Commongood Careers

Matchmaker, Matchmaker...

2008-01-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

In today's Boston Globe, Sacha Pfeiffer writes about Commongood Careers as addressing a sector-wide need by matching up top talent and nonprofits.

From the article:

"...Commongood Careers, helps nonprofit organizations recruit, screen, and hire for jobs ranging from support staff to senior managers. It also provides career advice to job seekers, keeps a database of about 20,000 job candidates, and maintains online listings of job postings across the country.

Those services are filling a gap that has long hindered the nonprofit sector, which often struggles to fill vacant positions. Commongood specializes in working with rapidly expanding, high-impact, socially entrepreneurial organizations. And its low-cost, flat-fee search model is designed to make it affordable to even the smallest nonprofits, whether they need to fill a $20,000-a-year job or a six-figure executive position."

Read the full article.

2008-01-04T10:17:00.000-08:00

... on a nonprofit salary

There are two irrefutable truths about nonprofit employment. First, it’s not the salary that attracts us to work in the nonprofit sector. Second, these wonderful nonprofit job opportunities often take us to cities that boast expensive living costs. Being fully aware of this, every month Commongood Careers will pick a city in which one of our clients operates and we will hunt down the “nonprofit-salary-friendly” neighborhoods, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, cultural events and yes, even hair salons. These spots will be sure to keep you living the exciting urban lifestyle that your lawyer and banker friends enjoy while keeping your finances afloat. First stop, Boston … home of Commongood Careers!

Good Eating

A Russo and Sons – Located in Watertown, Russo’s is a grocery store that offers the selection of Whole Foods at a fraction of the price. Highlights include fresh produce, rare cheeses and a wide selection of gourmet groceries.

Volle Nolle – The historic North End in Boston is famed for its quality and quantity of Italian eateries that will fill your stomach while emptying your wallet. Volle Nolle breaks the mold by offering great pasta salads and delicious soups and panini sandwiches (try the Cubano). The quaint interior and low prices make Volle Nolle perfect for a quick lunch stop or a small dinner. 351 Hanover Street Boston, MA 02113

Good Culture

Institute of Contemporary Arts – Boston’s newest art museum by award winning architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Located on the waterfront, the design of the building rivals the artwork it houses. Enjoy the museum free of charge every Thursdays from 5pm-9pm. If you have kids under the age of 12, bring the whole family for free on the last Saturday of every month.

Museum of Fine Arts – With a permanent collection of over 1,400 European paintings and 1,900 pieces of decorative art and sculpture, the MFA, Boston never disappoints. Every Wednesday from 4pm-9:45pm, peruse the galleries and enjoy classics from Matisse, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh and Rembrandt at no cost.

Free Shakespeare on the Common – Summers in Boston are legendary for free outdoor events held in the Boston Commons and the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade. One highlight is the weeklong Shakespeare on the Common held in July. Free plays acted by professionals on a warm midsummer night prove that the Bard himself was right when he wrote that “all that glisters is not gold”.

Good Looking

Filene's Basement – Though the famed Downtown Crossing shop is currently closed due to construction on the T that runs near it, Filene’s Basement, with stores on Boylston Street & in nearby Newton, MA still offers designer styles at Target prices. Though selection can be “hit or miss”, the “hits” make a visit worth its while. ()

Liquid Hair Studios – I’m no hair expert (my brother-in-law cuts mine in his basement), but Liquid is known for keeping other Bostonians looking sharp. Located on Tremont Street in the South End, this colorful and hip hair salon cuts costs as well as bangs. Though the décor is funky the stylists work to match your hair cut with your personality and lifestyle. With hair cuts and styles running from $25-60 you will have money left over to buy some shampoo.

Are you a Bostonian who thinks we may have missed some great-deal places? Please leave a comment on this blog and advertise your favorite places and events. Let the discussion begin!

(Please note: On our staff we have someone who scored a perfect 800 on the verbal SAT. Thus, we are well aware of the grammatically incorrect nature of slogans such as “livingood”. However we are also aware that sometimes cheesy catchiness beats proper grammar.)

