Moving Up by Moving Out

March 5, 2012 1:16 PM

I'm a non-profit development professional who enjoys my current job fundraising for a regional cultural organization (actually one of the largest, most stable non-profits in our area). Unfortunately, I can no longer afford the non-profit salary. Plese help direct me to the resources to find a place in the for-profit world.

I'm experienced (more than 10 years in fundraising) and successful when it comes to building relationships and raising money, but I am unsure of how these skills map to other businesses other than in a generic and unappealing sales capacity.

What are some resources that the hive mind can recommend for mapping my skills and experience into fulfilling jobs in the private sector?

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Have you thought about fundraising for higher ed? The work translates well, but it usually pays between 10%-30% better, depending on your location. It's not private sector, but wanted to put it out there as an option. Check out higheredjobs.com for listings, you can search by location, job function, or keyword.
posted by juniperesque at 1:24 PM on March 5, 2012

It would be helpful to know your current salary and what salary you're looking for. You can ask the mods to add this information by using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
posted by alms at 1:49 PM on March 5, 2012

Higher ed and hospitals/health care organizations generally pay much better than cultural organizations, and fairly competitively with grantmaking jobs at foundations.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:25 PM on March 5, 2012

You might check out investor relations positions with startups or publicly traded companies.
posted by rosa at 3:11 PM on March 5, 2012

You might also want to check out for-profit companies that serve a nonprofit client base. These could include fundraising consultants (capital campaign, direct marketing agencies, online consulting firms, etc) or software vendors (I work at one of the larger ones in the space, and we are hiring, so feel free to MeFi Mail if you would like).
posted by alexfw at 3:33 PM on March 5, 2012

You could work for the philanthropic arm of a large corporation. Many companies are involved with nonprofits and philanthropy work (a term you may have heard is "corporate social responsibility" - charity is trendy right now) and have employees or entire departments dedicated to directing the corporation's philanthropic operations, disseminating grant money, and coordinating volunteer activities for employees, to name a few activities.

I have specific and additional examples if this sounds interesting to you. There are options for someone who is philanthropically minded in a corporate setting!
posted by ramenopres at 9:48 PM on March 5, 2012