Why do people join non profit organizations?

Because not everyone in the world is a money-grubbing dbag (which I am)

I think the conventional idea is that after working so many years in a management role, you've got alot of money, you're tired, and perhaps you'd like to give something back. I think the most successful non-profits have a strict policy: no one just out of school. It's the last job you want, not the first.

There was a topic on this a month ago.

TFA will help pay back student loans and puts you in a great position to get a full scholarship for grad school.

http://www.teachforamerica.org/alumni/grad_school_partnerships.htm

I think its become the in or cool thing to do. All the senior guys at my pe firm are heavily involved with non-profit and charity organizations. Just another contest to showcase your rank in society.

There is definitely "prestige" in working for certain nonprofits, depending on the organization in question. It might be a good way to get into business school, and furthermore you might get hooked up by the rich family who runs the foundation you're working for.
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http://www.drmarkklein.blogspot.com/

This might sound naive to some, but some people do it simply because it feels good to help other people out...especially if you've already made bank earlier in your career and don't really care about making more.

Alot of VCs cite the fact that they've already made alot of money as one of the reasons they enter as partners: a justified appetite for risk, backed by the fact that even if things go sour, you'll still get to live it up for the rest of your life.

I imagine the same is true money...diminishing marginal returns on every dollar added? Ha, maybe not.

Sorry to resurect this old thread, but it seems like the assumption is that these executives are crashing through doors to give hours of their already extremely busy lives. I currently work as a fundraiser at the top non-profit in my community, and I can tell you that our board members are generally recruited. The reason is this; for the most part, you don't find a lot of top B-School grads going into the non-profit sector, or experienced executives willing to take a 40-50% pay cut to work for a social service non-profit. It just doesn't happen too often.

Recently, there has been a movement in the philanthropic world to model NPO's to mirror corporations. It has been found that when you run a NPO like a business, results and impact increase because of higher accountability. However, because you don't normally find the business expertise within the organization, you have to recruit experts and brilliant business minds to come in counsel. Hence the reason why you find so many executives on boards of non-profits; the NPO's need their business savvy to have a greater impact in the community. My .02.

Very quickly: some of you are asking yourselves "what the hell is a hippie non-profit fundraiser doing on WSO?" Answer: I am here at my current gig until I leave for B-School, after which PE/VC are going to be my target areas. Here in my community, there isn't a lot of opportunity for getting experience in those industries, but my current gig looks great on a b-school application.