5 answers
Nathan
Student
Libertyville, Illinois
1
Question
Asked
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What Should I major in if I want To Run A Non Profit
Hi I am just wondering What I should major in if I would like to start/run a charity that is dedicated to helping the familes and children affected by rare diseases? #medicine #non-profit-management #nonprofits
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5 answers
Sallie Oto
Marketing Manager
1
Answer
Los Angeles, California
Updated
Sallie’s Answer
Hi Nathan!
I currently run the CSR program at ZipRecruiter, and we collaborate with nonprofits/charities to help underserved job seekers overcome the challenges they face to finding employment. We started this program from scratch, so while it has a different focus than what you would like your charity to achieve, I can share what studies/information I find helpful across all aspects of charity/nonprofit work.
1. Sociology: I studied Sociology, and have found this helpful because in order to get a degree, I had to take courses in: History, Psychology, Anthropology, English, Communications, Political Science, Business, Economics, and more. These courses help provide a baseline for understanding and working with all kinds of people, as well as other skills pertinent to creating a successful program.
2. Aside from having the ability to understand and communicate with people, it's also important to know the "business" side of starting a nonprofit/charity/business. I recommend taking courses in business/accounting, as well.
3. Internship! Getting first-hand experience from people who run or have started a nonprofit/charity can be MORE valuable than anything you learn in school.
4. Figure out your strengths and passion. A nonprofit that helps families and children affected by rare disease will require resident knowledge/advisor in that medical field (aka a doctor), as well as business knowledge, program development experience, and communication/PR skills. The question to ask yourself is "where do you want to be the expert?" Then, gain education/experience in that area, and aim to build out you team with other people who have knowledge in those other areas.
Best of luck!
nonprofit college graduate-school college-majors
I currently run the CSR program at ZipRecruiter, and we collaborate with nonprofits/charities to help underserved job seekers overcome the challenges they face to finding employment. We started this program from scratch, so while it has a different focus than what you would like your charity to achieve, I can share what studies/information I find helpful across all aspects of charity/nonprofit work.
1. Sociology: I studied Sociology, and have found this helpful because in order to get a degree, I had to take courses in: History, Psychology, Anthropology, English, Communications, Political Science, Business, Economics, and more. These courses help provide a baseline for understanding and working with all kinds of people, as well as other skills pertinent to creating a successful program.
2. Aside from having the ability to understand and communicate with people, it's also important to know the "business" side of starting a nonprofit/charity/business. I recommend taking courses in business/accounting, as well.
3. Internship! Getting first-hand experience from people who run or have started a nonprofit/charity can be MORE valuable than anything you learn in school.
4. Figure out your strengths and passion. A nonprofit that helps families and children affected by rare disease will require resident knowledge/advisor in that medical field (aka a doctor), as well as business knowledge, program development experience, and communication/PR skills. The question to ask yourself is "where do you want to be the expert?" Then, gain education/experience in that area, and aim to build out you team with other people who have knowledge in those other areas.
Best of luck!
nonprofit college graduate-school college-majors
Christine Warden
Senior Manager, Global Process Mining at Kraft Heinz
16
Answers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Updated
Christine’s Answer
Hi Nathan,
I think there are many possibilities that could work well for you. I have friends who I went to grad school with who earned Masters of Public and Nonprofit Management, so that could be a more long term goal, if interested. In the shorter term, you could consider a business major, as that would provide you a balanced perspective to what you might encounter in the nonprofit world. Or you could do something more closely related to the subject matter of your desired nonprofit, such as medicine or public health. There's also the option to major in an area that's very broad but that will directly apply to nonprofits, such as communications or technology, as both are critical to the success of nonprofits.
While you're considering potential majors, it might be beneficial to volunteer, intern with, or shadow employees at a nonprofit near you, even if the subject matter is not related to what you would like to focus on. This would allow you to learn from the experience of people who are actively doing what you'd like for a career so that you can ask them what in their collegiate experience equipped them for what they do today as well as what they might have done differently had they known what they know now.
Best of luck!
I think there are many possibilities that could work well for you. I have friends who I went to grad school with who earned Masters of Public and Nonprofit Management, so that could be a more long term goal, if interested. In the shorter term, you could consider a business major, as that would provide you a balanced perspective to what you might encounter in the nonprofit world. Or you could do something more closely related to the subject matter of your desired nonprofit, such as medicine or public health. There's also the option to major in an area that's very broad but that will directly apply to nonprofits, such as communications or technology, as both are critical to the success of nonprofits.
While you're considering potential majors, it might be beneficial to volunteer, intern with, or shadow employees at a nonprofit near you, even if the subject matter is not related to what you would like to focus on. This would allow you to learn from the experience of people who are actively doing what you'd like for a career so that you can ask them what in their collegiate experience equipped them for what they do today as well as what they might have done differently had they known what they know now.
Best of luck!
William Koch
Chief Operating Officer
10
Answers
Huntsville, Alabama
Updated
William’s Answer
There are programs of study out there specifically for Non-Profit Management. A business degree in management or leadership would be a good start, that way if the Non-Profit world turned out to be not really what you expected, you are armed for other career paths. I agree with the other responders, the best advice is to intern or volunteer with a Non-Profit before jumping in with both feet. Many NPO's get started but find it hard to raise money for their cause and subsequently close their doors after only a year or two. You might also want to explore the Americorps program for a year or two before trying to set out on your own. They will pay you a stipend and put you with a NPO. Good luck!
Mozart Guerrier, MSW
Executive Director at 21 Progress
8
Answers
Seattle, Washington
Updated
Mozart’s Answer
If you want to start a nonprofit you can major in the area that you think you would be most useful for the nonprofit. For example, I'm a nonprofit leader of an organization and majored in psychology and writing. On our team, I do a lot of work on teambuilding and communication for our organization because those are my strength. Most importantly, find a major that allows you to intern within nonprofits and businesses. The more you can learn about companies in school through internships and volunteering the better chance you'll be effective in nonprofit world.
Jared Chung
CareerVillage.org TeamExecutive Director at CareerVillage.org
283
Answers
Palo Alto, California
Updated
Jared’s Answer, CareerVillage.org Team
**TL;DR** There's no clear "right" and "wrong" major for this occupation. All else equal, I'd suggest majoring in business (if available) or nonprofit management (if available although this will be very rare). But the optimal strategy is probably to picking a major that either helps you become an expert in a small number of critical leadership skills, or helps you fill in gaps in your skillset that will make you more well-rounded. Details below on how to do it the "optimal" way. Also, I love love *love* your question!
## Step 1: Compare your skills with those an ED needs
Ultimately you will need a few sets of skills/knowledge. Take note of which skills you feel you (a) already have, (b) can build on your own, or (c) would need college training to acquire. Based on my experience (See "source" at the bottom of this post), a nonprofit executive director requires the combination of the following four things:
**1) The management skills of a business executive:**
*Can you manage a team of people effectively and protect the organization's financial health?*
* Managing the money of the organization (Finance and Accounting)
* Strategy
* Marketing / Branding
* Operations Management
* Managing people, coaching employees, HR issues, etc. (HR and Leadership)
**2) The marketing and organizing skills of a community activist:**
*Can you mobilize people at massive scale to support your work?*
* Inspiring people when you speak about the importance of your work
* Creating communications / marketing campaigns that inspire people to act
* Telling the stories that make people passionate about your cause
* Public speaking
**3) Domain knowledge:**
*Do you understand the problem your nonprofit exists to solve?*
* Personal experience with the problem.
* Knowledge of the latest research on the problem.
* Knowledge of the different "players" involved in the root problem, and what motivates those "players" to behave the way they do.
**4) Ability to fundraise:**
_There are some exceptions, but it's usually the case that the Executive Director spends a large portion of their time bringing in money._
* Learning the "language" of philanthropy and of fundraising.
* Understanding of the sequence of events needed to raise money from an individual, a foundation, a company, a government entity, or any other funding source.
* Being unafraid to ask for money.
* Knowing how to write an effective grant request.
* Being reliable and detail-oriented.
* Networking.
## Step 2: Decide whether to build spikes or fill gaps
It's hard to be really good at all of those skill and knowledge areas. You have two options: either you try to get *really really* good at one or two things (build spikes), or you try to get *pretty* good at everything (fill gaps). You should decide which approach to use based on which approach sounds most enjoyable to you. Do you tend to like to learn new things? Do you tend to like to master skills? Would you rather level-up in a sport you already play, or learn the basics of a new sport? Do you already consider yourself to be a "jack or jill of all trades"?
One factor that might affect this decision is whether you plan to found a nonprofit or become the leader of an existing nonprofit. If you are starting from scratch, being a utility player (jack/jill of all trades) will come in handy. If you are trying to take over something already big and established, you can probably lean on other people to solve problems for you so you are more able to focus on things that matter the most to the organization.
## Step 3: Align your major with your strategy
It's simple:
* If you want to build business skills, major in business.
* If you want to build community organizing skills, major in communications, social science, or a liberal arts major, and get active really quickly in community organization groups to build real-world experience.
* If you want to build domain knowledge, major in whatever is the closest to the underlying social or environmental problem you want to devote your nonprofit to solving.
* If you want to build fundraising skills, major in nonprofit management or communications. (Actually, I think building fundraising skills is pretty hard to do in college. It's probably rare to find a fundraising-specific undergraduate major program. It's still kind of an apprenticeship function right now, so the best bet is actually to find a mentor who can train you in the ins-and-outs of fundraising.)
## Other notes
For what it's worth, I majored in business (with a finance concentration) and had personal experience as a young person and as a young professional in the domain area for my nonprofit CareerVillage.org. I had very minimal experience mobilizing people, but had done some large-scale event management (I ran TEDxCambridge) and was very active in organizing clubs and social activities in college. I had no fundraising experience before founding my nonprofit, so I ended up learning everything I know about fundraising from other executive directors or professional fundraisers. I'm still trying to learn a lot of new skills.
