did you know that you can make a living
working for a nonprofit organization I
didn't actually figure this out until I
was in college but the fact is that you
can work for a non-profit and make a
living there are just a couple of
catches so if you are thinking about a
career in nonprofits or thinking of
starting a non-profit and wondering how
you will make a living if you do so I'm
going to talk you through a few things
that you should be considering in this
video welcome back if you are new to my
channel my name is Amber Melanie Smith
and I am a nonprofit founder executive
director and speaker on leadership and
service I also make these videos here on
YouTube every week so feel free to
subscribe and join me regularly for
information on making an impact
nonprofits leadership service and so
much more my whole mission is to help
you aspiring changemakers with tips and
strategies to help you change the world
while living a life of impact and
purpose so just a little bit of context
I mentioned I am a nonprofit founder so
I launched a nonprofit organization that
I currently work full time for many
years ago and so I have been through
this experience of what it takes to
start an organization get it to the
point where revenues coming in and to
the point where I can do this full-time
and I've also gone through some of the
hiccups and setbacks and challenges that
stood in the way of getting me to that
point faster so I will be doing lots of
other videos on various things that
happen throughout this journey and how
if you are on the same path of thinking
of starting a non-profit you can perhaps
avoid some of the mistakes that I have
made and get there a little faster than
I did but for this video I want to talk
about a couple things that you really
should know about how nonprofits work
and how to be able to get to a point
where you could work for a non-profit
full-time if that is what you are
thinking of doing so I mentioned that
there is a catch when it comes to being
able to receive a salary and work
full-time for a nonprofit organization
there's actually two catches
I want to talk about in this video
the first catch is that by law a
nonprofit organization the United States
has to have a board of directors and it
is the Board of Directors who creates
the nonprofit's budget and decides
whether to hire you or not and what your
salary is going to be so you can't or
rather it's unethical and in some cases
illegal to be able to decide what your
own salary is going to be and give it to
yourself this doesn't mean however that
you can't request a certain salary from
your board of directors or make
recommendations to your board for a
certain salary you should certainly as
any nonprofit professional be doing
compensation research to know what other
salaries look like in organizations of a
similar budget range as yours so that
you know if you're being paid fairly or
not more often than not the sad truth is
that nonprofit professionals get paid
far below what they are worth and
definitely below what it takes to
survive and/or thrive financially in
this world today and there's this whole
other conversation going on right now in
the nonprofit industry about this very
thing how to ensure that people working
in the nonprofit sector are compensated
fairly and competitively to keep these
amazing public servants around because
let's face it the world relies on
nonprofits and needs nonprofits to be
out there serving people and tackling
major social issues with my board of
directors I will make recommendations
during our annual retreat for our budget
and for salaries not just for myself but
for all of our staff members but it is
ultimately up to them to discuss and
vote on what the budget is going to be
after I make my case and my requests
fair compensation is definitely possible
if you work harmoniously with your board
of directors but it's important to note
that you do not get to vote on your own
salary
the second catch that I want to discuss
in this conversation is that it can be
difficult to generate enough revenue for
your organization to hire you or anybody
as a staff person without a solid
fundraising plan a common misconception
that I hear from folks in the general
public a lot is that you can't be paid a
salary if you work for nonprofits but
along with the whole topic of this video
we know that that's not true all
nonprofit means is that you can generate
income you can generate revenue but all
of that revenue is going back into the
mission of the organization that can
include and often does include covering
the costs of staff because staff is a
critical component of meeting the
organization's mission there are so many
ways that having highly trained
professional committed staff that you
can retain for years is just a really
smart idea for the sustainability of
your organization and its ability to
maximize the impact it can be making on
the community and the world so if you
are starting a non-profit it is super
super important if you hope to have
staff at all for your nonprofit at any
point in the future to have a really
solid fundraising plan going into when
you very first start the organization so
what this looks like is creating a
business plan before you even pick a
name for your organization worry about
the name later start with a business
plan now and the business plan really
needs to include how you plan to raise
money and generate income sustainably
for your organization what sustainable
means is that it's not a one-time
infusion of money into your cause but a
regular infusion of money that you can
count on so revenue that is regularly
coming in that allows you to budget into
the future and plan in the future
because you can count on it there are
many ways that a non-profit can work to
get sustainable revenue but earned
income is an especially great way this
is some kind of
system where you have a fee for some of
your services perhaps a very affordable
cost for consulting or the services that
you offer the clients that you work with
I recently talked to one person who
wanted to start a non-profit martial
arts school but didn't realize that he
could charge for some of the classes
that he was going to offer through this
school but the fact is that would be a
case of earned income you can definitely
charge for your classes or other
services that you offer but the idea and
the goal to serve your mission first is
of course to make it affordable for
whomever your target audiences if we're
talking about a 501 C 3 public charity
type of nonprofit which is usually the
kind of nonprofit most people think of
starting then you have to be thinking of
your mission first and making sure that
if you have an earned income system that
you are not leaving out the very people
that you're trying to serve earned
income is just about keeping yourself
sustainable so that you can continue to
serve the community without worrying
about going bankrupt another possible
type of revenue that you might include
in a business plan could be grants but I
always caution people who are thinking
about applying for grants by letting
them know that grants are really not
that reliable even professional grant
writers have maybe just one in 10 grants
that they can achieve for an
organization that they're writing their
grant for grants are more about getting
some funding for something special or
usually one-time funding but in general
funders do not want you to rely on them
year to year they want to see that
they've made an investment in you that
you can now grow and have a stronger
capacity and that you can move on so
that they can start funding somebody
else afterward I talk a lot about some
of the ways that successful nonprofits
fundraise when they are just starting
out or growing in another video so check
that out in the link a plan to raise
awareness about your cause and how to
also attract individual donors is very
very important because across all the
types of donations that occur in the
United States annually individual donors
that donations made by single
individuals out there not come
not grant foundations but everyday
people this is the largest pool of
donations that comes in every year in
support of area charities so to recap
the two things that you need to do to
pave the way for being able to work for
a non-profit full-time is one have a
harmonious relationship with your board
of directors because like I said this is
the group that will be deciding whether
to hire you at all and deciding your
salary and to have a strong fundraising
plan that involves some way of bringing
in money sustainably such as Earned
Income individual donations or some
other method I hope this video has
helped you out working full time for a
non-profit has been the most rewarding
part of my life and I highly recommend
if you are the type of person who really
wants to see the impact they can make on
the world the nonprofit careers are
amazing and fulfilling and so great so
you should definitely explore that as a
possible option for you once again I'm
amber Melanie Smith and I make weekly
videos here on YouTube about nonprofits
service leadership social impact and all
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having conversations about how we can
make an impact and live a life of
purpose thank you so much for watching
and I hope to see you next time