Lower salaries AND fewer resources? Sign me up!

With notoriously lower salaries and fewer resources available, why would anyone choose a career working in the nonprofit industry? 

Photo by Andrew Gustar on Flickr.com

Each of us is born with a certain set of natural skills and strengths.  You may be great at organizing or communicating or mentoring.  And you can apply those skills and strengths in a variety of different jobs and industries.  But the difference comes when you think about why you do your work – is it so that someone (including you) can make a profit, or so that you can make life better for someone else?

Every job comes with some drudgery, but the beauty of working for a nonprofit is that you know that your time spent stuffing envelopes is in service to an important mission.  You’re not stuffing envelopes so that your employer can sell more widgets, you’re stuffing envelopes so that your nonprofit can feed more hungry people, teach more children to read, or find a cure for cancer.

Remembering the purpose of the work gives it meaning.  In Daniel Pink’s excellent book, Drive, he describes a study that illustrates this point.  Telemarketers for a university scholarship fund were divided into three groups.  The control group was given a call list and a script and nothing else.  A second group was told all about the personal benefits of doing the job (earning money, improving communication skills).  And the third was given stories about people who had received money from the scholarship fund and how it had improved their lives.  Can you guess which of these three groups raised by far the most money??  The people in the third group actually raised twice as much as the other two groups.

Even within nonprofits it is sometimes easy to lose sight of that purpose.  As a nonprofit leader, you can remind your staff about why their work is so important by sharing success stories about clients, inviting program beneficiaries to speak at staff meetings, or by developing an internal newsletter that highlights your impact. 

For members of your staff whose jobs don’t involve direct client contact, think of ways that they can see your programs in action.  If you provide group counseling, let them sit in on a session.  If you offer educational programs, encourage them to attend a class. 

I once worked at an education nonprofit that offered week-long seminars for teachers in the summer.  Every new staff member was invited to sit in on a seminar.  It may feel like a lot to allow someone to take a week away from their primary job responsibilities, all that lost productivity, but it paid off in both passion for the mission and a depth of understanding of why the program was important and even transformative for many teachers.  It also made the staff feel invested in, and as a result, the turnover at that organization was the lowest I’ve seen in my career.

Many of us are drawn to nonprofit work at the beginning of our careers.  Some make a switch mid-career, when they feel like they want to have a greater impact in their community.  Regardless of the path, it is important that those of us who work in nonprofit have regular opportunities to experience the mission first-hand.  That is what keeps us feeling inspired on a day when our 'to do' list feels like it will never be done.