Nonprofit employees are known for their dedication to their jobs, devotion to their organization’s missions and passions for their careers. In the study The Voices of Nonprofit Talent Survey in 2008, Commongood Careers found that 84 percent of nonprofit jobseekers saw work as part of their identities, not just a way to make a living. While this level of commitment is a driving factor when it comes to working for social change, it also can be a factor in the ability for nonprofit professionals to find a healthy balance between their work life and personal life.

As the demand for leaders in nonprofits is rapidly increasing, concerns about work-life balance are becoming more important to younger professionals. In the study Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and its partners reported that two of the top five reasons potential nonprofit leaders surveyed were wary of rising to executive positions were related to the belief that they would have to sacrifice work-life balance to be a director. Additionally, the study’s focus group participants frequently said that being an executive director means making compromises in personal life they are not willing to make.

Simple Steps to Balance the Work-Life Scale

With today’s expectations and norms for work, especially in the social sector, many with nonprofit careers recognize that these things may be more easily said than done. To address this challenge, here are some simple ideas that can help those looking to balance the work-life scales:

Keep a log of a week’s worth of time. Writing down every activity in which you participate in one week can help pinpoint opportunities to maximize your time, as well as weed out extraneous or the needlessly time-consuming activities.

Learn to say no. The important thing about saying “no” is being honest with yourself about the activities to which you say “yes.” Remember that saying no can help you do more and better of what you already have on your plate; saying yes to too much not only impacts current projects, but can add a level of stress not worth taking on. In addition, turning down requests to do everything can help you better understand the capabilities of your colleagues, and what they are able to take on themselves. If you are concerned that saying no is too much of a hassle or is going to produce a conflict you want to avoid, complimenting the person or group’s effort while saying that you’re unable to commit at this time helps to soften the blow and can keep you in good standing with your co-workers.

Communicate clearly. Mistakes happen, but mistakes that arise from rushed communication are especially frustrating because they can be easily avoided. Taking the time to communicate as clearly and succinctly as possible can help you avoid the time-consuming mistakes that sometimes come from miscommunications. Clear communication can mean you are more efficient at work and give you more time for yourself.

Take advantage of what your organization has to offer. The best methods of striking a comfortable work-life balance are often readily available at the workplace. Find out if your organization offers flex time or allows you to work from home. Or explore the option of a “4 x 10,” essentially compressing your work-week to a four-day week by working ten hours a day. And yes, use your vacation time and know how much paid and unpaid leave you have available to you.

Additionally, the message of the importance of work-life balance needs to come from the top. One of the best things current nonprofit managers and leaders can do to attract these new leaders is set an example of positive work-life balance. Avoiding sending e-mails at all hours, staying in the office far into the night, and keeping weekends relatively work-free are simple ways to communicate that working to help others does not mean unacceptable personal sacrifice.

Work-life Balance as an Organizational Value: DonorsChoose.org’s Story

DonorsChoose.org is known for helping teachers fund educational projects by providing an online platform that gives donors the flexibility to choose projects to support. What may be news is that it also applies that flexibility to the organization’s approach to work-life balance. The organization’s culture puts an emphasis on a healthy work-life balance by encouraging employees to use their alloted vacation time, maximize their individual work time, and work on a schedule that fits with each individual’s home and work life.

“We still work hard enough that sometimes our work load is pretty immense, but in our employee survey, flexibility of work hours was one area that scored highly. Our employees told us how much they appreciate the flexibility of their work time,” said Charles Best, Executive Director of DonorsChoose.org

Since there are a number of parents on staff, the organization is flexible about when employees can arrive and leave. “One of our workers makes time to take his kids to school every day and so comes in more around 9:30 or 10:00, while some of the moms on our team make an effort to walk out of the office doors at 5:00 or 5:30 to be with their kids when they’re awake,” Best said. By being flexible to these kinds of approaches, working at DonorsChoose.org encourages healthy family life in addition to a dedicated work life.

In addition to offering flexible hours, DonorsChoose.org offers five weeks of paid vacation at every level of employment. “We encourage people to take their vacation time, and unlike some law or consulting firms that state a policy but don’t stick to it, there is an organizational expectation and allowance for our team to take that time,” Best said.

Additionally, the organization encourages employees to evaluate their work if they feel that they have too much on their plate. “There is a standing offer between managers and their direct reports that if someone is feeling overwhelmed their manager will run a prioritization exercise to maybe eliminate some items from the bottom of the priority list or prune down a task list to what has to get done,” Best said. The organization is committed to helping its team work at its best and one of those ways is through promoting a healthy work-life balance.

