Thoughts for Thursday: Oh! The Places You Could Go, Resources for Job Seekers

Chronicle of Philanthropy
The gold standard for philanthropy and fundraising jobs. I find it a bit frustrating that you have to select individual states in order to limit your search geographically but we can forgive that small frustration. If you are serious about growing your career, check this job bank regularly. (PS - I found out about my current position on this site.)

Chronicle of Higher Education
Pretty much the same as the Chronicle of Philanthropy, but specific to higher education. If you don't mind combing through or scrolling past lots of faculty positions, this is another great source.

CASE Job Board
The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education is the trade organization for higher education fundraisers, alumni relations, and communications/marketing folks. Their job bank is pretty good as most colleges and universities recognize it as a go-to place for higher education advancement professionals.

AFP Job Board
The Association of Fundraising Professionals website is super-clunky, but if you want to work for a smaller non-profit, arts organization or hospital, AFP's job bank is just the right place to search for that kind of a position.

Higher Ed Jobs.com 
This site has done some significant upgrades since the last time I looked at it. They now have the capability to search by administrative area, which means you can restrict your search to just development and fundraising. There's also a nifty feature allowing you to search by region or metropolitan area. Nice!

Individual Institutions pages
Keep a short document with a list of institutions you would love to work for one day and copy their Human Resource job bank link into that document. Set a reminder in your calendar to check those at a regular interval (determined by your urgency to change jobs). Some institutions can't afford to advertise positions or feel that they are prestigious enough that they don't need to advertise. Keep tabs on what's happening at these institutions by checking at the source regularly.

Head hunters
Myers-McRae is the one I'm most familiar with, as I've been on search committees using this company to fill positions. It may take some searching but you want to find the one that is most popular for your preferred type of university and region. Myers-McRae tends to specialize at 4-year schools in the South. Google "higher education executive search firms" to begin your research process. A note: It is unlikely that this will be fruitful for you unless you have at least 5-10 of experience in a given area. 

Idealist.org
This website is great for those that want to work for an organization that has an activist edge. A quick search and I found fundraising jobs at organizations that focused on women's rights, child welfare, climate change and disease prevention/cures.

For profit serving not-for-profit
You can develop a wealth of skills by working for a for-profit company that serves the not-for-profit industry. Companies like Blackbaud (Raiser's Edge database), Ruffalo Noel Levitz (phonathon and fundraising management), and Stelter (planned giving marketing) to name just a few are worth checking their career pages if you are looking to make a move. That's how I developed expertise in the area of phonathon by working with Ruffalo Noel Levitz (then RuffaloCODY) for five years. These organizations have established training systems and practice excellent benchmarking. There's no better way to learn best practices.

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