Tag Archives: nonprofit

Getting Millennials to Give: Two Fundraising Practices and Potential for Growth


Posted by ajlovesya

I was recently asked by a reporter from the Chronicle of Philanthropy if I knew of any charities that have been successful in getting millenial donations. I immediately thought of mobile giving campaigns, but I realized that many of those are sparked by urgency (i.e. Haiti, Chile) and are not necessarily used for long term giving.

Although I couldn’t think of charities who have reported engaging a large number of young people in their fundraising efforts, I am aware of two strategies where young people do have a hand in giving and getting money, one that is charity directed, another that is millenial directed each with unique benefits and challenges

1. Young Professionals Groups: I have written about these types of groups before as a form of professional development for young nonprofit employees. However at some organizations these groups act as fundraising power houses, planning events and donating money on their own. The Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Vanguard group, which requires $150 to join, has fundraising events throughout the year, with one event in 2008 raising $16,000. The Echoing Green Social Investment Council for example, raises enough to support about two or three fellows (about $90,000) a year and requires members to donate at least $1,000 a year and help plan and coordinate fundraising events.

  • When it comes to professional groups, you already have young people who, at the very least, are interested in your cause and organization. However, does engagement move beyond being in that group? Are opportunities for additional leadership available–such as board membership? How well integrated are these groups into the organization in general? How long does participation last?

2. Giving Circles: In its simplest form we see these all the time on college campuses–students getting together to raise money for a cause and organization they believe in. Sometimes the amounts raised can be anywhere from a few hundred to several million over time,  growing from a small campus club event to an all school encompassing fundraising drive.   Additionally, more sophisticated groups are emerging all of the time like the Asia NextGen Giving Circle in NYC which in 2008 gave $30,000 to the YWCA of Queens in support of their Women to Work program for English Language Learners.

  • When it comes to giving circles, the amount of initiative required to start and run a circle indicates a commitment to philanthropy and collective giving (and how, perhaps, it is the collective aspect that makes it more interesting).  How do they select an organization? How do they determine how much to raise and what are their methods? Why do they start giving circles in the first place?

I think once we start exploring the motivations of young people involved in giving in these two forms in terms of why they join, how much they give, who they give to, we can better understand how to reach them.   I also cant help but notice the lack of technology in these forms of getting and giving donations. They arent blowing up facebook or twitter with their work and requests for money, and in fact seem to employ more traditional forms of solicitation, in particular word of mouth.

Do you know of any unique approaches to getting millenial donations or cultivating young people as potential donors? Any successful or not so successful stories?  What do you think of these two approaches?

**Photo credit: California Tenth Amendment Center


Reader Response: Finding and Landing Your First Nonprofit Job


Posted by ajlovesya

Do you have a question about developing a career in the nonprofit sector, navigating life in NYC, or working with social media?  Send me an email!  ajlovesya [at] gmail [dot] com.

A few days ago someone asked me:

What advice would you have for someone in college who is graduating this spring and searching for their first non-profit job?

Geez–is it that time of year already?!

Settling in from a relaxing winter break, classes are back in full swing and college seniors are taking that “What are you going to do after you graduate?” question a little more seriously. With the world of finance in disarray and a cultural shift towards public service, many are looking at nonprofits for career opportunities.

But where do you begin? How do you know what kind of job you want? Firstly, regardless of sector there are two questions you must answer:

Can you relocate? Being able to go anywhere definitely opens up the possibilities as far as jobs and allows you better examine cost of living. Make a list of cities you’d consider moving to.

What is the minimum compensation you can handle? Think of the average rent in the city you want to live in, factor in utilities, transportation, and student loans, and other debts. Those are the bills you MUST pay. Your job has to cover those at the minimum.  When I first moved to NYC I made $36,000 and created a budget using the 50-20-30 model from “All Your Worth.”

Also keep in mind that salary is just one type of compensation. For example, right after I graduated, I was in a public service fellowship run by my college. The actual stipend was low (about $500 a month) but my rent, transportation, and health insurance were covered, we received extra money each month for household needs, I worked four days a week, had money for professional development, and had the support of other fellows in the house. Additionally, I had my student loan (which was admittedly low compared to my peers) deferred for a year. For extra money, I got a job as a barista working two days a week, which was plenty.

And contrary to what you have heard, you should not take a job that doesn’t allow you to take care of yourself. Period. I don’t care if you land a job working for the Pope—if you cannot feed and clothe yourself you will be miserable, resentful, and want to leave the sector for good. Be knowledgeable about how much you need and should be getting paid and dont be afraid to negotiate.

Once you have answered these questions, spend some time on the following.

Exploring Your Interests:

  • Talk to people who have jobs that interest you: Informational interviews are a great way to learn about career paths and opportunities you may not have otherwise considered. What skills or education are necessary for certain positions? How did they go about landing their first jobs? What resources can they can recommend?
  • Think of causes you are passionate about: What have you studied? Where have you volunteered? What topics get you excited or possibly pissed off? Figuring out causes you love and where you stand on certain issues will you help you find an organization whose mission match your passion and values.
  • Reflect on what you enjoy doing: Do you like to work closely with people, offering direct services? Or to you prefer to be behind the scenes? Do you enjoy writing and research? Or do you like speaking and giving presentations? You may not know what you want to do in 5-10 years but you have a pretty good idea of what you enjoy.

