I worked at a nonprofit for six years. Program director role. Really believed in what we were doing, the communities we served.
Funding dried up, federal grants got cut, and eleven of us got the call on the same afternoon.
Everyone talks about layoffs in terms of tech packages and severance weeks and COBRA calculations. And that stuff matters. But nobody talks about the particular grief of losing work you actually cared about. Not just a job. A thing you organized your identity around. I'm not embarrassed to say I cried for two days.
I'm also noticing that the standard advice doesn't quite fit. 'Update your LinkedIn immediately' assumes I know what sector I'm pivoting to. 'Start networking' assumes my network is other people who hire. My network is other program directors at underfunded orgs who are also losing their jobs right now.
Anyone else navigated a layoff from mission-driven work and figured out how to translate that experience for the private sector? Or found a way to stay in the space without starving?
5 replies
returner_ren
i made this transition and it took a while to figure out the framing. the skills transfer much better than you'd think: managing stakeholders with competing interests, running programs on constrained budgets, measuring community impact. those are real and valuable.
the translation work is mostly about language. 'program outcomes' become 'KPIs.' 'community partners' become 'stakeholders.' your budget stewardship experience is operations and finance experience. it takes some practice to tell it that way but the substance is there.
nonprofit_nia
the language translation thing is what i needed to hear. i kept feeling like i was pretending when i used that framing but maybe it's just... accurate from a different angle.
ops_omar
the grief part is real and valid. i think corporate layoffs come with their own kind of grief too, but there's something about believing in the work that makes it sharper. you lost a job AND a purpose anchor at the same time.
consultant_cam
on 'staying in the space without starving': a lot of my nonprofit friends have gone the fractional/consulting route. one org can't afford a FT program director but three orgs can each afford you 10-15 hours a month. harder to set up, steadier once it's running.
not for everyone, but worth knowing it exists.
nonprofit_nia
hadn't thought about fractional honestly. going to look into this. thank you.