USD Magazine, Fall 2003

Finding Satisfaction and Success in the Nonprofit World

While demand for social services reaches unprecedented levels, finding funding and experienced stafffor nonprofit agencies is increasingly difficult. USD is helping to meet the growing need for effective nonprofit employees by training students to combine their personal convictions with sound business principles.

by Cecilia Chan Photographs by Fred Greaves C hristy Yoder '00 arrived at USD in 1995 with her life mapped out. She was intent on earning a biology and marine science degree on the way co becoming a veterinarian for Sea World in San Diego. Bue an incident at a fasc-food

Ac lease once a week, Yoder seeps away from her desk and drives co a food pantry housed at a Lutheran church in Lemon Grove, Calif, where she distributes bags of groceries co hun– gry families. She chats excitedly about prelim– inary plans for a homeless shelcer and says she can't imagine another profession char would

in rhac area, where in the past generation there wasn't." Growth in nonprofit and charitable agen– cies has ballooned over the past decade, fueled by the public's demand for services during rough patches in the economy and by government cutbacks in social programs.

As the universe of social services expands, however, so does the need for competent professionals co run nonprofit agencies. Nonprofits increasingly have co do more with less, as philanthropic groups fight for

provide the same kind of fulfillment she's found in the nonprofit world. "I would need a job chat gives me an intrinsic reward co make me switch over from a nonprofit," says the former girl scout, who as a youth volunteered at soup kitchens every Christmas. "For me, the money has co be a secondary issue. I enjoy helping people for a living." Yoder isn't alone in her quest for a mean– ingful career. This year, a survey sponsored by the Washington-based Brookings Institution showed 62 percent of graduating college seniors seriously considered work in a nonprofit organization. "We see chis generation particularly inter– ested in nonprofits," notes Linda Scales, USD's director of Career Services. "Students in chis generation have grown up in an after– school or day care situation, where the Boys and Girls Club or YMCA is a major factor in their life. They are comfortable there and are supportive of the mission (of chose groups), so there is an interest in careers

restaurant changed her life's goal from help– ing animals co helping people. "There was a homeless man sitting down and eating his food by the soda machine," recalls Yoder. "Everyone who passed him didn't look at him, and rhac broke my heart, the thought of someone who could go for the rest of his life without eye contact. "I went from there co Bible study and thought, this is what God has called me co do," she says, "co work especially with the homeless in a helping capacity and an empowering capacity." Today, at 25, Yoder runs a nonprofit emergency assistance program chat helps the down and out in San Diego County. As director of community and family services for Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, Yoder writes grants, develops pro– grams - such as an after-school plan that feeds underprivileged kids a hoc meal and teaches character development - and fosters ties with che organization's major donors, the 80 Lutheran churches in rhe county.

Christy Yoder gives out groceries to needy families at a food pantry in Chula Vista. scarce dollars and face mounting pressure from the public co show more accountability. USD has responded ro rhe need for skilled nonprofit professionals with two innovative

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FALL 2003