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Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector: Shifting Focus from Bottom Line to a Better World

By Laura Gassner Otting

July 09, 2007 — CIO — From every walk of life, at every age and from every professional background, employees in the nonprofit sector wake up each morning to promising, fulfilling and demanding careers, working for issues in which they deeply believe or on behalf of causes they truly love. Some have spent their entire careers in the nonprofit sector. Some are considering the change in midcareer. No longer satisfied just to increase the bottom line, they also want to build a better world. While the transition from the for-profit sector to the nonprofit sector may seem easy in theory, many career changers find that it is quite tricky in practice. Some find themselves flummoxed by foreign lingo, unfamiliar yardsticks of success, antiquated technology or drastic differences in the pace of the work, while others are simply overwhelmed by the sector's vastness and mission-driven culture. However, with a little assistance in their transition, most find the move into the nonprofit sector to be one of their best life decisions and have wondered, as will you, why they didn't do it sooner.

The Nonprofit Sector of Today

The nonprofit sector of today is a dynamic, vibrant and vast place, filled with every conceivable kind of person and organization and addressing any need you might imagine. Its employees hold PhDs, MBAs and GEDs and perform work that spans the highly lucrative to the drastically underpaid. The volunteers we remember are still doing their important work—they are the lifeblood of many nonprofits, after all—but they are now more of an army mobilized to accomplish annual campaigns, not the office staff relied upon for daily support and strategic direction.

Innovation is the name of the game in today's nonprofits. Sure, they still serve the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, but today's nonprofits no longer resemble the organizations of yore. In an exceptionally competitive market for scarce fund-raising dollars, nonprofits increasingly leverage resources for double or even triple plays. Providing beds to a tired and cold family in the middle of winter is a great and noble endeavor, but teaching the mother or father of that family to bake and run a small but profitable café—then funneling those profits back into the purchase of beds and food to benefit more families—is entirely another. This "triple bottom line"—feeding and housing the poor, job skills training and earned-income generation—is the emerging trend in the nonprofit sector, and career changers will likely find their easiest transitions in nonprofits that have embraced this approach.

Finding Your Place in the Nonprofit Sector

There are approximately 1.9 million nonprofit organizations registered with the Internal Revenue Service. Millions more probably exist that are either too small or too informal—those with an annual budget of less than $5,000—to be counted. In total, nonprofits have a combined revenue of $621.4 billion, which represents 6.2 percent of the nation's economy. An estimated 11.7 million people, or nearly 9 percent of working Americans, are employed in the nonprofit sector. With a sector of such vast breadth and depth, career transitioners need to take a strategic approach to finding their place.

Pinpoint Your Cause

Do you care about saving the whales or teaching children to read? Would you rather fund economic development in villages in sub-Saharan Africa or develop a food bank in your own community? Are you more passionate about creating opportunities for increased access to education or discovering an alternative fuel source?

While many come to the sector wanting generally "to do good," you likely have a preference among the vast number of needy causes.

 

 

 

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