My college sophomore son sent me an article he had written for a Journalism class exploring “why real men don’t do chick flicks”. I laughed as he admitted to being a closet chick flick viewer (the optimum word there being closet) and I was impressed by his personal insight as he observed that these movies are redeeming because they make you feel, reflect, and in some cases, take action. I was struck how similar perceptions exist regarding the nonprofit sector. Male executives, in particular, have frequently shared with me their long held desire to work in the nonprofit sector but how they chose the traditional route instead to meet society’s expectation of what a man should do to take care of his family.

It is my belief that there are three compelling reasons to consider employment in the nonprofit sector and they are Passion, Purpose, and Paycheck. I would challenge you to use this article to think about your own situation and motivations for considering a nonprofit position and see how they align with the Three P’s.

• Passion - Your work should be in alignment with your personal values. There are currently +1.5 million nonprofits in the United States; 11,000 in Georgia (this number includes foundations) and 351 nonprofits with budgets +$5 million. Projections for the fastest growing nonprofit organizations over the next three to five years include health, human services, organizations with an emphasis on social entrepreneurship, and global reaching nonprofits. Which of those causes, if any, are you passionate about? What kind of mission would tap into your heart and mind? In the nonprofit sector, like no other, finding your passion will allow you to feel and experience every range of emotion. To then channel those emotions and take action to create positive change or make a difference in your community will be tremendously rewarding and will only serve to fuel your passion.



• Purpose – Your work should have purpose and significance for your community. Nonprofits are asked to respond and more importantly, to address society’s most challenging and complex problems. World hunger, exploitation of children, homelessness, AIDS, you name it, these are problems that will exist far beyond our life span. The ability to clearly articulate why a nonprofit exists and what makes it relevant in today’s society are the cornerstones of an effective and sustainable nonprofit. Likewise, what kind of purpose and significance are you looking to make in your nonprofit career? Can you clearly communicate the purpose you believe your skill sets and enthusiasm can make in the right nonprofit setting?



• Paycheck – Your work is a way to give back while still earning a paycheck. The bottom line, no matter what cause you’re passionate about, those monthly bills will still show up in your mailbox! The good news is that as nonprofits continue to professionalize and awareness grows that the sector is a viable career path, so will the salaries and benefits that will be needed to attract and retain talented individuals. Compared to the for- profit sector, pay for entry positions is typically about 5% lower; midlevel pay is about 20 to 25% lower; and as much as 50% for Executive Directors and Chief Executive Officers. The larger the nonprofit, the greater the pay and benefits. Salaries also vary according to geographic location, organizational structure and budget, and the number of employees. Determining your salary range ahead of time is just smart and will prevent wasted time and effort on your part.

About those chick flicks. In his closing remarks, my son mentioned that chick movies allow you to get into the “spirit” of the characters and situations and to feel empathy for their plight. While comparing nonprofits to chick flicks might be a stretch and certainly requires a degree of creative license, common threads do exist. Nonprofits, like chick flicks, engage your emotions, your mind, and your soul and allow you the freedom and opportunity to grow and evolve on a personal and professional level. Is there really a better way to express yourself than to locate the right nonprofit that will engage your own Three P’s?

See you at the movies!!

About the Author:
Ellen McCarty brings twenty years of executive experience in the government and nonprofit sectors. She has served as the Executive Director of two Atlanta based nonprofits and the President/CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation© of Georgia and Alabama. She has received local, state, and national recognition for her design and creation of programs in the juvenile justice system; residential facilities and programs for children and youth in foster care; and programs to establish permanent housing for homeless men, women, and children infected and/or affected with HIV/AIDS. Ms. McCarty is passionate about the work of the nonprofit sector and uses her real-life experiences and expertise to help organizations and individuals through her company, McCarty & Co. Additionally, she serves as a guest instructor for Emory University Center for Lifelong Learning; the Foundation Center – Atlanta; the Georgia Center for Nonprofits; and United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.”

The gap in nonprofit compensation between men and women grew in fiscal 2008 after narrowing in previous years, a new report says.

While women held 48 percent of positions at roughly 100,000 charities in the GuideStar database of digitized IRS Form 990 information, up 1 percent from 2007, for example, they received only 29 percent of total compensation, down from 35 percent in 2007, says the 10th annual GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report.

