Today I started a new job and it all started with a tweet.

Non-profit superstar Rosetta Thurman listed me as one of 50 young non-profit influencers people should follow on Twitter (thanks Rosetta!) and subsequently I was followed by people who heeded her advice. One of those people was Mandy Sharp.

As many of you know, Twitter notifies you when someone new “follows” you, so I looked up Mandy’s profile. Her profile identified her as a graduate of DePaul’s School of Public Service (SPS), where I am a graduate student. I messaged Mandy telling her I was a student at SPS. She enthusiastically shared helpful advice and we chuckled at how Twitter brought us together, but this was only the beginning.

Mandy and I kept in touch. And when I asked her if she would speak to City Year Chicago corps members at an upcoming professional development event I was hosting, she graciously agreed.

I was so happy to meet Mandy in person and so thankful to her for volunteering at my event. Since then, we’ve developed a friendship and a sort of peer-mentorship. She’s offered helpful advice regarding my degree, we’ve met for brunch and yoga, and gone to networking events together.

In a recent conversation with Mandy I told her I was ready to move to the next level in my career as a fundraiser. She suggested I look into the fundraising consulting firm where she worked. So I did. Five interviews later and with continual encouragement from Mandy, I was hired.

I start my job today and as I reflect about how I got here, I’m in awe of how things just fell into place. It’s a testament to the power of social media and networking. And while this scenario can’t be duplicated every time for everyone, there are a few things that job searchers can do to facilitate success. So here’s my Twitter advice:

1. If you’re going to be on Twitter. BE on Twitter. Tweet, Follow, Find.
2. If you want Twitter to help you in your job search remember to keep it professional.
3. Post, RePost, participate in Twitter chats, tag, and share information.
4. Follow up with people who follow you on Twitter and develop those relationships. You never know what’ll happen and at the very least you’ll make new friends!

You can follow Mandy on Twitter at @mandyasharp and read her blog here: Volunteer 101. You can follow me on Twitter at @cristinaagomez.

Taste for Zafen will be held Friday, April 1, 2011 from 5-7:30pm at DePaul University’s DePaul Center (Concourse level, 1 E. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago). It is open to all, so bring your friends and join us in enjoying chocolate, wine, and cheese. 100% of funds raised will be donated to Zafen.

Event tickets cost $25 – sustainability was never so affordable! You can register and purchase your tickets here.

If you cannot attend or do not live in Chicago, no fear, you can still contribute to this worthwhile cause by visiting: www.zafen.org.

I hope you’ll join us in presence and spirit.

Uno and I met at City Year Washington, DC. She is a smart and caring young leader (ok she’s really pretty too) and I’m so lucky to have shared two years in DC with her.

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After serving two years with City Year Washington, D.C., my first semester back in college was a whirlwind. Transitioning from 9+ hour workdays to full-time college student was more difficult than I anticipated; leaving the emotionally and physically draining, sleep deprived days of CYDC behind was extremely hard, surprisingly.

In trading my khakis for sweatpants and paint brushes for books, I suddenly had an overwhelming sense of separation anxiety from service and, more importantly, from a sense of purpose.

After high school, I went to Indiana University. After a year of Pre-Med classes I was almost convinced college wasn’t for me. I was slightly devastated. But instead of giving up I was determined to find my passion in life. Three months later, I was serving with City Year in Washington, DC.

As most of my peers started their second year of college with the usual round of welcome week festivities, I had a crash course in CYDC, SE, WSWC, ABCs and ten other acronyms. I served at a Southeast DC school with nine other corps members and to say we had nothing in common was a gross understatement.

But as the year progressed, my awkward team became my family, our school became my home, and the kids definitely became my heart. We served as full-time tutors, mentors, and role models, but more importantly we became an integral part of improving the school and the community.

As I lost myself in service to others, I truly began to find myself (that’s definitely Gandhi’s). I stayed with City Year another year as the Project Leader for Recruitment and Alumni Affairs.

