In Today’s Economy, What Are the Prospects for the Nonprofit Job Seeker?

Summary: In a down economy, many Americans depend even more heavily on the services that nonprofits offer.  What are nonprofits’ staffing and leadership needs in 2009?  What are the job projections for those who seek employment that “makes a difference”?  Explore these questions and more in a feature story looking at the education, training, and recruitment of nonprofit professionals in your community.

Kansas City, Missouri (March 20, 2009)—This spring, graduating college seniors will face the dimmest job prospects in decades.  Will the downturn spur young people’s interest in nonprofit careers?  How are college career counselors, nonprofit studies faculty, and academic advisors preparing job searchers to be competitive in your community’s job market?  Do local nonprofits understand their own demand for talent, and how are they balancing limited resources with their ongoing and escalating need for great staff and new leaders?

Both recent graduates as well as mid-career professionals laid off from private sector jobs are keen to answer President Obama’s “new call to service to meet the challenges of our new century.”  What business skills do nonprofit leaders value?  What skills do recent graduates bring to the table?  Can business professionals demonstrate the commitment to mission that nonprofit recruiters require?  Do sector-switchers pose a real threat to those who have made a life commitment to a nonprofit career?

Consider these sources for your story

• Shelly Cryer, a consultant to nonprofits and expert on nonprofit careers, is the author of The Nonprofit Career Guide: How to Land a Job that Makes a Difference. At nonprofit jobs workshops she has led nationwide she has seen first hand a dramatic change in her audiences, half of whom are now potential sector switchers.
• Dr. Kala Stroup, president of American Humanics, leads the only national organization that unites nonprofits, universities, and community partners to educate, prepare, and certify professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofits.
• Graduating seniors in your community who want to pursue a nonprofit career; career counselors on local campuses; potential sector switchers hoping to join a nonprofit; and executive directors of local and national nonprofits and foundations on talent recruitment.

Contact:

For interviews, additional background information, or a press copy of The Nonprofit Career Guide, contact Tomika Anderson, American Humanics, 1-800-343-6466 x113 or tanderson@humanics.org.

Nonprofit Career Guide Helps Young Professionals Find a Great First Job

Summary: Nonprofit organizations need talented, creative people to lead and serve in nearly all areas of social, political and economic life.  The Nonprofit Career Guide: How to Land a Job That Makes a Difference, offers practical strategies for gaining employment—and recruiting new leaders—in this vast, diverse sector. 

St. Paul, Minnesota (May 23, 2008)—Young professionals hoping to make a difference in their careers now have an unprecedented, definitive resource for navigating the expansive nonprofit sector.  The Nonprofit Career Guide:  How to Land a Job That Makes a Difference, by Shelly Cryer, is the most comprehensive, up-to-date resource for anyone interested in employment in the nonprofit world. 

The nonprofit sector currently employs nearly 14 million Americans—11 percent of the U.S. workforce—and may need as many as 600,000 new leaders over the coming decade as today’s leaders retire. With the increase in opportunities, and the need for talent, employee recruitment efforts and compensation packages have risen to levels previously reserved for the public or private sector. 

“Charities, foundations, businesses, and governments all need to realize how our communities will suffer if nonprofit groups are not able to continue to attract dedicated workers. Many local economies depend on nonprofit organizations to provide job opportunities and attract businesses,” says American Humanics President Kala Stroup. “This guide couldn’t have come at a more critical time as nonprofits consider the future health of the sector’s workforce and their ability to cultivate diverse, prepared, and passionate leaders.”

The Nonprofit Career Guide provides information and specific strategies suitable for anyone, at any point in his or her career, with specific material for those entering the workforce for the first time. Its clear picture of the nonprofit landscape will also benefit educators who teach and lecture about the sector and those who provide career counseling. 

Cryer offers a thorough analysis of the nonprofit sector, its growth in prominence and scope, and highlights future trends.  “It would be difficult to exaggerate the impact that the nonprofit sector plays in the United States,” says Cryer, adding, “Nonprofit organizations support and strengthen nearly all arenas of social, political and economic life, and operate on international, national and local levels.”

As a sound, step-by-step roadmap for the job seeker’s journey, the book includes how-to advice about job research, networking, search strategies, writing cover letters and crafting resumes, as well as keys to successful interviewing and compensation negotiation. The Nonprofit Career Guide gives honest information about positions in senior management, program and service delivery, administration and finance, development and fundraising, marketing, communications and consulting—including sample job descriptions. 

In addition to the roadmap, The Nonprofit Career Guide offers a sense of the size, scope, number and range of work opportunities in the nine main categories of nonprofits. Through profiles of nineteen nonprofit professionals, in positions at many different levels from organizations around the country, readers learn what their jobs are really like, what they look for when recruiting staff, and their perspectives on who excels in their type of work. 

“The Nonprofit Career Guide details all the decisions and steps to finding the right job with the right organization,” according to Bill Bentley, President and CEO, Voices for America’s Children.  “It provides practical advice and offers a pathway for making a career of making a difference.”