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The allure of working for change

Last Updated 01 December 2020, 02:59 IST

By Venkatesh M Raghavendra

Do you feel a pull towards addressing some of the issues in society or the environment? Do you empathise with the pain of the undeserved? If the answer is yes, you might find your calling with a job in the not-for-profit sector.

In today’s age, the not-for-profit sector is booming and is a good option for professionals who want to take up a job in this space.

While there are certain academic courses and programmes that train you to work in the sector, it takes more than a standard degree to thrive in this domain. The sectors the non-profit space covers are as wide as the developmental issues in society. Whether it is education, public health, environment, livelihoods, youth development, disaster relief or climate change — you will find an organisation working in that area.

So, what skill sets do you need to carve out a career in this space? On the one hand, there are soft skills — a desire to serve, ability to engage with the community and the stakeholders, and a passion for the chosen field.

The other side is the hard skills, whether it is from the field of technology, accounting, research, legal knowledge or even marketing and community outreach.

However, there are certain skills like fundraising, that are quite specific to this sector. With the right mentorship, you can sharpen these skills over time or even take specific courses to add to your repertoire.

Making the switch

It is not uncommon for people from other sectors to migrate to the non-profit sector. There are an increasing number of instances where professionals from the corporate sector are moving over to the non-profit space.

Namrata Kabra is a trained lawyer who is determined to build her career in the non-profit sector. “As a lawyer, I would want maximum representation of those impacted in making laws. Those who are impacted are often ones who are not acquainted with rights and justice,” she says.

“I want to focus on climate change as it has the capacity to encapsulate various discourses into one. Like historic injustices to indigenous peoples, rights of nature, gender justice, inter-generational equity, environmental justice, rights of asylum seekers,” Namrata adds.

Namrata’s is a great example of how one’s professional experience in the for-profit industry can have relevance in the non-profit space. This is true of many other realms of knowledge as well.

Trina Talukdar is the co-founder of an organisation that works with girls from Mumbai’s red-light areas and empowers them to become agents of social change.

“I chose to work in the non-profit sector because I saw so many problems around me every day, that we usually just complain about — traffic, pollution, and gender discrimination. Being in this sector makes me feel like I can do something about these problems, rather than just complaining about them,” Trina says.

While Trina took the entrepreneurial route and co-founded an organisation, there are other career paths one can carve out for yourself.

You could begin by working for one of the innumerable NGOs across the country. You could also try working at international NGOs and foundations, though they offer limited opportunities.

Before starting her organisation, Trina worked for an international non-profit that supports social entrepreneurs.

Another interesting path into the sector is through Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. Today, almost all corporate entities have a CSR department that partner with other social sector organisations to fulfill their CSR priorities.

Pay packages

So what about remuneration?

Over the decades, the social sector has streamlined salaries and pay packages for various roles.

Though pay structures are still a bit arbitrary and smaller when compared to organisations in more established domains like the private sector, government or academia, many non-profit organisations are quite thorough in their compensation.

There are two other things: the gratification quotient and the coolness factor.

It is immensely gratifying to work in this space knowing that you wake up every day making a small but positive change in the world. You have the satisfaction of knowing that you are part of the solution and not just ruminating about the problems.

And yes, it is becoming cool to work in this space. You can always find fascinating and forward-looking areas to jump into.

(The author is advisor to many non-profits and currently SVP, Safe Water Network)

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(Published 01 December 2020, 00:39 IST)

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