Reflections on the Massachusetts Conference for Women

2007-12-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, December 11^th, Commongood Careers attended the Massachusetts Conference for Women. This one day conference is hailed as “…the state’s premier networking and educational experience designed to help women connect and collaborate, and grow personally and professionally”. This year’s attendance topped over 6,000 women from all over the Commonwealth.

This is our second year supporting the conference and once again the conference organizers out did themselves—the event was a huge success. Serving as one of approximately 100 exhibitors, our team met and had wonderful conversations with women interested in fulfilling their personal and professional mission in the nonprofit sector.

Our team felt that the conference provided a fabulous opportunity for women to come together to hear from panelists expert from a wide swath of professions including financial planning, nonprofit management, marketing and communications. Commongood Careers’ very own Jana Reed spoke on the topic of “Leading Innovations to Advance Nonprofits”. Her remarks focused on talent and the need for talent in the nonprofit sector at all levels of the organizational chart. In reflection, we heard from many women that the day was inspirational and helped them to see the impact of their careers through a different lens.

Were you at the conference? If so, please share your thoughts on the day and comment on this blog! If you were there but missed Jana’s presentation, you can find related topics in our Knowledge Center. If you missed the conference this year, we hope to see you next year.

Professional Women Unite!

2007-11-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

A colleague just brought to our attention a great web site for professional women. It's called YourOnRamp and it bills itself as "a community of professional women who balance their work and life with flexibility and creativity." The site has a Nonprofit section that includes interviews with sector leaders, book reviews, online discussions, job listings, and a wealth of other resources for women interested in nonprofit careers. This section of the site has a slant towards social entrepreneurism.

What is a Social Entrepreneur?

2007-11-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

We often get asked the question, "What is a social entrepreneur?" and it is not an easy question to answer. Last week, James and Cassie attended a session at the Teach For America alumni event in Boston this weekend where Harvard Business School professor Stacey Childress shared the definition that they use in the classroom:

"A 'Social Entrepreneur' is one who pursues opportunities to create pattern-breaking social change without regard for the resources that she/he can currently control."

She explained that where as traditional nonprofits had sought to meet community needs by institutionalizing support systems for those in need, social entrepreneurs generally endeavor to change the way the world itself works in an attempt to root out the primary causes of social ills. They will not rest until they have done this, and they will rarely stop to consider if they have the necessary funding, capacity, workforce or support to get something done. They just dive in and get to it.

Tales from the Road

2007-10-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

Our fearless Director of Talent has been on road meeting tons of interesting jobseekers and organizations. Here's what she had to report:

"This month we attended 7 events starting first with the Social Venture Partners Conference in Seattle where we heard from Patty Stonesifer, Executive Director of the Gates Foundation and I sat in on a session on transitioning from the for profit to nonprofit sectors. From there back to Boston for two days in the office and then back to Seattle for the Action Without Borders, Idealist Career Fair. We connected with hundreds of jobseekers and presented two back-to-back Workshops on Finding a Great Job in the Nonprofit Sector. I left Seattle feeling exhilarated about the energy and interest from so many people with diverse experience and background—all interested in working in the social sector.

From Seattle I flew the red eye back to Boston to conduct two career advisories and then on to Los Angeles for the Independent Sector conference. The first day at the conference the Nonprofit Sector Workforce Committee met and our very own James Weinberg was nominated Vice Chair! The Committee focuses on three areas: general marketing of the sector; diversity in the sector; and student debt. The Independent Sector conference feels like old home week in that so many of our colleagues and partners in the sector come together to share ideas, best practices, and old fashioned conversation!

After Independent Sector, I joined my colleague Kasey in Portland, OR for the Action Without Borders Idealist Career Fair at Portland State University. Over 800 people attended the Career Fair, I presented one workshop on Careers in the Nonprofit Sector. The room was packed and people flowed to the hallway.

After the event, Kasey and I jumped on the red eye and flew to Boston. I spent a few hours at Logan and then on to Washington DC for the Academy of Women Symposium at the Women’s Military Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. Commongood Careers was invited to participate in the conference and we were excited to accept the invitation. I was humbled and awed by the sheer intelligence and commitment the women I met have for the country. Many of the women I met want when they leave service to continue to serve the country by working in the social sector. I know that Commongood Careers will be helpful to them as they chart their path. "

Thanks to All Survey Participants!

