NEWSLEADERSHIP

This morning I was at Walden University's annual Social Change Conference in Washington, DC. Over 200 social entrepreneurs, students, and nonprofit leaders packed the ballroom at the National Press Club. Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, was one of the keynote speakers. Since 1987, Echoing Green has provided seed funding and support to more than 470 social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for social change in order to launch groundbreaking organizations around the world. After giving her opening remarks, Cheryl was asked by a member of the audience, "what makes social entrepreneurs successful?" While her answer pertained to the social change agents she selects for Echoing Green fellowships, her advice also rang true for nonprofit jobseekers. What will make you successful as you present yourself for leadership positions? It's not educational pedigree, according to Cheryl Dorsey. There are three, more important components.

Passion

I will bet on a passionate leader any day of the week. Someone who lives and breathes their issue. Someone who, at dinner parties, only wants to talk about the good work they are doing.

Responsibility

I think the human capital component is most important, someone who wakes up everyday and takes responsibility for a particular problem. Every social entrepreneur has a "moment of obligation" where they realize that they HAVE to do something to make change.

Worldview

Since our early days as humans, we've had a scarcity mindset. Even now, many of us tend to look at everything as a problem to be solved. Social entrepreneurs have an asset-based worldview in that they see challenges as opportunities.

Where do you fall in line with Cheryl's observations? Have you had success in showcasing these qualities in yourself?

Want more advice from Echoing Green? Tune in to their bi-weekly podcast on creating a life with meaningful impact.

Photo Credit: foreversouls

There is always a wonderfully rewarding feeling in giving your time and talents to a worthy cause. Feeding the homeless, tutoring children, or playing games with senior citizens can all give you a sense of community as well as help you grow as a person in the process. But many young professionals just stop at the warm fuzzy feeling they get from giving back instead of going the extra step taking on leadership roles as volunteers. I call this volunteering for free. Why? Because most of you are overlooking all of the other opportunities in volunteering that can help you in your career. It's like being a waiter that just leaves the tip on the table. Especially if you're actively seeking a new nonprofit job, it's important that you use every chance you get to further your job search process. If you're going to volunteer, try to choose opportunities that allow you to build your resume, make new contacts, or learn a new skill.

Build Your Resume
If you choose a volunteer position that allows you to lead in some capacity, it looks a lot better on your resume than simply "volunteered to clean the local dog park." If your goal is to obtain a job in the environmental field, for instance, you want to show that you can play a leadership role in the organization if they decide to hire you. If you want to go ahead and clean up the dog park or the river, step up and be the one to be the organizer or rally other volunteers so you can state your accomplishments on your resume as "recruited 100 volunteers to clean the dog park, the largest turnout ever." Much more impressive, no?

Make New Contacts
True story. I once volunteered to staff the registration table at an event just so I could meet the organization's CEO and mingle with the staff so I could have a better chance of getting a job there. It was a great way to build relationships with the right people so that when my resume crossed their desk, they already would know who I was.  You have the choice of volunteering at thousands of different nonprofits, but why not make it a win/win by helping out with one of the ones you may want to work for in the future?

Learn a New Skill
No offense, but everyone knows how to ladle soup into a bowl to feed the homeless. It's a worthy activity, but it won't do much for your career as a skill if a six-year old could do it. If you're a nonprofit jobseeker, try your hand at helping out with something you don't already know how to do. If there's an organization that needs help putting up flyers for a new program or campaign, volunteer to be the one to design them even if you have no design experience whatsoever. It could force you to learn a new software like Photoshop or Dreamweaver very quickly and you'll be able to add it to your resume in case your new job requires you to know something about design or print marketing.

Now don't get it twisted. I'm not telling you to stop volunteering. I'm just saying to use your volunteer time wisely. If you're going to give back, use your experience to kill two birds with one stone: help your community and help your career at the same time.

Photo credit: NYE Senior Services

Are you in college or grad school and thinking about a career in social change? If so, you may have a lot in common with Stefanie, a current college student and Jobs for Change reader. For those of you considering a career in the nonprofit field, she offers a great deal of insight into the process she went through to decide that it was the perfect career path for her.