Balancing as Best You Can

Even if your organization does not offer all of these benefits, it pays to take a look at what they do offer and see how you can best take advantage of it. Additionally, stay aware of the other things you can do to make your work life and home life as balanced as possible. Taking stock of the important things you do during the day and remembering to take on only the tasks you know you have time for can increase your performance and productivity at work and make your home life happier too. Dedicated people with nonprofit careers may have put their home lives aside in the past, but as new leaders look for positive examples to encourage them to direct nonprofits, paying attention to the balance of your work and life may be one of the most important things you can do for the health of both your career and the social sector. Finding the right work-life balance can help you do a better job, create more impact while also giving the social sector a boost in attracting the best talent that will continue to make a difference.

This article was written by Commongood Careers and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

For more information about nonprofit and socially entrepreneurial careers, visit Commongood Careers at http://www.cgcareers.org.

The United Way of the Plains, located in KS, is taking July appointments this week for its laid-off workers center.

The United Way will accept appointments through 5 p.m. Friday. Individuals can make appointments by called the United Way’s 211 information line, or calling toll free at (888) 413-4327.

A growing number of laid-off workers has necessitated the center be open longer. The center will be open on a monthly basis as needed beyond July.

The United Way estimates the center, located in the West River Office Complex at 2622 W. Central, provided $47,000 in assistance the first week after the center opened June 1.

Services the center provides includes:

• Emergency financial assistance for mortgage or rent and utilities. Checks will be written directly to the lender, landlord or utility company.
  
• Budget and debt management counseling.
  
• Arrangements for utility bill payment plans.
  
• Help applying for government programs.
  
• Job training and job search assistance.

To qualify for assistance through the laid-off workers center, individuals must:

• Preregister.
  
• Have been laid off and approved for employment compensation sometime after Oct. 1, 2008.
  
• Demonstrate an emergency financial need and have insufficient personal resources to adequately provide food, clothing and or shelter.
  
• Have been laid off from a job in Sedgwick, Butler or Sumner counties, or lived in those counties at the time of the layoff.

Source: Biz Journals

Thomas Erb spends a lot of time these days watching people apply for jobs they aren’t “remotely” qualified for. Information technology specialists are trying to get customer service jobs. Former middle managers want data entry work. And it’s not unusual for one position to draw a staggering 400 applications.

Erb, regional vice president in Columbus for national staffing firm Spherion, understands the urgency on the applicant side. Companies, however, are being careful about who they hire because it’s definitely not a job seeker’s market. Not only does experience matter, but if the economy rebounds, companies worry about the hire going back to his field of expertise later on.

So what’s a person to do?

Some are taking an apprentice-like approach to the job market – learning a new skill or trade through work experience. And there are plenty of jobs where a four-year college degree isn’t necessary, allowing for an entirely new career path.

Spherion staffs the retail, customer service, data entry and collections sectors, among other areas. Erb has seen the market for temp work tighthten within the past six months. Customer service jobs can pay between $9 to $15 an hour, Erb said. There also is strong demand for collections workers, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering the economy. They earn $8 to $15 an hour, he said.

Getting a pulse on how many people are overqualified for the jobs they are working during the recession is difficult. Those workers aren’t calculated in the U.S. Department of Labor’s unemployment rate, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Although not measured in federal data, over qualification is a form of underemployment and very much on the rise, she said.

Janet Hannaway, director, operations and recruitment for Aspen Staffing in Columbus, which places people almost exclusively in law firms, said many people think they are qualified for administrative jobs in law firms, or handling the information technology-related jobs within the practice, but most applicants don’t have a clue about law firm work.

She has seen as many as 300 people apply to a single listing and applicants “are all over the place,” in terms of experience and work background. Switching focus

The training coordinator for Local 24 of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association in Columbus is seeing the effects of the economy boost the group’s four-year apprenticeship program.

“A few years back we received most of our applications from high school graduates ready to start a career,” said Rob Gartner, training coordinator. “Many came from the career centers or vocational programs and this is still a strong area that we actively recruit. In the past few years, I’ve noticed more seasoned applicants knocking at the door.”

The older applicants come bearing stories of plant closings. Others still are working, but are uncertain about the future. In some cases, taking an apprenticeship is the first stop to a second or even third career.

Gartner said it is not uncommon to meet an applicant that went to college, got a degree but is having trouble finding a job. He said many of the people in the program feel learning a skilled trade will allow them to switch gears.

