How would i go about working in the field of charitable organizations?
October 302009
What would i need to major in college if i wanted to work in a non profit or a charitable organization in general?
Are there a lot of those types of jobs out there right now? In 5-10 will I be able to find work or will it be difficult?
It depends entirely upon what you want to do for them. They perform business functions exactly like a business does, but they just don’t have the same concern about knowing or reporting the cost of doing their functions the way a profitmaking organization does.
They need to find clients;
they need to find income;
they need to keep books;
they MIGHT need to invest excess funds;
they need to know the laws governing their activities;
they need to manage both volunteer workers and low-level workers;
they MIGHT need to obtain consulting services for any of their functions;
they MIGHT need to maintain their business offices;
they MIGHT need, occasionally, to expand or obtain other offices;
they need to manage correspondence, and MIGHT need easy retrieval of those;
they need to know their cost of operations, but MIGHT obtain that with an accounting consultant;
they probably need to monitor and report the size and cost of providing the services (or products) that they do.
If they are competing with other nonprofits to provide the same services or to draw on the same money sources, then they probably need to assess whether they do these things as effectively or more effectively than others in the field. For this they may require not only auditing, but management advice and market research.
So it would seem that any education appropriate for business is good for nonprofits, with the possible exception of the fields of profit, and facing direct competition. You could add onto this, the special areas of soliciting for charity and pursuit of grant money from private and government sources.
As to securing employment, I’m pretty sure they suffer as any other part of the economy. There are no guarantees for a future job. Being prepared is the best you can do. The business education, though, should help with any professional job search.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
It depends entirely upon what you want to do for them. They perform business functions exactly like a business does, but they just don’t have the same concern about knowing or reporting the cost of doing their functions the way a profitmaking organization does.
They need to find clients;
they need to find income;
they need to keep books;
they MIGHT need to invest excess funds;
they need to know the laws governing their activities;
they need to manage both volunteer workers and low-level workers;
they MIGHT need to obtain consulting services for any of their functions;
they MIGHT need to maintain their business offices;
they MIGHT need, occasionally, to expand or obtain other offices;
they need to manage correspondence, and MIGHT need easy retrieval of those;
they need to know their cost of operations, but MIGHT obtain that with an accounting consultant;
they probably need to monitor and report the size and cost of providing the services (or products) that they do.
If they are competing with other nonprofits to provide the same services or to draw on the same money sources, then they probably need to assess whether they do these things as effectively or more effectively than others in the field. For this they may require not only auditing, but management advice and market research.
So it would seem that any education appropriate for business is good for nonprofits, with the possible exception of the fields of profit, and facing direct competition. You could add onto this, the special areas of soliciting for charity and pursuit of grant money from private and government sources.
As to securing employment, I’m pretty sure they suffer as any other part of the economy. There are no guarantees for a future job. Being prepared is the best you can do. The business education, though, should help with any professional job search.
References :
reading about the field; having a brother in the field.