a young, smiling program manager @ the office in January 2020

Hi Reader ,

The tension is real for many of us professional do-gooders.

We want to change the world. AND we want to pay off our student loans as quickly as possible.

We want to be part of the revolution. AND we want to be able to retire one day.

We want to dismantle (or at least reimagine) capitalism. AND we want to be able to pay our bills.

It’s common for us to hold competing (if not downright contradictory) desires like these as we navigate our careers. Yet, it’s extremely uncommon to hear anyone acknowledge this reality.

I wasn’t aware of it when I started my career in the nonprofit sector 14 years ago. I had already subconsciously subscribed to the idea that I did my job to advance a cause (i.e., improve the quality of life in Detroit), not to make money (at least not a lot of it).

Then I took a real estate course through Building Community Value that forever changed my understanding of money, wealth, and debt. Then I went to grad school and acquired student loan debt. Then I spent time with a growing number of middle-class colleagues and acquaintances who could somehow afford to live in trendy Detroit neighborhoods and who were aspiring to do things like buy a house.

I realized that although I still very much cared about my cause, I also very much wanted to be able to build wealth and live a middle-class lifestyle.

Which meant that I needed to look at my career moves not exclusively through the lens of “to what extent will this work lead to the deep, systemic, transformational change that I want to see?”. To achieve my personal goals, I would also need to look at my career moves through the lens of “to what extent will this work allow me to make the salary I need to buy the things that I want?”.

Through the latter lens, I could see that certain jobs/organizations were not an option for me. I wasn’t going to be a community organizer. And the chances seemed small that I would work at an organization focused on driving truly systems-shifting progressive change beyond the bounds of "the elite charade of changing the world" since those places often don't pay well.

What were my options, though?

How did other professional do-gooders reconcile their desire to do work which supports collective/communal thriving with their desire to do work which pays well enough to support their individual thriving?

Was I the only person grappling with this tension?

These questions have followed me – haunted me – over the years. I am grateful to have had the chance to unpack them with Mark Greer, my fellow native Detroiter and community organizer turned MBA-holding philanthropy professional, in I Want to Change the World, Episode 27 – “We Gotta Tell the Truth”.

Once you’ve tuned in, I’d love to know how, if at all, this episode spoke to where you are on your own career journey.

Peace,

Janai

NEW EPISODE

'Duality' must be Mark Greer's middle name.

Like me, he’s a native Detroit east sider from a working-class family

AND he’s a private school graduate with a degree from the University of Michigan.

He started his career as a community organizer,

AND he holds an MBA.

He has worked in justice-centering spaces where he openly advocated for reimagining systems like capitalism

AND he’s worked at foundations and corporations actively reinforcing those same systems.

Today, as a Philanthropic Advisor with Phila Engaged Philanthropy , Mark channels these disparate experiences into his work helping high-net-worth individuals and other donors “transform their wealth into justice”.

I can’t imagine a better person to offer hardwon insights into navigating the trade offs and nuances that we face as “professional do-gooders” as we build our careers in the social impact sector.