see in your generation is a desire to see your spirituality, your income, and your lifestyle mesh. It doesn’t exist yet, and I think a lot of people come to the nonprofit sector thinking, I’ll find it there, and can be a little discouraged.”

I like this quote because we always talk about what is wrong with the non-profit sector in class, and what needs to change. Eggar says that everyone knows there needs to be changes, and the young generation has to be the one to start these changes. We have to be the ones to change non-profits so they meet the standards we want and these organizations can be even more successful.

Nonprofits in a recession

I wanted to post commenting on Rebecca’s presentation in class today about recessionary economy and nonprofits. I thought that some of the ideas she mentioned about how to keep people donating even when the price of gas is $4.00 were great to think about. It has been on my mind a lot as well, knowing that our economy is facing hard times in the U.S., and whether I will be able to find a job in the nonprofit sector in the years to come. If nobody has any interest or extra money to donate to nonprofit groups, then how would I be able to have a job?

Listening to Rebecca’s presentation made me feel a little bit better about the outlook of nonprofits in the years to come. It makes sense that in a recession nonprofits will need more donations and more volunteers than ever because more people will be in poverty and need assistance. I think if we can tap the people who aren’t hurting as much, and get them to give back even more then it will balance things out. Also, I agree with trying to show how even though everyone is hurting financially, some people are hurting much more so everyone should help out.

Web Savvy Nonprofits

I think it is interesting how much of our class discussion and current event presentations have seemed to revolve around new technologies and fund raising and networking through the internet. It seems to me that the web is now one of the most important means of communication for any organization. An organization’s website has now become the “face” of the organization in many ways, and for many people it is the first impression that they get when learning about a non-profit. And we all know first impressions are often the only impressions we get to make.

I was reading an article called “Five Step Strategy to Market Your Nonprofit Online“, and I think it had some good tips about how any nonprofit, no matter how small, can start using the web for the good of their organization. Little things, like jazzing up the organization website, building email lists, trying out social media, and creating an e-newsletter can go a long way to making a more net-friendly organization.

I know it seems like everyone is on the web these days, but there are still masses of people who don’t know how create or update things on the web. I’m doing an internship this summer for a local non-profit in my hometown and the people who I talked to were ecstatic that I knew a few things about building a website and how to use HTML and  they proposed I do an entire overhaul of their website because the person who started working on it was no longer there, and nobody else knew anything about updating it. I think with a little bit of training, and a few new ideas, any nonprofit can keep up with the times and become more web savvy.

Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges

I just read the article that Harvey posted about the Milwaukee based nonprofit helping at-risk teenagers go to college. I thought it was very interesting to read about all the great things they are doing for young people, and to read how it was made possible from a business standpoint. It seems like there are so many great ideas out there to help kids who would not be able to attend college without help, but many of them fail because it costs a lot of money to put a kid through college, and many slip through the cracks.

I think it is good that the organization set some specific goals for what they wanted to accomplish. Then, they hired some people who really cared, and knew what they were doing (a winning combination) to make their vision a reality. I think that in order for a nonprofit to really be successful, you not only have to have a passion for what you are doing, but you also have to have the business skills to raise the funds and compete with all the other nonprofits and for profits out there. It seems like this organization has both of these aspects, and is doing a lot of good because of it.

Oprah’s Big Give…Just another reality show?

I saw that a few other people posted to the blog this week about the Oprah’s Big Give television series. This subject has come up several times this week in my own personal conversations, so I thought I would put my two cents in.

I think the idea of the show has good intentions at heart, but is not necessarily a good thing. I think that it is awesome that you someone had the idea to make a show about giving to others, when you see so many shows on today that are about people winning big money for themselves. Personally, I am tired or reality television, and I think it is time for networks to go in a different direction. Shows about people doing good are refreshing once in awhile.