In December, I finished my first semester back in college at Butler University studying Urban Affairs. Without taking two service years, I would be graduating in May. Instead, I am a very mature sophomore. I’m 21, independent, and determined to follow my passion for social change. I’m surrounded by 19 year-olds that have little knowledge of the real world and limited life experience. I don’t think I’m surrounded by idiots or bad people by any means. I’ve met some awesome people this semester and, like all young people, their potential is unlimited.

But it is very frustrating and isolating at times to be a non-traditional student. Missing the direct service and impact of CY work is one thing, but being surrounded by my City Year family is an even greater missing piece. The bond and friendship among CY people is amazing. Being surrounded by very diverse yet like-minded people sharing similar experiences is a comforting feeling. What was once my challenge zone at City Year became my comfort zone; and I have now started the cycle over again in college.

As I tell people about my experience I get mixed reactions. Some think what I did was awesome and bold. Most think it’s cool but way too risky and too non-traditional. And some don’t understand it at all and brush it off as a weird hippy program I did to be a slacker for two years.

As I reflect; I too have mixed emotions. There is no doubt that it was bold and risky to move to DC and put my life and education on hold, but there is also no doubt that it was one of the best things I have ever done in my life.

Sometimes I think that if I were to redo my City Year I would change the timing. Maybe serve a year between high school and college or a year between undergraduate and graduate school/the work force, like the majority of young people who serve. Maybe it would have made me less of an outcast and adjusting back to college life would have been easier. But I served when I needed it most.

Although it may have made certain things in my life a bit awkward, the benefits of my gap years are obvious to me every day.

UnoBlessed Coons

Note: These are my personal feelings and in no way do I speak as a representative for City Year Washington, DC or Butler University. (I always wanted to say this)

Read the original article here.

And visit PhilanthropyReports.org for information on how this data was collected and where it comes from.

Transitions are a great time to reflect and so I want to thank my good friend Cristina for letting me do that in this guest blog entry.

I grew up in a strange household with a mother who was a Health Educator and a dad who started his own business doing “Socially Responsible Investing.” As a child, dinner conversations could range from Sex-Ed topics to this crazy concept of alternative energy.

The main thing I learned from my parents and those dinner conversations was that when my brother and I grew up it was important to find our calling in life. A calling that made us happy with the jobs we had and would better the world.

Two years ago I began working part-time for a state-wide non-profit in South Carolina called “The Palmetto Project.”

I had just returned from working on President Barack Obama’s campaign and was excited to get to work in South Carolina, my home state. I was hired to work on a program which distributed specialized laptops (XOs from MIT labs) to elementary students. It was an awesome pilot program and highlighted the fact that students even as young as five and six years old can benefit from the right kind of technology in their classroom.

Besides loving the project I was working on – I thoroughly enjoyed the work environment at the Palmetto Project. They view the organization as a sort of research and development center for the non-profit world. They’ve launched hundreds of programs in the last 25 years and have done tons of demonstration projects that have later been adopted as state and federal policy. The walls of the office are strewn with awards and letters from Heads of Agencies, State Leaders and US Presidents thanking them for their work. The people who work there are excited to be on the cutting edge of policy and social change in South Carolina. After two years, my role at the Palmetto Project grew. I was now also working to train college students to be poll managers (www.SCYVI.com) and on a holiday assistance program (www.FHFCharleston.org). And while I loved my time at the Palmetto Project, I was ready for a new experience.

When I realized it was time to transition away from the non-profit world I weighed my options. Politics had always been interesting but change was slow to come and the all-life-consuming work hours wasn’t something I was striving for.

After a lot of consideration, I asked my Dad about joining his business “Money With A Mission” and while he was a little surprised to hear I was interested, he gladly agreed.

Money With A Mission helps people connect their values and their money. This means helping people screen their retirement accounts so they don’t include tobacco companies or gun companies, and making sure the companies we do invest in have women on their board, promote minorities into leadership positions, and other good stuff like that.

In addition to helping people focus where their money is invested we help people with shareholder activism. Basically going to companies and saying as part-owners we want to help direct some of the internal policies (helping computer companies set up computer recycling programs for example).

