I am looking for a graduate student or nonprofit nerd/connoisseur to provide me with research on nonprofit and philanthropy trends. The topics will be provided and I would like the researcher to summarize the trend in 2-3 pages and provide a list of sources. I need between 5-10 hours a month of research time. For every 5 hours of research time that you provide, I will give you one hour of professional development coaching. More information about my coaching areas of expertise are at www.nonprofitrockstar.com.

The researcher can work virtually, so geographic location is not important. If you are interested, please send me an email at tristaharris (at) gmail (dot) com.

In this philanthropy job series I’ll cover that a program officer does. When I was a fundraiser and wanted to work in philanthropy, I thought that program officer’s had 5-10 organizations that they worked with over a number of years. I thought I’d learn about organizations inside and out and help them make the world a better place. What really happened is that I had more than a hundred organizations (current grantees, applicants, former organizations, and organizations doing similar work) that I needed to understand on the most basic level. Most of my time was spent telling great people and organizations that we would not be funding them and managing the avalanche of paperwork that followed those that we could fund. All of that being said, I think being a program officer is one of the most exciting and fulfilling jobs in the social sector.  There are three main phases of work for the program officer: Eyes & Ears, Brain & Heart, and Hands & Feet.

Eyes & Ears: This phase of work is filled with spending time in your community to develop relationships, doing informational calls with prospective grantees, and identifying organizations to encourage to apply during the grant process. The amount of time that you spend doing these things varies widely depending on your foundation. Some foundations are so understaffed that they don’t do this type of outreach. Other foundations may spend years on this type of work as they develop a grantmaking program.

 
Brain & Heart: This phase is where the big paperwork and analysis begins. In this phase you receive letters of inquiry and applications (depending on the foundation and the narrowness of its guidelines this could be a few dozen or hundreds of applications). Your role is to determine if the applications fit the guidelines and if the organization has the capacity to undertake the work that they have described. Later in the process you might do site visits, outside research, or interviews with community stakeholders. You will then write up a summary of the applications to the foundation’s board. In this phase you will give a lot of bad news. Many organizations won’t get funding and a good program officer learns how to give that bad news in a way that honors the work of the nonprofit and offers suggestion to improve the program or find a foundation where the work is a better fit.

 
Hands & Feet: This part of the work is about being an ambassador for that organization to your board and in the community. You are their voice in the board room (either verbally or written) and you are the person that needs to be able to answer any questions that the board has. If the organization is funded, you communicate any expectations that your foundation has (reports, outcomes, publicity) and help the organization navigate grant agreements, evaluation frameworks, or required convenings that your foundation hosts.  You can also connect those grantees with colleagues at other foundations that may be interested in their work.

I lay out this description of a program officer’s job not because I feel like this is how the grantee/grantor relationship should be but because I want you to know what you are getting into if you pursue a career in philanthropy. There is a lot of work to be done to reduce the amount of paperwork in foundations, increase foundation’s transparency and better train program officers and if you become a foundation staff member, I hope that you will take on those causes as seriously as you take on evaluating the work of nonprofits.

If you work as a program officer, what parts of your job do you love, which do you hate?

I’ve heard from many of my recruiter friends that January is a prime time for organizations to start searches because people often make New Year’s resoultions to get a new job. If you have a resolution to get a job in the philanthropic field, here are a few pieces of advice to help you on your journey:

Develop Expertise: Lots of foundations (especially community foundations or unstaffed foundations) need volunteers to help them make grantmaking decisions. Volunteer your services and build some expertise in grantmaking.  As Rosetta Thurman says “don’t volunteer for free“, get some new skills out of it.

Build a Strong Network: While you are volunteering, build your network. Use that foot in the door to attend philanthropy conferences or foundation briefings. I got my first volunteer opportunity in philanthropy by sneaking into a Joint Affinity Group meeting. A funder that I knew saw me there and asked me if I was interested in being on one of their grant review committees, that led to consulting work with that foundation, and then to a job there as a program officer. (Check out my post “So you wanna be a Program Officer” for more tips on how to get a job reviewing grants)

Brand Yourself: Different foundations have different brands, for example academic, community-focused, cutting edge, or stuffy. Find a foundation that aligns with your personal brand and make sure that your resume and cover letter highlight your brand.

Take the Leap: It is easy to psyc yourself out and not apply for your dream philanthropy job. Sometimes you have to suck it up and take a chance. If you want to make a difference through grantmaking, prepare and be willing to take the leap.