However, I think that this is still a reality style show. It doesn’t show people doing a fundraising project over a long period of time. It is focused on the quick fix, here and now solution. Five days is a very short amount of time, and I think it cheapens the idea of the show because people are under such a big time crunch. What about the people that need the help? I feel they are kind of being exploited for the good of the show. Also, if someone fails to raise money to help the people in need, such as with the fashion show idea that didn’t raise any money, then is the show just going to forget about them? I just think it kind of makes fund raising out to be something it’s not. It should not be about the quick, right now, solutions, but about fixing the reason the problem happened in the first place.

Social Entreprenuers: Making a difference now

I found an interesting article the other day on my google alerts that kind of goes along with what we’ve been talking about in class. The article, titled “Attention Nonprofits: Watch Out for the Social Entrepreneurs” by Sam Davidson gave me a better idea of what exactly social entrepreneurs are, and why it is becoming a popular trend in the non-profit world.

Basically, the article talks about why Davidson chose to become a social entreprenuer. He felt that it blended the non-profit world with the business world. He could have a chance to do what he did best, the business side, but still do what he was passionate about and give back to society. He could try and save the world, but do it in a business savvy way. I think this is great, because I know one of the things that has made me a little wary of going into the non-profit sector is that everyone always tells me that I won’t make any money or be successful, at least not for a long time. Davidson points out that with social entrepreneurship you can use the skills you have and become what you want to be now, not ten years from now. Davidson’s website for CoolPeopleCare points out that you can use whatever resources you have to give for good. It is good to remember that anyone can make a difference no matter how much time or what skills they have.

Community Service Made Mandatory?

I noticed that somebody posted about the question of mandatory community service, and I would like to through my two cents in about this topic. I snooped around the internet for some other’s opinions on the matter, and found this article by Rhonda B. Graham in Delaware. She believes that mandatory community service for high school students would instill a sense of community and national pride in teenagers.

For the most part, I agree with her. I don’t think we should make high school students spend all their time cleaning up the community, but I think if every student completed at least one “community outreach project” before they graduated, it would help them out in the future. Most colleges and employers these days look at more than just grades. They want to know the student was involved in things in high school, and all colleges that I know of have sections about volunteerism on their applications.

Also, I believe that most high school students have considerably more free time than people who are older and work full time, so it would be productive if they spent some of that time helping others. They also might be more likely to volunteer and care about their community later in life if they’ve had positive experiences with volunteering in the past. This is just my opinion, but I think that if high schools, colleges, and employers for that matter put a bigger emphasis on giving back to the community, everyone would benefit.

Nonprofits as business

After reading Harvey’s post, and looking over the article she linked about Nonprofit/Philanthropy Trends in 2007, I thought I would add some of my thoughts about the article. In particular, I was interested in the section that pointed out how more and more fund raisers are recognizing that there is a business side to nonprofit organizations.

"3. Wider recognition that there is a business side to nonprofits.
Miller elaborated: "We see encouraging signs of an understanding taking
root that nonprofits need comprehensive funding that includes
infrastructure, replacement and organizational growth needs. These needs
are often overlooked by the currently pervasive practice of 'restricted'
funding, which will continue to be a major impediment to the financial
stability of all too many nonprofits."

I believe that people who are interested in working in the nonprofit sector should be fairly business savvy because it is more efficient. If you run a nonprofit in a similar way you would a business, you are trying to create a profit while cutting unnecessary costs along the way. The real difference that I see is that in a business, you get to keep the profits, while in a philanthropy the extra profits are going to a cause. I’m not saying that I believe nonprofits should forsake their core values to try and make a few extra dollars for their cause, but I do believe that now nonprofits are often competing with for profit businesses more than ever. I also see how many of the larger nonprofit organizations are changing and growing to be able to stay afloat and continue furthering their work with whatever cause they support.

I believe that causes such as breast cancer and heart disease get so much more media attention and more followers than some other causes is because more people can relate to these causes and the people raising funds for these causes have done a great job making people aware of how many people are affected by these diseases. I believe that people who try to raise money for breast cancer awareness often link this disease to all women and say “this disease could happen to any woman”. Problems like heart disease are very widespread in America for both men and women. I also believe that while many people in America might be affected by problems such as infertility, it might be more difficult to try and put a positive spin on how you can help out with this cause, and harder to market for fund raising more sensitive issues.