Women held 57 percent of CEO positions at nonprofits with annual expenses of $1 million or less, but only 38 percent at nonprofits with annual expense over $1 million.

In 2008, women serving as CEOs received bigger hikes in median compensation, continuing a trend of recent years, suggesting that women in positions other than CEO are not making the stead gains seen among female CEOs, the report says.

Both men and women serving as CEOs at bigger nonprofits received proportionately bigger increases in compensation.

The median increase in salaries from 2007 to 2008 totaled 3.8 percent for CEOs at nonprofits with annual budgets between $500,000 and $1 million, compared to 5.1 percent at nonprofits with annual budgets over $50 million.

The percentage increase in salaries at charities of all sizes generally was higher in 2008 than in 2007.

Health and science nonprofits paid the highest overall median salaries, while food, religion and youth-development groups paid the lowest.

For the fifth straight year, Washington, D.C., has the highest overall median salaries of the 20 biggest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., while the Riverside-San Bernadino metro area in California had the lowest.

Adjusted for cost of living, San Francisco nonprofit executive once again had the lowest median buying power, while those in Detroit had the highest.

“Nonprofits are tasked with documenting to oversight agencies, grantmakers of all types (government, corporations and private foundations), and individual donors that the salaries and benefits they offer are justified, Chuck McLean, vice president of research at GuideStar and author of the report, says in a statement.

“They should provide information on their compensation practices,” he says, “and be prepared to help their supporters understand why these practices are appropriate.”

Source: Philanthropy Journal

Comment below if you feel the Gender Grap is growing or narrowing.

Retail holiday hiring could get a boost this year, according to a report this week from human resources consultancy Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc.

Two consecutive months of sales gains may give retailers enough of a boost to increase their seasonal hiring of part-time workers this year, according to the report.

Last year retail payrolls grew by about 501,400 workers in October, November and December, according to non-seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That marked about a 30 percent increase over 2008, a tough year, when holiday hiring dropped to a 22-year low of 384,300 extra holiday helpers.

“Retailers do not want to be caught with too many workers at a time when many of the fundamentals needed for strong consumer spending remain a little shaky. There are still nearly 15 million Americans out of work and many have lost their homes or are struggling to hang on to them. This does not bode well for heavy holiday spending,” said Challenger.

Still, some signs are positive, including the fact that layoff announcements from retailers have fallen about 65 percent over a year ago, according to Chicago-based Challenger Gray & Christmas.

Source: Boston Business Journal

Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other social-media tools are starting to catch on with foundation leaders, but they are hardly an indispensable part of most foundation executives’ routines, according to a new survey by the Foundation Center.

The survey of 73 foundation leaders found that:

• About 33 percent use Facebook regularly; 30 percent regularly read blogs.



• Roughly one in 10 listens to podcasts (11 percent) or YouTube (10 percent) on a regular basis.



• Only 6 percent use Twitter regularly.



• Use of e-newsletters and Listservs is more common: 65 percent use e-newsletters on a regular basis, and 47 percent use Listservs regularly.

Foundation leaders were fairly optimistic about the potential of social media to advance philanthropic work, the survey found, but they are less certain about how to employ social-media tools at their own organizations.

Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they think social-media and Web 2.0 services have been at least somewhat helpful in furthering philanthropic work. But 50 percent said the tools have been at least somewhat helpful in advancing their foundation’s goals, while 25 percent said they have been “not very useful” and 14 percent said they have been “not useful at all.”

While regular use of social media is rare, many foundation executives do use the sites once in a while. More than half those surveyed are using YouTube (68 percent), Facebook (59 percent), and blogs (53 percent) at least occasionally.

Twitter, however, remains largely foreign territory for most foundation executives. Just 16 percent have ever “tweeted,” according to the survey.

Foundation leaders have a greater comfort with blogs. Forty-four percent have either contributed a blog post or responded to one.

More foundation leaders were familiar with the Huffington Post than any other blog site: 53 percent said they’d looked at the left-leaning Web site at least once in the past six months.

Five other blogs were read by at least 20 percent of foundation executives in the past six months: the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, Philanthropy 2173, The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Give and Take, the Foundation Center’s PhilanTopic, and Tactical Philanthropy.

Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy

So often, people assume that charity and philanthropy mean stretching an already-tight budget even further. “If I donated $100 to the food kitchen, I’d have to start using the food kitchen!” goes the common train of thought. (That’s not to say that donating money isn’t useful – it certainly is.)

Money can often be a very tight resource, but it’s far from the only resource you have. We all have so many things available to us to share with others that it only takes a moment of thought or effort to make a real difference in someone else’s life.

Here are twenty things anyone can donate to make the world a better place – and put a little bit of extra spring in their step – without blowing up their budget. Even better, many of these ideas will help you clean out your closets and declutter your home a bit. If you’re in need, this list might even help you find a charitable cause that can help you.

Donate your hair Locks of Love is a non-profit that provides hairpieces to disadvantaged children suffering from long term medical hair loss. It’s easy to donate – just grow your hair out to ten or more inches in length, cut it off, stick it in an envelope, and help out a kid that could really use a boost.

Donate your blood and/or plasma The Red Cross runs blood drives in your community quite regularly, and many large communities have places where you can always donate. Keep an eye on your community calendar, then stop by and donate. It’s just a little prick on your arm, then you get a cookie and a drink and you’re on your way, while your blood is used to save someone’s life.

Similarly, donate your bone marrow Another renewable body resource you can donate is your bone marrow. The National Marrow Donor Program has a very detailed FAQ that discusses in detail the process of marrow donation.

Donate your vacation time Many workplaces make it possible to donate unused vacation time to people in dire need. Spend a day less at the beach next year and give that day to someone who is fighting a serious medical situation.

Donate your body space It’s all about the awareness for many charitable causes. Simply by having a band on your wrist or a ribbon on your lapel, you remind the people who see it of a charity and also let them know that there are people out there that passionately support the charity. Here’s a list of different charity awareness bracelets available.

Similarly, donate your bumper Get a big old bumper sticker describing your favorite charity and slap it right on the back bumper of your car. The next time you’re stuck in traffic, your car is increasing the mindshare of the charity you care about.

Donate your wedding dress Making Memories is an awesome charity that helps women with metastatic breast cancer live out their dreams. Many of the wishes granted by Making Memories involve weddings, so the charity makes great use of the wedding dress you’ve got hanging in your closet. Unused gowns are auctioned to earn more money for this charity’s work, so even if your dress doesn’t get used by a needful bride, it still can help them.

Donate your unused home repair supplies Did you buy too many shingles and now have a big pile of them just sitting in your garage? Got a few gallons of leftover paint from a job where the paint didn’t match or you overestimated your needs? Habitat for Humanity can put those resources to good use building homes for the needy instead of those supplies going to waste sitting in your garage.

Donate your flowers Got extra flowers after a wedding or other event? Donate them. Contact your local florist or local hospital and ask about giving the leftover flower arrangements to people who need them for other events or who could really use them to brighten their day. You can do the same if you have flowers that grow around your home.

Donate your nasty old shoes Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program (check that site out – it has a great video explaining what they do in great detail) takes old, nasty running shoes and turns them into materials for public playgrounds and basketball courts. All you have to do is send ‘em in!

Donate your voice LibriVox creates free audiobooks for the public domain, which enables everyone to have access to great free listening materials. Such books are used as educational materials for the visually impaired, radio material for public stations, and countless other good uses. You can participate by volunteering to read and record a public domain book. You’ll learn something and make the world a better place.

Donate your old carpet Many animal shelters will accept donations of old, clean carpet for bedding for the sheltered pets. Contact your local shelter the next time you update your carpeting and see if they can put that old carpet to use.

Donate your cupboard excess or your extra garden vegetables If you’re anything like me, the next time you clean out your cupboards, you’ll find a bunch of items way in the back that will make you wonder if you can ever possibly use them before they expire. These are perfect items to donate to your local food pantry, where someone in need will have those items on their dinner table this week.

Donate your old computer Many charities would love to have that old computer of yours. It might not be up to snuff for watching downloaded high definition movies, but it’s perfectly good enough for a church to install Linux on and use for accounting purposes. Ask around at the local charities you support and, if you can’t find a home for it, ask TechSoup, which facilitates technology donations for nonprofit groups.

