Nonprofit Work: Cause Worth Pursuing?
A career in the nonprofit world can bring unparalleled rewards and many frustrations.
Employees get paid to advance important social crusades: They help others, lobby for cherished causes and protect the environment.
But many do so under tough working conditions. They accept low wages, toil in shabby offices, operate with inadequate supplies, and constantly search for funding.
Still, those who have committed themselves to nonprofits express satisfaction with their work.
“People have always said I could make a lot of money with my skill set in the corporate world,” said Eileen Heisman, president of the National Philanthropic Trust in Philadelphia. “But I have a huge amount of job satisfaction, and no cognitive dissonance about what I do at work and who I am at home.”
Many organizations operate on shoestring budgets, so they can direct large percentages of their revenue to their causes. This often translates into decreased salaries and less-than-luxurious office digs. Old computers, secondhand furniture and unreliable equipment are common in these settings.
When things break or supplies run out, nonprofit workers often must jury-rig and improvise.
Military ingenuity--making do with whatever’s available--is prized in this world, said Scott Syphax, chief executive of the Nehemiah Corp. of California, which provides down-payment assistance to first-time home buyers.
“If you have a great sense of irony and humor about how the world works, you’ll get through the day,” said Syphax, a former public affairs manager at Eli Lilly.
There are other frustrations too. Requests for funding, volunteer assistance and equipment are frequently met with rejection.
“You get so used to people saying no, to begging for basic things, that when people are available or helpful, you are beside yourself with shock,” said Kristy Hart, program director of Shake-a-Leg, a Newport, R.I.-based organization that helps individuals with spinal cord injuries.
Daily job demands can be unpredictable, so versatility is essential.
Employees at the Atlanta Community Food Bank are trained to drive forklifts so they can move donated food when the need arises. They also keep aprons, baseball caps and plastic gloves at their workstations “so we can drop everything when an organization calls,” travel to kitchen facilities, collect perishable food donations and quickly deliver them to the needy, said Sabina Carr, the food bank’s marketing manager.
“I didn’t understand flexibility until I worked here,” Carr said.
Pitching in during crises is expected too. Deb Glazer, director of Peace Games in Culver City, recalls “orientation week” at a Boston nonprofit four years ago, after a storm had swept through the area.
“I was wearing boots to work, putting Salvation Army furniture on cinder blocks, picking mushrooms off the walls and suctioning water,” she said.
Some Organizations Boost Wages, Perks
Historically, salaries at nonprofit organizations have lagged behind corporate compensation. Absent too are perks such as stock options, health club memberships, company cars, first-class air travel and plump expense accounts.
This has led to a talent crunch for many nonprofits. It also has contributed to high turnover among senior managers, Heisman said.
However, over the last three years, many nonprofits have begun to reassess their compensation strategies, according to Heisman.
“I think there’s a realization that turnover is costly, and it’s important to keep good people,” said Frances Phillips, program officer of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund in San Francisco and coauthor of “Nonprofit Kit for Dummies” (Hungry Minds, 2001).
Some organizations such as United Way are offering competitive wages for key positions. Others are coming up with attractive, sometimes offbeat perk packages. About 68% offer flextime; and 85% have retirement packages for their employees, according to a survey by Abbott, Langer & Associates, a social service consulting firm.
The Center for the New American Dream has a health-care package that covers “quality of life” therapies such as yoga and massage. The Bronx, N.Y.-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club (a chapter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America) boasts several family-friendly perks such as free child care, free day camp and up to seven weeks paid vacation.
Last year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America initiated a “professional development system” at its 2,851 locations, and distributed career fitness builders designed to help its employees chart career paths.
Growing numbers of nonprofits are also awarding bonuses to long-term employees, and permitting senior staffers to take a few days off each month to do higher-paying consulting work.
Corporate-trained idealists with expertise in fund-raising, financial planning, information technology or marketing/publicity are in demand by nonprofits. Dynamic, inspirational leaders are needed too. But autocrats and egotists need not apply.
“If you come in with the intention of making something big for yourself, you won’t last long,” said John Mury, a former network engineer who’s pastor of Operation Beacon Street in Newton, Mass. “People won’t get involved.”
Some managers who cross over from the business world find themselves supervising a very unusual work force: unpaid volunteers, some of whom have big hearts, unreliable work schedules and not-so-cutting-edge skills.
When volunteers, the lifeblood of nonprofits, miss meetings, engage in long personal phone calls, send out misspelled correspondence or accidentally bring down the office’s computer network, managers must react diplomatically.
“In the business world, you have the carrot and the stick, but in our world, we just have the carrot,” Mury said.
Decision Process Becomes More Complex
Mounting competition for donor dollars may cause a reform in nonprofits’ decision-making strategies. Unlike corporations, where fast, autonomous decisions are encouraged, nonprofits have traditionally operated by group consensus.
Stakeholders, including board members, executives, community activists and staff, expect to have a say about nonprofits’ policies, goals and fund-raising activities.
“This leads to meetings, lots of meetings, held endlessly,” said Charlie Rosen, executive director of the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club.
Burnout also is an ever-present risk for nonprofit workers, particularly for those at organizations dealing with life-and-death issues such as hunger, disease and crime, said Naomi Pass, vice president of Widmeyer Communications in Washington.
After spending 11 years in the nonprofit arena, with organizations such as Handgun Control Inc., the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Wildlife Federation, Pass recently rejoined the corporate world.
“There is nothing more intensive than cause-based work,” Pass said. “I still do good work, but it’s for more than one client. I’m no longer in the belly of the beast.”
Some nonprofit staffers become overly zealous about their organizations’ mission. Laboring tirelessly to advance their crusade, they all but abandon personal lives, families and hobbies.
Even with the frustrations, many in the field say they wouldn’t do anything else.
Their message to corporate colleagues is simple: If you’re feeling discontented, unfulfilled or without a mission in life, come join us.
“If the little voice in your head is saying, it’s time to get out, then it’s time,” said Stan Dimock, a former insurance adjuster who’s volunteer/internship coordinator at Save the Bay in Providence, R.I. “Do whatever it takes.”
Draft a personal-values statement, suggested Janet Atkins, executive director of Goulston & Storrs Philanthropic Advisors in Boston.
List your passions and the missions you hope to achieve in your lifetime. Itemize your job skills. Determine which will be most valuable in the nonprofit world.
Then start “matchmaking.” Research nonprofit organizations. Visit the ones that share your values and concerns. Volunteer to see if you might like working there.
Should you decide to take the leap, “Be prepared to have more interesting days than ever before in your life,” said Adlai Wertman, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Chrysalis, an organization that helps indigent individuals secure employment.
After nearly 20 years as a Wall Street investment banker, Wertman left his job, taking an 85% pay cut to run Chrysalis.
“In my old job, I could find maybe five minutes of happiness a week in what I did,” Wertman said. “Now, although my job may be extremely trying at times, not five minutes goes by when I don’t appreciate what I do.”
