The Importance of Giving Younger Talent Leadership Opportunities

In this video, David Hutchinson discusses the importance of giving leadership opportunities earlier to younger talent in the non-profit sectors.

Synposis:
Many talented young Baby Boomers and Gen X's are not given the authority to lead or the chance to engage in leadership in the non-profit sector. It is certainly seen in the corporate and private sector, many younger people assume quite responsible roles in those areas. The non-profit sector should carefully consider using this technique for longevity in the charitable space?

Work-life demands intense for CEOs at nonprofits

A nonprofit leader, Saliha Nelson, 41, has dragged her two kids with her to community meetings, written grant proposals in the middle of the night, and even substituted for sick workers at youth after-school programs: “I want the organization to be successful, so I do whatever it takes.”

When you lead a nonprofit, where the end game is about making the community a better place to live, the workload can be immense and the emotions intense. It’s a big responsibility — and one that people in their 20s and 30s aren’t rushing to undertake.

As the demand for leaders in nonprofits increases, young workers say they don’t want to make the work-life sacrifices required of nonprofit executives like Nelson, who leads Miami’s Urgent Inc., which supports low-income youth with after-school and camp programs, according to research by the Meyer Foundation in Washington, D.C.

The 2008 study of 6,000 next-generation leaders shows that even young workers already employed at nonprofits are wary of rising to executive positions, an outlook researchers say hasn’t improved in the past five years. While the daily responsibilities for nonprofit chief executive can vary with the size and scope of the organization, the deterrents include low earning potential and an expectation of doing more with less. “Young people are saying, ‘I can still do good and help out with causes whether or not I work for [a nonprofit],’ ” says Derrick Feldmann, CEO of Achieve, which helps organizations reach younger generations of donors and volunteers.

As the nation struggles to recover from the economic downturn, the pressure on executive directors to deliver has intensified. Leaders must manage their organization’s internal operations and programs, be the public face of the organization, attend events, and work harder at courting donors and identifying funding sources. Because of small budgets and a lack of resources, “as executive director, you are trying to make up for the deficits yourself, and it becomes way more than a 40- or 50-hour-a-week job,” says Rick Moyers, vice president of communications at the Meyer Foundation, which invests in visionary leaders and effective community-based nonprofit organizations.

Most leaders say passion for the cause outweighs the personal trade-offs. “I like giving services to communities who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to afford them,” explains Kathleen Cannon, CEO of United Way of Broward County.

On a given day, Cannon, 49, races from morning meetings with business partners to the office to meet with her board or staff. On weekends, she often will attend a Saturday night gala or a community fundraiser: “I have to get in front of people and remind them of the difference they are making.”

In her off hours, the single mother raises a teenage son.

“It takes an unbelievable commitment,” she says of her work with United Way. “This is a partnership with the community like none other, a way to create big change.”

Cannon says she knew the time demands when she took the job and made a game plan for home and office to manage her time. Sundays and Monday nights are sacred family time: “I just have to forgive myself when my balance is out of whack and remember that I’m running a business and the product is changing lives.”

Nonprofit CEOs often find time demands are complicated by the need to navigate the interests of various stakeholders with different relationships with the organization.

Ken Moskowitz, 53, heads Jewish Family Service Inc. of Broward County, where he manages leadership of the organization’s wide array of programs in addition to supervising staff and overseeing internal operations. Much of his time also is spent cultivating relationships with potential donors: “You have to spend the time to make sure they develop trust in you as a leader. Your passion can be contagious.”

Moskowitz has been in the top job for 10 years and has worked at the organization for 19 years, and now balances his workload with caring for his teens and aging parents. “Stress is ongoing,” he says. “There’s never a time when I’m not concerned about whether we are going to reach the bottom line. It never disappears, no matter how long you are in the business.”

With the competing time demands and the high stakes, nonprofit leaders say preventing burnout requires setting priorities — and reminding yourself of them. “I plan a lot,” said Ileana Ramirez-Cueli, 44, executive director of Schott Communities, a Broward County not-for-profit that provides many programs for people who are physically or intellectually challenged.

When courting a donor or spearheading a fundraiser, Ramirez-Cueli’s job takes priority. She calls on her spouse, grandparents, or friends to help out with the activities of her three children, ages 8, 10, and 12: “I am serving people who have disabilities and creating life-enriching programs. That’s really important.”

