Nine Cause-Based Job and Volunteer Resources
Individuals often have to sacrifice their livelihood for a cause. It's not fair, but it happens. But what happens when they're forced to volunteer at a corporate job? This morning CNBC and Web Guild published articles on how some individuals are "volunteering" to defer pay to maintain their positions or fill time between job interviews.
As "volunteering" is defined as "working on behalf of others without being motivated by financial or material gain," this seems like a strange use of the word. In the case of employees deferring pay, this seems more like an unfortunate burden rather than an act of volunteerism. If you're an experienced professional looking to stay sharp and you've got the freedom to contribute to actual volunteer-driven efforts or you'd like to try working for a cause-based organization, below are some great resources:
1. Change.org's Jobs for Change: Jobs for Change offers activism, software development and law-related positions for a variety of nonprofit organizations. The organization is best known as a social network where users trade opinions on how they can change America through grassroots efforts.
2. Care 2: Care 2 claims to be the world's largest listing of jobs with socially responsible companies. The site offers a list of environmental and renewable-energy related jobs including positions for design and construction specialists with LEED certifications.
3. Idealist: Idealist is a project of Action Without Borders and lists a number of job and volunteer opportunities for those looking to become change agents. The site focuses specifically on addressing social and environmental problems and volunteers can do everything from building a shelter in Ghana to becoming a board member with a North American environmental agency.
4. Volunteer Match: San Francisco-based Volunteer Match helps almost 70,000 nonprofit organizations provide direct services and advocacy to our communities. Whether you're interested in driving a Meals on Wheels van or trekking to Nepal to rebuild structures of historical significance, Volunteer Match offers a variety of options.
5.Nonprofit Technology Network: NTEN is an extremely well-known group in the nonprofit world. Their annual conference draws some of the industry's best cause-tech experts including my personal favorite, Beth Kanter. The job site lists IT support, development and media director positions with great organizations across the country.
6. Opportunity Knocks: Opportunity Knocks is a great place to find jobs in the non-profit sector. The site allows users to narrow search results down by salary, city and cause-related interest. There's also a resume tool where users can upload multiple CVs and apply to jobs within the system.
7. Treehugger: Treehugger is one of the leading green networks and was acquired in 2007 by Discovery to help power their Planet Green channel. The site has always offered a variety of tips and articles on sustainable living, environmental justice and holistic health. The jobs site offers volunteer and paid positions for companies and organizations who've made a real commitment to sustainability.
8. NetSquared: While not specifically a volunteer or job site, NetSquared offers cause-tech innovators the opportunity to contribute to global solutions. The site issues challenges to tech-savvy innovators, and volunteers answer the challenges with mobile SMS aid solutions, social action map mash ups and Twitter fundraising tools.
9. YouTube's Video Volunteer Program: As a project of All For Good, the YouTube Video Volunteer Program matches budding filmmakers with NGO's that require promotional or educational video material. Some of the current project applicants include Alaska's Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Heart of America's Warriors and Earth.org's Open Travel Guide.
If you've got additional volunteer matching resources, feel free to add them in the comments below.
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Thanks for the mention, Dana. Our hope is that people in the tech field take advantage of the time of reflection the recent economic dislocation has given many of us to seriously consider a job in the social change sector - whether that's at a non-profit or for-profit social enterprise.
This is not simply because we think people should be more selfless and charitable. While it is true that tech skills are sorely needed in the social change sector and that the work is of deep importance and huge social value, we also think people should consider the social change space out of pure self-interest. Social change jobs may not pay quite the same as traditional for-profit positions (although they pay more than most people think), but more importantly they can provide the sort of meaning and fulfillment that many other jobs lack, and which are the best predictors of ultimate happiness.
Thanks for your work,
Ben
Founder, Change.org & Jobs for Change
Thanks for the inclusion Dana! I would also love to point our that we conduct an annual survey on the state of IT staffing and spending in the nonprofit sector, which can provide some guidance for job-seekers. It can be found at http://nten.org/research/2008-it-staffing-spending-report
Thank you for highlighting all of these resources Dana!
The current economic environment is definitely having an impact on how professionals look at volunteering in the context of their careers. If there's a silver lining, we're hoping that more professionals consider building their resume by sharing their professional skills with social impact organizations.
If folks are interested in getting involved, we recently launched Zoosa (www.zoosa.org) as a social impact platform which connects social impact organizations with high level professionals.
Good luck everyone... by working together, I'm confident we can have a major social impact!
Mike