2007-09-28T08:05:00.001-07:00

Over 1,700 nonprofit jobseekers and professionals participated in The 2007 Social Sector Talent Survey. The answers and comments collected are proving to be really interesting. We're currently working hard to crunch the data and articulate our findings, and we're excited to publish a report in the coming weeks.

If you have other thoughts or opinions about the topics addressed in the survey -- specifically the values, expectations, and competencies of socially-driven jobseekers -- please join the conversation by leaving a comment to this blog entry.

Responses to the 2007 Social Sector Talent Survey

2007-08-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

A huge thanks to everyone that has participated in the 2007 Social Sector Talent Survey so far. We've been thrilled to see such a big response and so many thougtful responses to the questions.

Now it's your chance to voice your opinions to a wider audience here on the Commongood Careers blog. What did you think of the survey? What issues did it raise for you? What other thoughts do you have about the values, competencies, and expectations of nonprofit jobseekers that you'd like to discuss further?

Leave a comment below and let the Commongood Careers community know!

The Growth Imperative: How Can My Organization Plan Ahead?

2007-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

In a recent report titled "The Global War for Talent" published by Aberdeen Group, a global research organization, researchers suggest that companies that focus their efforts on future workforce planning have a consistent advantage in talent acquisition. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But what about organizations that are growing at such a rate that future growth is difficult to predict? This is a common challenge of some entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations whose growth outpaces their ability to plan for growth.

To address this challenge, Commongood Careers has a few suggestions:

Know the skill sets you seek. Create a list of common skills and competencies required for hires, both for specific roles and for all employees. If you build these profiles today, you'll be better prepared when a position opens up in your organization.

Be able to connect quickly with candidates who possess those skills. Smart organizations are always "recruiting" to some extent; keep track of and keep in touch with any potential employees you may meet even if you're not hiring for an open position today. Then, when it comes time to fill an open position, you'll have a few leads in mind from the start.

Elevate talent acquisition planning to a strategic level. Your organization wouldn't launch a new fiscal year without a budget, right? Planning for new hires is just as important. Build hiring plans, even if they are just forecasts or estimates, into your yearly planning process. A little work on an organization chart in advance will help to avoid hiring "fire drills" down the road.

Other suggestions for how nonprofits can best plan ahead for hiring? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment to this blog entry.

Jobseeker Thoughts on Nonprofit Salaries

2007-06-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Last month in the Knowledge Center, we shared an article about nonprofit salaries with information about how some nonprofits determine total compensation, as well as some tips on how to discuss salary with a nonprofit employer. Since then, we developed the chart of sample salary benchmarks.

Now it's your turn to let the Commongood Careers community know what you think. How do the salary benchmarks posted above compare with your personal expectations? How
important is total compensation vs. salary? Share your ideas and experiences about nonprofit salary expectations with the Commongood Careers community by leaving a comment in our blog.

Making "BA or Equivalent Experience" Work

2007-05-18T04:31:00.000-07:00

The social sector is known for valuing diversity of experience in its workforce and for working to have its staff mirror its populations served. Then why, in reading nonprofit job descriptions, is there so much emphasis on jobseekers holding college and advanced degrees when the skyrocketing price of higher education makes those options unaffordable to so many? Is a BA or other degree really required for someone to be successful in a position?

For several reasons, we believe nonprofits would actually benefit from stating "BA or Equivalent Experience Required" (instead of “BA Required, Masters Preferred”) in their job descriptions:

(1) It's more legally compliant. Requiring a BA can be construed as discriminatory. Stating "BA or Equivalent Experience" in a job description helps an organization stay compliant with hiring laws.

(2) It nets candidates possessing a range of experiences, not just a specific educational background. This strongly supports our tried and true best practice of hiring based on core competencies -- such as qualities and characteristics gained through experience of all kinds.

(3) It fosters a diverse workforce. To many, attending college is not a path taken, either by choice or by circumstance. For those not attending college right out of high school, they may be starting their professional career earlier than most, thus gaining more on-the-job training from an early age.