Beginning the Search:

  • Talk with alumni and professors: Some departments may have relationships with nonprofits for internships and service-learning and can share with you possible job opportunities. Alumni may also have resources. Consider reaching out to them for an informational interview.
  • Hop online: Aside from job search websites like idealist.org and cgcareers.org, many organizations post jobs directly on their websites and via social media sites like facebook and twitter. Additionally, look into groups that work with young nonprofit professionals like YNPN or Emerging Leaders of the Arts as employers often share opportunities with those groups.

Landing the Job:

  • Redo your resume: The traditional resume, in my opinion, doesn’t work well for college grads as it focuses heavily on experience, when you may not have much experience or your experiences don’t fit in neatly together.  Instead you need a Career Launching Resume (CLR) that focuses on your assets, demonstrates your interest in the position, stands out, and is written like a sales proposal. Here is more information on crafting a CLR.
  • Demonstrate passion: Nonprofits always talk about wanting someone who is passionate about the mission of the organization. But what does that mean? In my post “What Does Passion Look Like” I discuss four key attributes that show you’re a good fit:  make sure you are knowledgeable of the org and key people, have your own ideas on the issue, and fit in with the org and its needs.
  • Emphasize match: No matter what position you are going for, you should always make it clear that you are the right person for the job. What past experiences have given you the skills necessary to fulfill the position? How do your values lines up with the organization’s mission?

I also recommend the following resources to help you with your job search:

The Idealist.org Handbook to Building a Better World

The Nonprofit Career Guide: How to Land a Job that Makes a Difference

NYU Wagner Office of Career Services and Experiential Learning: Career Planning, Assessment, and Informational Interviews (PDF)

Rosetta  Thurman: From Entry Level to Leadership

What challenges have you faced in searching and finding a nonprofit job?  What  techniques have been successful?  Please share your stories and ideas.

Photo credit: Deton Library


Launching a Career in Social Change: Résumé and Cover Letter Tips for College Grads


Posted by ajlovesya

This post was written for Nonprofit Career Month, a national campaign to promote awareness of careers in the nonprofit sector.

So you’ve decided to explore a career in the nonprofit sector.  Great!  However, if you’re a recent college grad, writing a résumé for your first job out of college is tough. Unlike traditional résumés where you can highlight previous experience that is most likely connected to the job for which you are applying, time in college is often characterized by random jobs and classes that don’t go together. How can you package and present your experiences in a way that demonstrates you’re a good fit to a potential employer?

What you want to send to potential employers is not a traditional resume but rather a Career Launching Résumé (CLR). Lauren Friese over at TalentEgg.ca defines a CLR as a résumé that focuses on your assets, demonstrates your interest in the position, stands out, and is written like a sales proposal. What do these four characteristics look like when applying for a job in social change?

Your Assets:

You need to demonstrate to an employer that you can do the job well and fit into the organization’s overall mission. What skills are your bringing to the table that will meet an employers need?

Showcase accomplishments not just duties: If the job you are applying for wants management skills, give data that shows how you increased sales or followed through with a successful project. Throughout your cover letter use key words like teamwork and resourceful to connect what you did and who you are with what the organization wants.

Your Interest:

A common piece of advice given when applying for nonprofit jobs is to demonstrate passion for the organization and its mission. But what does passion look like in a résumé?

Highlight any academic research related to social change: Did you use your thesis to examine the impact of educational policy on a local community? Have you explored business practices that address poverty or expand employment opportunities? Integrating social issues into research is a great way to show passion while developing writing and critical thinking skills. Since you are just graduating from college, this information should be at the top of your résumé and listed under your college.

Emphasize service and fit: In the cover letter, discuss the organization’s track record and how your skills can fit in with their future plans. If you have done community service before, put it on the résumé and describe. Organize your résumé chronologically but use subheadings and titles that demonstrate the skills and experience applicable to the job. Instead of saying “Relevant Work Experience” try “Community Leadership Experience.” If the job is managerial or administrative related, use related words in your titles and descriptions.

Standing Out:

Many of us have heard of the frightening statistic that most hiring managers only spend 30 second per résumé which means you have less than a minute to catch someone’s eye. How can you make a person keep reading?

Get a personal contact: 90% of all jobs are filled by referral. Try having an informational interview with someone at the organization you would like to work at and use that person as a segue into a job, or tap into your networks (alumni are great for this!) for contacts. Look into organizations that your college has a great relationship with and see if they are hiring. Make sure to mention personal contacts in your cover letter.

Selling Yourself:

In the end you are selling a product: YOU. It is crucial that the packaging is put together and there are no surprises. What is your best presentation?

Proofread and share: Print your résumé and cover letter out and read it the day after your write it to scan for mistakes. Share your résumé with peers for some fresh eyes to ensure that everything you’ve written makes sense and is easy to navigate.