The staff needs to see the leader’s commitment, she says. When possible, she will include her family in her job activities, bringing them along to annual fundraising events, such as the Schott Run, Walk and Roll in Cooper City or the organization’s fashion show.

With all the daily responsibilities, directors say it can be hard to think about succession planning or grooming next-generation leaders, particularly when one’s own identity often is tied to the job. But Nelson, at Urgent Inc., says she tries to do that in the context of cultivating a team. “Every week, I have to meet payroll. Being responsible for people’s paychecks is a big weight,” Nelson says. So, when she submits a renewal for a grant or requests a donation, she explains to each team member his or her role in the process and how it contributes to the organization’s success.

For all the commitment required, the biggest drawback may be salaries, which lag well behind those in the corporate sector. In 2013, 60 percent of executive directors were 50 or older and earned an average salary of about $119,000 according to the 2014 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Report published by The NonProfit Times. (Average pay for the CEOs of the top for-profit 350 firms, including the stock options they exercised, was $14.1 million in 2012, according to the Economic Policy Institute.)

Most nonprofit leaders say the real rewards are intrinsic — a sense of purpose. Such is the case with Carlene Sawyer, 59, who leads the Dranoff International 2 Piano Foundation, a nonprofit organization that champions two-piano repertoire and artistry. Sawyer works days and often, four or five evenings a week as well, in addition to travel: “But I’m around people who are talented and fun and have a love of music. It’s a great collegial environment. Even though I’m working hard, my job is kind of cool most of the time.”

Derrick Feldmann, who wrote The 2013 Millennial Impact Report, said young workers want to be change-makers — they just don’t see the need to be executive directors to achieve their mission. Feldmann’s research shows that 72 percent of millennials are interested in participating in nonprofit young professional groups and that others are engaged in the social-impact sector by starting for-profit businesses with a social purpose.

Nelson says she encourages bigger aspirations: “We try to help young people discover they can create that alignment between personal values and the work they get paid for.”

Moyer, at the Meyer Foundation, has hope for future leadership: “We don’t need 70 percent of employees in nonprofits to want to become executive directors. We just need some people with passion who want to do the job.”

Columnist Cindy Krischer Goodman is CEO of BalanceGal, a provider of news and advice on work/life issues. To suggest topics or provide comments, connect with her at www.workinglifebalancingact.com or balancegal@gmail.com.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/29/3899720/work-life-demands-intense-for.html#storylink=cpy

Non-Profits Have an Important Role in Social Change

Nonprofit organizations are one of the top two ways adults are most likely to get involved in positive social change. On average, about half of adults agree nonprofits make it easy for people to be involved in social change.

Source: Walden University’s 2012 Social Change Impact Report. 

Infographic: How Volunteering Increases Job Opportunities

The Corporation for National & Community Service has recently released a report, Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment, which shows just how valued volunteering can be in the workforce. The study discovered that volunteering is linked with a 27 percent increase in odds of employment, and provides “social capital and human capital,” which are directly related with better job prospects.

Some of the benefits volunteering can provide are professional contacts, expanding networks, leadership opportunities, social relationships, knowledge, and work experience. Volunteering has the strongest impact on rural communities and individuals who lack a high school diploma.

CNCS also provided an infographic for their collected data:

One interesting finding was that economic conditions and time don’t seem to impact the relationship between volunteering and employment.

The nonprofit sector has been aware of the powerful effect volunteering can have on your skill-set and job opportunities for quite a while, but it’s always encouraging to see statistics reflecting these views.

Written by Aine Creedon for Non-Profit Quarterly.org

Investing in talent: How and why foundations are supporting professional development

Anyone who knows anything about the nonprofit sector knows that nonprofits attract passionate, committed, caring people – but that those people must operate on a shoestring budget, where needs perpetually exceed resources. This “nonprofit starvation cycle” is described by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, as quoted in a sector white paper:

[Not-for-profits are] so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations — let alone serve their beneficiaries. The cycle starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much running a nonprofit costs, and results in nonprofits misrepresenting their costs while skimping on vital systems — acts that feed funders’ skewed beliefs.