Local 24 also is seeing an jump in military veterans interested in an apprentice program.

“The veteran comes home to find out that the job market is slow and there are very few programs,” Gartner said.

The local has been working through a program called Helmets to Hardhats where veterans can get monthly government funding if they are enrolled in a registered apprenticeship program.

While Gartner said the sheet metal trade has faced the same economic problems as the rest of the country, a skilled trade worker can travel to a part of the U.S. that is booming, for example, and then return home as soon as the market allows. Members of Local 24 travel to Las Vegas, Aspen, Colo. and Hawaii for work.

Sheet metal apprentices earn $12.53 an hour during the first year of the apprenticeship, a number that rises above $20 an hour by the fourth year. A journeyman sheet metal worker makes $25.05 an hour. The apprentices receive between 1,500 and 2,000 hours of on-the-job training each year.

Beyond a formal apprenticeship, other job seekers are looking for different types of training to find new careers.

Last summer, Franklin University created a Center for Professional Training and Development to help its student population, 95 percent of whom are working adults, pursue new lines of work. The center provides professional certificates, not college degrees.

Garry McDaniel, associate dean, professional training and development, said people are pursuing career aspirations they’ve had on hold.

Source: Wichita Business Chronicle

President Obama unveiled United We Serve, an extended call to service challenging all Americans to help lay a new foundation for growth in this country by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service. The initiative will be led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency dedicated to fostering service in communities across the country. Since his Inauguration, the President has called on all Americans to serve their communities and be a part of building a better future for our country.

The United We Serve summer initiative begins on June 22nd and runs through the National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11th. The National Day of Service and Remembrance was created by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which President Obama signed in April to help encourage and facilitate community service across the country. During this summer, the President is renewing his call to all Americans to identify needs in their communities, engage in meaningful service to create change – and stay engaged with those projects long after September. The President’s call focuses on four key areas where everyone can have a continuing impact in their community: education, health, energy and the environment and community renewal. To create new service projects, to find service projects in their communities and to share stories about projects that are making a difference, Americans can visit the Corporation’s website, http://www.serve.gov.

President Obama’s video was distributed via email by the Corporation for National and Community Service. View President Obama’s full video message at http://www.serve.gov.

“The challenges we face are unprecedented in their size and scope, and we cannot rely on quick fixes or easy answers to put us on the road to recovery,” President Obama says in the video message. “In this new century, we need to a build a new foundation for economic growth in America. My Administration has already begun this work with dramatic new investments in education, health care and clean energy – investments that will create new jobs and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity. But we cannot do this alone here in Washington…’

‘Economic recovery is as much about what you’re doing in your communities as what we’re doing in Washington – and it’s going to take all of us, working together.”

The goal of United We Serve is to help make volunteerism and community service part of the daily lives of all Americans in order to help build a new foundation, one community at a time. Further details about the June 22nd kickoff are forthcoming.

Source: Serve.gov

President Obama on http://serve.gov/

With the unemployment rate at 9.4 percent and ticking up, millions of Americans are in the job market for the first time in several years.

But the job market has changed in that short time. The paper resume is laughably passe, at least in some circles. Not having a profile on the social networking site LinkedIn is, for some employers, not only a major liability but a sign that the candidate is horribly out of touch.

“If someone sends us a paper resume folded in thirds, stuffed in an envelope, it’s hard to take it seriously,” says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage.

Kelman says he has friends in their 30s and 40s who just missed the social networking boat and now need coaching in how things have changed.

For example, he says blogs and Facebook pages have gone from mere kids’ play to essential for communicating with employers online. Someone applying for a job in marketing, for example, will do much better in an interview if he or she already commands an audience through a blog. People in sales look better if they can prove they have a broad network of contacts in their field.

These new rules especially hold true in the high-tech fields, where being up to the minute is considered essential. But even other industries are following suit.

Job applicants are required to submit their resumes digitally at UMB Financial, a bank based in Kansas City, Mo.

“We get very few paper resumes,” says Pat Cassady, the director of recruitment at UMB. Cassady says 10 to 12 percent of UMB hires come through LinkedIn, and she searches niche networking sites for active users who might be promising business leaders. She is even planning to use Twitter to reach out to new recruits.

Job Seeker Faux Pas

Hiring managers say they stay clear of candidates who make these digital job-seeking mistakes:

• Not having an updated profile, with recommendations, on sites like LinkedIn or similar sites relating to your line of work
  
• Having a husband-and-wife e-mail address
  
• Having an AOL address. Some executives say those are very outdated.
  
