by Willy Franzen on April 4, 2009
Having grown up in Connecticut and now living in Illinois, I’ve lived in areas that don’t have too many National Parks. Luckily, I’ve had the chance to see Yellowstone and Grand Teton. They are unbelievable. Our National Parks here in the US are one of the best things that the government has done – they’re a big part of what makes this country so special. Unfortunately, the same government that gave us those parks doesn’t always seem to have their best interest in mind. That’s why National Parks Conservation Association exists. They are a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, DC that is focused on “working on key initiatives to restore America’s national parks by the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016.” If you’ve never visited a National Park, you should. You can use this locator provided by the National Park Service to find the park closest to you.
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by Willy Franzen on March 29, 2009
It’s no secret that poverty and poor health are deeply related. Limited access to healthcare is part of the reason, but there’s a lot more to the story. Nearly everything that we do in our lives has some bearing on our health outcomes, and a life in poverty creates factor after factor that leads to poor health outcomes. Project HEALTH is a non-profit organization that works in Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Providence, RI; and Washington, DC to break “the link between poverty and poor health.” Honestly, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I think that poverty and poor health will forever be intertwined, but battling poverty will be the key to creating better health outcomes for lower-income people. I guess it all depends on how you define poverty.
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by Willy Franzen on March 28, 2009
You may be looking for a job, but I’ll wager that you probably haven’t considered how inherently human it is to work. It’s not something that I thought about when I was job searching, and it’s not something that I think about much when I’m helping other people with their job searches; however, we as humans were made to work. Thousands of years ago it was hunting and gathering, but as we’ve realized the power of comparative advantage, we’ve chosen to specialize in the things that we’re best at. Contributing to society is part of what makes us as humans go, and that’s why Job Path exists. They’re a New York City based non-profit organization that “supports people with developmental disabilities in their efforts to make choices about their lives.” They “encourage people to explore what they want out of life” and then “provide the opportunities and support for them to succeed at whatever they want — whether it’s paid or volunteer work, living in their own homes, or participating in community life.” At a theoretical level it’s not all that different from what we’re doing here or at Found Your Career. It’s all about helping people become fulfilled.
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by Willy Franzen on March 22, 2009
A lot of companies use the term “rock star” to describe the people that they’d like to hire. I don’t understand why “all star” never caught on – it’s more appropriate. Rock stars come with all kinds of problems and aren’t necessarily the most desirable employees, but all stars are the best at what they do. The All Stars Project is a non-profit organization based in New York City that is “dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance-based model.” Even though their logo kind of looks like Rock Bands, they’re all about creating all stars. They do this by “sponsoring community and experimental theatre, developing leadership training and pursuing volunteer initiatives that build and strengthen communities.” They offer a wide range of programs that are centered around theatre and the performing arts.
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by Willy Franzen on March 21, 2009
No matter what you’re doing, finding out what works and what doesn’t is the key to success. It may sound overly simple, but it’s amazing how many people, companies, and organizations keep doing things that don’t work based on thoughts and feelings. Hard, scientific research is often the only real way to figure out what works. Unfortunately, science and non-profits often don’t mix (remember how much trouble I had finding a math-related non-profit last week). One exception is MDRC, an organization that “is best known for mounting large-scale evaluations of real-world policies and programs targeted to low-income people.” They’re at the forefront of the science of doing good, and “over the years, MDRC has brought its unique approach to an ever-growing range of policy areas and target populations.”
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by Willy Franzen on March 15, 2009
We’re less than a week away from the start of Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s still kind of cold. If I could swing it, I’d probably try to get out of Chicago until early April and spend some time on a tropical island (who wouldn’t want to do that?). Unfortunately, the demand for tourist destinations along with other factors has put many of the world’s most beautiful islands at risk. Islands are important – not only are they awesome places to spend a vacation – they’re also the “earth’s great repositories of biological diversity.” Luckily, we have non-profits like Seacology to protect the world’s islands. Seacology is an organization that “searches for win-win situations where both the local environment is protected and islanders receive some tangible benefit for doing so.”
