Getting Started

(This section is a summary of Chapter Six from The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for Sector Switchers. To read the chapter in its entirety, click here.)

Regardless of your background and experience, there are certain steps that are useful for all job seekers. The resources in this section are meant to help you familiarize yourself with the local nonprofit sector—before researching nonprofit job opportunities. These tools are especially valuable if you are exploring opportunities in a new location but they are also applicable for a local job search. It is important to remember that, even if you are staying in the same area, you are transitioning into a new workforce sector and therefore probably have new information to learn. Chances are that you, like most people, don’t know everything there is to know about your local nonprofit community.

Think of a local or long-distance job search first as mapping the organizational landscape. The following resources will help you to see what organizations exist in your target region:

Using Idealist.org

Remember that you can use Idealist.org as an organizational search tool. From the homepage, click on the Organizations link and enter in your search criteria. At first, use “State or Province” and “City or Town” as the search criteria and choose “Within: 50 miles.” The number of nonprofits that come up will likely surprise (and maybe even overwhelm) you.

Depending on the size of the local population and the strength of the nonprofit sector in your location, you could end up with hundreds of results. Use these results to broadly see which nonprofits are in the area and then make a list of the five or ten organizations that you’d most like to contact for an informational interview. While this process can definitely take a while, it is one of the best ways to gain an understanding of what’s available in your target area.

Once you have the list of nonprofits that most interest you, you’ll need to kick into networking mode. Set up a few informational interviews or offer to volunteer (or intern) with them—you’ll quickly find many more open doors and develop a much larger local network of people who know that you are looking for work. As well, volunteering will help you build skill sets that you will need in your new work. Even if the group you’d like to work with has no specific volunteer or intern positions open, you can propose a particular project or task that you think you’d be suited to help them complete. You should never volunteer just to get a job but you should volunteer in such a way as to help you grow professionally.

Consider your strengths and remember that nonprofit staff members are sometimes overwhelmed with things to do. Be sure to state that you’d be happy to scale your idea according to their needs and capacity to accept new volunteers and projects. Don’t be discouraged if they don’t have the capacity to accept your help. Instead, consider it a newly opened door and discuss how else you might be able to assist.

Additionally, make sure to sign up for Idealist’s daily email alerts to learn about current jobs, volunteer and internship opportunities, events, resources, and more near your target location. This will give you a sense of the breadth of issues and activities of importance in the local community.

Other Resources

• GuideStar.org: GuideStar is the best place on the internet to get a good sense of a U.S.-based nonprofit organization's financial picture. You can use GuideStar to search an organization’s 990 tax forms and help answer a variety of questions about the organization: Are they growing right now? Did their budget go up and down significantly over the last few years? How much money do they pay top staff? Are they the kind of organization you’ve identified as wanting to work based on your completion of the Four Lens Framework exercise (see Chapter Three of The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for Sector Switchers for more information on the Four Lens activity)?

• United Way: Start by exploring groups supported by the local branch of the United Way. These organizations have been vetted by the local staff and will have a dedicated source of funding via the United Way’s local workplace giving program.

• National Council of Nonprofit Associations: This is a network of 41 state and regional nonprofit associations that offers links to local nonprofit chapters and resources.

• Craigslist: This popular website is one place to look for jobs in the nonprofit sector, and can be indispensable for finding local events and community groups.

Universities and Community Colleges

There is likely to be a community college in your target location as well as a nearby university. Career centers (especially at the community college level) are usually open to people who want to ask a few questions about local opportunities or pick up some materials. If you’ve graduated from a college in the area (or even in another part of the country), contact your alma mater’s career center; most campuses now also work with alumni (sometimes for a fee, so ask up front).

Another great option is to find local community college and university professors who work on nonprofit issues, for example in a nonprofit or business management program. Professors and staff are often willing to meet and talk about local resources and networks. Also keep in mind that rural areas without a nearby college campus are not necessarily outside the realm of higher education. You should still look for the nearest colleges and universities to see if they partner with local nonprofits or operate an extension, branch, or virtual campus locally.

Local Listservs and Newspapers

Most urban areas also have a local nonprofit listserv or organization that works to support, promote, and network nonprofits and nonprofit professionals in the area; one example might be YNPN, the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network. Many local newspapers (urban or rural) regularly report on the surrounding nonprofit community as well as feature nonprofit opportunities in their Classifieds sections.

Email us if you would like to suggest additional organizations and resources for this page.