I am very new to this field and very excited about it. I think we are entering a time in our country when people want to be more conscious in their life decisions. They want to know where their food comes from, where their tax dollars are going, and what impact they are really having on the world.

This new job will allow me to help people in that journey and effect the next step -changing behavior- so that our actions match our intentions.

If you’d like more information be sure to check out www.MoneyWithAMission.com.

At the Howard Area Employment Resource Center, people from all over (not just Rogers Park, some come from as far as Indiana!) can access computers for job searches, e-mail, and even take classes and earn proficiency certificates in Microsoft applications.

Their website says: “The Education and Employment Program is dedicated to helping adults acquire the academic, employability, and life skills they need to achieve meaningful employment and economic self-sufficiency. The program offers adult education classes and operates an Employment Resource Center that assists people with their employment needs.”

Led by a small staff of seven and supported by community volunteers, people can meet one-on-one with Diane and the other case managers or with a volunteer for resume help, interview skills, and a flurry of other services focused on soft skills helpful to someone who may never have had a job before. They learn the kinds of skills that people with regular employment experience take for granted like how to dress for an interview, how to communicate effectively and professionally, and how to interact with hiring professionals and supervisors. Learning soft skills can go a long way and I think it’s important to remember that.

Their volunteer staff are members of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps and are mostly retired business professionals. When I was visiting, I observed an IVC volunteer offering intense and focused resume help to a client. A woman waiting for her appointment with the IVC volunteer offered, “He’s the best. Really helpful. The best.”

The center’s computer lab was full of people job searching and working on improving their skills to get them to the next level. The computer lab monitor, Gary, a former client of the Howard Area Employment Resource Center and formerly incarcerated, had participated in the Employment Resource Center’s Fresh Start program.

Fresh Start, a Howard Area Community Center original, is a four-week session of workshops and trainings that help people with criminal backgrounds get the skills and information they need to overcome barriers to employment. Fresh Start offers sessions on: business etiquette, discussing legal issues, resume writing, basic computer skills, and job readiness training.

The Howard Area Employment Resource Center even offers Saturday hours to accommodate those who can’t make it to the center during the week.

With fewer jobs out there, it truly is an employer’s market and those who had the security of a job before the recession don’t have it anymore. People who have lost jobs sometimes find that they are no longer marketable. They lack the skills to make them competitive in this new economy and new world. They find themselves in new and unfamiliar territory.

There’s an idea about what the “unemployed person” looks like. People used to think they were drains on society that “chose” to not have a job and some people may still think that. One thing is certain: the state of the economy has changed the game. Employment resource centers aren’t just for people who have never had a job or have a hard time keeping a job; they are also for the newly unemployed. If the recession has done nothing else for us, it has taught us that anything can happen to anyone. It has helped us break down stereotypes and serve people more openly.

“According to B-school gurus, a company must create and vigilantly protect a clear, coherent message about itself if it wants to thrive in the word-of-mouth shark tank. From logo to language to logistics, it all must be of a piece. Consistency matters. A concise identity counts.”

He went on to talk about what the Democrat brand means, I think. I don’t know. I didn’t read the article because I was stuck on this idea that so many non-profits take for granted. Clear, coherent messaging.

By themselves, the details of managing a brand are mundane and can seem trivial – only use this font when writing e-mails, use only these colors in any collateral you create, use the logo in only this way… etc., etc., the list goes on and on. But it’s all important.

Fineman mentions consistency of language. I love language. It makes everything uniform. There should be prescribed text for mission statements, visions, and program descriptions. Does everyone in your organization know how to communicate the work that you do? Actually know which words to use? Yes. Which words.

Elevator speeches, grant writing, and media writing all rely on clarity and concision of prescribed language. In an elevator, you have 30 seconds to communicate what you do. Do you want to waste that time stumbling over descriptions or searching for the right word, with the right connotation? Prepared language and practice eliminate those problems.

On a micro level, one of my pet peeves is receiving multiple e-mails from an organization (different employees of the organization) and having the e-mail signature look different on every one. It makes the organization look schizophrenic. In a previous life, I was a Brand Manager so that sort of thing is obvious to me and also drives me crazy.

