Contributed by Collin Lessing
1/12/2010
With the looming reality of corporate layoffs and the unemployment rate hovering at a dismal 10 percent, many job seekers are turning to nonprofit organizations to find meaningful work. If there’s one sure thing in this down economy, it’s that business is booming for many local nonprofits.
In just one month, Catholic Charities saw an increase of 600 new households asking for assistance. In 2009, the Food Bank of Larimer County provided food to 30 percent more people than in the previous year and, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Marion House soup kitchen in Colorado Springs feeds about 600 people per day, one-third more than two years ago.
This increase in need has meant many job openings for Colorado nonprofits. The Colorado Nonprofit Association’s job board has over 230 jobs currently listed on its Web site. Regis University’s nonprofit job bank lists 84 positions.
Funding Programs
As paid staff or service learning volunteers, the Obama administration says that serving your community is the right thing to do. Most recently, $7.3 million was appropriated to Learn and Serve America Higher Education grants, which will fund service-learning programs to educate students while strengthening neighboring communities. Then there’s the $50 million Strengthening Communities Fund through the Administration for Children and Families and its Office of Community Services, which continues to fund a program that builds the capacity of nonprofits to better serve those in need and increase the impact that these organizations have on economic recovery.
“Encore” Careers
Those newly entering the nonprofit arena range from 20-somethings to baby boomers and beyond. For boomers, the “encore” career track is an increasingly popular path. As Rose Community Foundation’s Boomers Leading Change initiative finds, in the ’60s they changed the world; in their 60s, they may do it again. According to the Rose Community Foundation’s 2007 community assessment, one in three metro Denver boomers wanted to teach, engage in advocacy or work for a nonprofit.
Many college-age students with a vested interest in service and social impact are preparing to enter the nonprofit workforce thanks to service-learning programs like those supported by Learn and Serve America. Research has shown that students in these programs leave the classroom with an increased connection to their communities along with the ability to make change in their communities.
Although many job seekers are considering or are ready to go down the nonprofit path, the transition from other sectors is not always as simple as it may seem.
Getting Assistance
[Joining Vision and Action], a Denver-based consulting firm that partners with nonprofit organizations in Colorado and throughout the country, offerings workshops that will provide nonprofit hopefuls with the information they need to pursue employment in the sector.JVA former president Janine Vanderburg developed the workshop from her experience advising people who are looking for jobs in the nonprofit sector. “Many times, we’ve seen individuals applying for nonprofit jobs who had capabilities that were transferable to nonprofit organizations, but they didn’t understand how to position what they were able to do,” Vanderburg said. “Another common mistake is that applicants underestimate the importance of highlighting their prior volunteer work in community. This workshop is designed to help people who have more passion for social change than practical experience overcome those barriers to nonprofit employment.”
The workshop, which is an hour and a half, will cover the types of work available in the social change sector, skills that are valued and needed in the nonprofit sector, and how to make yourself a more attractive job candidate to nonprofit employers. Vanderburg, who has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer, community activist and consultant to nonprofit organizations, will lead the workshop.
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