"After spending the last three years of my life running a small non-profit organization, and struggling every day to keep it afloat, I realized that it did not have to be this way. Looking around me at our sister organizations and meeting up with fellow over-worked staff people, overcommitted board members, and under-appreciated volunteers, I finally came to the understanding that the non-profit sector, in its gradual emergence over the last hundred years, has come to possess many flaws. Included in these flaws (though not limited to) are the sector’s relative identity crisis compared to the long-institutionalized private and public sectors, the lack of management skills possessed by many executive employees, and the overall dysfunction of a structure that emerged out of scarce resources and a desire to promote social change. When I left my job as Manager/Co-Director of In Other Words Women’s Books and Resources, it was with the firm desire to refine my management skills and to gain a proficient understanding of finance, accounting, and marketing; skill sets that are lacking in so many of the organizations I have worked with.
Like many others, I came to non-profit work out of a desire to spend my working time and energy making a positive impact on the world through direct service, advocacy, and/or by providing resources to the underserved. After several years in the sector trying on multiple hats (manager, board member, volunteer) I realized that the role I enjoy as well as what I am best suited for is management, which enables me to support those who provide direct service by making sure that the organization is well run and fiscally sound. As many non-profits are essentially businesses that provide a service instead of a product, it is critical to the future health of the sector that we learn to run our organizations well and efficiently, this being the impetus that has led me to business school.
