How to Milk a Goat, or How to Switch to a Nonprofit Career

by Eileen Dolbeare

I really believed I would milk goats or make cheese on my lunch break when I started my first non-profit job. I imagined the socially-conscious and morally-fulfilled staff taking the noon hour to recharge from powerful mornings of world-changing work by reconnecting with the earth and animals. It would be blissful I was certain.

When I accepted a job in the marketing department of Heifer International, an inspiring organization committed to ending hunger by giving families around the world the multiplying gifts of livestock such as cows, goats and chickens, I was ready for the change.

I had lived out the quintessential business story of the late 90s. The swollen dot com era had launched me in to the non-reality of an interactive marketing agency with stock options, free massages, overpriced office furniture, sushi Wednesdays and an inflated pay check.

But when the bubble burst, I was left with worthless stock options, excessive hours logged on my timesheets and a need to do something more than figure out the next Internet profit model.

So, I romanticized a life working for a non-profit and started my job search with a boundless naiveté. When a position for an Internet marketer opened at Heifer, I knew fate had intervened. I could apply my skills and business expertise to an organization with a meaningful mission.

I would be taking a pay cut, but that was a small price to pay for a stress- free and personally-fulfilling lifestyle. I would be giving back to the community. The inherent sacrifice in that alone would certainly absolve me from ever having to be stressed at work again.

But it was months before I ever spent my lunch break doing anything other than inhaling my sandwich while I checked email in between lengthy meetings. The closest I ever got to milking a goat or making some pressed cheese was attending a lunch sponsored by our program staff that taught any suburban dweller how to become a bee keeper. I thought keeping bees sounded stressful so I went back to work.

What I learned from my first months at the organization was that non-profit work was certainly rewarding. Helping families become self-reliant as Heifer does is life-altering and important. I was proud of my job and just waited for the stranger on the plane to ask me what I did. My coworkers were an intelligent and diverse group from around the globe who broadened my views and my sense of hope about the world.

But there were also difficult days. In my past work, I was used to the lightening speed by which project schedules were driven and IPOs initiated. The non-profit world often moved much more slowly and was sometimes overly consensus driven.

There have been many ebbs and flows in the learning curve of nonprofit culture. I have adjusted to some radically unrealistic expectations and flourished in the unanticipated surprises. My job at Heifer has given meaning to my life and challenged my ways of thinking.

I'm glad I made the switch.

I don't milk goats on my lunch break like I thought, but I do revel in the fact that our project partners have milk to drink for their lunches.

The Pros and Cons of Nonprofit Work
If you're considering a switch to the nonprofit sector, here's a brief checklist of the positives and negatives to help set your expectations and get you on the right track from the beginning.

Pros

Work With a Sense of Purpose
There's no question that working for a nonprofit can inspire passion and change
in the world and yourself.

Creative Environments
The challenges of funding and promoting your message often inspire creative work environments with highly-energized and innovative people.

Diverse Experiences
You can never say, "It's not my job," in a nonprofit because odds are it's no one's job and work needs to get done. There's plenty of opportunity to stretch professional muscles you never imagined you would.

Flexibility
There's less of a cut-throat, time-crunched atmosphere in the nonprofit world that can often make jobs flexible and family friendly.

Cons

Money
It's definitely not the reason you enter the nonprofit sector. You'll have to learn to be fulfilled in other ways. Instead of negotiating for salary, try to negotiate for a more flexible work schedule or arrangement. There are always options.

Bureaucracy
Nonprofits can be slow and sometimes behind the curve in terms of business best practices and policies. You'll need to be patient and open minded to slow change processes.

Consensus Craziness
Everyone nodding in cheerful agreement can be a beautiful thing. It can also be a lesson in frustration. Many nonprofits seek everyone's "buy in," and that can be frighteningly like a scene from 12 Angry Men and ultimately counter productive.

Eileen Dolbeare is the New Media Director of Heifer International. To find out more about the organization and how to give meaningful gifts of cows, goats, chickens and other livestock, visit www.heifer.org.