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by Willy Franzen on March 14, 2009
If you’ve been reading One Day, One Job for a year or more, you probably remember that last year we did a holiday post for Pi Day (you should also get your butt in Found Your Career, because a year long job search is way too long and you need to put an end to it soon!). I’m a dork, and I love dorky holidays. That’s why I’m already counting down the seconds until 1:59:26 (ok, I didn’t stay up for it, I’m waiting for the PM version), when the date and time will represent 8 digits of pi. Since today is a weekend, I thought that it was my duty to bring you info on jobs with math related non-profits. Unfortunately, there are a lot fewer of those than one would think. We’ve already covered Math for America, and last year we took a look at Pi Media, so we’re stretching a bit by looking at job opportunities with The Mathematical Association of America. They’re located in Washington, DC, and they’re “the largest professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level.”
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by Willy Franzen on March 8, 2009
Today my little sister is on her way back from a few months in Ethiopia teaching art at an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to AIDS. From what I’ve heard so far, she’s had an amazing impact, so I’m obviously overwhelmingly proud of her. It’s hard to imagine what life without a family is like, but there are millions of children all across the world who know all too well what it’s like. That’s why we’re taking a look at Kidsave today (not the organization that my sister was working with). They’re a Los Angeles, CA based non-profit that is aiming to “to ensure that no orphan or foster child is forgotten and that every child grows up in a family with love and hope for a successful future.” It all started when friends and business partners Terry Baugh and Randi Thompson, both adoptive parents, realized how tragic the stories of orphaned children really are. They started Kidsave in 1997, and since then they have helped “more than 2700 children [find] parents and lasting connections with adults.”
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by Willy Franzen on March 7, 2009
When people ask me what I do, I tell them, “I help college students find and land jobs and internships.” That’s my 3-second elevator pitch. If you were to ask people at The Cara Program what they do, you’d probably get a response like, “We help the homeless and at-risk populations find and land jobs.” Essentially we’re doing the same things – just for different groups of people. Finding a job isn’t easy, as you probably know, but think about how difficult it is for someone who is homeless. Employers typically want employees who can provide stability, but being homeless is a pretty big sign of instability. The problem is that it’s really hard to become stable without a job. That’s why The Cara Program, based out of Chicago, provides “comprehensive training, permanent job placement and critical support services.”
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by Willy Franzen on March 1, 2009
We’re always on the look out for different kinds of non-profit jobs to feature on weekends, and today we’ve certainly found some. Battelle Memorial Institute is a Columbus, OH based organization that looks very much like a business – their tagline is even “the business of innovation” – but they are actually “organized for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes.” They have 5 main areas of focus – Energy, Health & Life Sciences, National Security & Defense, Laboratory Management, and Community & Education – which means that they do all kinds of things to further their vision of building “long-term relationships with their clients by anticipating their needs and delivering economically and socially valuable science and technology.”
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by Willy Franzen on February 28, 2009
What happens when you put Angelina Jolie together with a suspected conspiracy to create a “one-world government?” No, it’s not an upcoming movie release. It’s actually a non-profit organization called the Council on Foreign Relations. They are “an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.” They can claim Angelina Jolie as a member, and because of their secrecy clauses and interesting membership requirements (and the fact that so many high-ranking government officials are members), people get all kinds of ideas about Council on Foreign Relations. In fact, Wikipedia says that “some believe it to be the most powerful private organization to influence United States foreign policy.” Ok, let’s cut through all the crazy stories and see what CFR is really about.
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by Willy Franzen on February 22, 2009
I’m now on the Board of Advisors for a startup non-profit called National Coaching Fellows because I featured their internships (with very little information to go on) on One Day, One Internship. (They’re not hiring right now, but if they were I’d let you know.) Because I took a flier on NCF and trusted in their idea, I’m now going to play a pretty big part in their early stages of development. I’m not trying to get on another board, but I thought that it would be fun to take a look at another startup non-profit that is just breaking on to the scene. This morning I came across True Childhood, a Washington, DC based “educational and consulting organization that raises awareness of stereotypes affecting children and youth, influences media and the marketplace and empowers parents and educators to help all children – boys and girls – be true to themselves and reach their full potential.” They’re apparently launching in May, although their own website dubs them “the leading national organization helping all children – boys and girls – break through stereotypes.”