I would like to say that I am very pleased and thankful to have discovered your blog and the change.org website.  As a current college student who is looking to build a resume and enter the world of non-profit work, I find all of your advice and resources very helpful. Second, I would like to give you a little background about myself.  I was lucky to have grown up in a loving and financially stable family, but from a young age I realized how difficult life was for others, and wanted to give back in some way.  Much of this desire was instilled in me by my mother: she grew up extremely poor, and had an alcoholic and abusive father.  When my mother was 16, her father was killed in a bar, and my grandmother remarried shortly after.  Ever since then, she has been an active volunteer, and always took me with her to help out.  Through her stories and my volunteer experiences growing up, I saw the need for selfless individuals to make a difference in the world, no matter how seemingly small.  With all of the blessings I have received in my life, how could I not give back and help others?  I was thus committed to public service, in at least some capacity.

During my years in college...

"Mediocrity is self-inflicted." - Walter Russell

Six months into her new position as a Development Associate at a small, youth development organization, a friend of mine (we'll call her Dana) realized that she was really doing the work of a Development Director. She was in her early 20s just starting out in her career. Yet Dana's job duties had become more and more complex, and while she enjoyed all the different aspects of fundraising, she felt that her title and salary should change due to the advanced nature of her work. In just six months, Dana had implemented their first online giving program, engaged new donors and successfully organized a large fundraising event that brought in thousands of dollars. When she came to the Executive Director to ask for a raise and a title change to Development Director, her boss was all too happy to oblige. After all, they certainly didn't want to lose Dana, a valuable employee with proven results.

Sound like a Cinderella story? Well, it's not. It's true, and Dana shows that young nonprofit professionals CAN get promoted very quickly in an organization if they play their cards right.

Ask for a Title Change
Especially if you work for a small nonprofit, where job descriptions and titles can be fluid, you can buck the system and get promoted "in title" as they say. If you find yourself with managerial duties on your plate, while working with the title of "Assistant," it may be time to have a conversation with your boss about what's possible. I would request a 30 minute meeting (don't make a big deal about it) and explain how your job description is really equivalent to that of a manager or director. It also helps to have a few job descriptions from other nonprofits handy to prove your point. You may not get a raise to go along with it, but future employers will always offer you more money if you have 'manager' or 'director' on your resume quicker than they will if all you have is a history of being an 'assistant.'

Do Your Job Really Well
The first year of a nonprofit job is critical. Don't be a slacker just because you can. Come in to work on time and do an excellent job within the position you were hired for. If you are in charge of a program or project, make sure it doesn't just get done, but do it in a remarkable way, on time and within budget. Instead of coming to work just to "do your job," try to exceed the goals that the organization has for you or your department. If you need to raise $100,000, raise $150,000. If you're tasked with recruiting 20 mentors, go out and find 25. While you'll still get a paycheck, doing the bare minimum is not going to be enough to get you promoted to a job with more responsibility and/or more pay. Doing your job well means going the extra mile when your colleagues need help, too.

Become a Rainmaker
A rainmaker is someone who has a knack for using their connections to benefit their company with new clients, customers, or investors.  When you come into a new nonprofit job, don't be afraid to use your personal networks to connect you to opportunities that will benefit the organization. If you belong to an alumni association, ask your fellow classmates to volunteer or donate to your cause. Put messages out on your Facebook and Twitter profiles to increase attendance at your nonprofit's events. Help garner press for your agency by calling in a favor from your friend who works at a local newspaper. If you can bring in new assets that the nonprofit didn't have before they hired you, your name will be at the top of the list when an internal leadership position opens up.

Dana was promoted within six months because she did a great job, brought in new assets, and then asked to be promoted. While it's easy to get comfortable in your job, you really have to stay at the top of your game if you want to move up in your career in your current organization or otherwise. What are some techniques that you've used to get promoted during your nonprofit career?

