Want to Help The World? Get a Business Degree.
Nope, I'm not kidding. If you're a freshman or sophomore in college, your major is still undeclared, and you're interested in a field that will help you make the world a better place, consider getting a business degree.
I've been there before. You take all kinds of random classes in an effort to find a noodle that sticks to your brain. You try sociology, psychology, social problems, social work, etc, all in the hopes that one of them will appeal to you and you'll be able to decide on a choice that will not only satisfy, but let you help the world by doing some philanthropic every day while you work.
Forget the social sciences. Here's the big secret that the School of Sociology at your university won't tell you: almost all non-profit organizations operate exactly like their for-profit counterparts, from a business standpoint. So if you want to make a big splash and help charitable organizations, you'll have a much easier time finding a job and helping them run their day-to-day operations if you learn business. Why won't the sociology department tell you that? In most universities, schools are competing with one another for student enrollment. The social work department doesn't want to lose you to the business school.
But it's true. Just like corporations, 501(c)3's need employees that can do bookkeeping, human resources, marketing, public relations, and management in general. Unfortunately, people trained in those fields are off working at corporations because the pay is so much better than at non-profits. So non-profits have trouble attracting employees trained to handle business functions to work for them. And those few employees with a business background that do work for non-profits are often not very good at what they do.
Here's one example of how a trained businesswoman has made a huge difference: the work of Jacqueline Novogratz for the Acumen Fund was possible because she had a financial background. She understood how loans work, and was able to start a company that now helps many thousands of people around the world because she understand micro-finance. She chose to leave a very well-paying job in New York to go help poor people in Africa. (Jacqueline wrote a great book about her experiences called The Blue Sweater.)
If money really isn't everything to you, if helping people means a lot, consider looking at business school. Research what job roles your favorite non-profits needs to hire and find the one you like best. Later, after college, when you're working for the American Red Cross, you can read all those depressing books your Sociology teacher would have made you read for their class.
I've been there before. You take all kinds of random classes in an effort to find a noodle that sticks to your brain. You try sociology, psychology, social problems, social work, etc, all in the hopes that one of them will appeal to you and you'll be able to decide on a choice that will not only satisfy, but let you help the world by doing some philanthropic every day while you work.
Forget the social sciences. Here's the big secret that the School of Sociology at your university won't tell you: almost all non-profit organizations operate exactly like their for-profit counterparts, from a business standpoint. So if you want to make a big splash and help charitable organizations, you'll have a much easier time finding a job and helping them run their day-to-day operations if you learn business. Why won't the sociology department tell you that? In most universities, schools are competing with one another for student enrollment. The social work department doesn't want to lose you to the business school.
But it's true. Just like corporations, 501(c)3's need employees that can do bookkeeping, human resources, marketing, public relations, and management in general. Unfortunately, people trained in those fields are off working at corporations because the pay is so much better than at non-profits. So non-profits have trouble attracting employees trained to handle business functions to work for them. And those few employees with a business background that do work for non-profits are often not very good at what they do.
Here's one example of how a trained businesswoman has made a huge difference: the work of Jacqueline Novogratz for the Acumen Fund was possible because she had a financial background. She understood how loans work, and was able to start a company that now helps many thousands of people around the world because she understand micro-finance. She chose to leave a very well-paying job in New York to go help poor people in Africa. (Jacqueline wrote a great book about her experiences called The Blue Sweater.)
If money really isn't everything to you, if helping people means a lot, consider looking at business school. Research what job roles your favorite non-profits needs to hire and find the one you like best. Later, after college, when you're working for the American Red Cross, you can read all those depressing books your Sociology teacher would have made you read for their class.