Strategic Volunteering #12
12. To sample a new career
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Have you been thinking about making a career transition? Because of the recession that began in 2008, I have been receiving more and more calls from people like you who are re-evaluating their life’s goals. I find people really want a job with a purpose or, as Tim Sanders writes in his book Saving the World at Work, “a purpose with a paycheck.” One of the best ways to test the waters, to see if a career in nonprofits is the right match for you, is to volunteer in your new field of interest. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, both the number of volunteers and the volunteer rate rose after the economic downturn. About 63.4 million people, or 26.8 percent of the population, volunteered for an organization at least once between September 2008 and September 2009. My educated guess is that with more and more people volunteering for nonprofit organizations, the natural progression will be that more people will be hired who have made a contribution to the nonprofit as volunteers.
List Price: $12.97
