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You CAN get paid for Nonprofit work, but there鈥檚 a catch - YouTube
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Did you know that you can make a living
working for a nonprofit organization? I
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didn't actually figure this out until I
was in college, but the fact is that you
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can work for a non-profit and make a
living - there are just a couple of
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catches. So if you are thinking about a
career in nonprofits or thinking of
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starting a non-profit and wondering how
you will make a living if you do so, I'm
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going to talk you through a few things
that you should be considering in this
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video. Welcome back! If you are new to my channel, my name is Amber Melanie Smith,
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and I am a nonprofit founder, executive
director, and speaker on leadership and
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service. I also make these videos here on
YouTube every week so feel free to
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subscribe and join me regularly for
information on making an impact,
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nonprofits, leadership, service, and so
much more. My whole mission is to help
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you aspiring changemakers with tips and
strategies to help you change the world
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while living a life of impact and
purpose. So just a little bit of context -
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I mentioned I am a nonprofit founder, so
I launched a nonprofit organization that
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I currently work full time for many
years ago and so I have been through
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this experience of what it takes to
start an organization get it to the
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point where revenues coming in and to
the point where I can do this full-time,
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and I've also gone through some of the
hiccups and setbacks and challenges that
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stood in the way of getting me to that
point faster. I will be doing lots of
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other videos on various things that
happen throughout this journey and how
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if you are on the same path of thinking
of starting a non-profit you can perhaps
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avoid some of the mistakes that I have
made and get there a little faster than
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I did, but for this video I want to talk
about a couple things that you really
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should know about how nonprofits work,
and how to be able to get to a point
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where you could work for a non-profit
full-time if that is what you are
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thinking of doing. So I mentioned that
there is a catch when it comes to being
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able to receive a salary and work
full-time for a nonprofit organization.
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There's actually two catches
I want to talk about in this video
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the first catch is that by law a
nonprofit organization the United States
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has to have a board of directors and it
is the Board of Directors who creates
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the nonprofit's budget and decides
whether to hire you or not and what your
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salary is going to be so you can't or
rather it's unethical and in some cases
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illegal to be able to decide what your
own salary is going to be and give it to
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yourself this doesn't mean however that
you can't request a certain salary from
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your board of directors or make
recommendations to your board for a
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certain salary you should certainly as
any nonprofit professional be doing
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compensation research to know what other
salaries look like in organizations of a
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similar budget range as yours so that
you know if you're being paid fairly or
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not more often than not the sad truth is
that nonprofit professionals get paid
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far below what they are worth and
definitely below what it takes to
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survive and/or thrive financially in
this world today and there's this whole
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other conversation going on right now in
the nonprofit industry about this very
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thing how to ensure that people working
in the nonprofit sector are compensated
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fairly and competitively to keep these
amazing public servants around because
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let's face it the world relies on
nonprofits and needs nonprofits to be
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out there serving people and tackling
major social issues with my board of
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directors I will make recommendations
during our annual retreat for our budget
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and for salaries not just for myself but
for all of our staff members but it is
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ultimately up to them to discuss and
vote on what the budget is going to be
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after I make my case and my requests
fair compensation is definitely possible
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if you work harmoniously with your board
of directors but it's important to note
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that you do not get to vote on your own
salary
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the second catch that I want to discuss
in this conversation is that it can be
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difficult to generate enough revenue for
your organization to hire you or anybody
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as a staff person without a solid
fundraising plan a common misconception
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that I hear from folks in the general
public a lot is that you can't be paid a
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salary if you work for nonprofits but
along with the whole topic of this video
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we know that that's not true all
nonprofit means is that you can generate
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income you can generate revenue but all
of that revenue is going back into the
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mission of the organization that can
include and often does include covering
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the costs of staff because staff is a
critical component of meeting the
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organization's mission there are so many
ways that having highly trained
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professional committed staff that you
can retain for years is just a really
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smart idea for the sustainability of
your organization and its ability to
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maximize the impact it can be making on
the community and the world so if you
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are starting a non-profit it is super
super important if you hope to have
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staff at all for your nonprofit at any
point in the future to have a really
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solid fundraising plan going into when
you very first start the organization so
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what this looks like is creating a
business plan before you even pick a
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name for your organization worry about
the name later start with a business
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plan now and the business plan really
needs to include how you plan to raise
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money and generate income sustainably
for your organization what sustainable
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means is that it's not a one-time
infusion of money into your cause but a
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regular infusion of money that you can
count on so revenue that is regularly
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coming in that allows you to budget into
the future and plan in the future
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because you can count on it there are
many ways that a non-profit can work to
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get sustainable revenue but earned
income is an especially great way this
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is some kind of
system where you have a fee for some of
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your services perhaps a very affordable
cost for consulting or the services that
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you offer the clients that you work with
I recently talked to one person who
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wanted to start a non-profit martial
arts school but didn't realize that he
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could charge for some of the classes
that he was going to offer through this
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school but the fact is that would be a
case of earned income you can definitely
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charge for your classes or other
services that you offer but the idea and
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the goal to serve your mission first is
of course to make it affordable for
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whomever your target audiences if we're
talking about a 501 C 3 public charity
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type of nonprofit which is usually the
kind of nonprofit most people think of
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starting then you have to be thinking of
your mission first and making sure that
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if you have an earned income system that
you are not leaving out the very people
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that you're trying to serve earned
income is just about keeping yourself
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sustainable so that you can continue to
serve the community without worrying
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about going bankrupt another possible
type of revenue that you might include
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in a business plan could be grants but I
always caution people who are thinking
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about applying for grants by letting
them know that grants are really not
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that reliable even professional grant
writers have maybe just one in 10 grants
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that they can achieve for an
organization that they're writing their
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grant for grants are more about getting
some funding for something special or
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usually one-time funding but in general
funders do not want you to rely on them
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year to year they want to see that
they've made an investment in you that
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you can now grow and have a stronger
capacity and that you can move on so
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that they can start funding somebody
else afterward I talk a lot about some
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of the ways that successful nonprofits
fundraise when they are just starting
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out or growing in another video so check
that out in the link a plan to raise
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awareness about your cause and how to
also attract individual donors is very
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very important because across all the
types of donations that occur in the
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United States annually individual donors
that donations made by single
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individuals out there not come
not grant foundations but everyday
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people this is the largest pool of
donations that comes in every year in
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support of area charities so to recap
the two things that you need to do to
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pave the way for being able to work for
a non-profit full-time is one have a
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harmonious relationship with your board
of directors because like I said this is
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the group that will be deciding whether
to hire you at all and deciding your
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salary and to have a strong fundraising
plan that involves some way of bringing
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in money sustainably such as Earned
Income individual donations or some
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other method I hope this video has
helped you out working full time for a
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non-profit has been the most rewarding
part of my life and I highly recommend
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if you are the type of person who really
wants to see the impact they can make on
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the world the nonprofit careers are
amazing and fulfilling and so great so
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you should definitely explore that as a
possible option for you once again I'm
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amber Melanie Smith and I make weekly
videos here on YouTube about nonprofits
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service leadership social impact and all
things change making please subscribe
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share my channel share these videos with
others that you think might enjoy them
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and don't forget to ring that bell so
you can get alerts when I publish my
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next video and if you are in Facebook I
have a great group you should check out
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called change the world or bust where
myself and other change makers are
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having conversations about how we can
make an impact and live a life of
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purpose thank you so much for watching
and I hope to see you next time
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