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by Willy Franzen on February 21, 2009
How’s the relationship between your college or university and the town or city that it’s in? Let me guess. Not so hot. It always seems that students and “townies” don’t get along too well. Beyond that, there can also be situations like at Yale in New Haven, CT where the students are generally much wealthier than the people who live in the surrounding neighborhood. This just exacerbates the fundamental gap between the university and the community. National Student Partnerships is a non-profit organization that was started in New Haven by two Yale students who wanted to close this gap. They “designed a program where college student volunteers work one-on-one with community residents, coordinating access to employment opportunities and social services, including job training, housing, health care, child care, and transportation.” It’s a wonderful idea, and it’s working – look at the success stories.
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by Willy Franzen on February 15, 2009
In Fourth or Fifth Grade, my elementary school started facing overcrowding. It wasn’t a huge deal, because it was a suburban school with a relatively low target class size, but they decided to bring in “portable” classrooms to fix the problem. By portable they meant brought in on a flat bed and never going anywhere again. The inside of the portable classrooms were nearly identical to other classrooms and kids went on learning in them just like any other classroom. School On Wheels is a Santa Barbara, CA based non-profit that brings a completely new meaning to portable classroom. Despite what their logo might make you think, they don’t have a bus that also serves as a classroom. They create classrooms wherever they’re needed to educate homeless children. It all started in 1993 with:
Agnes Stevens, a retired teacher, read a book that changed her life. The book was about homeless families in the US. Agnes was shocked to learn that hundreds of thousands of children were homeless and that many of them did not attend school. She began teaching homeless kids in a park in Santa Monica, California encouraging them to stay in school and keep up with their grades and school activities.
Now they have hundreds of tutors supporting thousands of homeless students.
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by Willy Franzen on February 14, 2009
If your sweetheart is out of a job this Valentine’s Day, then give him or her a gift that shows that you really care. Chocolates, flowers, and jewelry only bring temporary satisfaction, but there’s nothing more satisfying (besides a relationship with you, of course) than a job that you love. Enroll your sweetheart in Found Your Career (our online job search training course) today.
So far my Valentine’s Day related posts have been mostly about consumerism (ProFlowers, OpenTable, eHarmony, Tiffany & Co, and Vosges); however, since Valentine’s Day fell on a weekend this year, I had to find a Cupid approved non-profit. Since today is all about hearts, I thought that it’d be fitting to talk about jobs with American Heart Association. In case it’s not obvious, they’re a non-profit organization devoted to cardiovascular health. Their mission is to “build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.” It’s a simple mission, but it’s not an easy one. Since Valentine’s Day is really about the people whom we love, it’s fitting that we’re talking about an organization that is working to make sure that our loved ones are around and healthy for as long as possible.
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by Willy Franzen on February 8, 2009
At some point in your life, you’ve probably had a conflict – an argument with your parents, siblings, roommates, or others. Humans inherently have conflicting interests, but that doesn’t mean that common ground can’t be found. Search for Common Ground is a non-profit organization that “works to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.” Sometimes it may seem impossible, but most conflicts can be resolved peacefully through with the right methods. Search for Common Ground uses its 5 core principles to encourage attitudes that resolve conflicts across the world. These are: Conflict is neither negative nor positive; Conflict can be transformed; Finding common ground; Peace is a process; and Humankind is interdependent. If you want to know more about Search for Common Ground’s approach, you can take their Guided Tour.
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by Willy Franzen on February 7, 2009
On Thursday we took a look at jobs with Gawker Media, a blog network that recently sold off a few blogs. One of the blogs that they sold off is one of my absolute favorites – The Consumerist, a blog about consumers’ rights. The reason that they sold off the blog wasn’t that it was unpopular, it was that it was nearly impossible to make profitable because of the need to not show impropriety through relationships with advertisers. Luckily for Consumerist fans everywhere, a perfect solution came about with the purchase of The Consumerist by Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports. Although Consumers Union isn’t a typical non-profit, they do an amazing job of providing regular people with the information that they need to make informed purchases.
