The Pros and Cons of Working for a Non-Profit Organisation
The first few years of my journey into the workforce after my post-secondary graduation was in a non-profit organisation. The amount of work it does to improve their local communities is tremendous. In fact, they are so well known that the organisation operates across the globe by catering to the needs of its communities. It is so well known that the most of you know the company by listening to this song by the Village People.
Yes, I worked at the YMCA. For three years, I worked for a non-profit organisation and learned many things. During this time, I made unforgettable memories with the community members and colleagues as a Membership Experience staff member.
Starting as a front-line employee earning $13 per hour, I experienced the community firsthand. Moving up to a team leader 6 months later, I began to dive into the difficulty of leadership. Within the first year, I was promoted to the Membership Experience manager at one of their health and fitness facilities overseeing the customer service and sales team for just below 2 years.
Having experienced different stages of employment during my time, I observed and experienced many things that have shaped me into the person I am today. However, not everything was flowers and rainbows during my time and I’d like to go through the pros and cons of working for a non-profit organisation from my personal perspective.
Pros of Working for Non-Profits
Experience
The real world is cut throat. Jobs are difficult and oftentimes, many organisations expect multiple levels of experience before you are considered for hire. Compound that with your ambition of earning a liveable wage, you soon realise the higher paying jobs require certain types of experience such as people management, handling budgets, and making projections on performance.
One thing non-profits excel at is giving you experience. Don’t get me wrong, the work is tough and long hours are frequent. Being a part of a non-profit organisation means working with slim budgets and heavy workloads. However, this creates wonderful opportunities to gain experience for those that seek them out.
For example, city jobs are one of the most difficult ones to get, let alone be promoted in. It may take you years as a front-line employee to get to a management level. This may be okay since the pay is usually worth the trade off, but at a non-profit, you have more opportunities to show your worth. By doing so, more changes for promotions come by leading to better work experiences.
Community
Everyone knows you don’t work for a non-profit to make money. The charity organisation has a goal and often, these goals are to help others. The YMCA I worked at financially subsidised many programs to provide access to services that many may otherwise not be able to access. It creates a place for people to belong and the feeling of purpose you get from working for a common goal alongside others is incredibly rewarding.
You are on ground zero. You can see the people in your community, experience the difficulties they experience, and gain a better perspective on life. If you have a cause you truly believe in, that alone may be motivating enough for you to truly love your work. In fact, you will likely be surrounded by people that love the work amplifying a team’s synergy.
Networking
Many people at non-profit organisations tend to be people oriented. This makes networking easier to build connections within the organisation and even outside of it.
During my time at the YMCA, I met many wonderful people. Some even led to other opportunities for consultation work as a customer service trainer for a different non-profit organisation supporting immigrant families.
Cons of Working for Non-Profits
Stress
Non-profit organisations by nature tend to be more stressful. Of course, other jobs may be just as stressful, if not worse, but working under unique constraints that non-profits operate can be challenging.
While stress is not necessarily that bad, long-term consistent stress is bound to affect your health. Stress can come from long hours, lack of sleep, difficult customers, or even financial difficulties. Depending on the mentality of the person, some may thrive in these situations. In fact, it is the reason why non-profits have many opportunities, because those that thrive do well.
Low Pay
Low wage is a given. It is a perfect job for a part-time employee attending school, but I have found that as I moved further up the ladder, the amount of responsibilities for pay soon became unbearably disproportionate. At a certain point, you gain enough experiences to move on to a better role. Often, people moved on due to financial reasons.
Don’t get me wrong. As a manager, I made a decent amount earning around $24 per hour. It’s better than the front-line staff’s wages which at the highest was $16 per hour. In a city like Vancouver, it’s near impossible to get by with $16 per hour. Even at $24 per hour, there’s no chance you’ll be saving for retirement or your future home with your loved one anytime soon.
The biggest challenge for me was the pay for front-line staff. They worked facing customers, children, parents, and more day-in and day-out. In my mind, they were the most crucial parts of the organisation, but the lack of pay caused too many problems. The sacrifice for many to stay with non-profit organisations are too great. They give up their ability for a secure future retirement which is unfair for the work they do in the community.
High Turnover
From a management’s perspective, the low pay is a problem for other reasons. You see the stress the financial hardship causes them, but the decision isn’t always yours to make. Overtime, employee turnover ends up costing more stress, time, and money than anything else. Not only that, high turnovers lower quality of work due to the resources required to train them to be self-sufficient in the workplace.
The turnover rate doesn’t only impact front-line staff. At all levels of the organisation, turnover rates are higher than most companies. In most cases, people aren’t leaving because of negative experience. In my observation, they leave, because working for a non-profit is non-sustainable financially.
Working for non-profit organisations can still be rewarding and incredibly beneficial for your future career growth. Many shy away from taking roles with non-profits due to low pay. However, I would like for everyone struggling to find work to take the chance.
Not only will you gain experience, but you might gain experience far faster than others who may have gone to larger corporations. With this experience, your long-term career growth could be exponentially faster than waiting in line for a promotion.
While you’re there, you can meet wonderful people working for the community and become one of them. I believe that our governments should be providing the support to take over the work of our non-profits, but since they don’t (or can’t), their work is critical in supporting your local communities.
If you are already established in a career, don’t worry! Consider volunteering for a cause you believe in and be an active member of your community.
