by David Pike, MFT, SHRM-CP, Senior Recruiter at Cayuga Centers
If you’re looking to move into a career in social services and want to find a nonprofit job, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you want to make a difference?
- Do you want to have a rewarding career where you do purposeful work?
- Do you want to be a source of support for people in need?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you are ready to start your nonprofit career. If you are not sure if your skills will transfer to a nonprofit job, take a moment to think about what you bring to the table.
Reflect on Your Personal Experience
If you have personal or volunteering experience in similar fields or the same populations (I/DD, at-risk youth, mental health support, etc), your skills could translate easily into nonprofit work. Bringing a personal experience (having a family member who receives services or being a recipient yourself for example) adds crucial value that some may overlook. Being able to have a level of empathy and understanding is an immeasurable asset, especially when interacting with those in need. To be able to say “I understand” vs “I can imagine” makes all the difference in this line of work.
What Hard Skills are Transferable to Nonprofit Work?
If you have experience with multi-tasking, organizing, coordinating services (case management), administrative tasks, customer service, or other such experience, this will help you transition to a nonprofit career. Such skills can be utilized in a variety of ways that will help to achieve the main goal, which is to support, nurture, and care for families in need.
Not only can they be used for your job, but you can also teach and educate the families you work with. While they may seem like standard skills, they are invaluable lessons to individuals and families who never had the chance to learn them for daily life.
You don’t have to be a social worker or direct service worker to have a nonprofit career. All nonprofit organizations have traditional support teams like IT, HR, Finance, Risk/Compliance, and Fundraising/Communications. Additionally, many nonprofits have roles that track and analyze data to demonstrate their impact and compliance to funders and donors. Strong support departments in nonprofits allow direct service workers to do their best work in the field.
What Soft Skills are Transferable to Nonprofit Work?
Flexibility and patience are crucial skills for nonprofit jobs as well. While some work is done in the office with routine hours, a good amount of work is done outside the standard 9am-5pm in the community and home settings. Working with families will involve being available to meet them around their schedule based on their own work, school, or other activities in general that go beyond the “typical hours” approach.
Patience goes hand in hand with this because schedules change, people have difficult days, and every moment can change by the second. Being able to understand and work with this daily is essential. Be patient, kind, and understanding as you may be the main, if not only, source of support in their lives and they’ll need you to be there for them.
Do You Work Well in Teams?
Not only is being able to work independently vital, being able to work well in a team setting is just as important.
Many human service nonprofits work with a therapeutic team setting to provide the best level of care for those they serve. Such roles could include direct support professionals, case planners, support specialists, therapists, counselors, and so on.
All team members are equally important as the goal is to align the best level of care to support the families you work with. You need to be able to rely on your teammates just as much as they need to be able to rely on you.
Connection is Key
Ultimately, the key to success in a nonprofit job is to keep the “human” in human services. In the end, you’re here to be a positive influence on the lives of people who are in need. Whether you’re on the front lines of direct care in the homes and community, or behind the scenes in administrative or support roles, everyone plays a pivotal role for these families to be there for them.
Success in this line of work is watching a separated family come together and grow in harmony, seeing a student smile as they got a passing grade you helped them study for, witnessing a child get adopted by a loving foster family or reunite with their parents, seeing someone utilize a coping skill you taught them to manage a stressful situation, or any other form of growth and development. It’s being there and sharing these moments alongside them, knowing that you played a role in that, be it big or small, that made a positive difference.
Start Your Journey to Find Meaningful Work!
If you feel you have the skills and want to make a difference with this kind of meaningful work, then you are ready to make the leap into the nonprofit social services field.
Start your rewarding career in social services doing meaningful work by viewing the career opportunities at Cayuga Centers at www.cayugacenters.org/careers.
