Ever wondered whether getting your CFRE designation is really worth it? Or if taking multiple courses in volunteer management really prepares you for the nonprofit realm?

Many youth looking at the charitable sector as grounds for future careers do. And they’re registering in droves for accreditation of one sort or another to give themselves a competitive advantage over their peers to claim those scarce jobs and to gain sector-specific knowledge that will help them advance their careers.

Looking at youth nonprofit leaders

At age 26, Michael Friedman, the agency relations manager at North York Harvest Food Bank, Toronto’s second-largest foodbank, recently completed the Creative Institute for Toronto’s Young (CITY) Leaders program, a leadership development institute for young people working in the community. He said the experience was invaluable.

“The program helped me hone the on-the-job skills that I have acquired since graduating from university in 2006 with a B.A. in Anthropology, with loads of knowledge in the Ivory Tower, and no knowledge of what really happens in the real world and more specifically in the nonprofit sector,” he said. “I have spent the last four years working at food security organizations in the Washington, D.C. and Toronto. While developing skills in the workplace is essential to building a successful career, I find that my experience in formal leadership programs has helped me gain confidence in my abilities and to add structure to the projects and programs which I am responsible for running. The CITY Leaders program [also] introduced me to a network of peers in the same point in their careers as I am, and allowed us to problem-solve together and learn from each other.”

Friedman adds that this and other similar experiences provides potential employers in the charitable sector with a good idea of his skill set. “It shows them I am committed to increasing my leadership capacity and using the skills to strengthen my community. The skills I have learned and connections I have made through this education have been integral in my success thus far,” he said.

Asked what advice he would have for youth looking at getting accreditation for working in charity, he said to “never say no” when someone offers leadership training. “If I hear about leadership training that I was not invited to, I ask if I can be a part. That being said, nonprofit organizations want to hire young people who are creative, intelligent, and dedicated. My advice for youth looking to enter the sector is to make sure that those three things are apparent in your cover letters and resumes.”

Nonprofit management 101 and beyond

Brenda Gainer, director of York University’s Nonprofit Management and Leadership Program at the Schulich School of Business — which delivers both an undergraduate course load in nonprofit managerial skills as well as a much-sought-after MBA — believes it’s essential for youth to bolster their skills academically before approaching the sector for work.

In her opinion, graduates of the York program and other accredited institutions, come prepared to tackle the rigours and challenges of the sector, much to hiring organizations’ delight.

Though there are no statistics available to quantify how many graduates get jobs due to their degree, Gainer notes that all her graduating students “have a job in the nonprofit field” within six months of graduation.

She said anecdotally, that many sector employers contact her to let them know of job openings for interns and graduates.

“My alumni, when they come back and speak to me, tell me how valuable their degree was in terms of opening doors,” she said.

Nonprofit employers value the skill sets developed in Schulich’s and other training programs because they imbue graduates with knowledge of the sector right out of the gate.

Gainer said employers are looking for “leadership and management skills.”

But perhaps more importantly they want to see “critical thinking skills and a critical mindset, as well as knowledge of the sector. By that, I mean the issues in the sector; government policies affecting the sector; laws affecting the sector? there’s that huge environment of the sector as well as [knowledge of] how a nonprofit organization actually works. Knowledge of its organizational and funding structures, where it gets its resources,” she said.

Another key piece of the puzzle is graduates’ specific knowledge of nonprofit management versus the for-profit realm. “This has to do with things like working with multiple markets and sources of revenue; and multiple stakeholders as well as non-quantifiable outcomes and goals. These are huge differences,” Gainer notes.

She adds that what’s “difficult” for nonprofit organizations when they’re out to hire is they know it takes time for someone inexperienced in the sector to acculturate to it. This is yet another part of the hiring equation and benefit to having an accredited degree, according to Gainer. The hiring nonprofits are looking for “values and culture.”

“Nonprofit organizations don’t have to start from scratch instilling these things” when they hire accredited candidates, she says.

A last word on professional accreditation

Attempts to contact Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) International went unanswered by story deadline. However, for those wondering what effect getting a CFRE designation has on your professional and monetary career, the organization posts the following statistic for contemplation:

“In Canada, CFRE certificants earn 36 per cent more than their non-certified colleagues. An average salary for Canadian CFRE certificants is $81,862” according to the 2005 Compensation and Benefits Study conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).”

Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf is president of WordLaunch professional?writing services in Toronto.?He can be reached at andy@wordlaunch.com.