On track for nonprofit professionalism

This is a guest post from Sam Richard, President of the American Humanics Student Association at Arizona State University. He also authors the blog Deserted After Dark, which chronicles his life as a college student living in Downtown Phoenix. One day, he hopes to be a nonprofit professional with your permission. His thoughts are not necessarily the thoughts of NCNA, the Nonprofit Congress or anyone with a long history of experience in the sector.

During a lunch session at the Nonprofit Congress this last June, I distinctly remember someone saying that the Nonprofit Sector doesn’t have professionals. This person went on to say that the sector is made up of people with, at best, an expertise in a discipline that happens to be doing charitable work. I remember this so clearly because I disagree wholeheartedly.

As the note preceding this post suggests, I am the President of Arizona State University’s chapter of American Humanics. AH’s mission is to, “Educate, prepare and certify professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations.” If we, as students of this program, (across the nation in over 70 colleges and universities) are entering a community that doesn’t welcome professionals, then all of our work and study is for naught. And frankly, with as much humility as I can muster, I have to say that the nonprofit community would be missing out on a huge opportunity to further strengthen its infrastructure.

Sure, there was a day when Birkenstocks and patchouli were the overwhelming symbols of the sector. Just a bunch of passionate people with big dreams about filling those proverbial gaps in society, operating outside traditional models of organizational structure and accepted definitions of hygiene. But those days are more or less over, and hopefully gone with it the stigma that we’re nothing more than a bunch of hippies. My friend and colleague, Alex, says that nonprofit work is about filling the gaps. She says that nonprofits meet the needs of people that government and private sectors fail to do. I believe that the sector always has been, and always will be, enlisted in the mission of filling the gaps. But how we respond to those gaps is evolving.

Professionalism (and the lack thereof) in the sector is a more and more common conversation. The gaps that organizations fill require analysis before, during and after an organization does its work. The gaps need to be predicted, and ideally prevented. And exactly how they are filled needs to be effectively communicated to the donor with the highest regard to transparency and detail. I’m not saying at all that these things weren’t done before now, just with some irregularity. What I am saying is that professionalism in the sector needs to be identified, recognized, and made the norm moving forward.

Recently, I spent a good chunk of money on textbooks with titles like, “Marketing Management for Nonprofit Organizations,” “Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising,” and “The Volunteer Management Handbook.” But please, don’t hear me complaining about the cost. Those books, among others that I will collect along my journey, will one day sit on a bookshelf in my office used for reference in my career as a nonprofit professional. These texts correspond with courses that fulfill the requirements necessary to earn a nationally recognized certification from American Humanics, and a full four-year undergraduate degree in Nonprofit Leadership & Management from Arizona State University. Both of those pieces of paper will be matted, framed, and hung proudly right above the aforementioned bookshelf.

In short, I will one day be a nonprofit professional. I hope you will welcome me when the time is right.

Cheers,
Sam
“There is a tradition of men becoming experts simply by being put in positions that require expertise.”
Michael Lewis