Non-profit or For-profit: What is a millennial to do?

Ambica Jobanputra, BeyondMe’s Social Leadership guru explains her route into ‘doing good’.

What lies ahead for you? Taken at BeyondMe’s October Bootcamp 2016

When I left university, I felt I had two stark choices: do good or get a good job? But which to choose?

The ‘social side’ of professional work where you can be closer to changes I think might have a positive impact on society or the private sector where I could earn more and gain professional skills, ready to do good with them later?

What underpinned this were fundamental beliefs about the sectors:

For me it came down to three things: resources, scale and impact. We hear that the social sector and public sector are lacking in resources; the scale of the problems are huge and far bigger than any one person; but the impact would be admirable and worthy.

The for-profit sector overflows with resources with the money to influence to make new things happen. The scale of the projects are potentially massive if you work for a large corporate meaning you can be ambitious and appeal to society at its broadest — the market. The impact of my work however is as a small cog in a large machine.

In non-profits however, resources can be tight — of the 160,000 odd charities registered in the UK most are small and last year, 20% reported serious concerns they might be forced to close. Non-profits often deal with problems that are huge in scale — much bigger than these organisations can tackle — and have often built up over decades and generations. But because the approach of charity projects is often small one can be relatively flexible about tackling stubborn problems in an innovative way. As a result, the potential impact is huge.

For many members of BeyondMe’s movement, these assessments are common place. These beliefs underpin the behaviour of thousands of us navigating our place in society and the world of work and I’ve only ever found the views of friends and family to reinforced the idea that I had to make a choice between two incompatible outcomes.

This mattered to me because blanket beliefs about these sectors came with ethical considerations. Put another way, make the wrong call and I knew I’d be in for a sleepless night or two.

I thought the only way to know where and how to have the greatest impact was to try them out.

So I worked for various for-profit law firms, worked for an non-profit refugee rights research centre in the West Bank and finally did a two year stint in central government. So how did having these jobs affect my self-belief that I could do good?

To my surprise, my enthusiasm for resources, scale or impact in business, non-profits or central government.

On reflection, I realise now I was asking the wrong question, and so many of us do.

What happened next was I joined BeyondMe: a social enterprise that connects teams of professionals from the private public sector with charities in need of extra time, money, skills and support.

I’ve met hundreds of private sector professionals hungry to improve the world and all asking themselves these same questions — to do good now or to train myself in the private sector while I can?

In the two and a half years I’ve worked here with like-minded young professionals and charities opening their organisations up to new supporters - I saw that across sectors they have something in common.

All of them are generous leaders because our ability to do good can’t be exclusively defined by where we work.

Are you leading generously?

There’s a better question.

This concept of generous leadership goes to the heart of why BeyondMe exists and is what resonates with the people joining the community every day.

So what does it come down to? Five simple but important things:

1. Generous leaders start with themselves, and they start now.
   They take responsibility and ownership of a problem and say unashamedly ‘here’s what I care about’. They interrogate the full breadth of resources they have - their networks, time, energy, money, skills and ideas - and say ‘here’s what I’m putting on the table to tackle this’. They don’t wait for someone else and they don’t wait for that perfect time when they supposedly have more to give. Why would they? They can start today, with what they have.
2. Generous leaders think long-term and stay committed.
   If you ask any charity or vulnerable person what they need, they will tell you it’s long-term commitment and support. If you ask any volunteer, donor, informed citizen what they want, its to see change being made. You only get that if you stick around and be part of the change. This means enduring support for the causes you care about and meaningful, lasting relationships with those people also working on that issue, particularly those working in a sector different to yours.
3. Generous leaders have a genuine openness to learning.
   This is crucial. We often think of the private sector being the beacon of knowledge in contrast to the social sector. This is just nonsense - there are incredibly talented, gritty, smart, entrepreneurial-minded people in the social sector who have built up experience in tackling complex social problems, often without the necessary resources or support. It would be a mistake to approach any opportunity to have an impact without an openness to learn from others tackling the same problems. If you invest in that openness, something quite incredible happens which is you grow into an expert.
4. Generous leaders retain their willingness to empathise.
   To respond to the needs of other individuals or causes much bigger than yourself, helping starts with a willingness to understand. Pushing yourself to experience a different mindset — maybe one at first you don’t agree with — will enable you to offer constructive solutions, something we could all benefit from more. This is not to be taken lightly, and it’s something I have to work hard on every day. But the best way to show empathy is a simple starting point: t0 ask questions and really listen.
5. Generous leaders keep never lose sight of the outcomes of their actions.
   This is about having realistic goals and holding yourself accountable to them. We all get busy; this is about following through and remembering what your actions are contributing towards. The most admirable people I’ve met in the BeyondMe movement combine everything with this clear focus.

Try to display these attributes — even when it is most difficult to — and you’ll come to realise that we all have the capacity to be a positive force for good.

So whenever you are tempted to ask what the point of it all might be, remember that where you work doesn’t determine the kind of person you are and can become.

What really matters is the king of world you and I want to live in. With a little help and friends to share in the burden BeyondMe believes we could fundamentally redefine our relationship with social impact, charity and the private sector.

Only then will others stop feeling like the choice is such a hard or stark one to make.

Want more ideas about how to become a generous leader? Join the movement at www.BeyondMe.org