About Nonprofit Career Month

Purpose

Nonprofit Career Month was created to give a sense of the diverse, challenging, and fulfilling career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. We believe that a nonprofit career is not an oxymoron, not a one-size-fits-all, and not something to do while "finding a real job." It is also not for everyone.

So what is a nonprofit career? It is the opportunity to merge passion and paycheck. It is the potential to create lasting positive change. It is a chance to work with intelligent, driven people on pressing issues. It is over 12 million people across the country choosing to invest their time, energy, and expertise and to get compensated in return. And because of the diversity of careers out there, it's not possible to offer one definition, but hopefully this initiative will showcase the multitude of ways people are defining and redefining it daily.

Nonprofit Career Month promotes the number and diversity of career opportunities in the nation's nonprofit sector. Driven by the collective contributions of the nonprofit community, the campaign dispels common myths about nonprofit work, provides individuals with entry points to the sector, and allows current and aspiring nonprofit professionals to share expertise. Nonprofit Career Month is powered by Idealist.org and funded by the Kellogg Action Lab.

History

The idea for Nonprofit Career Month began with Tim Brostrom, Manager of the Innovative Practice Fund at Kellogg Action Lab, and Director of Product Innovation at Fieldstone Alliance. He thought that a commemorative month to promote nonprofit careers was just what was needed to raise awareness of the opportunities in the nonprofit sector. Through Kellogg Action Lab, Idealist submitted a proposal for a two-year plan to create an annual event with year-round resources. To support our two-year proposal, University of San Diego’s Caster Center was selected to provide initial research and external evaluation. It’s a short history so far, but we’re looking forward to adding more details on the successes of the month after October!

Timeline

We began working on Nonprofit Career Month in the beginning of 2009 with a two-year plan: launch the project in five pilot states in the first year and scale up to a national level in the second year. As we head into our first Nonprofit Career Month with our five pilot states, a brand new website, and local and national partners helping us develop, record, and highlight models for how to best launch this nationally next year, we’re excited to see how the month unfolds!

Partners/Funders

The Kellogg Action Lab has generously provided funding to support the first two years of this project. University of San Diego’s Caster Center provided initial focus group data to help guide the process of this initiative and will be assisting in the evaluation of the first year of this project to help determine our successes and next steps for year two of Nonprofit Career Month.

About Idealist

Idealist.org is an interactive website where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps to turn their good intentions into action. Idealist has offices in New York, Portland, and Buenos Aires, with staff in several other international cities.

Contact Us

If you have questions about Nonprofit Career Month, feel free to contact us.