A few months ago, a young lady wrote to me privately to ask me to write a post about dealing with sexual harassment as a nonprofit employee. Your first thought might be, does sexual harassment even exist in the nonprofit workplace? The short answer is yes. Nonprofit organizations, while generally mission-driven for the greater good, are just as susceptible to unlawful employee behavior as any other business. Maybe even more so.  According to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, "nonprofits are not exempt from sexual harassment claims." For nonprofits, the possibility of sexual harassment can exist not only for employees, but also volunteers, donors, even board members that are a part of the organization. Just because you work for a good cause, does not mean that you cannot protect yourself from being harassed.

What is sexual harassment?

You may have had an experience at work that made you uncomfortable, but how do you know if you're "officially" being sexually harassed? The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment very clearly:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

Over half of the nonprofit sector is made up of women, while men continue to be overrepresented in leadership positions, making the possibility of a woman being harassed by a male supervisor all the more likely. But let's not forget that the proverbial shoe can drop from the other foot as well. While most sexual harassment charges are mostly filed by women, almost 16 percent of men filed complaints of sexual harassment last year. In fact, according to the EEOC, sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.
• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

Two common types of sexual harassment

If you have experienced one of the two types of sexual harassment below, you could have grounds for a complaint with your employer.

Quid Pro Quo: "Something for something;" this is the "you do something for me and I'll do something for you" type of exchange. This occurs when a job benefit is directly tied to an employee submitting to unwelcome sexual advances. For example, a supervisor promises an employee a raise if she will go out on a date with him, or tells an employee she will be fired if she doesn't sleep with him.

Hostile Environment: This occurs when an employee is subjected to comments of a sexual nature, offensive sexual materials, or unwelcome physical contact as a regular part of the work environment. Supervisors, managers, co-workers and even customers can be responsible for creating a hostile environment.

What should you do if you're sexually harassed at your nonprofit job?

1. Write down exactly what happened, when it happened, and how it happened. You will need these details for filing a complaint either verbally or in writing, according to your organization's sexual harassment policy. It may also help you separate the emotion you may feel from the actual facts of the incident.
2. Review your employee handbook for specific instructions on how to file this type of grievance. Many policies will list a special phone number for you to call if the sexual harassment involves the nonprofit's top leadership.
3. If there is no employee handbook, alert your direct supervisor immediately, unless your complaint is against that partcular person. In that case, go straight to the head of the department or the CEO.
4. If your complaint is with the CEO, go to the Chair of the Board of Directors.
5. If your situation is not resolved promptly and to your satisfaction (i.e. the harassment continues), you may choose to file a charge with the EEOC in your area.

If you are being sexually harassed at work, don't be afraid to report the behavior. If you don't report it, the person or persons doing the harassing will continue to think it's acceptable, and you will only become more miserable. Remember that nonprofits have a duty to protect you from being harassed at work, just like a corporation does. And you deserve to work for an organization that takes it seriously.

Find more about the dynamics of sexual harassment at sexualharassmentsupport.org and the Nonprofit Risk Management Center

Despite the gloom and doom nature of nonprofit work in the recession, there are still many bright spots for young nonprofit workers who wish to pursue a career in social change. The Bridgespan Group's recent report, Finding Leaders for America's Nonprofits shows that nonprofits are still hiring in this economic downturn.

According to the Bridgespan Group:

In the next 12 months, 28 percent of nonprofit organizations with revenues of $1 million and above plan to make one or more senior management hires, translating to 24,000 vacancies in 2009. Those projected vacancies are largely the result of retirement, since much of the existing leadership is comprised of boomers. Vacancies also stem from new roles being created due to an increase in organizational complexity based on growth in prior years.

Bridgespan also answers two important questions for first-time job seekers or those looking to move to the next level in their career.

What kinds of organizations will need the most workers?

According to Bridgespan, the need for new nonprofit leaders is especially strong in two areas: human services and arts organizations.

Which skills are the most sought-after in these positions?

Bridgespan's survey respondents reported that 50 to 75 percent of the roles they will need to fill in the near future look to require traditional business skills (finance, general management, marketing/communications, planning, evaluation, operations, technology, and human resources).