• Not doing extensive research about the company, its culture and the position you’re applying for
  
• Not filing your resume digitally, even if you bring paper backups
  
• “Cold” e-mailing executives with whom you’ve never made a prior connection, either online or in person
  
• Asking an executive you’re hoping will hire you to be your “friend” on Facebook

Source: NPR

by Mary Beth Lehman

A local nonprofit is battling for $4 million in federal stimulus funds to expand its programs and facilities.

Miami Valley Child Development Centers Inc. is applying through two separate grant programs for $1.5 million and $2.5 million to expand the number of children it serves. It already received $1.3 million in May from stimulus funds for quality improvement, including money for a new bus and computer lab for its child learning centers.

“We’re going for broke,” said Mary Burns, chief executive officer of the Dayton-based nonprofit. “The ripple effect of these grants is much larger than us.”

The new funds would go toward adding 44 employees and hundreds of educational opportunities for area children.

The group manages Head Start — a child care program for low-income families — in Clark, Madison and Montgomery counties. It runs both Early Head Start and Head Start programs for about 2,800 children, ages 3 to 5 years old, and 110 children newborn to 3 years old.

In fiscal year 2007, Ohio was allocated $247 million for Head Start programs, and nearly 38,000 children throughout the state were enrolled.

Without the program, children of low-income families would likely not have access to pre-kindergarten education and could go into elementary school behind other students. The Head Start program is administered by the Office of Head Start within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Burns said her group’s needs exceed the support provided by federal funding, so she sought out stimulus funds.

Burns applied for the first round of funds through the regional Head Start office in Chicago. She expects to receive the money this month.

Those dollars will allow the nonprofit to add a bus, a computer lab and a technology center. It also will pay for many of the group’s teachers to complete their bachelor’s degrees.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit is completing two more stimulus applications through the office of Head Start in Washington, D.C., to add 200 Head Start slots and 286 Early Head Starts slots to its existing programming.

The result would mean 17 new employees for the Head Start program and an additional 27 in Early Head Start programs.

“It’s wonderful that this money is available — especially in these economic times,” Burns said.

There is $3.9 million in stimulus dollars available throughout Ohio for the Head Start programs and $19.8 million available for Early Head Start, Burns said. Although the local nonprofit is competing for more than half of the money for Head Start programs, Burns said she was confident the local programs would be funded.

The federal Head Start money has to be obligated by Sept. 30, so the nonprofit will learn by then if it has received funding. Stimulus applications will begin being reviewed Aug. 15.

Stimulus money could be the saving grace for many area nonprofits struggling through the tough economy.

Miami Valley Housing Opportunities, a Dayton-based nonprofit that provides housing for disabled people, is applying for $1.7 million in stimulus funding for new housing projects to give homes to the disabled in the region. The result of funding — distributed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — would mean more than 113 additional homes for disabled people in Dayton.

“At this point, there is a lot of stimulus money coming in, and this is our one time to make a big dent,” said Natalie Harris, president and CEO, of MVHO.


Source: Portland Business Journal

To most people, the terms “nonprofit” or “not-for-profit” imply a bare-bones operation. There are hundreds of them around here: a couple of paid staffers and a bunch of volunteers working out of a cheaply rented storefront on a shoestring budget, trying to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless or give inner-city kids an alternative to hanging out on the streets.

But not-for-profits also include organizations with multimillion-dollar budgets and executives who pull down six-figure salaries. This is especially true in the hospital and health-care fields.

Among the Record’s findings:

• The number of six-figure salaries in the local nonprofit sector has more than doubled in the past four years. A Record survey in 2003 found 91 local nonprofit staffers pulling down compensation of $100,000 or more. In 2007, the number of nonprofit workers in that income bracket grew to 206.
  
• Locally, 648 people earned anywhere from $50 a year as a vice president of a volunteer fire department to $655,260 paid to Donna McAleer as the CEO of the Goshen-based chain of Elant nursing homes in 2007, the most recent year for which full details were available.
  
• The top of the local list is dominated by hospital and health-care executives and physicians. Eight of the top 10, 18 of the top 20 and nearly three-quarters of the top 100 work in some capacity in health care.
  
• A recently completed Internal Revenue Service study of nonprofit hospitals found the average total compensation for top managers was $490,000. Based on that figure, three local hospital heads were above average in 2007.

Source: Times Herald-Record