I’ve gotten this question a million times about how to break into a corporate social responsibility job. [CSR roles can include managing or coordinating corporate philanthropy/giving, employee volunteer programs, community relations, corporate sustainability programs, etc.] Overall, it’s pretty hard to break in. I recommend working at a large company that has a strong CSR department and pivot your way into it.
Based on my observations of people who work in these roles, here’s how it generally happens:
1. Transfer internally within a company
CSR roles are often prized within a company because you get to “do good” while making a decent corporate salary. It’s not uncommon for an individual to work at a large company for a number of years, and then transfer into a CSR role (often a good place to retire). I was trying to apply to work for the philanthropic arm of a well-known corporate foundation and was told that none of their job openings are ever posted externally because they fill all their vacancies internally.
2. Develop your own CSR role within your company
If you work at a company that does not have a CSR function (but has enough resources to support one), you could be intrapreneurial and start your own CSR initiatives on the side, e.g., an employee volunteer program. Over time, as you build critical mass and support, your company may see the value in staffing such programs. I was once offered a role at a large company where two employees had started the CSR initiative but they didn’t want to take it on themselves, and had made the business case to create an FTE to hire someone.
3. Be recruited because of your specialized knowledge / expertise
If a specialized skillset or domain knowledge is needed (e.g., sustainability and supply chains), then a company will recruit externally for such a role. I just referred someone to a social impact role at a company and she got it for this reason. However, a lot of CSR roles don’t require such a specialized skillset — e.g., the skills needed to run an employee volunteer program or a charitable giving program can be learned on the job.
4. Be recruited because of prior CSR experience
It’s easier to get a CSR role when you already have CSR experience. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, there’s a closed networking group, the Corporate Community Relations Consortium, for CSR professionals and they share job openings within the network. That being said, even after I ran a corporate foundation, I still found it challenging to get interviews for CSR roles at other companies. A lot of times companies can be picky about recruiting CSR professionals who worked for companies in their same industry.
5. Be directly connected to the hiring manager
Not to knock employee referrals to open positions, but these roles are often so competitive that the referral may not really make a difference — unless your referrer actually knows the hiring manager personally and can put in a good word for you. I’ve even had a few senior-level people at their companies refer me for CSR roles and still didn’t even get a phone screen because the hiring managers were flooded with applications so the referral from employees they didn’t know personally didn’t make a difference. I still think it’s worth it to get an employee referral, but it may not give you a significant competitive edge.
6. Dumb luck
I know someone who didn’t have any prior CSR / philanthropy experience who filled in as a temp for someone on maternity leave, who was in a corporate philanthropy role. Through that temp experience, she was converted to a full-time permanent worker.
There are certainly venues for learning more about CSR that are open to non-CSR folks, if you’re willing to pay a registration fee. For example, I’ve attended the Northern California Grantmakers’ annual Corporate Philanthropy Institute a few times. Other regions may have similar events. If you know of other networking venues, or have advice for folks on how to break into CSR, please post in comments, or email me and I can list them here.