Get your copy of How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar

Do you feel stuck in your nonprofit career? Unsure how to take that next step? How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar is an accessible, do-it-yourself map of how to navigate the nonprofit sector and gives you the tools that you need to move from entry level to leadership. This book is designed for professionals who want to build a meaningful and rewarding nonprofit career. How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar is based on the authors’ experiences as well as interviews with nonprofit rockstars who have supercharged their careers.

You’ll learn how to develop meaningful nonprofit experience, build a strong network, establish a strong personal brand, achieve the elusive work/life balance, and move on up in your career.

Rosetta Thurman and I wrote this book together and it is chock full of all of the things that we wish we knew when we first started our nonprofit journeys.

How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar is available with two versions for you to choose from: an ebook or a paperback.

You better act fast, though. The book will only be available at the introductory price of $19.99 through November 15, 2010. After November 15, the book will revert to the original retail price of $24.99. Save $5 by making your decision to buy now!

Buy the Ebook Version of How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar for an Investment of $19.99

This 189-page resource is ready for your download right now. Click here to get your copy.

Benefits to purchasing the ebook version:

189 pages of practical tips, strategies and real-life examples to help you ROCK your career The ebook version contains LIVE hyperlinks throughout the book, so you can put the 50 tips into action right away The ebook version saves paper, is searchable and can be saved to your computer to be read anytime, anywhere Includes a resource section with links to books, fellowships and professional associations we recommend. BONUS! Free 34-page ebook from Rosetta on developing your own blog BONUS! Free 14-page ebook from Trista on becoming a presentation powerhouse

Buy the Paperback Version of How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar for an Investment of only $19.99

Wanna hold How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar in your hands? You can also order the book in paperback format. It’s 174 pages and ships within 3-5 business days. You can order it as a paperback here.

Benefits to purchasing the paperback version:

• 174 pages of practical tips, strategies and real-life examples to help you ROCK your career
• The paperback version is perfect for those who like the look, feel and smell of hard copy books, with margins for good old-fashioned note-taking
• Includes an extended resource section with lists of books, fellowships and professional associations we recommend

No love for the 20-somethings?

So there is a dirty little secret in the next gen movement. Gen X folks can pull the same ageist nonsense that baby boomers do. I know this is absolutely shocking (unless you are a Gen Y nonprofit staff member that is sick of your Gen X coworkers constantly railing against your generation). Alfonso Wenker, who is a blogger at From Our Perspective and is featured in How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar: 50 Ways to Accelerate your Career, has a lot to say on this topic. From Alfonso:

I was hired for my first nonprofit job when I was twenty years-old. Yes, HIRED. It was a paid gig. AND it was a job in philanthropy to boot – and I still work for the same organization.

To this day I am still entirely humbled and grateful to Greg, my first boss, for hiring me. He took a risk and saw potential. And also, to this day, people continue to do a double take when they hear that I am in my twenties and work for a foundation in a lead program role. I still find myself saying at events and happy hours, “Yes, I am on staff and have been for three years.” It gets old after a while. Now in most settings I would expect that folks might be surprised to hear that a 23 year-old is the director of programs for a regional LGBT foundation, but the last place I’d expect to get pushback is at an event for young professionals. This has been a huge challenge for me.

When I landed what I call “the first job of my dreams”, I immediately started attending networking events, professional development seminars and of course “YP” events. Working in philanthropy I felt a little over my head at first. Everyone was older. Most everyone was white. Many had been seasoned nonprofit professionals before they arrived as program officers at a foundation.

I thought my one safe haven would be attending “YP” events. Think again. I suppose you could call what I encountered at these events, acute ageism. Sharing my age seemed to leave a bad taste in the mouths of people I thought to be peers. I continually had to assure my colleagues at these events that “No, I in fact, am not an intern. I am on staff.” I was shocked. These were supposed to be my people. We were supposed to band together about being younger in field dominated by folks 20 and 30 years older than us. Instead what I found was a general mistrust and disbelief.

Sometimes when I was not “out” about my age, I found my other young colleagues cracking jokes about “those twenty something’s” or ridiculing the work of their newest intern.

Read the rest of Alfono's post here.

The Movement Needs Donors of Color Too

Here is a great post from Pam Pompey on the GIFT blog (Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training). Until we open up our vision about who is a giver and who is a receiver, we will be unable to solve the problems that face our society. (Special thanks to Theo Yang Copley for sending me this link). From Pam:

My head is still throbbing from my conversation with a program associate at a southern-based foundation. The conversation had me so upset I reached out to my board of directors for moral support. The foundation person (who is probably first contact for groups considering submitting a grant proposals) told me our organization was not compatible with their social change agenda.

