Professionals Turn to Retraining Programs in Quest for Nonprofit Jobs
When Allyn Yamanouchi was offered a buyout by Citigroup at the end of last year, the 58-year-old corporate tax specialist didn’t hesitate to take it. With the financial-services giant announcing plans to lay off more than 50,000 employees, Ms. Yamanouchi suspected that her career managing legal…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
Résumés Matter: What Nonprofit Employers Want to Know About Job Seekers
When the nonprofit research and education group Public Agenda, in New York, advertised for an entry-level communications manager in May, the response was staggering. More than 400 people applied for the position, including veteran reporters, television producers — even a former network bureau…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
A Grant Maker’s Upbeat Plans for the Big Easy
More than three years after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the Gulf Coast remains scarred by the storms’ wrath. Yet Albert Ruesga is decidedly hopeful as he surveys the region that has just become his new home. “The storms had an enormous impact on the city and its people, but there’s an incredible…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
With the economic downturn likely to lead to a significant drop in charitable donations and already taking a bite out of many endowments, many nonprofit organizations have begun to think about ways to cut back their spending. One expenditure that could soon go the way of canceled holiday parties:…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
Carefully Weigh Prison Past of Job Seekers, Say Experts
Stanley Richards and his fellow workers at the Fortune Society, in New York, are painfully aware of the reasons so few black men can be found in nonprofit jobs as well as the rest of the work force. One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is currently in prison, according to a study by the Pew Center…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
In the five and a half years that Jerome Grant has worked for the YWCA of the City of New York as its vice president for development and external affairs, he has grown to appreciate just how seriously his employer takes the concept of diversity. “The YWCA has a policy of really trying to seek out…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
Christine Nyirjesy Bragale considers herself a foot soldier in the battle against nonprofit jargon. Ms. Bragale, the media-relations director at Goodwill Industries International, has been known to rear up at the very sound of foundation tag lines sprinkled with phrases like “capacity,”…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
Tips for Dismissing a Leader and Managing a Transition
When a charity’s board concludes that it is time to dismiss an executive director, the key to a ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: A Parting of Ways well-managed transition — one that unfolds with a minimum amount of damage to the organization and the individuals involved — is excellent planning and communication,…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
When Millard Fuller, founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International, was ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: Tips for Dismissing a Leader and Managing a Transition fired by the charity’s board in January 2005, the official reason given was that he had been too outspoken about an investigation into…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
Potential Charity Leaders See Top Job as Unappealing, New Survey Reveals
The charity world is expected to require tens of thousands of new leaders within the next decade, ALSO SEE: ARTICLE: The Young and the Restless ARTICLE: Longtime Nonprofit Leaders Cite Financial Security Worries ARTICLE: Up-and-Coming Nonprofit Workers and Their Career Plans as the baby-boomer…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor