by Willy Franzen on November 7, 2009
Did you know that how wealthy your family is has a lot to do with which sports you play growing up? Sometimes it’s a demographic thing, but a lot of times it just has to do with whether or not your family can afford to pay for the equipment. Take hockey for example. There’s a ton of stuff you need, and it’s all expensive; whereas, basketball can be played with just a ball and a hoop in a park. There are no hard and fast rules about this, but it’s very clear that many kids don’t get the opportunity to try some sports because of the costs involved. Good Sports is a Boston based non-profit that “provides sports equipment to disadvantaged youth in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, and Chicago.” They may have pictures of Boston athletes plastered all over their website (yuck!), but they’re doing a really good thing.
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administrative,
development,
entry-level jobs,
Massachusetts,
non-profit,
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sports
by Willy Franzen on October 11, 2009
Some of the most fun that I had during college was playing in a charity dodgeball tournament. My team was doing really well until we ran into a team of future NHL players, pitchers from the baseball team, and some former softball players (they threw underhand, and they threw hard) in the semifinals. That match was pretty ugly, but even when you lose at dodgeball, you have fun. We’ve seen dodgeball gaining more and more popularity, and with that trend we’ve seen more and more non-profits using dodgeball to raise funds. Best Shot Foundation is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is doing just this. They’re an organization that is focused on bringing attention to the fact “that pneumonia kills more young children than any other disease,” and then doing something about it.
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advocacy,
entry-level jobs,
events,
nationwide,
non-profit,
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sports,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on October 3, 2009
Often people don’t realize what services are available to them. I see this all the time with college students and Career Services offices—the students complain about a lack of help even though they’ve never stepped foot in the office. Another example is students who are having trouble paying for college yet have never applied for the thousands of dollars of scholarships that are available to them. This same thing happens all the time in the world of government programs—people endure hardship because they don’t know that there are programs intended just for them. We often hear that there’s a need for more programs to help the poor, yet programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit are significantly underutilized. Ladder Up is a Chicago based non-profit organization that has “returned $183 million to 100,000 hardworking families” by providing “free, real world financial solutions that maximize earnings and savings.” Whether it’s helping their clients claim a tax credit that they didn’t know about or walking a future college student through the financial aid process, Ladder Up helps people make the most of what’s available to them.
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accounting,
entry-level jobs,
finance,
Illinois,
non-profit,
outreach,
program development
by Willy Franzen on August 23, 2009
What was the first book that you ever read? Mine wasn’t actually a book—it was a Super Mario Bros. comic book. My parents had decided that it would be fun to take Amtrak to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa instead of flying. And it actually was. I spent a lot of the time struggling through the comic book, and then I was suddenly reading. That wouldn’t have happened on a 3 hour flight. Do you have as vivid of a memory of reading your first book as I do? First Book hopes so. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that “provides new books to children in need addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books.” In 16 years they’ve provided more than 65 million books, so you have to call First Book a huge success.
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account management,
business development,
communications,
education,
entry-level jobs,
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marketing,
outreach,
public relations,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on August 9, 2009
For nearly as long as humans have been around, we’ve been building shelters—places to sleep, eat, work, and play. And nearly as long as we’ve been building shelters, we’ve been doing it artistically. Function is still our primary goal—it’s the reason that we build things, but it’s amazing how development, architecture, construction and engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, and urban planning come together as an essential part of human culture. The National Building Museum in Washington, DC was started to “advance the quality of the built environment by educating the public about its impact on people’s lives.” Yes, it’s a museum filled with artifacts and objects related to the history of buildings, but it’s more than that. It’s really about “fostering lively discussion about a wide range of topics.”
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architecture,
design,
development,
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
museum,
non-profit,
outreach,
sales,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on August 1, 2009
Three months ago when I featured the American Lung Association’s Jobs, I mentioned a good friend who is battling lung cancer. From what I’ve heard, he continues to be doing well and fighting for his life. Unfortunately, I recently learned that my grandmother is also facing a battle with lung cancer despite the fact that she stopped smoking before I was born. It’s obviously very upsetting for my family, and we’re going to do our best to get her through this. I don’t usually like getting too personal with these posts, but there’s no better way for me to introduce the American Legacy Foundation. They are a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that “is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.” I’ve seen what tobacco can do to people, and it absolutely amazes me that anyone chooses to smoke these days, but many do. It may be their right to do what they want with their bodies but I’m glad that the American Legacy Foundation is working hard to push them towards a smarter, healthier decision.
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advocacy,
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entry-level jobs,
non-profit,
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Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on July 18, 2009
I never thought that I’d hear the words “city” and “harvest” used together as often as I do these days, but now it seems that every city has a farmers market, urban vegetable gardens, and restaurants with hyper-local cuisine. Oddly enough, City Harvest means something slightly different when they talk about harvesting food. They are “a non-profit organization founded in 1982″ and “the world’s first and New York City’s only food rescue program.” What does that mean? It means that this year they will “collect 26 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms.” They’re harvesting anything and everything that they can (as long as it’s up to their food safety standards) to feed New York City’s hungry. It’s a brilliant idea, and the organizations longevity proves that it’s working.
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entry-level jobs,
food,
marketing,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach
by Willy Franzen on July 12, 2009
Last night I enjoyed one of my favorite Summer treats—a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Now, this wasn’t just any Blizzard. This was a Tagalong Blizzard. If you’re not familiar with Tagalongs, then you’re missing out. They are my favorite Girl Scout cookie. And that brings me to the Girl Scouts of the USA, which is a New York City non-profit organization that you probably know best for pushing cookies. Obviously, the cookies have little to do with what the Girl Scouts of the USA are all about, but the funds raised from selling the cookies enable the organization to continue to pursue its mission of being “the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls—all girls—where, in an accepting and nurturing environment, girls build character and skills for success in the real world.”
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editing,
education,
entry-level jobs,
nationwide,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach,
web development,
writing
by Willy Franzen on June 28, 2009
I’ve mentioned before that I’m on the board of advisors for a startup non-profit called National Coaching Fellows. During my time on the board, I’ve learned how challenging the non-profit world can be. Luckily, NCF has had the support of a “student-driven consulting corps for non-profits” to get through some of its growing pains. That consulting group is Chicago’s campusCATALYST, an organization that “seeks to direct the innovation, ingenuity, and problem solving skills of America’s future leaders towards community development by cultivating a rich academic and social entrepreneurship experience for college students and tangible solutions for nonprofits.” In other words, they take students from the University of Chicago and Northwestern and put them on consulting teams that help non-profits achieve their missions.
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consulting,
education,
entry-level jobs,
Illinois,
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by Willy Franzen on June 21, 2009
Father’s Day is almost always a little bittersweet for me, as it marks the end of a week long fly fishing trip with my Dad to Northern Michigan. I hate for the trip to be over, but there’s no better way to celebrate the holiday than having spent a week with my Dad doing what we love—catching fish. Last year I searched high and low to bring you a post about the National Fatherhood Initiative, and this year it wasn’t easy to find another Dad related non-profit. Lucky for you, I came across the Fatherhood Educational Institute, which is based in Chicago. I know that I couldn’t have done half the things that I’ve done in my life without my Dad (like start this business), so it makes a lot of sense that the Fatherhood Educational Institute aims “to promote positive fatherhood involvement in povery stricken communities.” Great fathers are so important to the success of their children.
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education,
entry-level jobs,
holiday,
Illinois,
non-profit,
outreach
by Willy Franzen on May 24, 2009
You know all those rights that you learned about in school? All that stuff in the Constitution. I’m sure it’s important to you now, but how important was it to you as a kid? Unless you were a unique kid, you just wanted to play. That’s why Right To Play is such an interesting non-profit. They’re “an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world.” Play may seem trivial to many, but Right To Play has found that it’s often the key to opening up those other rights that many of us take for granted. They’re a Toronto based organization with a New York City presence, and they’re currently working in 23 countries: Azerbaijan, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, occupied Palestinian territory, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
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development,
entry-level jobs,
grant writing,
international,
international affairs,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach,
research,
sports
by Willy Franzen on May 16, 2009
Have you ever heard of animal-assisted therapy? Wikipedia defines it as “a type of therapy that involves an animal with specific characteristics becoming a fundamental part of a person’s treatment.” This type of therapy can have all kinds of beneficial effects for a wide array of ailments, and it can be done with animals ranging from dogs to horses to elephants to lizards. Green Chimneys is a Brewster, NY based non-profit organization that “operates residential treatment for children and a special education school” with a large focus on animal-assisted therapy. They’re located on a 200-acre farm, and they’re constantly working towards “restoring possibilities and creating futures for children with emotional, behavioral, social and learning challenges.”
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agriculture,
animals,
education,
entry-level jobs,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach,
social work,
teaching
by Willy Franzen on May 10, 2009
Happy Mother’s Day! It was a lot harder finding a mother related non-profit organization to feature today than I thought it would be, but luckily I came a cross the Family Health and Birth Center in Washington, DC. They are “a full scope birth center providing prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to women and their families,” and since what they do is all about motherhood, they’re a perfect fit for today. The reason that the Family Health and Birth Center exists is that there are often high rates of infant and maternal mortality in low-income areas. That is unacceptable for a country as advanced as the United States, so Ruth Watson Lubic, “an experienced nurse-midwife and health care reform advocate,” decided to do something about it.
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holiday,
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Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on April 25, 2009
Last night I had some friends over for dinner, and we played a question and answers game. My questions for everyone was “if you got arrested, what would it be for.” Think about that for a second. I’m sure most of you never expect to run into trouble with the law, but not all criminals intend to break the law and not all people who are arrested are guilty. Since you’re a college student/new grad with limited financial resources, how would you afford a defense lawyer? Your parents? (If your parents would pay for it, then maybe you should take advantage of that generosity and have them sign you up for our job search prep course.) Or would you end up needing a public defender? That’s not a good thought – “someone you’ve never seen; someone you didn’t choose; someone you have no reason to trust” is responsible for your freedom. That’s why The Bronx Defenders exists. They “have transformed the role of the public defender by changing the nature of the attorney-client relationship, investing in the communities where our clients live, and striving to create justice for the people [they] serve.” It’s still not pleasant to consider a court case, but having better public defense makes it a little less scary.
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administrative,
advocacy,
development,
entry-level jobs,
law,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach
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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entry-level jobs,
health care,
Illinois,
Maryland,
Massachusetts,
medicine,
New York,
non-profit,
outreach,
program development,
Rhode Island,
Washington DC
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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accounting,
administrative,
advocacy,
coaching,
entry-level jobs,
New York,
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outreach
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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development,
entry-level jobs,
Illinois,
non-profit,
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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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Illinois,
Maryland,
Massachusetts,
New York,
non-profit,
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Pennsylvania,
program development,
Virginia,
Washington DC
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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accounting,
Connecticut,
entry-level jobs,
international,
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project management
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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California,
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entry-level jobs,
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Washington DC
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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advocacy,
entry-level jobs,
New York,
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by Willy Franzen on November 29, 2008
My thoughts about Thanksgiving are still lingering like leftovers in the fridge, so we’re going to look at some more turkey related jobs today. The National Wild Turkey Federation is a “non-profit conservation and education organization with a mission dedicated to conserving wild turkeys and preserving hunting traditions.” They’re not talking about the turkeys that you had for dinner (at least not most of you), these are the ones that you may have seen in your backyard. It wasn’t too long ago that seeing a wild turkey was a rare occurrence, but these days it seems like they’re all over the place. That doesn’t mean that the work of the National Wild Turkey Federation is done, though. In fact, their numbers are expanding faster than those of wild turkeys. Since the Federation was founded in 1973, wild turkey numbers have increased from 1.3 million to more than 7 million, in the same time the Federation has grown from 1,300 members to almost half a million. That’s called success.
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conservation,
education,
entry-level jobs,
non-profit,
Oregon,
outdoors,
outreach,
South Carolina,
Wisconsin
by Willy Franzen on November 16, 2008
How many of you participate in book discussion groups? I’ve never been a part of one, but I had a class in college that might as well have been one. It was one of my favorite classes, and it never seemed to drag by like many lectures did. We had the specific goal of discussing and understanding issues relating to “Values in the Law, Economic, and Industrial and Labor Relations.” At the surface the material that we covered often seemed to have nothing to do with subject matter of the class, but as we started to dig deeper it often became apparent that almost anything could be related to the class title. Group discussion is a fantastic way to learn, and it’s no surprise to me that a Chicago based non-profit organization called Literature for All of Us has used book discussion groups to reach out to teen mothers and other youths from underserved neighborhoods. By reading the same books and then sharing reactions to the material, participants are able to engage with issues that they would probably never comfortably address in a classroom setting.
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educations,
Illinois,
non-profit,
outreach,
writing
by Willy Franzen on November 2, 2008
Last weekend we talked about Harlem Success Academy and how they’re making huge strides in educating children from low-income families. What happens at school is extremely important when it comes to educational outcomes for children, but what happens at home can be just even more important. AchieveAbility is a Philadelphia based non-profit organization that is “working to permanently break the cycle of poverty for single parent, low income, formerly homeless families through education, supportive services, community and economic development, housing and accountability.” By helping low-income parents achieve their dreams, AchieveAbility is paving the way for a brighter future for both the parents and the children.
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coaching,
education,
entry-level jobs,
non-profit,
outreach,
Pennsylvania
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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development,
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New York,
non-profit,
outreach,
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by Willy Franzen on October 5, 2008
As we grow up and start looking for our first jobs, we often fail to realize how easy we had it. Although good grades and getting into college are important, almost all seniors and new grads who are looking for an entry level job never had to worry about survival. It was a given. I’m sure that there are some of you reading who had very different experiences, but most of you are now facing the most distressing times of your lives – entering the real world. It’s easy to forget that there are millions of children in the world who live each day trying to survive. Save the Children is an international non-profit organization that focuses almost entirely on making the lives of children across the world better. They do so with a focus on 7 main areas: Economic Opportunities, Education, Emergencies, Protection, Health, Hunger and Malnutrition, and U.S. Literacy and Nutrition. Save the Children has spent the last 70 years fighting poverty’s effects on children through their unique self-help approach, and they’re not stopping any time soon.
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California,
Connecticut,
international,
Kentucky,
outreach,
program development,
Washington DC
by Willy Franzen on September 28, 2008
Maybe it’s just me, but I hate walking by people who are begging for money. It always feels like a can’t win situation. I want to help the people, but I don’t like the idea that the money is probably going to help feed a dangerous addiction. The imposition makes me feel uncomfortable, and I also don’t want to get suckered by one of those fake homeless people whom you see on tv – the ones who tv stations catch clearing hundreds of dollars a day and then driving back to their homes. In the end, I always end up feeling bad, whether I give money or not. Street Sense is a non-profit organization that takes a creative approach to helping homeless people whether they’ve been begging on a street corner or just trying to find a job. They’ve created a win-win situation.
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entry-level jobs,
journalism,
non-profit,
outreach,
recruiting,
Washington DC
is the funniest, most in-your-face career guide on the market.