Lack of Pay a Growing Challenge for Nonprofit Interns

Recent college graduates looking to start a career in the nonprofit world are increasingly finding themselves squeezed by organizations’ insistence that they bring internship experience and groups’ unwillingness to pay for same, according to Al Jazeera America.

Fifty-seven percent of internships at nonprofits are unpaid, compared to 48 percent at government offices and 34 percent in business, a 2010 study found. Charitable organizations have more legal leeway to offer unpaid work than other types of employers, but some critics say they take advantage of this status to secure free labor.

Young people interviewed by Al Jazeera said they could not support themselves while working or being offered a series of unpaid internships and that the nonprofit field is being closed off to those unwilling or unable to spend a significant amount of time working wage-free. Some nonprofits acknowledge the problem but cite their own budget straits and say ending unpaid internships would eliminate an important avenue for people to build resumes and gain new skills.