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by Willy Franzen on January 31, 2009
Sometimes I can be a dunderhead. When I am behind the wheel of a car, I can get irrationally angry at having to share the road with pedestrians and bikers. And when I’m walking or riding a bike, I can get irrationally angry at having to share the road with cars. I can’t be right on both accounts, so the problem is obviously with me (or maybe with the government for not setting up a better transportation system). When it comes down to it, though, it’s pretty obvious that bikers and pedestrians are second-class citizens to drivers. Cars dominate the roads, and the burden of responsibility falls on those who are biking or walking to stay alert and avoid getting hit by a couple thousand bounds of fast-moving metal. The Thunderhead Alliance for Biking and Walking is a Washington, DC based non-profit advocacy organization that stands up for the rights of bikers and walkers by “strengthening and supporting bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations” across the country. They’re a meta-non-profit. organization – an organization for organizations.
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by Willy Franzen on January 25, 2009
I’m sure that all of you learned the story of Helen Keller in elementary school, but just to refresh you she was a woman who overcame growing up both blind and deaf in the late 1800s to graduate from Radcliffe College magna cum laude. These days that would still be impressive, but it’s amazing that she did that when she did it. (She had a tutor spell textbooks letter by letter into her hand.) After graduating from college, Helen Keller made it her life’s work to help blind and deaf-blind people. She founded Helen Keller International in 1915, and it has been “devoted to fighting and treating preventable blindness and malnutrition” ever since.
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by Willy Franzen on January 24, 2009
We’ve told you about teaching fellowship programs before, and today we’re going to look at another one. It’s called Math for America, and it’s based in New York City with operations in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Washington, DC as well. Their goal is simple; they want to “improve math education in secondary public schools in the United States by recruiting, training, and retaining outstanding mathematics teachers.” Numerical literacy is essential to a properly functioning society, and, unfortunately, we’re falling short. If people can’t understand basic math, there’s no hope that they’ll ever be financially responsible. If they can’t understand statistics, how will they ever fully comprehend the political process or medical advice? Our country’s math education is woefully inadequate, and even many students at top colleges have a fear of math. Great teachers are the answer, and that’s why Math for America is recruiting great mathematical minds for America’s classrooms.
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by Willy Franzen on January 19, 2009
Even if your college or university isn’t giving you the day off from classes, I hope that you remembered that today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It’s an important day to reflect, and it’s becoming even more important as there is a growing movement to make MLK Day a day of national service. They’re calling it “a day on, not a day off,” and I think it would be pretty cool to see employers and schools embrace this movement. It’s the next step in making Dr. King’s dream come true. If one day of service just isn’t enough for you to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., then you might want to consider a job at The King Center in Atlanta, GA. The King Center is located on a privately owned inholding within the authorized boundaries of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, and it is “dedicated to the advancement of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
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by Willy Franzen on January 18, 2009
Today’s non-profit has a lot in common with us. They’re all about “youth development,” and I guess you could say that we are too. Juma Ventures is based out of Oakland, CA and Washington, DC, and they “operates businesses – known as “social enterprises” – for the purpose of providing job opportunities to economically disadvantaged teens.” Beyond providing jobs, they also empower “youth with financial education and savings programs, college & career exploration, and essential life skills.” It almost sounds like the offline version of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com + OneDayOneJob.com. Every year Juma Ventures works with 100s of 16-19 year olds from San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and Washington DC’s most impoverished neighborhoods. They’re a non-profit that uses for-profit businesses to accomplish their mission, and they seem to be having great results. Maybe we should try to find a way to get our job search training course into their curriculum.
