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by Anne Desrosiers As a full-time volunteer and founder of a new nonprofit organization (The World is Your Oyster), I have to juggle daily eight-hour commitment of my day job with the commitment of my own nonprofit.  But this is the life of a “practical dreamer”: someone who is in the process of taking on entrepreneurship while maintaining a 9-5 (or traditional job) until the entrepreneurship yields enough financial returns to be full-time. Yet beyond my [ continue reading ]

by Eleanor Whitney Before I even delve into nonprofit advocacy, let me address a common concern that many nonprofits have regarding this topic:  nonprofits can’t lobby. While the rules and regulations around lobbying are complex, advocacy and lobbying are very different. The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management defines advocacy as, “Embracing causes to persuade others to support our issues and pour point of view,” something that we do as nonprofit professionals every day. [ continue reading ]

by Micah Goldfus Even though it feels like winter just left us, we’re a few weeks away graduation season.  Within the next month, summer interns will start filling up your office, making now a perfect time to think about how your organization can get the most from your interns and how interns can have the most valuable experience with your organization. To get ready for upcoming summer interns, non profits should consider the following factors: [ continue reading ]

by Darlene Sutherland As direct service providers, we have the responsibility of providing the people we serve with the tools they need to thrive. Clearly this is no small order yet the resources we need to do our work may not always be available; aside from meeting the demands of the people we serve, we must also navigate lack of support, limited compensation, and increasing performance demands. As a result, as a sector we face [ continue reading ]

by Eleanor Whitney Answer: It depends. According to the New York Times, many young women are dropping out of the job market to return to school. In my personal experience, when I was running the Student Guide internship program for college and graduate students at the Brooklyn Museum, I noticed that many of the graduate students in the program had quit their nonprofit arts jobs to go back to school in arts administration, museum education, [ continue reading ]

by Micah Goldfus As employees in nonprofit sector, we hold ourselves to high standards: we are called to serve the missions of our organizations, and we take our responsibilities to those missions seriously.  Society holds us to high standards as well, which is why people receive tax deductions for donations and some student loans are waived for working in a nonprofit. It’s because of those two sets of high standards that nonprofits have to ensure [ continue reading ]

by Anne Desrosiers As more “20-somethings” and “under-30s” navigate the many ranks of the workplace, one significant challenge that often emerges is the attitudinal differences among the generations. As part of Generation Y, I have probably spent a significant part (if not all) of my career working with the Boomers and chances are, you have too.   The adage that “age is nothing but a number” isn’t necessarily true as companies and more specifically nonprofits seek [ continue reading ]