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Employment & Occupations in the Nonprofit Sector

Nonprofits need people of every kind of skill, training, background and experience — sales, marketing, finance, IT, admin, healthcare, education, project management, communications and public relations, law and more. The nonprofit sector has three broad segments of occupations:

  • Managerial occupations: managers in health, education, social and community services and membership organizations, managers in social, community services, libraries, archives, museums and art galleries, managers in health care and managers in broadcasting and performing arts and other services
  • Functional and professional occupations: those necessary to carry out programming delivered by non-profit sector organizations, for example:
    • religious organization sub-sector: ministers of religion and other religious occupations such as brothers, nuns, monks, religious education
    • social service sub-sector: social workers, family, marriage and other related counsellors, psychologists, community and social service workers, instructors and teachers of persons with disabilities
    • sports and recreation: program leaders, coaches, directors of sporting federations, sports officials and referees
    • health sub-sector: occupations in health diagnosis and treatment e.g. speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists
    • arts & culture sub-sector: musicians, singers, dancers, choreographers, painters, photographers
  • Support occupations: those not directly related to delivery of the non-profit sector programming and services, but provide necessary support activities, for example:
    • receptionists and switchboard operators, customer service personnel, administrative and data entry clerks, etc.

For a complete list of nonprofit sector occupations, see:

Description of Occupations Common in the Non-Profit Sector,
published in: ‘Characteristics of the Labour Market in British Columbia’s Non-Profit Sector’, Appendix II, Table II.1, page A-2

Why work in the nonprofit sector in BC?

Nonprofits attract employees through:

  • the importance of the work that the sector performs (the cause for which the non-profits work is their most important competitive advantage to attract qualified staff)
  • inclusive work and collaborative cultures - most nonprofit organizations are small teams and departments. This allows staff members to form bonds and work together. You will likely be able to build relationships with employees of all levels because smaller organizations usually have less hierarchy, which often means you’re working with your colleagues and managers, not just for them.
  • flexible work arrangements such as the opportunity to work part-time/seasonally or job share

However these benefits may be offset by comparatively low levels of wages and benefits.

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Average salaries in B.C. by sector

Source:  Get to Know BC’s Nonprofit sector, Imagine Canada

Education Programs for Nonprofit Sector Workers

Courses focus on leadership and financial management skills, managing volunteers, marketing, government relations, fundraising, legal requirements and governance
Courses focus on capital campaigns, social responsibility, management and finance in fundraising
Web based courses include budgeting for nonprofits, makeup and duties of boards, creating diversity/inclusion in the workplace, building a volunteer program
part time / online courses
face to face workshops

Employment outlook

The positions that are expected to be most difficult to fill are:

  • senior staff and managerial positions that require complex skill sets (as many senior staff will be retiring soon)
  • fundraising, marketing, and sales positions that incorporate entrepreneurial skills and the ability to build the public profile of the organization through outreach and effective use of social media (in order to find alternative source of funding to overcome funding shortages)
  • sub-sector specific, high skilled and credentialed, licensed and recognized positions (e.g. early childhood educators in the education sub-sector, social workers and psychologists in the social service subsector, pastors in the religious sub-sector, musicians and artists in arts and culture sub-sector, etc.)

Source: ‘Characteristics of the Labour Market in British Columbia’s Non-Profit Sector’, Appendix II, Table II.1, page A-2