If you teach classes covering the nonprofit sector, this book can serve as a practical tool to help your students grasp the power of the sector and career opportunities it offers.

The Nonprofit Career Guide is targeted to college and graduate students, faculty members, career counselors, young professionals, and potential "sector switchers" who want to learn more about the nonprofit sector and how to build a career in it. 

The guide provides easy but effective strategies on how to prepare for a nonprofit sector career...and how a job seeker can make an application stand out to a nonprofit employer. 

Following are some suggestions for using the guide in your coursework.

Courses suitable for The Nonprofit Career Guide
The Guide is appropriate for entry- and mid-level courses focused on the nonprofit sector, and certainly for any course or workshop focused on leadership or professional or career development. Consider it for courses addressing:

• An introduction to nonprofit organizations and the nonprofit sector
• Nonprofit management
• Leadership and ethics in the nonprofit sector
• Internships and service-learning
• Career development or professional development
  

Suggestions for assigning readings
The Nonprofit Career Guide may be read cover-to-cover or in sections in any order (see contents). It may be helpful to assign the first two chapters together, and early in the course, as they provide an overview of the nonprofit sector and its various subsectors.  While substantial, Chapters 3 through 5 are easy to read and also might be assigned together, during a week when your course concentrates on the practical aspects of becoming a leader in the nonprofit sector.

Ideas for assignments
Depending on the type of course you're teaching, you might consider having students

1. Drill in more deeply to one nonprofit subsector—the work it does, its history and trends, and profiles of leading organizations in it.  Have students use the Guide, the Urban Institute’s web site, and at least two other sources to write a “brief” on one nonprofit subsector and projections for its future.
2. Analyze a specific nonprofit organization—its mission, programs, strategies, staff, board of directors, funding sources, role in its respective subsector, and challenges and opportunities it faces. Have students create an organizational profile and projections for the organization’s future.
3. Profile a nonprofit leader in the community through an in-person interview. Have students explore their education, career path, mission of organization, job responsibilities, and “day in the life” at work. Use the profiles in the Guide as a model and expand on them. Have students present the profile to the class.
4. Envision their own dream career path and prepare a professional plan for how they will develop the academic and experiential education necessary to fulfill it.  Because so many civic-minded students dream of being an executive director or founding their own nonprofit one day, consider having students focus on these two paths, and the rewards and challenges of each.
5. Identify an actual job posting for a position they believe they are qualified for, prepare a cover letter and resume that responds specifically to that posting, and identify at least two people in their “network” to provide feedback on these materials. Have students submit “before” and “after” letters and resumes and a cover memo explaining what they learned from the feedback they received.

Desk copies are available. Please visit the publisher's web site for details.

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“An exceptionally clear and engaging tour of the nonprofit sector. The Nonprofit Career Guide explains the types of jobs available, how to prepare for them, and how to land the job you want. Interviews featuring nonprofit staff and leaders add the touch of reality that makes this book such a valuable tool.”
Russell A. Cargo, PhD, Director, Nonprofit and Civil Society Program, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance

“This book is the most comprehensive piece yet on the nonprofit sector. It is a must for the neophyte job seeker to the most experienced nonprofit professional.”
John D. Welty, President, California State University, Fresno