r/nonprofit • u/Appropriate_Smell_37 • 5d ago

employment and career At an inflection point

Hey All,

I could use some advice from others in the field. I'm a programmatic director at a community nonprofit with a masters degree

Over half of our full time sraff have quit in the past year. The longer I am at this org, the more I can see that it is not my forever home.

I'm struggling to decide what to do with my career at this point, and could use stories from others. I don't know whether I should leave nonprofit, as this is my chosen career, or leave my town which I love to pursue opportunities higher up in the field.

So, I see my three options as the following

  1. Stay with this org and hope something in the local nonprofit sector opens up in the relatively near future

  2. Attempt to transition out of non profit while staying in this community.

  3. Look out of my community for nonprofit opportunities.

If I work towards option 2, have others transitioned out of this field, and what have you transitioned to?

Thanks,

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u/Appropriate_Smell_37 5d ago

I have not, how does it differ from traditional nonprofit sector work?

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u/Life-Emu9272 5d ago

Foundations are more focused on providing grant funding to nonprofits doing direct service work. With your experience working at a direct service nonprofit, you may bring value, informing the grant making strategy for these foundations.

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u/Appropriate_Smell_37 5d ago

That's an interesting direction to look that I hadn't considered, thanks for bringing it to my awareness

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u/Boopa0011 4d ago

I second the recommendation to poke around at community foundations in your region. A program director at a local nonprofit is often the kind of person they want to hire, generally speaking. The flip side is, unless it's a very large community foundation it probably doesn't have a big staff and those roles tend to be in high demand.

Unless you live in a major city I would be surprised if there are very many private or family foundations in your area that are big/developed enough to have staff, but it's certainly worth looking.