When people think of non-profit organizations, they often think of volunteering and places that work with people with disabilities, animals, children, homeless people, and in places like churches. But non-profit organizations are simply organizations that do not funnel their profits into things like raises and infrastructure – instead, excess money is funnelled into programs and services that the organization offers. Examples include after school programming, food boxes, social services, and more. This means that there are careers in working for non-profits as they function much the same way that for-profit businesses do, except that their profits go into programming offered through the organization.
Why might you want to work for a non profit organization? There are some great advantages to it for you, including:
- The ability to get leadership skills
- The ability to learn all different skills since you often get bounced around different areas as needed
- The ability to work in the service of others (human and animal, depending on where you go!)
- Working for a place that gives directly back to your community often feels quite good
Obviously, this type of career isn’t for everyone, but if you’re intrigued, read on to learn more!
Typical Sectors in Nonprofit Industries
While there are tons of nonprofit organizations out there, many of them can be organized into four categories: Education, Healthcare, Religious, and Social/legal services. We’ll add animals as a sneaky fifth one, though keep in mind that many positions working with animals are purely volunteer unless you have a very specific skill set (such as veterinary, board members or grant writing) or are quite lucky to find a paying gig.
Education: Education nonprofit sectors are usually charter or religious schools and employ the same type of people as other schools: teachers, admin, and support staff. Other types of education sector include after-school programming such as after-school care, day camps, summer camps, etc. They often work in tandem with schools to get space. In the education sector, being able to work well with children, teach, coordinate with donors/school boards, fundraise, and supporting the development of kids are critical skills to have (Depending on where you want to go).
Healthcare: healthcare sectors can provide direct medical services, but also educational support to patients and the broader community. This could include screenings, basic health checks, coordinating care, advocating health resources for at-risk members of the population, working with new families, and supporting people with addictions or mental health issues. Homeless shelters sometimes fall under this banner as well.
Religious organizations: Religious organizations include house of worship, faith-based education, and faith-based community organizations. Workers in this sector may be recruiting members, doing workshops, leading events, or working on outreach. They also tend to do a lot of fundraising.
Social/Legal Services: People working in social and legal services do a lot prevention and intervention, often working with at risk people. Work can include psycho-education, advocating for resources, provision of food and referrals to medical care. They may also do basic legal assistance (and referrals). People in this sector may intersect with religious and healthcare and often work with people who are at risk, homeless, medically fragile, and/or those who have nowhere else to go.
Many of these intersect – for example, education and healthcare may cross over and religious can be found in all of the others, depending on where you are. (For example, the Salvation Army is a religious non-profit that does a lot of community work and can refer to other services).
The final sector, sort of, is animals. Working with animals in non-profit is a lot harder to get into; usually they just take volunteers for most of the work and the paid staff is quite minimal due to the sheer amount of money needed to keep animals healthy. If you want to work with animals, it’s quite likely you’ll be volunteering, not paid staff.
Getting a Job in Non-Profit Organizations
Working a non-profit is different than working for a typical business, so it makes sense that the process to get hired is different too. Non-profit organizations have to answer to their boards and executives, as well as their funders, when it comes to who is working for them, so you have more people to impress. Still, it can of course be done.
- Make sure your resume and cover letter is absolutely customized to the non profit. Remember that non-profit organizations are all about their mission, not about making money. This means that you really have to convey your passion for the work and your belief in what they are doing. Soft skills are often quite critical to non-profits: flexibility, persistence, strong communication skills, and able to work long and weird hours are usually top of the list.
- Volunteer with non-profit organizations you’re interested in to get exposure, expand your network, and make connections. Non-profits are all about connections and if you don’t have them, you’ll have a much harder time getting hired. Furthermore, volunteering is a no-strings attached way to decide whether something is actually right for you or not and a good way to get some new skills.
- Go to non-profit specific job boards and haunt the non-profit websites and social media sites. Jobs with non-profits aren’t commonly found on job boards with the paying profit jobs, they are found on their own job boards and through their websites and social media. Also don’t be afraid to pound the pavement.
It is really important to note that working for non-profits means that you’ll be doing a lot of hard, often stressful work, likely have to deal with a lot of people, and really believe in what you’re doing because you may be putting in a lot of hours! If you can keep the passion alive for what you’re doing though, you will probably find that working for a non profit is immensely rewarding and a fantastic learning opportunity.
Have you ever worked for or wanted to work for a non-profit? Let us know your experiences on our Facebook page!
The author of this piece would like to thank the non-profits in BC for all the work they do, including but far from limited to: The Salvation Army, The BCSPCA, The Humane Society, AWAC, and Elizabeth Fry Society – and many more!