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by Willy Franzen on January 17, 2009
Today on One Day, One Internship we’re taking a look at internships with the Space Studies Board. That brought our attention to The National Academies, which is a non-profit organization that consists of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the United States National Research Council (NRC). Although it may sound like they’re government agencies, they’re not. They do, however, get most of their funding from federal and state agencies. Despite that fact, they remain independent when advising the nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
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by Willy Franzen on January 11, 2009
Did you know that only 1 out 5 low-income children make it to college? That’s a frightening statistic, but KIPP is a network of (mostly) charter schools that have combined to have a 95% college matriculation rate for the low-income students whom they serve. “KIPP began in 1994 when two teachers, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, launched a fifth-grade public school program in inner-city Houston, TX, after completing their commitment to Teach For America.” The success of the initial program has led to the creation of 66 schools, all of which follow a unique approach to education. Apparently the schools are run independently, but the KIPP Foundation provides support across the network of schools – that’s why they have quite a few job opportunities outside of teaching.
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by Willy Franzen on January 10, 2009
I’m not going to start an Economics debate on a Saturday morning, but I’m tempted. Trickle Up is a non-profit organization that was named as a slap in the face to the theory of trickle-down economics. Regardless of their economic philosophy, they appear to be doing great work by empowering “people living on less than $1 a day to take the first steps out of poverty, providing them with resources to build microenterprises for a better quality of life.” Trickle Up is based out of New York City, and they believe strongly in microfinance, micropreneurship, and microenterprises as being the solution to worldwide poverty. Their website does a great job of telling their story, so I recommend that you check it out to get a full feel for whom Trickle Up helps and how they do it.
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by Willy Franzen on December 31, 2008
Happy New Year’s Eve! Last year we featured Martinelli’s, the manufacturer of sparkling cider, in celebration of the end of 2007. This year we’re going to take a look at some jobs that couldn’t be more intertwined with New Year’s Eve. Times Square Alliance is a non-profit organization that “works to improve and promote Times Square – cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture and urban life for over a century.” Times Square for New Year’s Eve isn’t on my list of things to do, but for many people it’s a big deal. I’m sure that there will be millions of people there tonight, so why not use tonight’s celebration to generate ideas for your job search in the New Year. Oh yeah, and if your New Year’s resolution includes landing a new job, you absolutely need to check out our job search training course.
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by Willy Franzen on December 21, 2008
I’m back home for the holidays, and I hope most of you now are too. It’s wonderful to always have a safe place to go back to, but not everyone is so lucky. Victims of crime and abuse often don’t have anywhere to go. They’re often left with the choice of living in terror in a place that is familiar yet unsafe, or facing total uncertainty. Safe Horizon is a non-profit organization whose mission “is to provide support, prevent violence, and promote justice for victims of crime and abuse, their families, and communities.” They run 80 programs which “are located throughout the five boroughs of New York City in court houses, police precincts, schools, shelters, and community offices.” They may not be able to provide a safe place to go for all 350,000 victims whom they work with each year, but they find a way to support these people until they can find their way to a safe horizon.
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by Willy Franzen on December 20, 2008
Have you ever heard of the slow food movement? Despite what it might sound like, it’s not about eating snails, turtles, and sloths. The slow food movement about envisioning “a word in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet,” or as USA Today puts it, “slow food aims to everything that fast food is not.” As delicious as Chicken McNuggets are, I have to say that fresh, locally grown produce usually comes out ahead for me. Slow Food USA is a non-profit organization based in Brooklyn, NY that is working to grow the slow food movement and “to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system.” I wish I could tell you more about what their strategy is to accomplish this, but their 5 Year Strategic Plan is “coming soon.”
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by Willy Franzen on December 13, 2008
I was just browsing the news this morning when I came across the story of how Bernard Madoff, a prominent Wall Street trader, allegedly admitted to defrauding investors in his hedge fund of $50 billion. It is an unbelievable amount of money, and it’s hard to believe that anyone would go through the effort and risk to steal that much money – I can’t even fathom what you would do with $50 billion in illegally acquired money. The most outrageous part of the story might be that Madoff has been released on $10 million bail. That’s peanuts for him. It’s .02% of what he allegedly stole. After reading this story I started browsing non-profits for today’s post, and I came across the Vera Institute of Justice. It’s a New York City based organization with locations in Washington, DC and New Orleans, and it was founded when “philanthropist Louis Schweitzer and magazine editor Herb Sturz recognized the injustice of a bail system in New York City that granted liberty based on income.” Today’s story about Madoff is a perfect example of this injustice.
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