But what does "or equivalent experience" mean exactly and how can a hiring organization best measure this requirement, especially in comparison to an academic degree?

What's important is that candidates being considered for an open position have the right competencies -- skills, knowledge, technical abilities, and personality characteristics -- to succeed at a job.

In some instances, a specific type of educational background is required. This is certainly true of practitioners in healthcare organizations, for example. We've also found this to be the case occasionally in the fields of finance and IT. Even in these cases, however, it is typically specific coursework or certifications that are required, not a degree.

We want to know what you think about this topic. What are the advantages and challenges of stating "BA or Equivalent Experience" in a job description? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Greening of the Screening

2007-04-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

Recruiting can be a paper-intensive discipline. There are cover letters, resumes, phone screen notes, and other documents that are typically printed out for review. And since most search firms have a candidate management database that tracks these very same documents, printing can be a duplicate and potentially wasteful effort.

Some members of the Commongood Careers service team recently decided to take the plunge and go paperless. However, in addition to the immediate benefit of creating less waste and saving more trees, our team soon realized some genuine work efficiencies resulting from going green.

“Instead of spending my time sorting through piles of applications, I now do all of my screening electronically in our database,” says Kevin, a Commongood Careers Service Manager, “The result is less time spent shifting papers around, and more time spent getting to know candidates for our nonprofit searches.”

“Besides saving time, going paperless has created less clutter in our office,” added Allyson, another Service Manager, “We now are mindful of our paper consumption. Paper can be an unnecessary use of space.” (How Zen-like of Allyson.)

If you have other ideas for ways to green the workplace, please leave a comment below.

Will It Take Social Entrepreneurs to Rebuild New Orleans?

2007-03-21T10:42:00.001-07:00

We recently had the opportunity to visit New Orleans and meet with a number of social entrepreneurs who are instituting amazing innovations to rebuild the city, especially its education system. In the period since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an amazing number of public schools have been reopened as charter schools, supported by the outstanding work of New Schools for New Orleans. Additionally, Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu has opened an Office of Social Entrepreneurship in his staff, which is believed to be one of the first government offices in the country at any level to be devoted to promoting this field. Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, and City Year are also doing amazing work in a vibrant city that is very much on the path to rebuilding things even better than they were before the storms. In fact, many people we met felt that there were more job opportunities for social entrepreneurs to make an impact in New Orleans right now than in any other city in America.

Are you one of those people? Contact us and we may be able to help connect you with some local opportunities.

Also, we are curious, what are the factors that would pull you toward New Orleans right now and what are the concerns that would make you hesitate? What type of assurances and/or support would you need to consider relocating to New Orleans if the right opportunity was available? What other aspects of life in New Orleans could benefit from an entrepreneurial approach? What innovative models from other organizations or cities could help? Leave a comment and let us know.

YNPN Comes to Boston

2007-03-01T07:38:00.001-08:00

The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) has officially launched in Boston and Commongood Careers was there to celebrate! YNPN has been connecting nonprofit professionals in their 20s and 30s in cities like New York and San Francisco for years. We are thrilled to now have this valuable and fun networking group in our own backyard.

We attended YNPN's kickoff event at the Revolution Rock Bar. Most of the other attendees were there to meet other people who work in their fields or network for new job opportunities. There was a genuine feeling of comraderies, and many attendees commented to us that this was really a one-of-a-kind gathering in Boston.

We also met some professionals interested in making the leap to the nonprofit sector. They saw this opportunity as a great way to speak with nonprofit professionals in an informal and fun setting.

We look forward to participating in more YNPN events and wish them the best in building a great network of young nonprofit professionals in the Boston area.

To join YNPN's Boston email listserv, click here.

Curious Jobseekers in San Antonio

2007-03-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Last week, we attended and led a workshop at the Idealist Career Fair in San Antonio, Texas. Yeeeeeeha! About 400 jobseekers attended, mainly college seniors looking to begin their careers in the nonprofit sector. Everyone we met was really professional and had great questions about how to pursue a nonprofit career. Some of the most commonly asked questions we received were about timing of the job search (since most nonprofits hire in real time and not months in advance) and how to break into the nonprofit sector (to which we answered, volunteer or intern). We also suggested to many jobseekers to explore Americorps and fellowship programs in order to get one's proverbial foot in the door of the social sector. As most organizations seek to hire talent that already have some nonprofit experience, these can be great strategies for graduating college students or others who may not have years of experience in the sector.

