by Willy Franzen on December 14, 2008
For me the wilderness is central to life itself – I can’t be happy without time spent outdoors. That doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying life in downtown Chicago, but I plan on spending lots of time in the woods and rivers of Wisconsin and Michigan once Spring starts to show its face. My philosophy is shared by the people at The Wilderness Society. Their About page says that “It is our calling and our passion to protect America’s wilderness, not as a relic of our nation’s past, but as a thriving ecological community that is central to life itself.” I couldn’t agree more. They’re a non-profit organization that provides “scientific, economic, legal and policy guidance to land managers, communities, local conservation groups and state and federal decision-makers” to “ensure the best management of our lands – national forests, parks and refuges, as well as public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.” I’ve seen one of my favorite places in the world (a Northern Michigan tract of wilderness and quality fishing areas) put at risk by poor land management policies that would have allowed natural gas drilling in an extremely sensitive area, so I know how firsthand how vital The Wilderness Society’s work is.
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by Willy Franzen on December 8, 2008
We’ve just had another weekend of looking at excellent entry level jobs at non-profits, so it makes sense that we’re going to look at jobs with a company that serves non-profits today. Blackbaud is a technology solutions provider for non-profit organizations that specializes in “fundraising, relationship management, financial management, education administration, website management, direct, marketing, ticketing, prospect research, consulting, and training.” That’s a lot to do, but Blackbaud is a big company – they have over 22,000 non-profit customers and almost 2,000 employees. They seem to growing at a good rate, and they even have locations in 5 countries.
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by Willy Franzen on October 26, 2008
Although many people don’t realize it, almost every non-profit organization spends a considerable amount of time and resources on raising money. Some call it development, and others call it fundraising. Whatever you call it, it’s time and resources that charitable organizations have to direct towards something other than their missions. Global Impact is a non-profit organization that makes it its mission to raise money and awareness for other non-profit organizations. With the money that it raises, Global Impact works directly with U.S. based international organizations to help the world’s most vulnerable people. Despite the fact that Global Impact is all about fundraising, they still think that it’s important to limit administrative costs, which is why they’re able to give away 88% of the money that they raise while only 5.3% of their spending goes to administration and fundraising. Much of Global Impact’s proficiency in fundraising comes from their participation in and promotion of workplace giving programs. Global Impact is very selective about where their money goes, so member organizations are expected to meet very specific criteria before they are able to receive funds. Global Impact has
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by Willy Franzen on October 12, 2008
Although you may not realize it, but most college students return home after they graduate. Don’t believe me? Check out this article that says that 58% of you will return home and 32% of you will stay for more than a year. Although it may not be your desired outcome, it’s nice to have a place to stay and get settled before you start life in the real world; in fact, it’s a luxury. There are a lot of people and families who are left without a home, education, or a job and need a place to settle for a bit. They don’t have their parents’ house to go back to, and they don’t know where to go or what to do. If they’re in the Bronx, they can go to Citizens Advice Bureau, a settlement house. What’s a settlement house? You’ll get the full story in the Wikipedia entry on the settlement movement.
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by Willy Franzen on October 4, 2008
Since diplomacy is “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states” according to Wikipedia, one would assume that a diplomat is a representative of a group or state. Independent Diplomat is a non-profit organization that is trying to live outside that definition. Their mission is to provide the knowledge and experience of long time diplomats to countries that are disadvantaged or marginalized to the point that they don’t have the resources to effectively practice diplomacy. Started by a former British diplomat, Independent Diplomat has worked with nations that include Somaliland, Western Sahara, Kosovo, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to prevent and resolve conflict. They’re kind of like management consultants for diplomacy.
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by Willy Franzen on September 7, 2008
Everything that I know about braille, I learned in elementary school. I know that the braille system is used by blind people to read and write, and I also know that braille was invented by a French guy named Louis Braille. I recently learned that L’Occitane uses braille in their packaging, but that’s about all that I can rattle off. There’s a lot more to braille, and the Wikipedia page on braille is a great place to get educated. Why should you be reading up on braille? Because the National Braille Press is hiring, and if you want to work for them, you better be well versed in the ins and outs of braille. They are a non-profit organization that prints and publishes braille books, magazines, textbooks, and tests and offers embossing services with the hopes of promoting braille literacy.
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by Willy Franzen on July 6, 2008
Continuing with our patriotic weekend, we’re going to take a look at Arena Stage, a non-profit theater company that produces “huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit.” They put out all types of productions “from vast epics to charged dramas to robust musicals.” Located in Washington, DC, Arena Stage has been around 6 decades and was one of the first non-profit theater companies. They reach an annual audience of over 200,000 people (we reach more here!) and strive “to instill in the public a life-long love of and participation in the theater arts through [their] education programs.”
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by Willy Franzen on June 14, 2008
If you’ve been following us from the start, you know that the first non-profit organization whose jobs we featured was Save Our Wild Salmon. Today we’re going to look at jobs at the Wild Salmon Center, which has quite a few similarities to the aforementioned organization. I decided to do this for two reasons. First, I care deeply about wild salmon and like drawing attention to organizations that help them. Second, I’m leaving for a weeklong fishing trip today and it’s getting me in the mood for fishing (don’t worry, we’ll maintain our daily posting schedule). So let’s talk about how you can make a career out of protecting globally significant salmon ecosystems!
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Oregon
by Willy Franzen on June 7, 2008
Steve Mariotti was living a successful corporate life when he decided that he needed a change. He didn’t buy a sports car, get a toupée, or start dating 20 year-olds. Ok, he could have done those things, but we have no reason to believe that he did he did. He chose to leave his job and to start teaching special education in the New York City school system. This presented obvious challenges. Teaching special ed can be hard enough in a community with extensive resources, but it must be near impossible in underserved public schools like those in New York City. Mariotti realized that one of the only ways that he could reach his students was by teaching them how to run a business. They loved the subject matter. As Mariotti developed a entrepreneurship based curriculum for his job as a special ed teacher, he realized that he could extend the reach of his educational successes. He founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship with the goal of bringing entrepreneurial education to low-income youth
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by Willy Franzen on March 8, 2008
If you’ve visited our about page, you might have noticed that I (Willy) am a fisherman – a fly fisherman to be more precise. Those of you who are unfamiliar with fishermen might think that sport fishing has a negative impact on the environment, but the opposite is typically true. In fact, sportsmen often make the best conservationists – mostly because they have a vested interest in protecting the resources that are necessary to the enjoyment of their sport. For this reason many conservation organizations have been formed by groups of sportsmen. One such organization is Trout Unlimited, which aims to conserve, protect, and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.
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by Willy Franzen on March 1, 2008
Founded in 1869 with the help of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (Teddy’s father), the American Museum of Natural History was the first of its kind in New York City. A museum devoted entirely to the wonders of the world, it now houses amazing collections on minerals and gems, fossils, mammals, a variety of anthropological exhibits, a planetarium and much more. A few notable items that are currently housed in the museum include a life-sized model of a blue whale, the “Star of India” – the world’s largest blue sapphire, and a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. The museum should definitely be on your list to visit if you’re ever in NYC, and it’s also a great place to consider for employment. If you love the natural world but can’t resist the pull of a big city, what better place to start your career than a natural history museum?
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