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WORKFORCE GUIDE - Making the Leap to Non-Profits

Published Wednesday Aug 20, 2008

Author THOMAS WAILGUM

Caroline Boyd, Dan Fortin and Tim Murray each spent decades in the corporate world, creating business strategies, motivating sizeable teams and spearheading new initiatives. Each has left corporate America behind to lead nonprofits and they are part of a growing trend. As boomers begin facing retirement, some are opting to start a new phase in their professional life by investing their time in furthering a cause rather than a company.

But as Boyd, president and CEO of the Animal Rescue League of NH; Fortin, president and CEO of Breathe NH (formerly the American Lung Association of NH); and Murray, regional executive director of the American Red Cross's NH region, can tell you, the work is fulfilling, but comes with a set of challenges that for-profit leaders may be surprised to face.
Though their staffs, budgets and offices are vastly smaller, they all say the demands and challenges of the corporate life they once led are quite similar to their nonprofits. It's probably the most rewarding job I've ever had, but I don't know if I've ever worked harder, says Fortin, who spent many years in senior positions at Energy North in Manchester.

These executives also note the rewards from their new endeavors are incomparable to those received during their previous careers. Boyd, who spent her last 10 years in the corporate world in executive roles at Fidelity Investments and before that at Ernst and Young, sums it up best. Fidelity was a great company and very, very good to me, she says. That said, my worst day here has been better in terms of being more fun and fulfilling than my best day [in the corporate world.]

Demand for Corporate Talent
Nationally, there are more than 1 million charities and private foundations registered with the Internal Revenue Service. In the Granite State, there are approximately 7,000 nonprofit organizations, which, taken together, rank as the Granite State's second-largest employer, according to Mary Ellen Jackson, executive director of the NH Center for Nonprofits.
Jackson says she receives four or five e-mails each month from businesspeople looking for advice on how to make the transition to the nonprofit world. National trends point to a dearth of senior leadership during the next several years.

Recent studies show that between 50 to 75 percent of current nonprofit executive directors plan to leave their jobs within the next four to five years. A possible resource for nonprofits will come in the form of the more than 77 million Baby Boomers who are set to retire during the next decade and who may be looking for new career challenges. Even so, there may not be enough of them. The Bridgespan Group estimated in 2006 that during the coming decade, nonprofit organizations with revenues greater than $250,000 (excluding hospitals and higher education institutions) will need to attract and develop some 640,000 new senior managers-2.4 times the number currently employed. There's going to be a lot of jobs available in the future, Jackson says.

But those positions will require skillsets and leadership abilities that will test even the most seasoned executive, Jackson notes. You can't just leave the corporate world and walk into a leadership position at a nonprofit, she says. You need to understand the field and the mission. Executives also need to understand fund-raising and grant initiatives, working with a board of directors, collaborating with community partners, dealing with the media, motivating unpaid volunteers and much more. Yes, they are meaningful jobs, and, yes, you get to do something important with your life, Jackson says. But the other side of the coin is that they're complex, challenging and they're not easy. You have to go a lot of extra miles.

A Whole New World
A sense of culture shock can set in if businesspeople don't conduct due diligence for their new nonprofit life. Fortin was a volunteer with Breathe NH and served on its board. He had 14 years' worth of history with the organization. And still he says the president's job was more challenging than he thought it was going to be. Maybe I didn't have a full appreciation of the realities and challenges of running a small nonprofit, he says.
Fortin jokes that he shudders to think of the things he suggested to the president when he sat on the board of directors now that I'm having to walk the talk in the president role.

The Red Cross's Murray spent most of his career in the insurance business. Before taking the executive director job, he was the CEO of USI, a national insurance brokerage company, for eight years. He also had a long history of volunteerism. While for-profit and nonprofit worlds share some similarities, there are stark differences, Murray says. You go from a world where you have to make a 30 percent margin on everything you do, and now you need to break even, at best, because you need to spend everything that's given to you, he says. It's not about making money. It's 100 percent about services.