Use social media wisely: “Googling” is all the rage these days. Make sure your internet presence is clean and interesting. Try starting a blog to build yourself up as a thought leader in the field or simply to discuss pressing issues in social change while developing your communication skills. Use LinkedIn to keep people up to date on projects you are working on while connecting with others who share your passion.


5 Ways Nonprofits Can Increase Social Media Engagement


Posted by ajlovesya

Last week I attended the NYU-RCLA workshops on using social media to further your social justice mission. It was an amazing three days of learning about social media tools, context, and tips for implementation. Yet the big question of the week seemed to be: how do I get people engage with me?

Imagine, you’re hype about starting your twitter page and facebook thinking you have some awesome content and the masses will start clicking, following, asking lots of questions, and leaving fantastic comments.

Except this rarely happens. Unfortunately, social media is seen as a quick fix to an organization’s community building woes and when hundreds of folks aren’t following you on twitter within a week, you doubt whether or not you are really reaching people.

Before abandoning ship, consider the following tips for building engagement:

  • Connect with others: The important part of social media is SOCIAL. Your goal shouldn’t just be to create something new but also to join and contribute to existing conversations. What discussions are taking place that relate to your mission? Once you find those discussions, link liberally, comment on other people’s blogs, retweet interesting postings, and reach out to others about sharing/collaborating on content creation.
  • Focus on your content: At the end of the day, people won’t engage with you if you don’t have something interesting to say. In addition to providing updates about what your organization is doing, discuss general news/events related to your mission so people can see the importance of your work. Make your content easy to digest and useful so that people can share with others on their own (lists, how-tos, profiles of people, and specific advice on getting involved) and don’t be afraid of a little controversy.  Have an opinion and be human!
  • Put yourself out there on and off line: I have always felt that social media does not and cannot replace face to face on the ground work for social change. Instead, social media can supplement your social change efforts by allowing you to engage people in a new way. Tell your supporters and constituents that you are online and ask them to help create content. Make it easy for online supporters to meet you offline by having events and get-togethers and empowering them to meet on their own to brainstorm ways to help you. Attend conferences and meet others interested in your mission and in social media.
  • Don’t ignore the people who ARE engaging you: In your quest for engagement, ease up a bit from focusing on the numbers. You may want 1,500 followers on twitter or hundreds of unique hits a day, but in reality only a handful will really comment and share your info. So make sure your interactions are meaningful. Respond to comments and retweets; take note of what kinds of content people respond to and focus on developing it more; do something fun for your readers—have a contest, feature one of them, or just ask to meet them!
  • Be patient: Community building doesn’t happen over night! Don’t give up and set realistic goals for your organization based on other people’s experiences and the time you have to commit to developing your online community.

Useful resources:

Tips:

Beth Kanter:  Non-Profits that Adopt Social Media Share One Charateristic: Vertigo Tolerance

Altitude Branding:  There is no Social Media Tool Kit

Allison Fine: Are You Ready to Tweet?

Trends:

Rootworks:  Social Change takes More than Social Media

Allison Fine:  The Digital Divide and Social Change


Board Service: Giving Back to Your Community


Posted by ajlovesya

Two months ago I was voted onto the board of Artistic New Directions, a small non-profit in Manhattan that provides space and professional development to emerging performance artists in New York.  For a while I went back and forth on the idea of joining a board.  On the one hand, the opportunity to gain behind the scenes hands on knowledge of how a nonprofit operates, while working with people from diverse backgrounds who share a similar passion was exciting and appealing.  On the other hand, the time commitment and the responsibilities made me wonder if I had what it took to truly help out.

Obviously I decided to take the plunge and I am really glad I did.  In the two months that I have been on the board I have met some amazing people and am getting my hands dirty in helping with fundraising and strategic planning.

If you want to join a board, there are several resources available to show you how and what the expectations are. But here are some approaches that helped me find the right opportunity and will inform my actions as a board member:

Look for something new: While you should certainly have passion for the mission and know what skills you can bring to the table, don’t be afraid to seek a position or organization that is a little different from what you usually do or know.  You’ll push yourself, learn more about a topic, and explore new connections (with people and topics) that you may not have known before.

Start small: Small organizations have a lot more flexibility when it comes to what you can do as a board member and it is a lot easier to try different things.

Ask to sit in on a meeting: Once you a join a board you’ll be working closely with them for at least a year.  Ask to sit in on a meeting to see what the dynamics are like, what the big topics are, and how meetings are organized so you can get a better sense of what you are jumping into.

Attend an event or sit in on a program: See exactly what the organization does.  Don’t just read about!  You’ll get a better sense of what the organization provides and how people respond.

Talk to people you will serve: I firmly believe that board service shouldn’t be a removed activity.  We must be firmly planted in the reality of our constituents by actually talking to them and sharing ideas and experiences.  Of course this is hard; we are all so busy, right?  No! In my opinion board membership isn’t just about boosting my resume and skill set; it’s about giving back in a new and challenging way.  We have to make the time to engage.

Are you on a board?  What are you experiences like?