Looking for a Job? Try a Nonprofit

OVER the last few years, as corporations fired workers en masse, some of the newly unemployed began sending their résumés to nonprofits. But often the job picture there was just as bleak — even as the need for services became greater.

Now that may be changing.

“Jobs are back,” said Ami Dar, executive director of Idealist.org, an online clearinghouse for nonprofits. In the fall of the 2008, when the economic crisis hit, job postings on the site fell by 40 percent. Now they are nearly back to precrisis levels, he said.

At The Chronicle of Philanthropy, employment ads have been sluggish all year, but in the Nov. 4 issue job postings suddenly doubled, said Stacy Palmer, the publication’s editor — perhaps reflecting a newfound confidence in the economy and people’s willingness to give. Longer term, the hiring outlook is also good, because just as in the corporate world, the baby boomers in nonprofits are starting to retire, she said.

Nonprofits are still seeking the tried and true skills in programming, fund-raising, customer service and administration, but a new type of position has crept into the mix — reflected in job titles like digital marketing manager, social media director and new-media director.

Whether to organize a text donation effort, respond to a request for help on Twitter, or use G.P.S. technology to mobilize volunteers, nonprofits increasingly need to communicate through technology to achieve their goals. And their hiring reflects that.

Take Danielle Brigida, 26, of the National Wildlife Federation. This year she was promoted from social media outreach coordinator to a new position, digital marketing manager.

In college, Ms. Brigida majored in English with a concentration in technical writing, and she double minored in biology and communications. As part of her job, she monitors the federation’s main Facebook and Twitter pages, contributes to its blog, keeps tabs on when it is mentioned on Web sites and other social media, and coaches other employees on the use of social media. She also set up Yammer, an internal communications system, so that the staff can communicate via instant messaging.

During the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Ms. Brigida used Facebook, Twitter and other sites as a way to solicit and channel volunteers and donations. As the gulf spill showed, social media is now an important bridge between those who need help and those who want to offer it, she said.

The Red Cross certainly found that to be true after the earthquake in Haiti last January. Wendy Harman, director of social media at the Red Cross, was involved in handling requests for information and help. These are increasingly occurring over the Internet, she said, and people expect a fast response; that means having a technology team in place, she said.

With the help of the State Department and mGive, a mobile donation provider service, Ms. Harman also helped publicize the “Text Haiti to 90999” program, which raised $32 million. Developed on the fly, the mobile text donation structure is now in place for future needs, she said.

Certainly, people with strong mobile technology and application skills will be in demand at nonprofits. For example, the Humane Society of the United States recently put an ad on Idealist.org for a mobile communications manager. And the Salvation Army of Greater New York recently advertised for a new-media director as it starts “a massive text giving program this holiday season as a complement to its tradition kettle campaign.”

Who will be applying for jobs like these? Chances are a good many of them will be coming from corporations. Certainly that is a result of recent layoffs, but during hard times, more people also want to “use their skills to do good and give back,” said Laura Reeves, chief talent officer for the American Cancer Society.

In its fiscal year 2010, the American Cancer Society received 120,000 outside résumés, a 520 percent increase over the year before, and a high proportion of those came from people in corporate jobs, she said.

New vocabulary words have emerged in just the last few years to describe the migration from the corporate to the nonprofit world — words like “sector switchers” and “bridgers, ” said Pratichi Shah, president and chief executive of Flourish Talent Management Solutions, which recruits for nonprofits.

Little hard data exists on nonprofit salary levels, but suffice it to say that corporate “switchers” are generally going to make less than they did before. Nonprofits know that they “need to pay fair salaries to attract the top talent, but they also have to be good stewards of the finances they’re given. They’re trying to hit that balance,” Ms. Shah said.

But she maintains that lower salaries will not keep nonprofits from hiring the best people. “Increasingly people want to find meaning in their work,” and they want to reduce “values dissonance” if they are experiencing that in the corporate sector, Ms. Shah said. “They want to be connected to their communities and part of a larger movement.”