To break this cycle, the article suggests that funders must take the lead. Traditionally, grant-making organizations have funded nonprofit projects and programs, but in recent years, some innovative donors have begun to see that investing in talent and leadership development is a key piece to capacity building in the nonprofit sector.

James Temple, director of corporate responsibility with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Leader for PwC Canada Foundation, has this to say: “Programs and priorities are the easiest to measure and foundations want to see results. But if we don’t invest in smart, strategic people, how would our money be used effectively anyhow? There is a critical need for foundations to fund human resources and for grantmakers to say funds can be used for salaries because this will create stronger more vibrant charities.”

While the majority of funds will continue to support overhead and the work of organizations, Nadien Godkewitsch, manager of programs at the Toronto Community Foundation (TCF), says, “It is important to set aside funds for strategic professional development to help nonprofits move beyond day to day activities.”

Challenges in the sector

The TCF was one of the first foundations to take this approach. In 2004, the foundation began to see a looming leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector. “A lot of charitable organizations in Toronto were being run by founders. We were concerned that as those founders retired, there wouldn’t necessarily be people behind them to handle succession,” says Godkewitsch.

Charitable organizations were also “increasingly squeezing their limited funds into programs and were not able to do what private sector does - helping employees become stronger leaders, ensuring professional development.” In response, the TCF launched the Vital People grant in 2004 to provide opportunities for professional development for talented people within the nonprofit sector. In the nine years since, the TCF has provided 83 Vital People grants with total investment of close to $400,000.

Katherine van Kooy, president & CEO, Calgary Chamber for Voluntary Organizations (CCVO), says “Most nonprofit organizations are pretty sophisticated in their approach to professional development but the budget set aside for staff development runs out pretty quickly if travel or significant conference fees are involved.” She adds, “We know from work we’ve done that funding for professional development in our sector does not come close to demand. For organizations that would like to make an investment in their staff, it’s a real challenge to put together funding.”

Professional development

Like many nonprofits, the CCVO is a relatively small organization engaged in diverse work. Van Kooy says, “When we hire someone, they may have new areas of responsibility that they’ve never dealt with before. Our work also changes depending on issues emerging in sector. To allow staff to deepen or expand their skills enables them to do a better job.”

In the past, funders have sometimes invited nonprofit staff to join their own staff for workshops so the nonprofits can benefit from corporate knowledge and expertise, but new partnerships for professional development are emerging.

Innoweave is an initiative of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation that helps community organizations learn about, assess and implement new tools and approaches that can help them achieve greater impact. Managing Director (SiG@McConnell) Aaron Good says, “Many leaders have been to great workshops but came away without knowing what to do next. It’s important to help people figure out what they will do after a workshop or training session. We also try to connect them with a coach who can help them answer key questions and work through their plan in a way that allows them to fulfill their mission.”

Some support for professional development is more indirect: PwC sponsors one of the aspects of CCVO’s annual conference that brings together multiple stakeholders including nonprofits, government and the corporate community. A number of other organizations, such as the United Way, support this conference by paying for opportunities for nonprofits to participate.

Still, some funding directly supports professional development. In early 2013, Todd Minerson, executive director of the White Ribbon Campaign, the world’s largest effort of men and boys working to end violence against women, applied for a Vital People grant from TCF. After six years as executive director, Minerson wanted to test an idea with peers and received funding to attend the Harvard Business School in July.

Minerson says, “The Vital People Grant enabled me to access a strategic nonprofit leadership opportunity at Harvard Business School that was simply inaccessible to us otherwise. White Ribbon is looking at developing social enterprise innovations that I was able to test with professors and peers at Harvard, along with exploring case studies of real organizations facing similar challenges. This grant enabled us to build a win-win for the future.”

Hiring great people

Sometimes funding means that nonprofits can hire talented staff they would not otherwise be able to afford. The Educational Outreach department of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, ON was able to hire a YouTube science content star and to second a physics teacher as a consultant for a year, thanks to a FedDev grant which included funds to support talent. Greg Dick, director of educational outreach with thePerimeter Institute sees this grant as a significant investment and says, “We are very fortunate that both the private and public sectors recognize the need for, and support the development of talent.”

Advice to nonprofits

“We know we do important work in the nonprofit sector but it’s tough to identify ourselves as leaders,” says Godkewitsch. “But seeing ourselves and staff in our sector as leaders driving change, addressing trends, and building on assets in our community should encourage us to think more about professional development.”

