The #1 Thing I Get Asked About Working for a Nonprofit
It’s the question that is bound to come up in most of our interactions with new people we meet. Whether on the airplane, at a party or on a date, it’s the typical leading question:
Them: “So, what do you do?”
Me: “I’m the Creative Director at a nonprofit organization.”
Them: “Oh cool, what’s the name of the nonprofit and what does it do?”
I then proceed to condense into as few simplistic sentences as possible, the beautiful and amazing, yet messy and complicated work that we do. Then the typical follow up question comes, that all of us at nonprofits know all too well:
“Wow! That must be so rewarding, isn’t it!?”
Boom, there it is. It can be asked in multiple ways, or even subtly disguised, but it’s there. It’s not that we hate this question, it’s that it can be very complicated to answer.
After spending 12+ years (all of my professional career) working in the nonprofit world, this question is one I’ve had to answer many times. My answer depended on the day you caught me, but most of the time I would muster up an upbeat “yes, absolutely.”
Many times, I 100% agreed with that “yes”, but other times, if I’m honest, that “yes” was masking a disgruntled and cynical “if you only knew how hard it is! and no, it’s not worth it!” in my head.
Look, if you’re in that place too, I get you. Nonprofit work, advocacy work, humanitarian work, ministry—whatever you want to call it—it’s hard. Your intention isn’t to play the victim, you just simply want someone to understand and recognize the messiness of it all.
Well friend, I see you!
You are often trying to solve some of the world’s toughest issues, yet you’re working in systems that are often broken, given subpar tools, an unrealistic budget, trying to account for every dollar given, trying to keep up with reporting impact to your donors, dealing with tech you often don’t understand, and playing multiple roles all at once.
It’s… not… easy.
So when people ask, “Wow, isn’t it so rewarding?” a plethora of all these things immediately runs through our minds.
But then—then you think of those few bright spots in the last year. You remember the sickly stray dog who became healthy and found a new loving home; the child that can now read and write at their grade level; the alcoholic man who has now been sober for 8 months; the single mom who was finally able to find a job to pay her bills and support her kids, the list goes on.
These are the bright spots that all of us know, no matter what “issue” we are trying to tackle, they are vital to giving us hope and helping us carry on in the midst of very difficult work.
But here’s my question… does it have to be this difficult? Or are we making it more difficult on ourselves than it needs to be sometimes?
That’s the question I’ve asked myself. Surely there are resources, tools and personal experiences out there that we can all learn from and use to streamline our work and be more effective. Not only that, but ones that are specifically geared towards the nonprofit field, coming from people who have been there and done that.
The answer I decided on was two-fold: Yes there are absolutely loads of tools out there. But no, not nearly enough.
After working at seven different nonprofits, both abroad and locally, I’ve picked up on a thing or two. I’ve learned through lots of failure as well as success. I’ve gleaned wisdom, leadership skills and best practices from some of the most amazing leaders and world changing visionaries out there.
When other organizations started noticing the website, communication platforms and content of the nonprofit I worked at, and asking who did it, I saw a beautiful opportunity in front of me.
What if I could offer all my learnings in nonprofit communications, design, marketing and content creation to other nonprofits?
Or the better question: How can I make life easier for nonprofits?!
And that’s what I intend to do, not only with my business, Perspective Studio, but with this blog. I want to offer all the support that I can to make your life easier, so you can fully tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.
This blog will include tips, how to’s, personal experiences, resources and tools, tech recommendations and free giveaways. Or, you can head on over to my main page, and check out the services I offer to help your nonprofit branding or website.
I can tell you one thing for sure, this chica has your back—because we’re all in this together!
As an online creative business owner, I know I’m just one of hundreds of thousands of people trying to figure out how to navigate the next few months, not only in their business, but every part of their life. There are so many unknowns. So many questions. So much confusion on how to navigate things, particularly in our businesses. It’s not just affecting one country, it’s affecting businesses globally, from the mom and pop shop on the corner, to entire corporations and supply chains.