Too often in the social sector, our organizations are like rowboats, we are all rowing in the same direction but we are looking backwards as we do it. My personal plan for 2012 is to be more forward thinking, so that I can anticipate what will happen next and prepare for it, rather than being reactive to yesterday’s problem. In that spirit, here are my predictions for the social sector in 2012:

0% processing fee for donations

In response to mass protests against the financial services industries, a forward-thinking credit card company decides to demonstrate extreme corporate citizenship and eliminate credit card fees for donations on a charity donation site like www.Razoo.com. Their market share increases significantly, nonprofits see a boost to their bottom line, and other credit card companies quickly follow suit. By 2015, charity donations enjoy 0% fees across donation platforms.

Nonprofit intellectual property infringement

A small nonprofit sued a corporate philanthropy program that uses crowdsourcing contests. In court papers the nonprofit alleged that the corporate giving program used the contest to identify promising trends in the social sector and then funded larger nonprofits to implement those strategies.

95% for social enterprise

A large, national foundation changed its investment strategy from traditional investments that have little mission impact, to 100% of its endowment invested in social enterprise projects. The range of projects that they support include grocery stores in inner city, wind projects, and a Zipcar franchise. The foundation saw an increase in investment returns and was able to leverage its entire endowment for its mission.

Millennial movement

A Top 100 nonprofit hired a CEO from the millennial generation. The organization touts their new CEO’s ability to ability to harness the power of technology and manage remote teams. Nonprofit sector analysts watch this placement carefully to determine if this is representative of a new wave of hiring from traditional organizations that are looking to completely revamp the way that they do work.

Common grants become common

Regional Associations of Grantmakers from across the country announce that they have partnered together to create a universal common grant application. The application is widely adopted by grantmakers and significantly reduces the paperwork burden on nonprofits.

Career Agents

An enterprising recruitment firm has identified the trend of Gen X and Gen Y employees taking an increasing number project-based appointments with nonprofit organizations. To capitalize on this trend they added to their staff of recruiters a handful of “career agents”, that are not hired by the nonprofit but are retained by the individual nonprofit professional. These career agents identify positions and negotiate on behalf of the professional.

What changes do you see happening in 2012 for the social sector?

It is almost time for the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy Annual Conference! Register here. To get you excited about the great content of the conference, I am reposting a session that I did at the last EPIP Conference called “How to Build your Multi-generational Network from Scratch”.

Watch the Video Here

2011 EPIP National Conference

Concurrent Workshop: Investing in Influence for Policy Change
Conference Track: Philanthropology 4.0 – Generations in Philanthropy

Session Designer:
Trista Harris, Headwaters Foundation for Justice

Synopsis:
You’ve heard this many times before: good grantmaking is about knowing what is happening on the ground.  Having a strong network can help you master this grantmaking skill.     But how do you network if you don’t have much of a “network”, especially a network that spans multiple generations? Well, back in the day, before Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, people actually made connections face to face most of the time. These days, technology has made communication much less time-consuming, but the old-fashioned methods of networking still hold true.    This interactive presentation will reveal nine practical ways to build your network from scratch – both on and offline.

Too often I am self-reliant to a fault. I usually refuse to ask for help and think that I can balance the world on my shoulders. What happens when you balance the world on your shoulders alone is that you drop something or you get squished. A few years ago, I realized that trying to do it all was holding me back professionally and personally. I started writing about how to hire a wife and the myth of work/life balance. The surprising way that I got through that rut and finally had the space to write a book, run a foundation, and travel around the country on a book tour while raising two kids is by becoming a part of a multigenerational household. My Dad moved in with us almost 2 years ago and it has made all the difference in the world. Instead of cursing through traffic to try to get home before daycare closes, he now picks them up from school and I can even have an occasional evening meeting or travel on the book tour without worrying how the kids are going to get in school.

Raising a family and having a career today is becoming a 10 person job. If you feel like it has been impossible for you to juggle the demands of home and work, it is probably because it is impossible to juggle home and work. Calling in the reinforcements doesn’t mean that you are weak, it just means that none of us can do this alone.

Thanks Dad for having my back.

When I first started in philanthropy I had a great professional network that I could rely on for advice and connections but felt like I was really missing the emotional support that I needed to move on to the next phase of my career. I had great friends, but they didn’t really want to talk about work stuff. I had coffee with a colleague who was expressing the same frustration, so we decided to start an informal coaching group of young female professionals, who were ready to move to the next phase of leadership and would benefit from a community of support.