Katherine van Kooy notes that “People feel differently when they have an opportunity to grow and develop their skills, to be exposed to different perspectives. It may not pay back immediately but it shapes thinking and provides a toolkit that can be used at different points along the way, in ways that are sometimes hard to quantify.” Van Kooy’s experience has been that investing in professional development for staff helps with retention, but she also notes that, in a mobile market, some organizations may also be concerned that if they invest in someone’s skills, that individual may be more marketable to other employers.

Temple encourages nonprofits to understand the philanthropy arm of their funders, and their corporate strategy for the next few years. “Be bold and curious,” Temple says. “Build relationships and partnerships and find out what your nonprofit can do to help the funder.

Advice to funders

“We are at a time of great change and enabling people to step back and focus on what they are hoping to achieve and how they will do so is really important,” says Aaron Good of Innoweave. “We can’t just keep doing the same thing as funders.”

To funders who may be hesitant around the idea that supporting talent may be less quantifiable, Good says, “This is all about mission and impact – how will you measure success in the next 3-5 years, how will you get there, what processes will you put in place to make sure you get there.”

Temple suggests that capacity building is “patient work” that “typically requires an investment of three to five years before meaningful improvements can be achieved. The benefit — enhanced outcomes and sustainability — is worth the investment.” He suggests that taking 20% of funds out of operations to invest in talent is “not wasteful. It is strategically in alignment with our goals and helps create a more effective impact.”

Van Kooy says, “Investors should be prudent and mindful of ROI, but funding specifically for development opportunities for leaders is often not a massive investment.”

Van Kooy also emphasizes that “a one-thousand dollar grant should not cost a thousand dollars of time to apply.” She notes that some professional opportunities arise quickly and suggests a need for some shorter grant cycles to meet this need.

According to Good, “There is definitely room for other approaches and room for other funders to benefit from this type of program.”

Moving toward partnership

For a long time, Temple says, grantees and grantors have spoken two languages and have sometimes worked at cross purposes. This new approach to funding people allows a change from a sponsorship model to a partnership model, where both nonprofits and funders offer benefit to one another.

“It’s no longer about dollars and cents, but shared values between charities and communities and foundations.”

Susan Fish is a writer/editor at Storywell, a company that helps individuals and organization tell their story well. She has written for the nonprofit sector for almost two decades and loves a good story.

The Rise of the Nonprofit Sector

A recent story from Bloomberg suggests the recession may have had a lasting negative impact on our society, specifically on the cognitive performance of those who lost their jobs during this time period. Indeed, these are stressful times for most, but perhaps a gleam of hope may be taken from this dark period.

In a time when industries were on a steep decline, the nonprofit sector actually witnessed growth, surpassing that of business and government sectors. Now, more than ever before, the nonprofit industry is responsible for the health of our economy, employing 16% of the employment share of New England alone.

And with nonprofit employment continuing to grow, perhaps the key to many of our careers is to join in on some of the jobs these causes create. It may relieve the economic stresses we face, while working towards the betterment of our society.

This infographic was provided by the University of San Francisco’s Online Master of Public Administration, containing all the research needed to understand that the nonprofit sector is indeed on the rise.

Source: onlinempa.usfca.edu

How Sharing Other People's Content Makes You an Irresistible Job Candidate

When it comes to standing out online, your best bet is to offer your own original content. Blog posts or tweets that revolve around your unique ideas will make you a standout candidate.

But the truth is, not everyone has the time, writing ability or even confidence to grow a quality blog or social media account, and plenty of people who don’t have a blog still want to move up the career ladder, into more challenging and better-paying positions.

What if there was a way to show the world just how smart you are, without creating your own content?

Well, there is, and it’s a tactic you should seriously consider: sharing other people’s content.

Whether you curate on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr or all of the above, here are five things sharing content created by others says about you — and why it can move your career forward.

1. You know your industry inside and out.

When you share an abundance of interesting information, people begin to realize you know your stuff. Not only do you know what’s going on, but you understand what’s valuable to people in your industry and what they want to read, which is just as important.

