Event was last Thrsday, March 11.
Four non-profit professionals spoke about various aspects of working for a non-profit organization. The Speakers were Kathleen Costello for non-profit research at CSUF, Kristi Platkowski with Orangewood Children’s Foundation, Jenny Voznesensky from the Anaheim Family YMCA, and Lidia Escobar with ICAN. Kathleen began the discussion by having the audience stand up and then sit down as she listed off their majors. When everyone had sat down she told us that all of these majors are directly applicable to non-profit work. She explained that a non-profit is not defined by not making profit; it simply means that members on the board of directors cannot show a personal profit from serving on the board. Kristi said that there is a misconception that people don’t make good money in non-profit. She said that the compensation is generally very competitive. Jenny added that the higher paid managers can sometimes make as much as 250K. So why form a non-profit? A non-profit organization’s primary goal is create social benefit, as opposed to increasing shareholder wealth. Kathleen said that recent studies show that our generation demands that we derive meaning from our work, more so than other generations. This is to say that most people from our generation like to see the benefit of our work for ourselves. We aren’t satisfied by just receiving our paycheck.
So if it’s a job with meaning you want, non-profits have them in spades. It may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about going into a career, but it might just be the perfect match for you.
