How To Land A Job At a High-Impact Charity
3 min read | 18 March, 2024
How can you land an impactful job for a nonprofit after your studies?
To find out, we asked Liz Hixson. Liz has experience in senior-level fundraising and communication roles and works currently for one of GiveWell’s top-rated charities, New Incentives.
In our podcast, Liz gave her top three tips:
Build a strong foundation of soft skills.
Upskill in key areas.
Explore your nonprofit career opportunities.
Build a strong foundation of soft skills
Developing several soft skills is one of the best ways to prepare for a nonprofit career.
Some key soft skills include:
Communication
In any career it is so important to be able to express yourself clearly, confidently, and effectively. But even more so in nonprofit careers, especially in fundraising:
“You need to be able to communicate. That's obviously very important in fundraising… being an articulate communicator.”
Problem-solving
In a nonprofit career you have to be able to address issues or barriers, and creatively find solutions to solve these challenges.
“Whether you want to go into communications and fundraising, or whether you want to go into operations, whatever the career path… you have to be able to creatively problem solve.”
Organization
Another important soft skill is being organized:
“Being organized in your work such that other people can come in and join a project and it doesn't look like chaos. People can follow along.”
Responsibility and initiative
Being able to take ownership for mistakes and taking initiative when you see a problem.
“A huge one is developing the soft skill to be able to take responsibility for when you mess up. Because we all do. And you need to be able to take initiative when you see a problem, you need to be able to take initiative to solve that problem, and to come up with a solution.”
Taking initiative and being organized form a personality trait called conscientiousness, which studies show is one of the biggest predictors of job success across a wide range of roles.
2. Upskill in Key Areas
To maximize the amount of good you can do by working in an effective charity, a few key skills are essential:
“I would say for the fundraising, marketing, and communications world, I think being able to hone several different skills is really valuable.”
What does Liz recommend to acquire these skills?
Invest in self-learning
Figuring out how to do various tasks is immensely valuable in the nonprofit world.
“Ask yourself, what are the skills that they are looking for? - then go develop those skills.”
Become self-taught in things like graphic design, communicating effectively (written and orally). Or learn how to use tools like CapCut, Airtable proficiently.
Liz recommends to go figure out how to build a website. You can do that for free in Webflow, or a free-trial on Squarespace.
You don't need a degree or formal training in every skill. What’s essential is having the willingness to learn and proactively seek areas to learn new skills that add value to the organizations you work for.
Start in a for-profit role
Nonprofits, often operating with limited resources and budget, may not provide ample opportunities for training or career advancement when compared to for-profit companies.
That’s why to land the highest-impact charity roles, strongly consider starting in a for-profit role instead. For instance, Katie Fantaguzzi gained skills in healthcare consulting before transitioning to a senior role at the world’s largest deworming nonprofit.
We strongly recommend that readers aiming for a role at a high-impact charity begin their careers building skills in areas like tech, consulting, or fast-paced start-ups.
3. Explore your nonprofit career opportunities
Far too often people interested in nonprofit careers wait for an official job posting to seek out an opportunity.
But you can start right now:
“You could totally create an opportunity for yourself even before you get out of university.”
Most nonprofits are looking for people who proactively reach out:
“A lot of nonprofits are really short on time and they just want someone to show up and be like, I'm good at this. I can offer this with minimal management. Just give me a shot. I'll produce it for you.”
But you have to search for those opportunities:
“Go look at job boards and see what's available and see what organizations are looking for.”
Reach out to us, or check out the 80,000 hours job board. Also check out GiveWell’s top charities.
“And if something appeals to you… then apply for it… Expand your horizons. Figure out what organizations are out there… There are so many organizations out there that are focused on impact, cost-effectiveness, and scaling a data-driven program. You might be surprised what you find and who's hiring.”
To summarize, the top three things you can do to get started in a nonprofit career are:
Develop your soft skills (e.g., communication, organization, problem-solving, responsibility & initiative)
Upskill in key areas, (Be self-taught, start out in for-profit roles)
Reach out to nonprofits you’re interested in with your skills
Want to hear more from Liz? Listen to our full episode where we discuss:
Fundraising in Christian versus secular settings
The significance of addressing easily preventable diseases
Best college majors for effective nonprofit careers