Donate your aluminum cans Our local high school has several groups that go through the neighborhoods once a year and ask for aluminum can and bottle donations. We simply store our used cans and bottles in a bin under the sink and when these groups come around, we gladly hand our cans and bottles over. If you don’t have such “to your door” service, many national groups facilitate the collection of cans and bottles – almost every Habitat for Humanity office will accept can and/or bottle donations.

Donate your used books Better World Books accepts donations of used books, which they then sell and give some of the proceeds in support of global literacy. If you have a bunch of books sitting around (and PaperBackSwap doesn’t excite you), this is a great way to turn a big box of used space into children who can read.

Donate the old stuff in your medicine cabinet Got medications you no longer need (especially sealed items that you never got around to using)? Got items to help you treat a condition that you’ve overcome? World Medical Relief will happily take those items and distribute them in a non-discriminatory fashion to people in real medical need.

Donate unwanted suits and business clothes Everyone has a suit or two in their closet that they rarely wear. Yet, at the same time, there are people out there beating the pavement, looking for work, and they can’t afford to dress for success and impress their potential employers. Two great charities, Dress for Success and Career Gear, do exactly that, transforming the suit taking up space in your closet into opportunities for life-changing success for people who are reaching hard for that brass ring.

Donate your eyeglasses One of the best things (in my opinion) that the Lion’s Club does is run their eyeglasses donation program. When your prescription changes, you’ll get new glasses and your old ones no longer have any use. Give them to your local Lion’s Club and they’ll help someone out there in need with vision impairment.

Donate your old magazines Once you’ve read that copy of The New Yorker, check and see if there isn’t a place in your area that could put the item to use. Senior citizen’s centers are almost always happy to receive magazine donations. If that doesn’t fit the bill, try hospitals and libraries in your area.

One final thought: donate your body When you pass on, your life has ended, but you have the ability to give the gift of life to others because of the life you left behind. Donate your organs and tissues to people who can use them. OrganDonor.gov provides everything you need to know about the need for organs and tissues and about how easy it is to be an organ donor.

The biggest lesson from this list is that we all have a lot of resources within us and around us that are of value and use to others. Sharing them, especially when it’s “no skin off our backs,” does nothing but make the world a better place. It makes you feel better, too.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Crafting the right job description not only ensures you’ll get the right candidates for an open position, it will also help you bring onboard and evaluate new hires as they adjust and grow into their roles.

Unfortunately, many hiring managers don’t take the time to revise and refresh old job descriptions, and some broadcast descriptions that are inaccurate, too long or simply not enticing.

Below you’ll find 10 tips for creating an accurate description that will attract and inform candidates by providing just the right amount of information, and will help you manage your new hire’s performance once he or she is on board.

1. Remember that a job description is your organization’s first chance to make a good impression on candidates. When you provide a descriptive, informative, attractive and well-written job description you’re sending a message about the way your organization does business.



2. Make sure you have the basics covered. There are a few critical items you don’t want to forget, including legal language, such as an Equal Opportunity Act statement, whether the position is full or part-time, and the location. Other key pieces of information that should be included:



• The reporting structure
• Basic responsibilities
• Key goals and/or outcomes
• Qualifications
• Salary and benefits information
• How to apply and what to include with the application (cover letter, salary history, etc.)



3. Allow key stakeholders to review and provide feedback. Team members and colleagues — both above and below the position — may have valuable input, particularly when it comes to responsibilities and qualifications. By asking for and acting on their feedback, you’ll also be building buy-in for the eventual hire.



4. Include an overview of the organization and it’s mission. Start off with basic information about the history, budget size, constituents, programs and key funders. It’s also a good idea to include new or exciting details that might get a candidate excited, such as a new program or grant award.



5. Provide indications of the organization’s culture. Personality and culture fit are absolutely critical to any successful hire, and the job description is a great place to highlight features of your organization’s culture. One way to do this is to list out core values or characteristics that you look for in strong candidates.



6. Avoid information overload. Multi-page job descriptions crammed full of highly-specific and detailed information will turn off candidates. Avoid internal references to things that outsiders will not understand, such as complicated programs or grant funding processes. Ideally, a job description should be no more than two pages.



