{"id":2160,"date":"2020-01-22T07:22:12","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T12:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/?p=2160"},"modified":"2020-01-14T11:22:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T16:22:50","slug":"why-i-left-the-nonprofit-sector-and-its-not-the-reason-you-might-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/2020\/01\/22\/why-i-left-the-nonprofit-sector-and-its-not-the-reason-you-might-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Left the Nonprofit Sector (and It\u2019s Not the Reason You Might Think)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was written by Taran Catania ’20. Connect with her on LinkedIn.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether\nI was working in field research for a local conservation group or serving as a\nlegislative representative for a national environmental organization, I loved\nmy time in the nonprofit sector. No matter where I was, I was surrounded by\nmission-driven people, my work gave me a sense of purpose, and I was always\nproud to answer the standard icebreaker \u201cso what do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nonprofit technician in the field:<\/strong> Taran Catania ’20 flags a Semipalmated Sandpiper as part of ongoing endangered shorebird research for New Jersey Audubon. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But then I left the nonprofit world \u2013 and not for the reasons you might think. The assumption when people leave the nonprofit sector to go to business school is that person wants to make more money. Now, don\u2019t get me wrong: there are extremely good reasons the nonprofit sector should stop undervaluing and underinvesting in staff<\/a>. But the short answer is no, I did not leave for that reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreal reason is: I was tired of fighting for change, but not seeing an obvious\nplan for its impact or scalability. I was tired of \u201cdoing good\u201d by rules that\nlimited how much good we could do. I wanted the chance to take risks for\nsomething I believed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nDr. Erik Monsen\u2019s<\/a> Crafting the\nEntrepreneurial Business Model<\/em> class, I was introduced to a TED Talk by\nactivist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta called \u201cThe way we think about charity is\ndead wrong.\u201d<\/a>\nAs Pallotta points out, nonprofits are rewarded more for not<\/em> acting like\nbusinesses (such as severely restricting overhead spending \u2013 \u201cFor\nevery dollar donated, 83 cents go to the cause!\u201d) than for what impact they have.\nFrom inherent rules limiting nonprofits\u2019 ability to competitively compensate\nstaff, market and advertise to generate revenue, or access capital markets to\nspur growth, the nonprofit sector is at a disadvantage to the business world in\nalmost every way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nadd further limitation, nonprofits are systematically discouraged from taking\nrisks. Risk, which always carries some chance of failure, is a generally\nunacceptable use of charitable dollars. And as Pallotta puts simply: \u201cWhen you\nprohibit failure, you kill innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nother words, there is a reason there is no \u201cventure capital\u201d of the nonprofit\nworld. No one is looking to make large donations to a nonprofit that wants to\ntake chances, invest in its own growth, and pursue unexplored, better ways to\nmake and scale change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nas we can tell from the growing list of Certified\nB Corps<\/a>\nand the increasing buzz around Corporate\nSocial Responsibility (CSR)<\/a>, the business world is evolving to pick up where the\nnonprofit sector leaves off. And it\u2019s doing so with some creative, innovative risk-taking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nuntil we can foster a nonprofit sector that operates under fewer limitations, fighting\nfor social and environmental change from a business angle may offer greater\nopportunities to create positive, scalable impacts. (That is, as long as\nbusinesses commit to doing so meaningfully<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe meantime, I\u2019ll be here reading anything written by Vu Le at Nonprofit\nAF<\/a>,\nbicycle commuting in my Allbirds sneakers, and pursuing a Sustainable\nInnovation MBA to be a part of this business evolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Taran Catania ’20. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Whether I was working in field research for a local conservation group or serving as a legislative representative for a national environmental organization, I loved my time in the nonprofit sector. No matter where I was, I was surrounded by mission-driven people, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Why I Left the Nonprofit Sector (and It\u2019s Not the Reason You Might Think)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46457,26210,221,26,427011,272245,19463],"tags":[17503,41478,4433],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jobs","category-class","category-environment","category-learning","category-social-mission","category-strategy","category-student-profiles","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-innovation","tag-sustainability"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8b9n0-yQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}