Getting Nonprofit Job Classifications Right

I've spent some time this morning and earlier this week in phone consultation with a for-profit company, and it's been great. No, I haven't turned away from the nonprofit sector. I'm still fully busy serving as an Interim Executive Director for one agency, and squeezing in some retreat facilitation and training when I can.

But this for-profit came to me with a problem that has bugged me for many years, and I'll bet you've had the same frustration. When you've gone to the major, general interest job sites (Monster, Career Builder, etc.) have you ever looked at the classifications for nonprofit jobs and said to yourself, "They just don't get it."?

Well, this company is putting together a new, better job search engine, and is really trying to get the nonprofit jobs right. It gave me a chance to think about how we describe ourselves and our positions in the nonprofit world.

Do you consider yourself an advocate first, and the area of your advocacy second? Or do you consider yourself an environmentalist, or a human services person first, and advocacy second? What about for fundraisers? Are you a committed to your issue are first, or could you raise money for any cause? Is the answer different based on your job function? I'd be interested in reading your comments on this.

Hopefully, soon, they will complete their project and launch the site, and I'll be able to give them a plug here. I know I'm looking forward to seeing the end results.

A plug I can give now is to Nancy Schwartz, of the Getting Attention blog. Nancy is a nonprofit communications and PR expert who annually compiles the Nonprofit Tagline Report. This year's report was just released and is available for download by clicking this link: www.gettingattention.org. In the report you'll learn "How to Build Your Nonprofit's Brand in Eight Words or Less..."

• The 10 Have-Tos for Successful Taglines. Put your nonprofit marketing into high gear.
• The 7 Deadly Sins. Examples of what not to do.
• What Makes a Winning Tagline. Winners of the 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Awards.
• Over 2,500 Nonprofit Tagline Examples. Put them to work for tagline brainstorming.

Enjoy the report, and thanks for reading!

What are we compaining about?

According to a new report from the Urban Institute, the growth of the nonprofit sector has outpaced the growth of the economy over the past decade. The report says that, "While the nation's gross domestic product grew by an inflation-adjusted 36.6 percent from 1994 to 2004, the nonprofit sector's revenues increased 61.5 percent." So why are we always whining about needing more?

Probably because all that growth and resources is concentrated in hospitals and universities. Some of the data from the report:

• Hospitals and other health care organizations, 12.9 percent of all reporting public charities, accounted for 58.7 percent of the sector's revenues in 2004, 41.1 percent of its assets, and 60.0 percent of its expenses, dominating each category.
  
  
• Colleges and other higher education nonprofits, less than 1 percent of reporting public charities, received 11.6 percent of the sector's revenue, controlled 22.3 percent of its assets, and recorded 10.9 percent of its expenses.
  
  
• Human service organizations, 34.5 percent of reporting public charities, had only 13.6 percent of the sector's revenues, 11.5 percent of its assets, and 14.0 percent of its expenses.

Get more information from the Urban Institute's web site.

What about that election last week?

I generally try to keep politics out of this blog (not always successful), but I thought this was an interesting short article in the Philanthropy News Digest: Nonprofit Leaders Weigh Impact of Election.

The article tackles the question of whether or not the incoming Democratic Congress would be "better for the nonprofit sector" than the exiting Republicans. The short answer is, "marginally."

In the Senate, where the Finance Committee chairmanship will go from from Charles Grassley (R-IA) to Max Baucus (D-MT), no change in direction is expected. Grassley and Baucus have a close working relationship and have traded this position back and forth before.

In the House of Representatives, however, Charles Rangel (D-NY) will take over the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee from Bill Thomas (R-CA). This leadership change does make the committee more receptive to some our issues.

But...

Perry Wasserman, managing director of 501(c) Strategies, a D.C.-based lobbying group, cautioned nonprofits not to expect too much of the Democrats. "[It's] important to have realistic expectations of the next two years," he said. Although Democrats have articulated an agenda for the next session, "they're focusing on 2008, so not everything is on the table."

Will things be better for nonprofits under the new Democratic Congress? Well, at least they won't be any worse.

By the way... This is posting number 100 at the Nonprofit Consultant Blog. In a minor technical note, this posting also marks a change from the "old Blogger" to the "new Blogger beta." Please excuse any glitches as I transition to the new platform.