Okay, I get that. Not all groups fit all grants. I preach that. But I was told my organization’s work wasn’t social justice work. I said, yes we are! I told her “We believe strengthening donor-ship and leadership skills of individuals (in communities of color) is key to helping groups build organizational capacity and sustainability. I told her working on community-led philanthropy and fundraising is working for social change.

The program associate disagreed. “Sorry, ya’ll don’t match our mission” is exactly what she said. But I assumed what she meant was that sharing cultural knowledge and developing people of color with a donor/fundraiser/activist mentality and the spirit of volunteerism, is not considered part of a progressive social change agenda.

Read the rest here at the GIFT Blog

Nonprofit Rockstar is on the way!

I just finished reading the final draft of the book that I am co-writing with Rosetta Thurman “How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar: 50 Ways to Accelerate Your Career” and it’s pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The stories and examples included in the book are from hundreds of nonprofit rockstars, much life yourself, that have shared their advice through interviews, blog comments, Linked In Q and A’s, Facebook comments, and twitter chats. The book will be available on November 1st on this website. We have two versions for you to choose from: a paperback version with an extended resources section and an electronic version that includes the resource section as well as live links throughout the book, so you can move to action sooner. The electronic version can also be read on any ebook reader that can view PDF’s. As a New Voices of Philanthropy reader, I’ll give you a sneak peek at the book’s table of contents.

Table of Contents Chapter 1: What a Nonprofit Career Looks Like 3 There is No Linear Career Path 3 Rosetta’s Journey 5 Trista’s Journey 8 How Do You Get from Here to There? 11

Chapter 2: Develop Expertise 12 Tip 1: Find A Great Nonprofit Job 12 Tip 2: Size Matters 18 Tip 3: Make the Most of Your Volunteer Experience 22 Tip 4: Learn How to Raise Money 25 Tip 5: Always Learn, Always Teach 28 Tip 6: Work Abroad 32

Chapter 3: Build a Strong Network 34 Tip 7: Prioritize Networking 34 Tip 8: Attend Nonprofit Conferences 35 Tip 9: Get Your Own Business Cards 36 Tip 10: Join Professional Associations 37 Tip 11: Go Talk to People 40 Tip 12: Build Your Own Frankenmentor 45 Tip 13: Start Your Own Network 50

Chapter 4: Establish a Great Personal Brand 52 Tip 14: Google Yourself 52 Tip 15: Stop Trying to be Two Different People 55 Tip 16: Write a Kick Butt Bio 58 Tip 17: Professionalize Your Online Presence 60 Tip 18: Start a Blog 62 Tip 19: Look Like a Leader 66

Chapter 5: Practice Authentic Leadership 69 Tip 20: Do Your Job and Do It Well 69 Tip 21: Join a Nonprofit Board of Directors 73 Tip 22: Lead a Committee 75 Tip 23: Cultivate a Slash Career 79 Tip 24: Polish Your Public Speaking Skills 83 Tip 25: Ask for Feedback 89 Tip 26: Do a Stretch Assignment 90 Tip 27: Speak Up! 93 Tip 28: Mentor Someone Else 94

Chapter 6: Plan for Balance 96 Tip 29: Develop a Personal Mission Statement 96 Tip 30: Schedule Time to Reflect 99 Tip 31: Don’t Skip Lunch 101 Tip 32: Fall Back in Love with Your Job 103 Tip 33: Ditch the Martyr Lifestyle 105 Tip 34: Clear Off Your Plate 108 Tip 35: Mind Your Money 111 Tip 36: When Work and Home Collide 114

Chapter 7: Move On Up 119 Tip 37: Create Your Own Professional Development Plan 119 Tip 38: Set Big Goals 120 Tip 39: Get a Master’s Degree 124 Tip 40: Manage Up 128 Tip 41: Get Paid What You Are Worth 131 Tip 42: Consider the Benefits 135 Tip 43: Get Promoted 137 Tip 44: Introduce Yourself to a Search Firm 139 Tip 45: Use Your Network To Find a New Job 147 Tip 46: Get an Executive Coach 149 Tip 47: Know When to Take the Leap 154 Tip 48: Resign Gracefully 157 Tip 49: Be a Good Manager 159 Tip 50: Run with the Big Dogs 163

Resources 167 Books You Should Totally Read 167 Professional Associations Worth Joining 168 Foundation and Nonprofit Fellowships We Love 172

If you are interested in having you community be part of the Nonprofit Rockstar Tour and booking the authors for an event, conference, workshop or book signing, email info (at) rosettathurman (dot) com with your request.