Is it Time to Quit Your Nonprofit Job?

Many nonprofit employees stay at their jobs much longer than is healthy, making themselves martyrs for their nonprofit cause. All too often, this blind commitment to a cause can keep people in dead-end nonprofit jobs forever. What is a dead-end nonprofit job? It could be that envelope-stuffing gig you took right out of college, wide-eyed and idealistic, but now it's time to pay your school loans back. It could be the job training center you work for that won't listen to your ideas about bringing the clients up to par with technology. It could be the communications position you were excited about as an English major, yet no one will let you change the newsletter or start a blog. Maybe you're just broke and tired of your ideas not being heard. Maybe it's the desk and ancient computer you're sitting at right now. Maybe it's time you quit. If you've had it up to here, at least you're not alone.

The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network just released a report called "Stepping Up or Stepping Out", a survey of about 1000 young nonprofit professionals. The survey revealed that about half of current young leaders, i.e. the future of nonprofit leadership, plan to leave the sector altogether because of burnout, low salaries, no opportunities for promotion, and just plain stress. Here are some other reasons it might be time for you to kick your nonprofit job to the curb:

• You're no longer passionate about the cause. As people get older, wiser, more experienced, often their priorities change. Maybe you were gung-ho about women's issues, but now you're really psyched about the environment. Go where your passion takes you; that's why you came to the nonprofit world in the first place!
  


• Your role limits your opportunities. You might currently be an IT person, but you want to learn fundraising. Or you know that you want to be a program director in the next year but you're a receptionist right now. There's no reason you need to be an administrative assistant for three years. Ask for an upgrade or begin exploring your options based on the experience you've gained.
  


• There are no opportunities for advancement. Perhaps you want to move up, but there is only one position above you, and that is the President. Or maybe you're ready to move beyond your associate position into a director role with supervisory capacity. If promotion isn't possible, maybe you need to move on to a bigger nonprofit with more advancement options.
  
  
• You're being blocked by your bosses. Many young leaders are trying to develop themselves through additional training or finding mentors to help them in their nonprofit career, yet I have heard time and again about how they often get "blocked" by their bosses from doing it. One young woman asked her boss for permission to attend a free federal grantwriting seminar, because she knew it would help the organization later as she advanced in her job. Her boss not only told her no, but said it was because the training would be "over her head" and she wouldn't understand anything. I couldn't believe that in a sector where we are helping people, there are some folks who are so "threatened" that they are preventing the development of future leaders. If you're surrounded by haters, it may be best to leave that organization behind!
  
  
• You're not receiving a fair salary. How do you know? Because you've had to eat PB&J for lunch the last three weeks. Not cool. See these helpful nonprofit salary guides for the market rate for nonprofit positions in DC and NY from Professionals for Nonprofits.

Now let me assure you, dear readers, that I am not advocating young people leaving the nonprofit sector, but that we need to make good decisions about where we spend our time within the sector. There are too many nonprofits we can work for that we should be able to be happy and work toward a cause. We deserve challenge, recognition, and a fair day's wages. I mean, let's face it. Young people working in nonprofits today did not go to graduate school to make copies all day, they came to make a difference. And if your nonprofit is not helping you do that, then it may be time to say goodbye.

Have you had an experience where it was hard for you to leave your nonprofit job? Please share in the comments!