7. Follow a clear, clean format. Use bold headings and bulleted lists to organize the information and make it reader-friendly. If you don’t have a good template, review a few job descriptions on hiring websites and borrow the features you like.



8. Carefully consider the qualifications section. Be realistic about expectations by identifying up front the must-haves and the nice-to-haves in terms of both skills and experiences. Then highlight the must-haves as prerequisites for the job and the nice-to-haves as qualifications that are preferred. This way you won’t scare off strong candidates who don’t fit the bill exactly, but you’ll weed out candidates who don’t have the core qualifications.



9. Decide how explicit you want to be about the salary range. There are good reasons for publicizing the salary range (you’ll automatically reduce the number of people you have to talk to who aren’t within the range you can afford) and good reasons for not publicizing a range (you might miss out on a great candidate who is just outside of the posted salary range).



10. Create a condensed version of the job description that can be used as a job announcement. Use this shortened version to email the position to your network.

Crafting a great job description takes time, but it’s time well spent because a targeted, clear and concise job description will attract top talent, and will help build your reputation as an employer of choice.

Molly Brennan is vice president of executive search at Koya Consulting, a search firm dedicated to the nonprofit sector. Molly oversees Koya’s executive-search services, working closely with Koya’s nonprofit clients to further their missions by recruiting and placing talented employees.

Source: Philanthropy Journal

By Chelle Shell

According to recent surveys approximately 55% of US workers are dissatisfied with their jobs. This is the highest dissatisfaction rate in decades. Approximately 25% percent of US workers say they do not expect to be at their current jobs in the next year.

What we have right now folks is a recession-battered workforce because these numbers don’t lie. Workers have been forced to do more with less - less money, less guidance, less support, less training, less benefits, and less confidence in their leaders. Many employees have gone without raises in 2 or more years and some have even taken pay cuts, yet they’ve been given new job duties. These individuals are stressed out, worried about job security and their faith in career development has dropped to the wayside.

Since disengaged employees will probably never verbalize this I’ve created a list of the top 12 things they wish they could say to HR and/or their boss.

12. “I know having a job in this tough economy is great but you don’t need to remind me of that everyday. “
11. “You asked me in my annual review what my plans are for professional development. What are YOUR plans for my professional development is what I want to know!”
10. “Retirement? I hope I die before that time comes ‘cause I got nothing!”
9. “WOW! How did my list of job responsibilities get so long from the 2 paragraph job description I was given when I started?!?”
8. “I love spending after-hours at work for a free slice of pizza!”
7. “Enough with the ‘new opportunities’ for me, can I get compensated?”
6. “Hmmm…I’m not sure let me consult my employee handbook on that one. Oh, the one I have is from 1998.”
5. “I just love our new healthcare plan and of course a $3500 deductible fits my budget.”
4. “Can I get a thank you and some recognition already?”
3. “An annual review means a review of my job once a year.”
2. “My computer is broken, the ink cartridge is out on the printer, someone stole my stapler, the phone is disconnected, and we are out of coffee….again!”
1. “I hate my boss. “

I know that list seems pretty harsh but these are things you need to think about because if they are affecting your employees you can bet it is effecting the organization as a whole. If any of the statements above fit a situation at your organization you may want to start asking some questions to your managers and employees. Then come up with a strategy to rectify a possible cancerous situation.

We as employers cannot look at employee retention as a one-time exercise. The best way to deal with retention is have a plan and build upon it BEFORE it gets out of control. Mostly what employees want is feedback and a glimpse into their future with your organization. A little praise and regular reviews from their manager, surveying them and actually listening and then acting on potential issues will go a long way!

About the Author
Michelle “Chelle” Shell has worked in management for over 14 years in positions ranging from recruitment to public relations. In her current role as Client Development Manager for Opportunity Knocks she assists national nonprofit organizations and recruitment agencies connect with talented, qualified nonprofit professionals and HR management solutions. Chelle is active in her transitioning neighborhood association as well as local tennis associations. She is also a Board Member of ANP, Atlanta Nonprofit Professionals.

For questions and/or comments for Chelle please click on “comments” below and start typing away. Many of you have the same concerns and this will allow you to read what others have to say as well as help the masses. And don’t worry, you don’t have to identify yourself if you would like to remain anonymous.