We called our group the “Fab 5.” The five women were from academia, philanthropy, social enterprise, and business. Their diversity of experiences and perspectives lead to rich conversations and new connections during our monthly meetings. Each meeting is hosted by one of the members on a rotating basis and includes a time for check-in around a guiding question like “how to balance work and home” or “finding volunteer opportunities that sustain you” or “managing up.” Each of these women is an important mentor in my life.

An exciting development in my journey with the Fab 5, is seeing the model be replicated all over the country by people that were inspired by it when they read “How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar”. I was so surprised when I heard someone talk about her “Fab 5” group, so I said “Hey, I have a Fab 5 group too!” She said “I know I got the idea from you when I read the book.” Whoops.  I’m amazed that our little group is useful for people all over that are trying to take their careers to the next level.

What have you tried to get the encouragement you need to strengthen your career?

One year ago this week, Rosetta Thurman and I released the book “How to Become  Nonprofit Rockstar“. I don’t think either of us could imagine the sort of reception that the book has received. We have heard from readers as far away as Tanzania,  where the President of a Civil Society Foundation in Dar es Salaam has gotten two copies so far because her last signed copy was borrowed and not returned.  The nearest reader has been someone that lives about 10 feet away from me. My 12 year old daughter read a copy of the book and when I took an especially cute photo of her in footie pajamas and said that I was going to post it on my Facebook page, she said I was hurting her personal brand.

I’ve been especially grateful for the many readers that have tweeted about the book, participated in our leadership intensive, and have worked like heck to get me and Rosetta to your towns as part of the Nonprofit Rockstar Tour. During the tour, I’ve gotten to visit 6 of the 11 EPIP Chapters across the country and have been so impressed with the expertise and leadership young people are bringing to the social sector. Publicizing this book has been a completely grassroots effort and without your assistance we couldn’t have spread this message across the country. Since each of you has done so much to spread the word about the book, we decided the 1st anniversary was a great time to express our gratitude.

For one week only (October 31st to November 6th), we are giving you a free electronic copy of “How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar” ($24.99 value), when you click on the pay with a tweet button below. You will receive a complete PDF of the book, when you send a tweet or Facebook post about the book using the link below.

*Image from the amazing Northern Sun catalog

To put it mildly, this economy stinks. Many recent college grads or long-term nonprofit professionals are looking for work. From organizational downsizing, to cuts in grant funding, to hiring freezes, it is tough to get your foot in the door in any field. It’s even hard when you are trying to do good for a living. Here are some tips to shorten your job search:

• Have fresh eyes look at your resume- If you have sent your resume to 40 organizations and aren’t getting an interview, it’s time to have someone else take a look. Possiblities are friends, mentors, or organizations that have employment counselors can all be helpful.You want to put your expertise in the best possible light and often help is needed to do this.
• Make a social media splash- It is critical to have an updated social media presence during your job search because possible employers will be Googling you. Setting up a LinkedIn profile is critical and cleaning up any questionable Facebook content helps too.
• Drink a lot of coffee- Informational interviews are critical where you are conducting a job search. Do research on your “dream” organizations and set up coffee with their Executive Director or someone who is doing a job you would like to do. Spend 80% of the time listening and 20% asking questions and sharing your background. Learn about the organization and ask who else you should talk to in their network. Leave them with a copy of your resume and a good impression of you. 
• Build your skills- During your job search volunteer to build your skill base. If you want to be an event coordinator for that great mentoring program, volunteer to help them plan their next big event. You’ll sharpen your skillset and build new relationships.
• Get a side hustle- Having an extra way to earn income is critical while your are working full time and especially when you are looking for work. Side hustles allow you to strengthen a skill set (contract grantwriting) or explore another side of yourself (yoga class anyone?), while you are bringing in extra financial resources. Other places where you can identify some side work are www.elance.com or through our network.

I’ve been preaching for a long time that having a mentor isn’t enough to get you big dog status. The Washington Post has a great article that drives that point home. From the Washington Post:

Much ado has been made recently about the importance of sponsors, versus mentors, in the career advancement of women. Just this summer, Catalyst released a study, Sponsoring Women to Success , pointing to the fact that sponsorship may in fact be the single most critical strategy for accelerating a woman’s career.

So just what is the difference between a mentor and sponsor? Think of mentors as the friendly guides who dispense helpful information, offering up input and advice to mentees. Sponsors, on the other hand, are defined by their organizational clout and ability to open doors; they will personally advocate for a cause, project or promotion on a protégé’s behalf.