Nonprofit Blog Exchange Post: The Raiser

The Nonprofit Blog Exhange was dreamed up by Deborah Finn back in August 2005.  The idea was that nonprofit bloggers would write about a fellow blogger in the sector and these exchanges would be aggregated at the Nonprofit blog exchange.   Emily Weinberg has been working hard to implement the project over the past 3 years.

I signed up for the most recent round and the blog I got assigned was The Raiser's Razor.

There's a great post called "Do Us A Favor Don't Open a Food Pantry" The two paragraphs that resonated were about how we, np sector, might complain about our lack of pay, benefits, and working long hours for minimum wage ..  but that we should be grateful our work has purpose.

I am so tired of hearing from my peers that we're making a sacrifice being employed in a non-profit organization. Making less money than we might earn in another pursuit? Perhaps... though few of us would be candidates for my organization's food pantry, I suppose we could argue that we -- like many of this blog's readers -- disappointed our dear financial planners when we made the choice to join this sector instead of pursuing more lucrative ventures.

But please, dear friends and fools of charitable intent, do not for one moment pretend that you are making a sacrifice. The opportunity costs are minimal in this regard when we look at the enormous gains we have made in other areas: seeing the impact of our work every day, feeling the sense of ownership over our actions, revelling in the glorious triumphs of lives changed through a series of events that we set in motion... we make no sacrifices to be here. Indeed, we might even be seen to be selfish.

Comments

[joitske]

I always chose my job as development worker, because I like it and I enjoyed living in countries in Africa. And I got a good pay for it too! I'm surprised that people in the Netherlands look up to me as if I sacrificed 10 years of my live to better the world...

[Jeremy Gregg]

Thanks for tracking along with my blog! I am sorry that I am posting less often lately. Work and life (i.e. my 2-year old) keep me pretty busy. I will do my best to blog more often!

[Jeremy Gregg]

Just wanted to check in to see if you're still reading. Would love to get your advice on what I can do to make it a better blog!

Jeremy Gregg, Editor
The Raiser's Razor
http://theraiser.blogspot.com

[Beth Kanter]

Have you ever tried the 31 days to better blogging from Pro Blogger? It's a great program. I have this tutorial \
http://howtoblog.wikispaces.com/session2

Good luck and thanks for checking in.

Of course, I'm still reading!