Even if you don’t consider yourself highly knowledgeable on a certain topic — if, for example, you’re looking to change careers and are using your online presence to pivot — you’ll become knowledgeable on that topic as you sift through blogs and tweets looking for quality information to share. In other words, curating content can help you become an authority in your field and help others see you as an authority.

2. You’re innovative.

Not only do you use the latest social tools to share advice and ideas, the information you share is often about your industry’s latest trends and developments, which suggests you’re forward thinking.

Anyone can say in an interview that they like to follow tech trends, but serving your community as a content curator shows the hiring manager you’re serious about learning, brainstorming and innovating.

3. You enjoy helping others.

So many people talk about themselves on social media. You’ll stand out if you get off the soapbox and instead offer helpful, valuable information, giving props to whoever created it.

This is helpful not only to the minions who read your tweets, but also to the industry leaders who wrote the blog post, tweets or updates to begin with, since you’re helping spread their content and ideas. Those thought leaders will likely appreciate your efforts and might even look to connect further with you, which could lead to more opportunities.

See why being generous online is one of the best things you can do for yourself?

4. You’re familiar with the big (and little) players in your field.

Knowing who the thought-leaders are in your field and where they hang out is just as important — if not more — than being in-the-know about innovative developments. Why? Because those people likely are part of those developing trends, or at least talking about them. In many ways, they are the trends.

In their book The Startup of You, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha wrote, “If you’re looking for an opportunity, you’re really looking for people.” Knowing who’s doing what in your industry can go a long way toward helping you take the next step in your career. Curating content is a solid way to keep up with what everyone’s doing.

5. In some cases, you have access to those industry players.

Know what every employer wants more than an awesome, skilled employee? An awesome, skilled employee who knows people. Every one of your connections means a connection for your company.

If you don’t know any of the major players in your industry now, look to create those connections through sharing other people’s content. Your generosity could lead to online conversations with those people as they leave comments on your blog posts or reply to you through Twitter. Really want to get on their radar? Try an email introduction after you’ve mentioned that contact on your blog or Twitter, with the hope that they’ll recognize your name.

If you’re keen to give this a go, you’re probably wondering: What’s the best way to find quality information to share with your growing online community?

Try using an RSS tool like Feedly, organizing tweeps who share valuable information into Twitter lists, and streamlining the sharing process with apps like Hootsuite, Buffer and Twitterfeed. Before you know it, you’ll be the one who people in your industry turn to for all the best information, which makes you that much more marketable.

By Alexis Grant for Mashable

Managing your Best Non-Profit Marketing Resource: Time

Every afternoon as I walk to the kitchen in our office to make a cup of coffee, I think about how quickly time has gone by.

It’s already 3:15 p.m., and there is so much more to get done. Time has run out on me. Our clients echo the same sentiment in emails:

“Something else popped up. Can I get my feedback on those Facebook images tomorrow?”

“Our server crashed today so I am busy getting our email back up. Can we postpone our meeting until Friday?”

“I don’t know what happened, but its 5:00 and I still have 15 unread emails I need to get to before I leave. Catch up tomorrow?”

As an nonprofit digital advertising agency, time is a precious resource, so we are pretty protective of it. We’ve found a few tools along the way that have helped us gain better insights into how we spend our time. This isn’t Six Sigma black belt material, rather just some cool life-hacks we discovered to make the most of every day. As a nonprofit employee, you are probably in the same boat. Check out these three simple tips to get your day back and enjoy that afternoon coffee without the anxiety of looking at the clock.

STEP 1: CREATE A GAME PLAN

What is on your plate? Facebook? Twitter? Email? Google Analytics? Be realistic about how long it takes to effectively handle these tasks. Take into account how much total time you have to complete everything — 10 hours? 15 hours? Based on that, set aside time for each task. Having a strong grasp of how to utilize various platforms efficiently can play a big role in saving time. Check out our 10 tips for an effective nonprofit content strategy.

STEP 2: STICK TO GAME PLAN

We are big believers in technology being a force for good. We use two web-based apps to help us stick to our game plan.

1. RescueTime.com This tool runs in the background and lets you know your productivity based on web activity. It also has a great feature called “Get Focused” that will block distracting sites like funnyordie.com for a certain period of time.