You didn't ask this, but one question you might want to ask next is whether you should try to lead a nonprofit right out of college or not. My $0.02 on this is that this would be quite challenging to achieve, but can definitely be done. Think of it like trying to start a startup right out of college -- doable but tough. I would certainly NOT want to try it alone, so if you can't get other people to found the organization with you I'd take that as a very serious warning flag.
Lastly, I want to commend you for being the kind of person who is so interested in helping others that you are willing to devote your career to it. We need more wonderful talented people working in the social sector so THANK YOU for being you!!
**Source:** I am the executive director of CareerVillage.org, which is a 501c3 nonprofit. I'm also drawing upon the experiences I have had interacting with and hearing the stories of other nonprofit executive directors who are my friends or through accelerator programs or other convenings.
## Step 1: Compare your skills with those an ED needs
Ultimately you will need a few sets of skills/knowledge. Take note of which skills you feel you (a) already have, (b) can build on your own, or (c) would need college training to acquire. Based on my experience (See "source" at the bottom of this post), a nonprofit executive director requires the combination of the following four things:
**1) The management skills of a business executive:**
*Can you manage a team of people effectively and protect the organization's financial health?*
* Managing the money of the organization (Finance and Accounting)
* Strategy
* Marketing / Branding
* Operations Management
* Managing people, coaching employees, HR issues, etc. (HR and Leadership)
**2) The marketing and organizing skills of a community activist:**
*Can you mobilize people at massive scale to support your work?*
* Inspiring people when you speak about the importance of your work
* Creating communications / marketing campaigns that inspire people to act
* Telling the stories that make people passionate about your cause
* Public speaking
**3) Domain knowledge:**
*Do you understand the problem your nonprofit exists to solve?*
* Personal experience with the problem.
* Knowledge of the latest research on the problem.
* Knowledge of the different "players" involved in the root problem, and what motivates those "players" to behave the way they do.
**4) Ability to fundraise:**
_There are some exceptions, but it's usually the case that the Executive Director spends a large portion of their time bringing in money._
* Learning the "language" of philanthropy and of fundraising.
* Understanding of the sequence of events needed to raise money from an individual, a foundation, a company, a government entity, or any other funding source.
* Being unafraid to ask for money.
* Knowing how to write an effective grant request.
* Being reliable and detail-oriented.
* Networking.
## Step 2: Decide whether to build spikes or fill gaps
It's hard to be really good at all of those skill and knowledge areas. You have two options: either you try to get *really really* good at one or two things (build spikes), or you try to get *pretty* good at everything (fill gaps). You should decide which approach to use based on which approach sounds most enjoyable to you. Do you tend to like to learn new things? Do you tend to like to master skills? Would you rather level-up in a sport you already play, or learn the basics of a new sport? Do you already consider yourself to be a "jack or jill of all trades"?
One factor that might affect this decision is whether you plan to found a nonprofit or become the leader of an existing nonprofit. If you are starting from scratch, being a utility player (jack/jill of all trades) will come in handy. If you are trying to take over something already big and established, you can probably lean on other people to solve problems for you so you are more able to focus on things that matter the most to the organization.
## Step 3: Align your major with your strategy
It's simple:
* If you want to build business skills, major in business.
* If you want to build community organizing skills, major in communications, social science, or a liberal arts major, and get active really quickly in community organization groups to build real-world experience.
* If you want to build domain knowledge, major in whatever is the closest to the underlying social or environmental problem you want to devote your nonprofit to solving.
* If you want to build fundraising skills, major in nonprofit management or communications. (Actually, I think building fundraising skills is pretty hard to do in college. It's probably rare to find a fundraising-specific undergraduate major program. It's still kind of an apprenticeship function right now, so the best bet is actually to find a mentor who can train you in the ins-and-outs of fundraising.)
## Other notes
For what it's worth, I majored in business (with a finance concentration) and had personal experience as a young person and as a young professional in the domain area for my nonprofit CareerVillage.org. I had very minimal experience mobilizing people, but had done some large-scale event management (I ran TEDxCambridge) and was very active in organizing clubs and social activities in college. I had no fundraising experience before founding my nonprofit, so I ended up learning everything I know about fundraising from other executive directors or professional fundraisers. I'm still trying to learn a lot of new skills.
You didn't ask this, but one question you might want to ask next is whether you should try to lead a nonprofit right out of college or not. My $0.02 on this is that this would be quite challenging to achieve, but can definitely be done. Think of it like trying to start a startup right out of college -- doable but tough. I would certainly NOT want to try it alone, so if you can't get other people to found the organization with you I'd take that as a very serious warning flag.
Lastly, I want to commend you for being the kind of person who is so interested in helping others that you are willing to devote your career to it. We need more wonderful talented people working in the social sector so THANK YOU for being you!!
**Source:** I am the executive director of CareerVillage.org, which is a 501c3 nonprofit. I'm also drawing upon the experiences I have had interacting with and hearing the stories of other nonprofit executive directors who are my friends or through accelerator programs or other convenings.