Although I do my share of worrying about career ladders for young techies in the Boston area who want to work in the nonprofit sector, I'm also aware that there's a whole other contingent of idealists whose professional aspirations we should be considering.
They are the non-techies.
Last Saturday morning, I attended a meeting in Boston at Ecuentro5 for local folks who wanted to meet face to face and participate in Idealist.Org's global action network. Virtually all of them had used (or are currently using) Idealist.Org to search for jobs in the nonprofit sector; moreover, all of them are interested in connecting with others who are committed to positive social change.
They are obviously sophisticated enough about the world of online tools to find and use Idealist.Org. However, I was struck by how few of them knew about the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (our new statewide association), CivicSource (a statewide online civic calendar), or Mission-Based Massachusetts (an email distribution list focused on nonprofit, philanthropic, or socially responsible organizations in our state).
These folks may not be inherently interested in information and communication technologies, but they certainly know enough to find and use Idealist.Org. And in turn, the Idealist.Org web site provides them with access to information, professional opportunities, and communities on a global basis. In Massachusetts, we need to do our part to develop such online resources on a local basis, and then do the outreach to make sure that they are used by those who need and want them.
