I can’t find a job. Should I volunteer? Or work for a charity before I enter the real world? Those are the questions I hear from recent college graduates. Their questions make me wonder, “Why are they looking at non-profits as not being a part of working in the real world? And what needs to happen to change this mindset?”
I was meeting with Leila Chambers, the 31-year-old founder of Flying Kites, an organization that is raising the standards of education available to orphaned and critically-poor children in rural Kenya, so I asked her for her take, a few great reasons for college graduates to consider a real career in the non-profit sector. Following are Leila’s top four reasons:
Leila Chambers and her husband Mike seek adventures through philanthropy. Photo credit James... [+]
Stuff is happening: Real progress is taking place: fewer people are going to bed hungry, more kids are in school, girls are finally in the picture, most economies are growing and Bill Gates is psyched that billions of people will be lifted out of poverty in his lifetime. Along these lines, donors treat gifts as investments- scrutinizing outcomes as nonprofits demonstrate results in realtime - forcing everyone to move away from the “feel good” factor and head closer to a, “but does this intervention actually work?” model. Nobody gets away with giving the poor useless stuff they don’t particularly need or want. The trends in today’s leading nonprofits are focused on community-driven, dignity-enhancing, capacity-building sustainable solutions (that phrase will earn you 100 points in a game of words-with-nonprofit-friends).
Everything is less lame: Charity is becoming less about large groups wearing matching t-shirts in airports and more about the energy and culture that used to be reserved for hip companies founded in Palo Alto. Adam Braun of Pencils of Promise argues that even the term “nonprofit” is unhelpful - nobody wakes up with the goal to “not” profit, offering in its place the expression, “for-purpose organizations,” which I like and must remember to use. For-purpose organizations are attracting top talent from all over the world: gifted problem-solvers who are motivated to do this kind of work for all kinds of reasons. A lot of leading activists are people you would want to hang with; people like Salman Khan, Mike Chambers and Paige Elenson.
You’re allowed to invest: Donors are open to investing in fundraising and income-generating activities more than ever. Dan Pallotta argues in his Ted talk that unless your organization has already solved cancer, homelessness or mental illness, you need to be thinking about how to build strong revenue streams to effectively challenge such massive social ills (Dan Pallotta and his husband are raising triplets, if you don’t click on the link just to at least see what he's wearing, then I give up).
It's a small world: Your good ideas and hard work have a better chance than ever of thriving thanks to the unprecedented way in which the world interacts. I often wonder how people connected with causes and funders before social media. A quick glance of my twitter feed introduces me to a patient who needs a fistula operation partially funded, a little girl in Haiti who wants to return to school and a place that will turn my old cell phones into lifelines for victims of domestic violence. Causes that used to seem on the other side of the world now feel so moral and urgent they could be unfolding in our living rooms. And for-purpose organizations get to take all that concern and turn it into impact. It's exciting. So, if you are just starting out and considering a career that makes the world a better place, but your parents worry that there is no future in it, come sit at the cool table with those of us who share and care.
Also on Forbes:
