Presenting Nonprofit
Experience in a B-School Application
It's time to dismiss a fallacy about
nonprofit job experience being detrimental to your MBA
admissions. In fact, notes Cindy Sullivan, a senior MBA
admissions adviser, nonprofit experience might provide
an applicant with points for diversity.
"I think that an applicant with nonprofit experience can
make admissions
committees look closer at the applicant to see if
this person can add some diversity to the incoming
class," she says. "It can actually provide an edge, if
applicants use it to their advantage. For example, an
applicant can draw the committee in by having this
nontraditional work experience, but then the applicant
really needs to articulate how their unique experience
is relevant to their future goals combined with an MBA
education."
Admissions committees, says Sullivan, a former Associate
Director of the University of Chicago Graduate School of
Business, like to have a class full of students who
bring many different perspectives and solutions to all
kinds of business problems.
That's because graduate business education isn't all
about the money. It's all about management.
Sure, most MBA students are motivated at least in part
by profit and creating value for themselves and others
in forms that are measured in dollars and cents. But the
fundamental skills that business schools teach are not
about money – they're about management. Those skills are
just as valuable in nonprofit and public service as they
are in business.
Management Skills in Demand at
Nonprofits
Management skills are in heavy demand in the nonprofit
sector. Fundraising, marketing, budgeting, technology,
resource allocation, and even business development are
as much of nonprofit organizations' milieu as they are
in the business world. Beyond that, many entrepreneurs
know that business savvy is key to eliminating the many
global social ills rooted in poverty. Business leaders,
whether it's Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, have never
before been so focused on eradicating disease, boosting
education, and creating mechanisms for even the world's
poorest people to gain a foothold in business. And the
need for MBA-educated professionals in nonprofit
organizations or working within the for-profit sector,
where there are decisions to be made about philanthropy,
has never been stronger.
As b-school admissions consultant Kent Harrill, MBA,
recently noted, a US News & World Report article
pointed out that over 70 percent of nonprofits are young
organizations, less than 30 years old, and few have
staff with management training.
Some b-schools even have financial aid programs for MBA
grads to pursue nonprofit and public service job
opportunities. Wharton, Cornell, Stanford, Haas,
Columbia, Fuqua, and others, have loan forgiveness or
fellowship programs for MBA grads headed toward public
sector and nonprofit leadership. These programs stand as
testament to the value b-schools place on improving
nonprofit management.
Best Positioning of Your
Nonprofit Experience
When business schools ask about your work experience,
their focus is on what you've done, not where you've
done it. Acceptance or rejection won't hinge on which
companies or organizations you worked for. Your strength
as an applicant will be measured by how much potential
you show in becoming a successful graduate-business
student and future leader. An applicant whose only work
history is with a small nonprofit, but who writes and
speaks intelligently about what they learned from that
experience, is a feasible b-school candidate. An
applicant who worked at a bulge-bracket investment bank,
but can't articulate the value of his experience, is
not.
Nonprofit Experience Could Be
Your 'Wow' Factor
So here's our advice to anyone out there who has
wondered about their nonprofit work experience: Don't
let your lack of for-profit work experience keep you
from applying to business school. In your essays and
interview, focus more on what you did for your employer
than who your employer was. If you did gain some
specific insights, such as securing funding or about
managing and motivating volunteers, by all means, share
it. Also, include your ideas about how you would use an
MBA to make a career transition to the business world or
to improve the performance of a nonprofit organization.
There's one caveat we'd like to include here for MBA
applicants flush with nonprofit vigor. That's to take
time to identify about what spurs your interest in
nonprofit work. If you are a tireless advocate for a
certain cause, are you certain you will want a career
dedicated to the management aspect of it? Or might you
be more interested in changing laws and policy? You will
need to reflect deeply on this and consult with those in
the field. Law school, public administration, health
administration, and other graduate programs might be the
more appropriate path for you if your heart is set on
becoming a frontline change agent.
But if you view your nonprofit work history as a
valuable part of your professional development into a
master manager, whether for profit or the common good,
then your nonprofit experience just may prove to be the
'wow' factor that gets you accepted at your targeted
schools!