We also met many organizations concerned with the need to develop nonprofit talent in Texas. A representative from the San Antonio Nonprofit Council shared, "Talent is a real need for organizations. We wish there were more resources devoted to connecting professionals and organizations."

Why Ethnic & Racial Diversity Matter

2007-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Ethnic and racial diversity in the workplace is a core value of our partner organizations. Why is diversity really so important?

In all organizations, diversity of experience and backgrounds has proven itself to be a vital success factor. This can be gained through many types of diversity, including racial and ethnic diversity. Diversifying a team's membership increases the range of opinions, ideas and opportunities available in decision-making processes. This, in turn, will improve the quality of those decisions, the ease of new strategy implementation, and the organization's effectiveness in meeting its goals.

Social and human service organizations have are particularly sensitive to ensuring ethnic and racial diversity because so many of these organizations serve a highly diverse constituency. In order to most effectively understand and respond to the needs of their clients and partners, social service organizations know that their staff should be reflective of the communities they serve. Some funding organizations have recognized the importance of these facts and have started to require staff diversity reporting among their grantees.

The social sector needs to continue to improve its workplace diversity, particularly at the senior management level. In order to achieve these goals, Commongood Careers makes several broad recommendations:

(1) Build a hiring pool of diverse talent through constant, year-round outreach to targeted communities and groups, instead of focusing on outreach only for open positions;

(2) Structure your searches so that you can allow a longer hiring window, possibly adding 2-3 months to a search, in order to ensure that every effort has been made to include diverse candidates in the final candidate pool, especially with senior level hires;

(3) Build an internal pipeline of diverse talent by hiring for diversity at lower organizational levels and then ensuring effective retention and career laddering to grow that talent into senior management roles.

Organizations that truly value diversity at all levels have proven to be the most successful at building workplace diversity. Making diversity an organizational priority in all areas, as opposed to focusing on diversity only in recruiting, will make your organization stronger on many levels and will enable you to attract and retain diverse candidates more effectively.

How Entrepreneurs Recruit Talent

2007-01-31T11:39:00.000-08:00

A recent article in Entrepreneur magazine reported that the greatest challenge facing entrepreneurial organizations in 2007 is the ability to hire and retain the right people. The article had two particularly effective suggestions for meeting this challenge: 1) soliciting referrals and 2) hiring interns.

We know first-hand the value of employee referrals. Out of all of the searches we've completed in the past year, nearly 50% of placements have come either from the Commongood Careers network or the network of the hiring organization. When we begin any search, we reach out to our professional and personal contacts to explore their interest in a given position or to find out if they know anyone who might be interested. Besides drumming up buzz about a specific position, this strategy also helps us stay in touch with our networks and develop a talent pipeline.

Hiring interns is another effective way for entrepreneurial organizations to build relationships with developing talent. When hiring interns, it's critical to make sure there is a valuable role an intern can play in your organization. Remember, interns are typically looking for meaningful work experience and exposure to the mission-critical aspects of your organizations. A summer of taking lunch orders or shredding paper is not a meaningful internship. Interns are typically bright and ambitious; employ these talented resources wisely and you may be surprised at what they can accomplish.

Commongood Careers is Hiring

2007-01-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Are you passionate about the organizations that are changing our world? Do you want to help nonprofits succeed like never before?

Commongood Careers is hiring! Check out our open positions.

Congratulations to the 2007 Social Capitalist Award Winners

2007-01-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

The fourth annual Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards were announced earlier this week. This year's 43 award recipients are socially entrpreneurial ventures that are “using the disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems.” Commongood Careers is proud to partner with seven of the award recipients:

BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life)
Citizen Schools
Hands On Network
Jumpstart
Nonprofit Finance Fund
Teach for America
Year Up

A very special congratulations to these organizations! We at Commongood Careers are honored to be helping to hire talent and build the teams of these organizations.