Making the Move

Nonprofit workers seeking for-profit jobs have plenty of transferable skills — if they can get in the door

Derrell Jackson graduated from college four years ago motivated to help change the world.

But after just two years working for Good Samaritan Ministries, in Holland, Mich., he decided he could make as much of a difference working at a private company.

Tired of stretching his small paycheck and aware that resource-rich companies often dedicate time and money to helping charitable causes, Mr. Jackson began trying to find a new job in public relations. Many charities, he reasoned, wouldn’t exist without donations and pro bono help from businesses.

“I had no interest in business until I started working for a nonprofit and saw business people could do good work in the community,” Mr. Jackson says. “When I really got to see that, I thought about getting into the business world. [Good Samaritan] was great. The work was great. But there was something more I was looking for.”

He sought a for-profit job that would allow him to take on community problems and offer assistance to nonprofit organizations. In December 2003, Mr. Jackson believed he found the right opportunity: a well-paying position at a public-relations firm in Grand Rapids, Mich.

But he leapt without looking carefully at his new job and its demands. Three months after joining the company, Mr. Jackson was fired. “There was a misunderstanding when I had my initial interview,” he says. “I thought there would be time to transition and ramp up. But I needed to jump in right away.”

Mr. Jackson’s story has a happy ending. He landed a position with Lambert, Edwards & Associates, another public-relations firm in the same city, in June. Mr. Jackson says he and his new employer are a good fit and he believes he made the right choice to leave the nonprofit world. But his rocky transition from working for a charity to starting a career with a for-profit company is a cautionary tale for those looking to make a similar transition.

Transferring Skills

Many former nonprofit workers — lured by the prospect of higher salaries and better resources — say they have found happiness in the for-profit world. And a bigger paycheck, they often say, is not the only motivating factor. They believe that they are still making a contribution to society through their work, even though they are not employed by charitable organizations.

But while the money is usually better and the perks more plentiful, nonprofit workers need to be aware that they are moving into a new environment, with different challenges and expectations.

The first, and often the most daunting, challenge is simply getting a foot in the door. Business executives often view nonprofit workers as lacking the financial acumen, the work ethic, or the vision necessary to succeed in a profit-driven world, according to both recruiters and business employees who have come from charities. That view, in turn, can cause for-profit recruiters to dump résumés heavy on nonprofit experience into the “no” pile.

“I remember when I went from Procter & Gamble to the Arthritis Foundation, people told me I would never be able to get back into the for-profit world again,” recalls Carol Levey, now vice president of marketing at Maurice Lacroix Swiss Watches, in Encino, Calif.

Ms. Levey left her marketing job at Procter & Gamble nearly 12 years ago to take on an analogous position at the Arthritis Foundation that would give her more flexibility with her schedule — and more time with her young children. She returned to the corporate world in 2000 and says she has risen quickly at Maurice Lacroix.

The differences in skills required by for-profit and by nonprofit employers, she says, are not significant. At the Arthritis Foundation and at the watch company, for example, Ms. Levey says her task is similar: She is selling a brand and an image.

“I was basically changing brands,” she says of switching from nonprofit to for-profit work. “People shouldn’t be afraid to move from nonprofits to for-profits. There’s so much that’s transferable. It’s all about balancing a budget and making sure the revenues and expenses even out.”

Battling Stereotypes

Even when a job candidate’s skills are easy to transfer between the world of charities and businesses, it is often difficult to break through the wall that divides the two cultures. That wall, says Jim Piper, a partner at Stanton Chase International, an executive-recruitment company in Chicago, is often the result of stereotypes for-profit workers may harbor about their nonprofit counterparts. “There’s a feeling that they are not tested in the fires of competition,” he says.

Mr. Piper, who has helped several nonprofit executives find jobs in the business world, says many charity leaders are intrigued by the possibility of transferring their skills into a more lucrative arena. But they are often turned away because the prejudice against nonprofit employees intensifies as they progress in their careers.

“Up to the level of manager — generally equating to people below the age of 35 — there really is no serious difficulty for a nonprofit professional to make the move to the other side,” he says. “When you get to the level of director or vice president, it becomes more difficult to make the move.”

Such moves have been even more difficult in recent years, as a tight job market has prompted private companies to become more choosy in their hiring and has put a greater number of qualified professionals out of work.

To overcome these disadvantages, Ms. Levey says, experienced nonprofit workers who want to make the switch often need to take extra steps to build relationships with business executives. Those connections, she says, are usually easy to develop.

“Most nonprofits today can’t exist without having relationships in the for-profit world,” she says. “You should be digging in and mining relationships you already have with donors, even if it’s just informational interviews.”