What this new report tells us is that no matter what the financial outlook may be, great organizations still need great people with talent and passion. Will YOU be one of them?

Photo credit: The Daily Voice

If you've been working in the same nonprofit job for years, it can be difficult to keep the fire alive. After a particularly bad or hectic day, it can seem impossible to stay resilient with all the challenges brought on by the economic downturn. Many of you are doing the work of two positions, causing your workload to increase. All the while, you may be asking yourself, 'why am I doing this again'? Even though you may not be feeling the love right now, here are a few ways to get it back.

Volunteer
Get close to the day to day mission of your organization by volunteering for your nonprofit. Presumably, it's the cause that caught your eye in the first place. Sign up to be a tutor for a day with the kids you serve  or feed the homeless one evening after work. If it seems like extra work, it is. But being face to face with the people who benefit from your nonprofit's mission can be incredibly refreshing, and make you look forward to Monday instead of dreading it.

Visit a Program
What does your organization actually do for your clients? Have you ever seen it in action? Take a few hours to go visit one of your nonprofit's programs. Sit in on a financial literacy class, watch as your counselors help the unemployed craft resumes, or attend a play your arts organization is performing. The idea is to see for yourself the impact that your efforts have on others. It will make you appreciate why you do your work every day, no matter how tough it gets.

Write a Passionate Letter
Sit down and craft a handwritten letter to one of your donors to personally thank them for supporting your organization. Even if this is the development department's job, you can never send too many thank you letters. Tell the donor what kind of impact their gift made and how much you love working with the kids/homeless/seniors, etc.

Make a Phone Call
Many of you are aware of the different kinds of legislation affecting your clients or your cause. It can be a powerful feeling to be an advocate for your cause by speaking out as a concerned citizen. When a bill is passed that helps you in your work, go ahead and call your local government official or congressional representative to thank them for supporting your cause. Their contact information is published right there on the internet, and every phone call helps them to know just how important the issue is to their constitutents.

Redesign Your Day
Maybe you're just tired of coming into the office at 8am. If your schedule is set for you to work too early or too late, have a talk with your boss to ask if you can change it. I used to work a typical 9am to 5pm, but I worked better later in the day, so I simply told my boss I wanted to start coming in from 10am-6pm. It gave me more time to sleep in the morning, and didn't harm the organization one bit. And I was a happier employee for it.

I know, you might be thinking, 'who has time for all this', especially if you're too busy putting fires out all day. But trust me, if you make time now, it will save you from burnout later. There's no need for you to give up on your nonprofit career too soon. It's never too late to fall back in love with your work!

I live and work in Washington, DC, where there are thousands of nonprofit and other social change jobs. I have a broad circle of friends that come to the city to find meaningful work. What I've noticed lately is that a lot of my younger peers are moving away to pursue graduate school or careers in the government or corproate sector after short stints working in the nonprofit field.  Many young professionals came to the field with their rose-colored glasses on, excited to find a job that makes a difference. However, they were not prepared to deal with the challenges that come along with doing nonprofit work on a daily basis. It's rewarding, yes, but it's certainly not the glamorous life depicted by celebrity philanthropists on TV.

A recent Washington Post article, "Schools Need Teachers Like Me. I Just Can't Stay" depicts the story of a frustrated young teacher who is leaving the profession after just four years. In the article, the burned out teacher explains why she's leaving a job she thought she was going to love:

When people ask, I tend to cite the usual suspect -- burnout. I just couldn't take it anymore, I explain. I describe what it was like to teach students such as Shawna, a 10th-grader who could barely read and had resolved that the best way to deal with me was to curse me out under her breath. I describe spending weeks revising a curriculum proposal with my fellow teachers, only to find out that the administration had made a unilateral decision without looking at it. I describe how it became impossible to imagine keeping it up and still having energy for, say, a family.

