Working in the charity or not-for-profit sector can be extremely rewarding. Employees get to feel good about their impact on positive change and get to work with other like-minded, passionate people. Once you’ve decided to work for a value-led organisation there are a number of ways to facilitate your job search. The below tips give you an overview of the kind of activity you need to be doing to find your perfect, feel-good job.
At Charity People we’ve been helping candidates find the right job since 1990, register your CV with us to see how we can assist you.
Research
If you are considering a career move into the charity or NFP sector, ask yourself:
- Why do you want to work in the sector?
- What can you offer?
- What can it offer you?
- Are you ready?
- Who are you targeting?
- Where do you want to be in 2/5 years?
If you want to work within a particular sector, such as health or animals, research your subject comprehensively and identify which charities you would like to approach.
Voluntary work
Volunteering is probably the most effective way to learn about the sector and about fundraising. Volunteering allows you to learn first hand about the different roles that exist, how they interrelate and what the responsibilities are on a day-to-day basis.
Identify the charities you would most like to work with and the causes you support. Contact these charities and ask about their volunteering programmes. Many of the larger charities will have a volunteer coordinator.
Relevant Skills and Experience
Are your skills relevant for the charity you want to work with? Have you any skills or previous experience in a useful area such as:
- Administration
- Office management
- PA/ Executive Assistant
- Human Resources
- Marketing
- Finance
- IT
- Press Office
- Public Relations
- Communications
- Sales
Ensure your relevant experience is emphasised on your CV. The skills you will have learnt in these roles are easily transferable to the charity sector
Fundraising Jobs
Whilst some charities get funding from governments and local authorities these are often short-term in nature and are normally for specific projects. Money also comes from donors. Fundraising is about showing donors why the work that the charity does is important and persuading them to give on a regular basis. Fundraising is similar to marketing and sales, so individuals with this background should have relevant transferable skills.
There are different types of fundraisers that help charities raise money from different sources or in different ways:
- Corporate Fundraisers – a fast growing and high profile area of fundraising. Giving by companies is varied and ranges from a one-off donation by the company Chairman to major marketing initiatives. Corporate Fundraisers need to thoroughly research the company they intend to target and discover what will motivate them to give
- Trust Fundraisers – Grant Making trusts are independent grant-making bodies that get their income from investment or their own fundraising. They are set up specifically to give money away for charitable purposes and for community benefit
- Community & Events Fundraisers – consists largely fundraising by the general public. Volunteers will implement many of the fundraising initiatives, such as sponsored walks, bike rides, etc, so a key responsibility of this role is to recruit, train and support these volunteers
- Individual Fundraising – individuals are by far the biggest givers to charities. An Individual Fundraiser needs to capture potential donors and persuade them to give, ideally on a regular basis
- Legacy Fundraising – legacies are an enormously important source of charitable funds. Legacy fundraising generates money by getting supporters to leave a gift as part of their Will
Your CV
Your CV essentially markets a product (you) to a prospective buyer (employer). You should view your CV as a ‘living document’, ideally reviewing and updating your CV every three months with details of your latest work achievements, training course attended, etc.
There are two types of CV:
- Chronological CV – promotes experience rather than skills. The most basic would simply be a list of employers and job titles. It is essential that in your CV text you give brief details of your previous employers’ business and of the tasks and functions that you performed. A chronological CV is most suited to application for promotion or for a job with in the same sector or industry
- Functional CV – concentrates on selling what you can do rather than where you have worked. Here, you are showing that you have the transferable skills to do the job your applying for. This type of CV has advantages when attempting to move to a new profession or sector
Some people aim to combine the two approaches to writing a CV, summarising their career to date, their transferable skills followed by a section outlining their employment history.
Your CV should promote you by describing your qualities, abilities, experience and achievements. It should demonstrate your skills (what you can do) and experience (where and how you used these skills) in the most favourable light and although on its own, will not win you the job, a successful CV will ensure you are invited to an interview.
Basic CV principles
- Impact – your CV should have impact, however, you want to be identified as a relevant professional, not remembered for an "irritating gimmick"
- Quality not quantity – give the maximum and best quality information possible using the minimum number of words. In general, a CV should be two pages long
- Communicate – it is essential that all dates and information logically fit together to tell a coherent and appropriate story
- Selling points – ensure that your strongest and most relevant selling points are clearly displayed on the first page of your CV
- A core CV – create a basic CV that can then be tailored to individual posts by the addition of specific and relevant achievements.
- Update it! – no CV is ever truly completed – it should grow with your experience
The Interview
An Interviewer’s primary objectives are to confirm that you have the abilities that your CV claims, assess your personality and your manageability. As such, they will be looking for answers to the following questions:
- Can you do the job? (Technical ability)
- Will you do the job? (Do you have the right attitude)
- How will you fit in? (Personality)
- Could they personally work with you? (Manage you!)
- What can you offer over other candidates? (Selling points)
An interview may be used at a number of stages during a recruitment process (sometimes up to 3 or 4). The type of interview that you have with any NFP organisation will depend on its particular nature and culture.
Informal / Formal Interviews
The informal interview approach is more likely to be used by a larger and/or commercially focussed NFP organisation. The meeting may take place over a coffee table rather than across a desk and the interviewer may invite you to address them by their first name. This approach is intended to make you feel relaxed and so enable you to perform both naturally and at your best. However, do not be lulled into forgetting that it is an interview.
A formal interview is generally more “old style”, with formal introductions being made and full professional courtesies being adhered to throughout. Although potentially more daunting than an informal interview, this style may actually improve your performance by keeping you focussed on the task in hand. Most interviews involving trustees are likely to be of a formal nature.
Unstructured / Structured Interviews
An unstructured interview generally resembles a flowing conversation. The interviewer will have pre-selected the information areas that they wish to probe and by using a variety of questions, they steer the discussion so that each one is covered. This type of interview is likely to be used by smaller organisations and those accepting CV applications. Here, it is your CV that generally provides a starting point for all discussions.
A structured or equal opportunities interview is designed to test each candidate in exactly the same manner. It attempts to do this by using only pre-planned questions that are based on the skills that the position requires (person specification). This is to enable all candidates to be compared and judged fairly. Many NFP organisations perform this type of interview, a useful clue to this fact can often be the organisation’s use of an application form.
Panel Interviews
Panel interviews are generally used in the later stages of a recruitment process. An interview panel usually consists of 3 to 5 people who are each a specialist in a particular field or have a particular interest in the role being interviewed for. Panel members may be tasked with asking specific questions or testing certain aspects of interviewees’ knowledge. The candidate to be awarded the position is usually selected by consensus. Most panel interviews with NFP organisations involve trustees.
Presentations
A presentation is simply a pre-planned talk that is given by an interviewee to a small group of people. It’s is a selection tool that many NFP organisations use as part of a second, panel interview when selecting fundraising, communications or senior management staff. A presentation is useful demonstrating and testing a candidate’s communication skills and it’s also a useful way for management level candidates to convey their strategic ideas.
Next Steps
- Ensure your CV is up to date and highlights your relevant skills and experience
- Register with Charity People
- If there’s a specific charity you want to work for contact them directly
- Keep looking in various media, for example:
- Guardian – Society/Wednesday
- Guardian - Creative Media and Sales/Monday (mainly for Fundraisers, Event Co-ordinators and Marketing roles)
- Evening Standard / Metro - Public and Community Section
- Eastern Eye, The Voice, The Big Issue etc.
- Local press
- Trade press: Inside Housing / Housing Today for Housing Associations, Professional Fundraiser / ICFM / CVSA for Fundraising roles.
Good luck!