The goal isn’t to be overt about one’s career ambitions, and such discussions should take place only with companies that have a relationship with the charity, says Scott Minnix, former executive director of Oregon MESA, in Portland, Ore., which helps minority students pursue careers in math, science, and engineering. He says no harm will come from a nonprofit employee’s displaying his or her skills to a donor — as long as it’s clear that the charity’s needs come first.

Mr. Minnix took advantage of one such donor relationship to land his first position in the for-profit arena. He says executives from Safeco Insurance — a Seattle company that is one of Oregon MESA’s largest donors — got to know him when they worked together planning events for Oregon MESA. That relationship ultimately led Safeco to approach him in 2003 about becoming its community-relations manager.

Today, Mr. Minnix works as Safeco’s liaison with nonprofit organizations across the country, helping coordinate the company’s philanthropic activities and mobilize employees for community-service projects. The position allows him to satisfy his desire to help others. It also provides him with a higher salary and eliminates some of the headaches that come from working as a nonprofit executive director.

When he worked for a charity, he says, he not only had to manage his staff, court donors, and work with the young people his nonprofit group served, but was also charged with putting together brochures and annual reports. In his new role, he says, he can focus on what he does best — while colleagues who specialize in public relations worry about writing and designing marketing pieces.

“When you’re an executive director, you do everything and you have a shoestring budget,” he says. “I’d do all of our publications. They have professionals here. That’s what they do — and they do it better.”

Since making the move to Safeco, Mr. Minnix says, he has been approached for advice by former colleagues in the nonprofit world who want to leave the security of their current positions for more-lucrative business positions. He says he often advises those friends to aggressively cultivate relationships with corporate donors. Such ties not only widen career options, he says, but can also lead to more-substantial donations for the charity.

“Those companies don’t just want to give you money,” Mr. Minnix says. “They want to be engaged in what you’re doing. Work with them.”

Making the Sale

For those without solid connections in the business world, the key to landing a job is selling the skills they honed while working in a nonprofit setting.

Most companies are looking for qualified people who have experience balancing budgets, managing a staff, and marketing to particular segments of the public, says Joshua Estrin, a longtime nonprofit executive who is now president of Concepts in Success, a management consulting company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that works with for-profit clients.

Mr. Estrin in 2001 left his post at the Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans, where he served as executive director for the Florida region. He says that job candidates who have successfully demonstrated the skills businesses need while working under a tight nonprofit budget can often make a strong case to potential for-profit employers.

“There’s this belief that if you are in the nonprofit sector, you have nothing to offer the for-profit world,” he says. “But those of us who have been in nonprofit America are becoming more and more sought after. If you can separate someone from philanthropic money, you are a force to be reckoned with.”

But while many skills translate well into the business world, former nonprofit employees still need to prepare for a cultural transition, says Tim Lemberger, director of the for-profit Illinois Institute of Art, in Chicago. In the nonprofit world, workers can find satisfaction in helping clients or fulfulling an organization’s mission. In the for-profit world, he says, the satisfaction is largely measured in dollars and cents.

“Money is a focus of both successful nonprofits and for-profits. However, people who don’t like a constant focus on the bottom line may be more frustrated in a for-profit company,” says Mr. Lemberger, who three years ago left a position at the Golden Apple Foundation, an educational grant maker in Chicago. “There are many times fewer emotional highs from the work a person does in a for-profit company, where you may not see as directly the people who are helped by the work that you do.”

Nonprofit workers may even find that they are required to change their management style in a for-profit job, say those who have worked in both environments. Instead of making decisions deliberately and by consensus, as nonprofit employees do, business executives are often required to make quick judgments without consulting a board of directors or a committee of colleagues.

“I had to completely shift gears,” Mr. Estrin says of his move into running his own business. “There’s not a lot of room in for-profit business for warm and fuzzies.”

A Competitive Edge

After a long career with arts, economic-development, and environmental advocacy groups, Gayle Peterson says she had to make a significant philosophical transition when she started her own consulting business in the late 1990s. Her business, the Headwaters Group, in St. Paul, helps its nonprofit clients with planning, grant seeking, and management issues.

Although she found that the skills she honed in her nonprofit career helped her, she quickly learned that she also needed to become more innovative, constantly looking for ways to differentiate her company from its competitors.

“You have to hit your bottom line to support your staff and support their families,” says Ms. Peterson, whose résumé includes stints as executive director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit literary press. “It’s recognizing that every year you’ve got to think and re-create and see new opportunities. In the nonprofit world, you might be working on the same issue for 20 years.”

For those who work in larger corporate settings, the transition from the nonprofit world carries a different set of challenges.

Mr. Minnix, of Safeco, says he enjoys the fact that he has a more specialized job than he did when he was the executive director of Oregon MESA. But he does miss some parts of his old job — primarily the autonomy that came with running his own organization and the daily contact with the people his organization served.

“For me, I miss the direct impact with who I serve,” he says. “I’m helping people. But I don’t get to see them face-to-face.”