Photo by puja
A couple months ago, I met with a slightly older (Gen X) male colleague of mine and we sat down discussing our nonprofit careers and where we wanted to end up within the sector. He shared about his work in starting a new nonprofit in DC and I told him about my blog, speaking engagements, and everything I was trying to do with raising the voice of the next generation and promoting leadership and professional development for the sector. He kind of smirked a little, and told me to slow my roll because, “You think you know everything, but you don’t. Don’t walk around here so full of yourself.” Well, you can imagine how encouraging THAT conversation was. Here was a colleague, a peer of mine even, telling me to play by the rules. I had opened up to share my passion about changing the future of the sector, and got smacked down by the pay-your-dues police. I guess some people just don’t believe in supporting their peers. Which is funny, because we all will need support at some point in time, and it’s best not to burn your bridges. And for him, this bridge is totally burnt baby.
One of the things we talked about at the Next Wave Action Summit last week was that younger generations, while we didn’t participate in the Civil Rights or Womens Rights movements, we have lived long enough to see the failures of government, business, and nonprofits to operate in ways that don’t really work to make this world a better place. We’ve experienced the horribly ineffective and embarrassing Bush administration, the horror of Hurricane Katrina and the mistreatment of its victims, 9/11 and a senseless war killing young soldiers in Iraq. There’s a lot for us to be riled up about in this country, and the most ambitious of us get riled up enough to change these systems or do something to prevent injustice or help people who are suffering in our society.
So who are you to hold anyone back? This country needs all the do-gooders we can get! I may be only 25 years old, but I have a vision for change just like my older counterparts. The only difference is that I’m not at all interested in playing by the rules.
And what are these rules anyway? There seems to be this crazy sentiment in our ever professionalized sector that there’s a certain order to things (just check out any nonprofit job description):
- Get a Bachelors degree in social work, political science, or business
- Work as an intern or assistant for pennies at least 2 years
- Burnout on PB&J and get your next job as a coordinator or associate for 2 more years while you finish your Masters degree in social work, political science, or business
- Then find a gig as a manager and learn everything on the job for about 3 years
- Congratulations! With 7 years of experience, now you can qualify as senior management, director-level material!
Well, I think these rules suck. Why should anyone have to wait 7 years to be recognized as a leader in their organizations? This is the path I took:
- Got a Bachelors degree in English, worked as a part-time fundraiser at nonprofits during college
- Worked as an assistant for pennies and learned everything on the job for one year out of college while I finished my Masters degree in Nonprofit Management
- Burned out on PB&J and got my next job in a director position at a small nonprofit
- Created a blog and got myself a reputation as a leader
- Began speaking out about the issues I care about, started receiving invitations to make presentations in DC, Virginia, Boston, Georgia, Minnesota
- Started a business providing management consulting and training for small nonprofits
- Just accepted an adjunct faculty position at Trinity University in DC!
So what I’ve learned from my experiences is so contrary to what my male colleague tried to tell me. I’ve learned that sometimes playing by the rules doesn’t get you anywhere. It doesn’t empower you to act on what you believe in because you’re just waiting for someone to notice your work and give you permission to be a leader. But when you put yourself out there – even though you know damn well you might fail – the universe responds positively to help you achieve your goals. Our communities need people who aren’t just going through the motions waiting for the world to change. We need people who are courageous enough to push out of the box and come up with new and improved ways of doing nonprofit work. We need people that are willing to break all the rules.
What’s been YOUR experience?
