Barbarians at the Gates

Imagine you’ve spent the last 10 or 20 years working very hard in your role, delivering great results with extremely limited resources, and someone who’s never even worked in your sector comes along saying, "move over, I’ve arrived to fix what you’ve been doing." You might be just a little put-out and resistant, no?

Sadly, that can be the unspoken attitude from some folks in the for-profit world as they explore career opportunities in the charitable world.

Or imagine you’re the same hard-working charitable leader, and applicants say, "I’ve reached a stage in my life where I’m thinking of retiring, but first I think I’d actually like to give back." Is that code for:

• I’ve made my money (all while you were making much less), so now that I’m at a stage where I can afford to make less money, I’d like your job?
• I’m ready to slow down (but not fully retire) so now I’d like to come and work in your sleepy little world?

Of course it’s not usually code for either message, but can you imagine how your charitable audience might infer these messages?

There are plenty of horror stories in the charitable sector about for-profit folks who simply don’t fit, or fail for any number of other legitimate reasons, but it does fuel fears about why "outsiders" just don’t "get" the sector.

All this to say that if you’ve heard that breaking into the charitable world can be tough, there are both real historical reasons (e.g. previous failures) and perceptual reasons (e.g. attitude for joining the sector) that exist for resistance. And also to say that for many reasons the charitable world really needs the talents, new blood and passion "outsiders" bring.

Just bear in mind that if you’re one of those "outsiders" eager to get inside the charitable world, do think carefully about your motivations and your messaging, or you’ll be treated like a barbarian at the gate.