Hiring from the Corporate Sector: Should You, and How?

By Laura Gassner Otting


More and more, our firm is asked, “What about hiring people from the for-profit sector?”

Our answer: “Well, that depends.”

There is not doubt that hiring from the corporate world is on the rise. Recent seismic economic shifts, increased board savvy, a retiring but still active baby boomer population, and an increased focus on planned career trajectories available to ambitious nonprofit professionals have changed the landscape of hiring in the sector. However, smart search committees and hiring manager know that they must first stop to determine whether a corporate hire is right for them and if they are ready for a corporate hire. Key to this is understanding who seeks to transition and why, which types of organizations can bring out their best, and proven practices of those organizations that have harnessed the talents that this formidable pool is able to bring to bear.

For most transitioners, the motivations of are the same as their nonprofit employee counterparts. We have found that most people looking to make the transition lack a single focus mission area, an overwhelming wrong they wish to right, or a ten-point statement of a specific area of change. Nonprofits looking to make these hires must come to accept that “just giving back” might be reason enough, and endeavor to further understand what’s behind that.

Just as it is true that the best nonprofit will fail to harness the abilities of an ill-prepared transitioner, it is also a reality that even the most promising transitioner will flounder in the wrong nonprofit. For-profit job seekers tend to be most successful in nonprofits that have already adopted business practices into their daily work either at the staff or board level, actively recruit change agents, and measure success often and actively with metrics and data and dashboards. In the funding hunt, these nonprofits look beyond traditional types of funding such as government and foundation grants, individual donors, and special events, to the horizon of for-profit subsidiaries or fee-for-service work to underwrite nonprofit operations. They are likely scaling and using social innovation funds or capacity building funds to do so.

Alternatively, there are a number of nonprofits where transitioners may not do as well. For example, organizations that want to be “entrepreneurial, cutting-edge business practices-utilizing nonprofits of the future” if they aren’t already now. It is very much in vogue today—as demanded by the changing landscape of philanthropy—to want to apply the best practices of business to nonprofits. But it doesn’t always work, sometimes because the people involved are incapable or not truly sold on the idea or, more often, business practices simply cannot be applied successfully to the nonprofit in question. Many sector switchers fail because they believe the words of the staff and board that change is afoot, but when push comes to shove, leadership gets cold feet and backs out. Finally, for-profit job seekers are least likely to be successful when moving into a small, grassroots, hands-on, direct service position, regardless of the approach or overall business model of the nonprofit.

For more information on recruiting from the corporate sector, read the full article here.


About the Author:
Laura Gassner Otting founded the retained nonprofit executive search firm of Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group in 2002. She helped build the start-up ExecSearches.com, served as a vice president at Isaacson, Miller, and as a presidential appointee for the White House Office of National Service and a program officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service, where she was part of the team that created the AmeriCorps, and as a member of the Clinton/Gore Transition Team and 1992 Election Team.


Laura serves on numerous community boards and is the author of Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector. She is widely quoted for her expertise in mission-driven work in publications like The New York Times, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, US News and World Report and Money magazine.