Should You Take a Job with a Nonprofit?
I attended a workshop yesterday produced by the Nonprofit Marketing Group of the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association called, "Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs, Oh My!" The workshop was run by David Galiel of Public Interest Entertainment Corporation, a nonprofit, open source digital entertainment studio, and Carrie Stack of the Say Yes Institute.
The workshop made it clear that there is a lot in the Web 2.0 world that nonprofits can "profit" from, such as using wikis as an inexpensive, collaborative tool for writing grants and project management, or blogs as an alternate PR channel. It also made it clear that, like many organizations in the "for-profit" world, folks in the nonprofit world are still learning how to make the most of these emerging and very powerful social technologies.
Which means that people interested in using these new technologies, or learning more about how to use them, may want to consider doing so in the context of working for a nonprofit. As Holly Goodrich pointed out when I spoke with her, one benefit of working for a nonprofit is that, due to lamentable understaffing, you usually aren't pigeonholed into one particular role there. On the contrary, you can actually play a lot of different roles and do a lot of different things, such as experimenting with these great, new tools for organizing people and distributing information.
Aside from the above, the workshop also introduced me to this cool video about the new media:
Comments
Thanks for the kind words, Matt. I am especially glad to see you discuss the possibilities and advantages of working for nonprofits.
I just wanted to add that, besides the opportunity to apply new, open tools and technologies in a nonprofit setting, there is also a tremendous need - and a corresponding opportunity - for marketing folks to apply their skills and wisdom in the service of the nonprofit and public sector. Many worthy projects and organizations are "well kept secrets", because cause-oriented folks tend not to be as comfortable with promotion (I know that is a problem I have with my own nonprofit, PIECORP).
I encourage you and your readers to explore ways to use what you know to make a difference.
Posted by: David Galiel @ Jun 15, 2007