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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Nonprofit & Government
Industry Overview
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Job Descriptions & Tips
Non-Profit and Government Job Listings
Industry Overview
Nonprofit
Nonprofit organizations are businesses designed to make change, and not in
the monetary sense. Granted 501(c)3, or tax-exempt, status by the government,
these organizations focus on a wide variety of causes, including everything
from the Africa Fund, which promotes human rights, education, and
people-to-people exchanges with African countries, to the National Breast
Cancer Foundation. Many nonprofit interest groups are located in Washington,
D.C., where they lobby government on behalf of their causes. Others have
offices near state legislatures, where they lobby for the passage of
legislation favorable to their causes.
Nonprofits derive their operating revenues from foundations, government
grants, membership dues, and fees for services they provide. They typically
attract people who are passionate about solving social problems; the big
upside of working in this sector is that you can make a positive impact on
behalf of your organization's cause; the downside is that most jobs in
the nonprofit sector don't pay very well.
Nonprofits and charitable organizations are becoming much more
entrepreneurial, learning lessons from the private sector about how to
operate more efficiently and do more with less by adopting marketing
techniques to enhance their fund-raising efforts, or even starting their own
small businesses to help generate income to fund social programs.
Government
Some 20 million people work for government—agencies and departments that on a
federal, state, or local level handle issues as diverse as highway
construction and the protection of wilderness areas, public health programs,
subsidies to tobacco farmers, the space program, and fireworks displays on
the Fourth of July. Governments collect taxes and use them to fund programs.
That includes everything from a small-town government filling potholes on
Main Street, to a big city providing police and firefighting services, to a
state issuing drivers' licenses, to the federal government sending troops
into combat or making Medicare payments to a long-term health-care facility
for the elderly poor.
Federal and state legislators make laws, and city and county supervisors pass
ordinances. Executive agencies—from the White House to the state house to
city hall—issue regulations. Governments employ armies of civil servants,
bureaucrats, lawyers, and specialists of all kinds to implement their
policies and staff their programs. These include people who analyze policy
and draft legislation for U.S. senators, people who issue building permits at
town hall, and everyone in between.
Non-Profit and Government Job Listings
Director of Development
Director of Fund-Raising
Director of Volunteers
Environmental Protection Specialist
Foreign Service Officer
Government Budget Analyst
Intelligence Analyst
Legislative Aide
Nonprofit Communications Director
Nonprofit Event Coordinator
Nonprofit Executive Director
Nonprofit Program Assistant
Nonprofit Program Director
Press Secretary
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