Benefits of volunteering

Professional development opportunities at not-for-profits

I believe it is important to advise and mentor young professionals when asked. I benefited greatly from the generous advice from mentors earlier in my career, and I do my best to repay that by sharing any wisdom I have gained over the years with the next generation of professionals.
One piece of advice that I offer over and over again is to get involved in a not-for-profit organization as a way to develop skills that will be used time and again to have a successful business career. I have joined several not-for-profit boards and volunteered over my lifetime and have benefited greatly from each experience.
Obvious benefits of volunteering at not-for-profits are that you are giving back to a good cause and staying engaged in your community. You also feel pride that you are sharing your time and talents without asking to be paid. But what most people miss, just as I did before I got involved, is that they are receiving a lot in return in the form of personal and professional development.
Most not-for-profits are resource constrained. Volunteers learn to deal more effectively with limited options due to a lack of resources and become more creative in developing solutions. Volunteers also learn the important lesson that spending more money is not always the only option, or the best one. Most people at not-for-profits are volunteers, and while there is a hierarchy of authority, the element of not being paid makes that authority ephemeral at times. Professionals in these situations learn to use the power of ideas, negotiation and persuasion to build a coalition around what they believe is best for the organization. Of course, you are not only asking them to agree with your idea but to willingly give their time and talent for free to put the idea or plan into action.
Most not-for-profits are not run like businesses and don’t have the typical infrastructure you would find there. Not-for-profits historically have not kept great records, collected much data, or put much emphasis on financial reporting, although that is now changing in most. This teaches people to make decisions with imperfect or insufficient information and learn to gather their own information by communicating with others in the organization to come to a decision.
Finally not-for-profits require people to improve their communication skills. People who volunteer together often are bound by their shared interest in the cause but often little else. In for-profit organizations, people endure rounds of interviews that eliminate people who don’t fit the culture or certain skills the organization is seeking. Not-for-profits do not have that luxury.
Getting people to volunteer in the first place is a challenge, and therefore, they need to cast a wider net seeking those who support the mission. As a result, there is often a more diverse group of opinions and life experiences. People have the opportunity to improve their listening skills and learn to refine their communication skills to connect with those who are often different than those they work with at a for-profit organization.

Please consider volunteering. The not-for-profit will benefit from your time and talent, and you will be a more capable, and ultimately successful, for-profit executive as a result.

Jeffrey Kadlic is Founding Partner of Evolution Capital Partners