n her first job as a holiday temp atHarvesters Community FoodNetwork five years ago, Jamie Roach

entered donations of food into a com-puter database and sent thank you let-ters.

Now she’s writing grants and raisingmoney for the food bank as its manager

of major gifts.Roach is only 26, but she expects to

spend the rest of her career in the non-profit world. And that made her one ofthe young people Shelly Cryer reallywanted to get her hands on.

Cryer’s new book is The NonprofitCareer Guide: How to Land a Job ThatMakes a Difference.

She’s playing matchmaker. Roach’sgeneration, by many accounts, is show-ing big interest in nonprofit jobs, aresponse, some think, to the tragediesof both Sept. 11, 2001, and HurricaneKatrina.

That’s heartening news as nonprofits

are hit with higher-than-ever turnoverrates as older managers and leadersretire, creating a high demand for thenext generation -- Roach’s generation --to step in, and up.

“I am trying to educate and inspirenew, young professionals who are inter-ested in public service to choose non-profit sector careers,” Cryer says.

Roach says Cryer is on to something.“I think a lot of people my age are

looking for a career that is meaningful,that is perhaps more than just climbingthe corporate ladder or working theirway up,” says Roach, who is profiled inthe book.

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WWW.KANSASCITY.COM MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008

CAREERS | Fulfillment can be found in public service, KC author says

WANTED: JOBS WITH MEANING

Younger workers areshowing a great inter-est in working in thenonprofit sector.

By LISA GUTIERREZThe Kansas City Star

I

RICH SUGG | THE KANSAS CITY STARJamie Roach (left) is just the kind of young person Shelly Cryer (right) wants to reach with her new book, The NonprofitCareer Guide: How to Land a Job That Makes a Difference. Roach, 26, is manager of major gifts at Harvesters CommunityFood Network.

A wide rangeThe scope of the sector and diversity

of its jobs stunned Cryer as she spenttwo years working on the book.

The 1.4 million nonprofit organiza-tions in the country range vastly in sizeand services.

The simplest definition of a nonprof-it is that it doesn’t pay taxes and anygifts to it are tax-deductible. The gov-ernment considers nonprofits “publiccharities.” Cryer calls them mission-driven. Most arts, education, health-care and human services groups fallinto the category.

The nonprofit world, Cryer says, “isnot just a place to go to volunteer.There are adequately paying jobs thatcan lead to a life.”

Cryer, who grew up in Connecticut,spent more than 16 years working innonprofit jobs before marrying KansasCity Symphony music director MichaelStern and giving birth to their now-tod-dler daughter.

As a researcher and consultantdesigning media and public educationcampaigns for nonprofits, “my clientswere a lot of mid-sized groups that did-n’t have a human resources person,that had a lot of trouble finding staffand had internships that were not well-run,” she says. “Everyone was saying,‘Leadership and diversity is important,but we can’t do it.’ “

She saw the dilemma from the stu-dents’ point of view when she startedteaching at Columbia University in thefall of 1999.

“Young people believe deeply in thenonprofit sector, but even those whodream of a career in public servicestruggle to connect to great jobs,” shesays.

“And nonprofit leaders recognizethat their employees are their most

precious resource but often have inad-equate resources to recruit and retainthe talent they need.”

‘Do good and do well’In 2004 Cryer teamed up with

American Humanics in Kansas City tocontinue working on her initiative tofind and develop talent for the non-profit world. Her task dovetailed withthe mission of the 60-year-old KansasCity organization, and since then, sheand her family have split their timebetween homes here and in New York.

As a new generation of young peoplesearch for jobs that make a differenceand are meaningful, Cryer’s book leadsthem step-by-step.

Kevin Shaffstall runs the AmericanHumanics program at William JewellCollege in Liberty, through which stu-dents become certified in nonprofitleadership. The program started withfour students in 2001; 65 are currentlyenrolled.

“We often talk about how our stu-dents can do good and do well,”Shaffstall says. “I think within the non-profits, career development has notbeen something that’s been well-defined. I think Shelly’s book and thework Shelly is doing speaks to that.”

As she interviewed college careercounselors, Cryer was surprised bytheir honesty in saying they feel betterequipped to steer students to businessjobs rather than nonprofit ones.

Large corporate employers doindeed have a leg up when it comes torecruiting the best and brightest fromcollege campuses, says Kerri DayKeller, director of career and employ-ment services at Kansas StateUniversity. She, too, is featured inCryer’s book.

“Nonprofit organizations can’t send a

whole team of people to a campus torecruit. They don’t have the glitzybrochures,” Keller says.

“Corporate employers have money,generally speaking, to spend onrecruiting on campus. They often havea lot of brand recognition from theirproducts and services already. So it’soften quite challenging in career serv-ices to figure out how we can level theplaying field a little bit.”

K-State’s move in that direction camein a workshop that introduced studentsto people working in the nonprofitworld, and “A Common Good” careerfair featuring employers from the non-profit and government sectors.

Good salaries, or lack thereof, can’tbe ignored when talking about non-profit jobs, Keller says. Larger organiza-tions naturally pay higher salaries.

Cryer cites median salaries of$29,981 in organizations with budgetsof less than $250,000, and $47,967 ingroups with budgets of $250,001 to$500,000.

“When we have students coming outwith significant debt ... that is certainlyweighing on their mind,” Keller says.“And when they’re faced with a corpo-rate job that pays ‘X’ amount, they’vegot a difficult decision to make.”

Cryer counters that by saying non-profits are doing a better job of offeringincentives other than salary, perks suchas flex-time, job-sharing and turningjobs that traditionally have been volun-teer positions into paid posts withmanagement potential.

And Jamie Roach would argue thatyou can work at a nonprofit job andpay the mortgage.

Contrary to her family’s warning that“you’re not going to get paid anything,”the Harvesters manager just bought atown house in the Northland.

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NONPROFITS: Paying mortgage is possible, manager says

American Humanics, Inc. 1100 Walnut Street, Suite 1900Kansas City, MO 64106Ph: (816) 561-6415Fx: (816) 531-3527www.humanics.org

preparing next generationnonprofit sector leaders forsixty years