Some of the same factors will come into play in your nonprofit career. And if this is really the field you want to work in, you have to prepare yourself for a few setbacks and frustrations. Your organization may do great work, but it's never going to be a perfect place to work. Neither would a job in the corporate or government sector. Before you give up your nonprofit career too soon, ask yourself a few questions first:

Are You Managing Your Expectations?
Working at a nonprofit is not usually going to give you the same perks as working for a Fortune 500 company. You're not going to have a ton of resources or the latest technology to do your job. If you come into the field or into a new organization expecting fancy chairs and gourmet coffee in the kitchen, think again.

Are You Working Smarter, Not Harder?
Many times, when you come into a new position, you get trained on how the previous person did it. True story. I started in a fundraising position where the previous person kept all the donor information in their personal Outlook contact files. There was no formal database, and it drove me bananas. I knew I was going to be constantly frustrated in my job if I didn't implement a new, streamlined stystem of maintaining accurate contact information for the organization. So I researched different options, and we did implement a new database management system. Don't just complain about the stupid way you have to do things. Take the initiative to change a process if it will help you work smarter, not harder.

Are You Really Passionate About the Cause?
Sometimes young professionals get frustrated in their jobs and want to quit because they are working for the wrong cause. If you have a real desire to work with kids, but take a nonprofit job where you work with senior citizens, there will be a real disconnect. You should continually reevaluate your own personal mission statement and passion for nonprofit work. If you find that you don't really care about environment issues, find a cause that you do care about and you'll probably be much happier.

If you want a long-term career in the nonprofit sector doing the work of social change, your rose-colored glasses are eventually going to get broken. But just because the work gets challenging, is not a reason to give up on your nonprofit career. If you just know you can't cut it, at least consider staying in your job for a year. That way, you'll still get some great experience out of it that will help you in the future.

Photo credit: Etsy

If you're looking for a new nonprofit job, it can be tempting to only apply to the big organizations like Girl Scouts of the USA, Catholic Charities, Boys and Girl Clubs, American Red Cross, etc. Especially in this economy, applying to a larger nonprofit organization is usually a path to receiving a higher salary than you would at a smaller agency. But there are long-term benefits for your career if you choose to work for a small nonprofit with less than 10 employees. You may forego some perks, like having an HR department or having your own administrative assistant, but the experience you can develop at a small shop will help propel and prepare you for leadership positions in the future. In other words, if you're looking for your first nonprofit job or looking to switch jobs, I recommend you consider working for a small organization because the experience can put you on the fast track to leadership. Here's why:

You Gain Experience Outside of Your Job Description
Small nonprofits usually require all employees to work outside of their job descriptions. Office managers may get opportunities to write grant proposals and learn all about fundraising. Receptionists could be called upon to organize a group of volunteers for a rally on Capitol Hill. Joining the staff of a small organization can be hard work doing several jobs in addition to the one you were hired for, but you quickly become a generalist in many different areas of skill and knowledge. I didn't know anything about nonprofit insurance for boards of directors until someone handed me the task of setting it up for a small nonprofit I worked for.

Your main task, especially in a new nonprofit job, is to prove to the organization that you're worth the salary they're paying you. How you perform in your position dictates whether or not you will be considered for raises or promotions within the organization. There are two main ways to prove your worth:

1. Go the extra mile. Don't just come to work to collect a paycheck; do your job like a rockstar.
2. Get in good with your boss.

Yes, it's true: most nonprofit CEOs are overworked, underpaid, and are often so busy that they don't know which way is up. And if you can find ways to help your boss, they will be more willing to help you further your career. I'm not talking about brown-nosing, here, but showing genuine concern for the person who supervises you. Hopefully you like and get along with your boss, but even if you don't, it's still super important to develop a good working relationship. Here are a few ways to do that.

Ask About Their Weekend

Your boss is usually the one asking everyone about their weekends to show concern for their staff. Remember that it's okay for you to inquire in return. Oftentimes, you can tend to get caught up in telling your own fun stories about your weekend without thinking to ask about the boss' time away from the office. Same thing when your boss returns from vacation. When given the chance, people love to talk about themselves and their life outside of work, including your boss!