Boyd says that there are a couple of big differences between her for-profit and nonprofit lives. She has extensive sales and marketing experience and found those skills translated to donor relations-with one noteworthy exception. When you are selling, you're giving something to somebody for their money, and when you are soliciting a donation, you are not giving them anything tangible, Boyd says. You're giving them the opportunity to create a better future, but you're not handing them a product or a service.

She's also had to learn about the solicitation cycle: when is the time to ask for money, she says. The timing of that is different than the sales process. In addition, it's critical that executives realize that the volunteer labor force is distinct from full-time paid staff. You have to understand why they are volunteering for your organization and make sure they are getting their needs met, because that's what's going to keep bringing them back to help you, Boyd says. However, all three say the principles of Business 101 still apply. Fundamentally, the only difference is that we've got tax-exempt status, Fortin says. This is still a business. We still have to watch payroll, watch cash flow, use donors' money wisely, and sometimes it's even a little more difficult because you're under the public's eye.

Even with this complex set of challenges, the feeling of greater sense of purpose is evident in talking with those who have made the move. There's a purpose everyday when you wake up, and there's a reason to go to work that's a little bit different than making money for a large corporation, Murray says.

Boyd, Fortin and Murray have been contacted by colleagues about their nonprofit experiences. And all agree that that's a good first step for people considering the transition. If I were someone who was contemplating this career move, Boyd says, I would talk to people who have made it to find out the big surprises, the hardest things, so you know what you are getting into.

Volunteer or Join a Nonprofit Board
Jackson of the NH Center for Nonprofits says that volunteering is a great first step for those who are interested in getting to know a nonprofit, its mission, goals and culture. And for those who want to be an executive director, it will show that you have an interest and passion for the organization's mission. If you decide tomorrow that you'd like to be executive director of, say, a home for teenagers because you think it's a good mission and good cause, Jackson says, but you've never worked with teenagers, never run a facility like that, have no experience with all the issues that come up with federal funding, and never done donor development, then you shouldn't assume you can segue right into a leadership position just because you've been in a corporate position. In addition, she encourages people to serve on nonprofit boards or committees or help out on a new project at the organization.

Play to Your Strengths
There's no doubt that Boyd has a passion for animal welfare. But she realized that she could do the most good for the Animal Rescue League in an office, rather than on the front lines with the dogs and cats. Just because you have a passion for something else that's outside of the corporate world, it doesn't mean you should throw over your whole corporate skillset, Boyd says. It would have been a huge mistake for me to leave the corporate world, and come here to be a direct animal care worker, because my skillset isn't in direct animal care. She encourages future nonprofit workers to recognize what their skillsets are and choose a nonprofit-related position that leverages those. Because that's where you'll do the most good for the cause that you are passionate about, she adds.

Get to Know the Board
It's absolutely critical that those who are applying for the top job-at the president or executive director level-get to know the board of the organization. Nearly everyone who has made the transition and talked with Jackson about it say they underestimated the dynamics and collaboration that occurs with the board. It's much more difficult. You have to build a governance team, she says. The board is a volunteer group, and there's an awful lot of work the executive director needs to do with the president of the board to create a real high functioning nonprofit board that can govern and lead the organization. And that's a surprise to them-the amount of strategy and involvement they will have with the board.

Be Prepared to Wear Many Hats
The move from a large corporation, where there are paid employees who specialize in all facets of the business's operations, to a 15-person nonprofit can be alarming to some executives. You have to be more of a jack-of-all-trades, Jackson says. Fortin says that one day he might be talking with public health officials; the next he might be working on development strategies. If you're going to a small organization, Boyd says, you have to embrace that, even as a CEO, you're going to do everything: I do a lot of financial accounting work that CFOs and financial analysts did for me in the corporate world. I do a lot of the tech support because I have computer skills. I also empty my own trash and vacuum my own office.

No day will ever be the same as the previous, according to these nonprofit executives. Which is what they all say makes the experience so worthwhile. I had always heard that if you love what you are doing, it doesn't feel like work and I thought it was kind of a marketing line, Boyd says. But it turns out it's true. This very rarely feels like work.

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