One thing I’ve noticed about younger job seekers is that they’re big on finding jobs at non-profits, charities, foundations and the like.
Sorta renews your faith in humanity to realize that trying to have a meaningful career that “makes a difference” is a hip thing to do.
If you haven’t considered non-profits in your job search, maybe you should. Non-profits are not recession proof by any means (during slow economic times, people have less money to give and so non-profits see their income suffer) but they’re also not just working at soup kitchens. A lot of non-profits are multi-national operations with billion dollar budgets and thousands of workers. And you don’t need any specialized type of degree or background to work at a non-profit. Non-profits need lawyers and accountants and HR and IT people just like any other organization.
On the blog, SchizoFrenetic, I found a great list of online resources for a non-profit job search. The author says she’s going to be updating the list as she finds more resources, so I recommend bookmarking her page if this is your sort of thing. She also has some advice about contacting recruiters who specialize in non-profit placements.
Here is her list. The only organization I have worked with before and can vouch for is Idealist.org:
- Associated Grant Managers
- Association Jobs
- Chronicle of Philanthropy Job Board
- Council on Foundations
- Dot Org Jobs
- Feminist Majority Job Center
- The Foundation Center
- idealist.org
- Grantmakers Without Borders
- Nonprofit Jobs
- Nonprofit Jobs Cooperative
- Opportunity NOCs
- Regional Associations of Grantmakers
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3 responses so far ↓
1 zak // Aug 6, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Thanks for linking to me. If any of your readers have any suggestions to grow the list, they can leave a comment at my site.
2 Alison // Aug 6, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Although it is only for jobs in Massachusetts, hireculture.org has quite a lot of job postings, especially for the Boston area, as well as volunteer listings and information.
3 Jodith // Aug 6, 2008 at 5:21 pm
One thing about working for non-profits is that their economics can be even more precarious than private industry. I’ve been laid off twice in two years working for small non-profits. I love non-profit work, but it can be unstable.
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