2. Toggl.com  This is a time-tracking software that is simple to use. It can be downloaded to your desktop, smartphone and tablet. It can also run in your browser. It has a one-click timer function and gives you the ability to edit any entry if you forget to turn off the timer. But here’s the best part: The company offers a nonprofit discount!

STEP 3: REEVALUATE GAME PLAN

You found out you are an efficient and effective time management machine, but it still didn’t help you find 10 more hours in your week to get another handful of emails out or to better segment your messaging. Maybe it’s time to re-allocate some staff hours? Tell your boss you want to put in some overtime? Or go with our favorite solution: Hire Media Cause to be your new nonprofit marketing resource. Not only can we give you more time, but we can make you a mean cup of joe.

By Cody Damon Posted in Nonprofit Marketing Agency 

What to Answer When the Interviewers Ask "Why Should We Hire You?"

We often go into an interview prepared to answer technical questions regarding ourselves and the job that we are applying for. Being prepared is a good thing, but there would always be a question or two that would catch us off guard. One of these questions would be “Why do you want this job?”.

A lot of people would consider this a silly question and give a random answer such as “because I need a job”. To an interviewer though, this is not any silly question. It asks why you want it, and gives you an opportunity to tell them why the job attracted you, and how interested you are in getting the position.

Here are a few tips to consider when coming up with an answer to this crucial question:

1) Consider the company:

It would not hurt to say that you would want to be on a winning team, as this would give the interviewer the fact that you did your research about the company. Something such as this would be able to convey this idea:

I have been following the rising performance of the company, and would want to be part of the team that makes it to the top of the industry

2) You’re prepared for the part:

Another good answer to this would be to talk about your qualifications and how they compliment the needs of the company. This would let the interviewer know that you are not fooling around with your application and the company’s need. An answer showing this would go something like:

The subjects I took up while working for my degree in management accounting have prepared me for this particular post. My two year experience working with company x has given me the experience that I need to deliver what is stated in your job posting. It is as if I was prepared all my life to land this job.

3) It can further your career and you can help the company in return:

One thing that recruiters want to see is hunger. They want to see this because it gives them the impression that you are willing to go the distance, and even further, in order to get the job done, get recognized and move up. You can express this by saying something like:

I want the job because it can give me a chance to prove myself at this level. My plan is to do an awesome job and move up the ranks of this company, helping the company improve and getting me the job experience in the process. It would be a win-win situation for both parties.

4) Passion:

Of course there is always an answer that shows that this is what you want to do.   A simple statement such as below would give a recruiter the idea that you just want to work in this field:

Since college, this has been the line of work that has always fascinated me. I have taken quite a few jobs in this area of expertise and I still keep on learning.

Conclusion:

Depending on the job that you are applying for, you can mix and match. If you are applying for a higher position than what you were previously in, then you would need to go for the stronger approaches. The biggest mistake you can make though is just pass this question off as a joke and say something such as you are just in it for the money. That would signify disinterest on your part, and you may very well lose that job opportunity. Play your cards right, show your interest, and you would not be jobless for long.

3 Steps To A Successful Cover Letter

Cover letters can be a chore to write for job seekers. Whereas the things that need to be in a resume are cut and dry, what to include in your letter is a little more ambiguous.

In article posted on Boxwood Tech’s Career Learning Center Marshall Brown, founder and CEO of Marshall Brown & Associates, explained that cover letters need to be tailored to the specific job for which you are applying. While it’s fine to have a template that you work from, Brown explained that you can’t simply copy and paste that template and call it a day. If you can, take the time to find out what the unique problems, challenges etc. of the organization might be. Show them how you have the qualifications to help them solve their problems.

When it comes to what you should include in your cover letter, Brown wrote that it’s okay to include information that already appears on your resume. Specifically, Brown states that the document should be no more than three paragraphs, containing the following information:

Paragraph 1: The “Hook”

• Introduce your qualifications up front.
• Tell them a story.
• Drop a name.
• Highlight something about their business.
• Jump right into your results.
• Ask a question that makes them think.

Paragraph 2: The “Pitch”

• Highlight your relevant qualifications and results.
• Target what the organization needs or wants.
• Make it clear and easy to read.

Paragraph 3: The “Close”

• Quick summary (one sentence).
• Call to action (request for a phone call or interview).
• Contact information.
• “Thank you.”

The Non-Profit Times is a leading business publication for non-profit management.