February 14, 2008 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Q. I would like to start a nonprofit community music school – my education and professional history have revolved around musicology. I’ve made my application to the Internal Revenue Service and incorporated my organization, and am aware I’ll need to run my charity on a volunteer basis in the beginning. But I’ll also need a paying job in the interim, one that ideally will help me make the transition into running my charity full time. Any advice for the kinds of jobs I should seek, and ways to approach my job search?
A. Begin by setting realistic expectations for your organization. You may be running it on a volunteer basis or for very little pay for many years.
“It’s going to be a labor of love,” says Wendy Ardizzone, founder of the Joy of Music Program, a nonprofit community music school in Worcester, Mass.
Mrs. Ardizzone incorporated the organization in 1989 but says she still had to supplement her salary by giving private music lessons for at least five years after that. If you plan to teach classes at your school, you could follow her lead and pay yourself, as you would other teachers, for those classes you teach but volunteer your administrative time at the beginning, and supplement that income by also giving private lessons. This may be something to consider as you set tuition for your school.
With your professional history, you probably feel pretty confident about your abilities to run the music part of the business,” says Jonah Rabinowitz, executive director of the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School. But, he adds, you’ll need management experience.
To acquire that knowledge, he suggests, “find yourself a position at another nonprofit, hopefully one in the cultural arena in your city so that you can understand and know the cultural leaders.” Look for mentors, he says, who might be able to help ease your transition into running a charity.
Since you’ll probably want to avoid working full time so that you can spend time on your own charity, you might want to consider working for a cultural group on a contract basis, says Jed Malischke, executive director of the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Association, in Minneapolis.
“You could become an independent contractor and develop services that could be offered to a number of nonprofit organizations that already exist, with the hope that at some point you would offer them to the nonprofit that you are starting,” he says.
Mr. Malischke worked for his group for many years on a volunteer basis, making money on the side by giving music lessons and performing in bands.
No matter what your transitional job may be, don’t be afraid to supplement gaps in your experience with the expertise of others.
“If you don’t know an attorney, it’s probably a good time to know one. If you don’t know someone in the banking-services industry or the financial field, or you don’t understand anything about nonprofit finance or audits, it’s probably a good time to find a friend who does,” says Mr. Rabinowitz. “Not all of us end up getting M.B.A.’s or other degrees. In fact, most of us in the nonprofit world don’t – we come from the program side, and so we need to surround ourselves with people who understand administration.”
