Library: Student Civic and Community Engagement: Explore Career Opportunities with Non-Profit Organizations

Your Career Path.

Are you considering career opportunities that will give you the chance to make positive change in your community? Here are some opportunities and resources to consider! The Career and Professional Education Center (CAPE) can connect you to various professional development resources that may help guide you towards careers that align with your interests, values, and purpose. For more information, please visit the CAPE webpage.

Professional Development Opportunities

AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps sends people power and funding to communities across the country. Disaster response, opioid crisis, education – these are just a few of the causes where AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers have stepped up to strengthen their community.
City Year Buffalo
City Year helps students and schools succeed, while preparing the next generation of civically-engaged leaders who can work across lines of difference. Diverse teams of City Year AmeriCorps members provide support to students, classrooms, and the whole school. Schools that partner with City Year are up to two to three times more likely to improve in English and math assessments, and the more time students spend with AmeriCorps members, the more they improve on social, emotional, and academic skills—skills that help students thrive in school and contribute to their community.
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is a service opportunity for motivated changemakers to immerse themselves in a community abroad, working side by side with local leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges of our generation.
Teach for America
Teach For America recruits outstanding and diverse leaders to become TFA “corps members.” Corps members commit to teaching for two years in a low-income community, where they’re employed by local schools and confront both the challenges and joys of expanding opportunities for kids.
Branching Out: Volunteering and Internships Abroad

Professional Development Resources

Best Degrees for Non-profit Work
From pursuing a non-profit career to volunteering one’s professional skills, the ways to have an impact are as varied as the problems.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
From deeply reported stories on the big ideas that shape the work of charities and foundations to the practical guidance in our online resource center, only the Chronicle of Philanthropy provides non-profit professionals, foundation executives, board members, and others with the indispensable information and practical advice they need to help them change the world.
National Council of Nonprofits
The National Council of Nonprofits is a trusted resource and proven advocate for America’s charitable non-profits. Connecting the policy dots across all levels and branches of governments, the Council of Nonprofits keeps non-profits informed and empowered to create a positive public policy environment that best supports non-profits in advancing their missions. Working with and through the nation’s largest network of non-profits – with 25,000-plus organizational members - we identify emerging trends, share proven practices, and promote solutions that benefit charitable non-profits and the communities they serve.
NonProfitPRO
NonProfit PRO is the go-to source for nonprofit management and strategy. Developed for thought leaders and innovators, we cover topics ranging from internal issues such human resources, board and volunteer management to technology to tax and legal matters, news and, of course, raising funds. We offer a website and daily e-newsletter, NonProfit PRO Today, with a fresh look and quick, hard-hitting content as the go-to source for modern nonprofit professionals.
The NonProfit Times
The NonProfit Times reaches more than 36,000 executives of the nonprofit community in print and digital format, ranging from C-Suite executives to directors of fundraising, marketing, social media, and human resources departments to accounting and other financial management decision-makers. Nonprofit sector influencers on all levels turn to The NPT for news, information, and insight that consistently helps them achieve their professional goals.
Job Options for Non-profit Careers
Review what to expect, the types of organizations you can work for, and the different job titles available to you at non-profits.
NPQ the Nonprofit Quarterly
The Nonprofit Quarterly is the sector's leading management journal with updates on non-profit trends, news, democratic activism, philanthropy and more.
The Whole Story - Ideas and Dispatches from the Solutions Journalism Network
Their mission is to legitimize and spread the practice of solutions journalism: rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.
Work for Good
Work for Good's mission is to help purpose-driven organizations and talented professionals connect, so together you can do the best work possible.