But, I’ll take a step back. Even if your workplace doesn’t enforce a branded e-mail signature you should avoid this sort of thing:

Script fonts are pretty. And fancy. And unprofessional. Would you show up to work in a ball gown? Yes, it’s pretty and fancy, but it’s not the right time and place, is it?

Script fonts are a headache to read. Your eyes have a hard time with swirly, curly fonts. Haven’t you noticed your head starts to hurt when you receive something like this? This is just one piece of the larger organizational image, but if there isn’t management of these details then the brand suffers.

These are pieces of the whole. The whole organization. The whole brand. The whole image. Non-profits are often strapped for staff and these kinds of things fall by the wayside, but they shouldn’t. Take a few minutes (you could probably do non-language related things in an hour) and come up with a brand management strategy.

Non-profit status exempts us from taxes not from being professional.

Here’s some background taken from their website:
ServeNext was founded by Aaron Marquez, Zach Maurin, Patrick Schmitt, and Matt Wilhelm. With five years of AmeriCorps service and a variety of activism experience, they were struck by a problem and an opportunity:

The four founders felt a sense of obligation to act. So they took the obvious next step: spend three weeks phone banking friends and family non-stop for start-up donations. With modest resources followed by a few seed funders, things moved forward.

If you’re interested in this grassroots work and would like to be a field organizer, you’re in luck! They’re hiring!

The positions fit the schedules of working professionals who want to become skilled grassroots advocates for national and community service in their communities. They are looking for applicants from around the country passionate about leading grassroots action to expand opportunities for people to serve.

To learn more and apply, visit servenext.org/field/2011.

Organizers receive extensive training in areas such as community organizing, legislative advocacy, communications, management & leadership, social media, and more. Training will take place at two expenses-paid retreats in Washington, DC and through ongoing support from ServeNext staff. Organizers also receive a stipend.

Good luck!

On Veterans Day Aaron shared his letter to America on the Huffington Post. You can read his article here.

We May Have Set the Bar Too Low…

In a recent speech at Net Impact 2010, I asked hundreds of socially-conscious MBAs which companies they thought were “good,” and why. I got the usual perfunctory answers: “Google because they’re a great company to work for,” “Patagonia because they focus on values,” “Seventh Generation because they use less harmful chemicals,” and “Apple because they’re an amazing company.”

Really?

But if we are really committed to changing the world, what does that mean? Does it mean making it better or making it less worse? Is congratulating companies for not polluting, not mistreating their workers and having good values the best we can do? Sure, companies shouldn’t do bad things. And we definitely want to limit their negative effects on society. A Newsweek article entitled “It Ain’t Easy Being Green” makes a similar point: does turning over a stone in your hotel room to avoid washing sheets really make the world any better? Here’s the bottom line: if being good just means being less bad, have we in fact set the bar too low?

I don’t know about you, but I want to actually solve social problems in my lifetime. I don’t want to talk about them anymore and I don’t want to bemoan their intractability. I want to see them go away. And I believe companies can play a major role in addressing some of the world’s most intractable social problems – primarily because many of these problems relate to increasing access to vital products and services (healthcare, housing, education, water, etc.). And that’s what companies do – they meet unmet market needs. But too often, we are not asking this of companies. We’re asking them to be “greener,” more “socially responsible,” and maybe a little more philanthropic. If companies adhere to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the Global Reporting Initiative or other “standards” of social responsibility, we deem them “good.” None of these standards evaluate how much positive social impact a company has created – they just seek to minimize the negative impacts. I made a similar argument in a speech at Sustainable Brands 2010 earlier this year. Fast Company’s blog post on my speech was titled “Why Make It Less Worse, When You Can Make It Better?”

It’s time we start teaching companies how to make tremendous amounts of money by serving underserved markets and unmet needs. It’s time we start focusing on solving social problems through business strategy, rather than compliance and charity. This is what social innovation demands. It demands that we set the bar higher, and set the rewards higher. We can do so much better! And we can expect so much more!

Read the original article posted on Mission Measurement here.