Opportunities in Nonprofit Advocacy Work

In my previous post, I provided information about careers in the nonprofit/advocacy field. Please refer back to that post to learn more about what you need to consider when applying for an advocacy position. What follows now is a list of potential employers for careers in the nonprofit/advocacy field.

Please note:

• This list is by no means comprehensive. It is a starting point. To find more organizations related to your cause, simply do an online search for ___________ Advocacy Organizations, filling in the blank with your area of interest.
• An excellent website to check for nonprofit/advocacy jobs and internships is Idealist.org.
• I have deliberately not embedded the URLs so that you can see the basic address of the site in case the link doesn't work for you and you want to try entering just the first part of the URL.
• I have grouped the agencies under general headings to make the list more accessible—just know that many organizations have several roles and could be listed in more than one category. Many of these agencies are national in scope. There are a lot of regional agencies which may offer even better volunteer and work experiences. Be sure to check your local region.
• Where possible, I have linked directly to the job openings on the organizations' websites. If that link doesn’t exist, I have linked to the home page. Always check out the volunteer and internship opportunities as well. They might be your best point of entry into the organization.
• Finally, this post is not political nor is it an endorsement of any of these groups. I have made no effort to ascertain the political leanings of each group. Generally, many advocacy organizations tend to lean to the left politically. If this is not appealing to you, follow the instructions of the first bullet point above, and do an online search specifically for conservative or libertarian advocacy organizations. I will leave the comments section open at least initially in case anyone would like to add to this list of advocacy groups.

NON-PROFIT/ADVOCACY GROUPS

ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN

• Boys & Girls Clubs of America https://www.bgca.org/
• Children’s Defense Fund: https://www.childrensdefense.org/connect/join-our-team/jobs-at-cdf/
• Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) https://casaforchildren.org/
• Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) https://supportkind.org/jobs/
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children http://www.missingkids.com/footer/careers
• National Children’s Advocacy Center https://www.nationalcac.org/careers/
• National Children’s Alliance https://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/
• The Safe Passage Project https://www.safepassageproject.org/get-involved/#careers
• Stand for Children http://stand.org/
• The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights https://www.theyoungcenter.org/careers

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY

• Clean Water Action https://www.cleanwateraction.org/about/jobs
• Climate Science Legal Defense Fund https://www.csldf.org/
• The Conservation Fund https://www.conservationfund.org/
• Defenders of Wildlife https://defenders.org/
• EarthJustice https://earthjustice.org/about/jobs
• Environmental Defense Fund https://www.edf.org/jobs
• Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
• Natural Resources Defense Council https://www.nrdc.org/
• National Parks Conservation Association https://www.npca.org/about/careers
• The Nature Conservancy https://www.nature.org/en-us/connect/careers/
• National Wildlife Federation http://nwf.org/About-Us/Careers
• NextGen America https://nextgenamerica.org/jobs/
• The Sierra Club https://www.sierraclub.org/careers-jobs-employment
• The Wilderness Society https://www.wilderness.org/careers-internships

GENERAL POLICY AND LEGAL/ANTI-DISCRIMINATION

• The American Civil Liberties Union https://www.aclu.org/careers/
• The Anti-Defamation League https://www.adl.org/careers
• Campaign Zero https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
• The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) https://www.clasp.org/about/careers
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) https://www.cair.com/careers
• Human Rights Campaign. https://www.cair.com/careers
• The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) https://www.maldef.org/about/career-opportunities/career-opportunities-…
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) https://www.naacp.org/employment/
• The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) http://www.ncadv.org/
• Native American Rights Fund. (NARF) https://www.narf.org/
• Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) https://www.rainn.org/
• The Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/about/careers/jobs
• The Sylvia Rivera Law Project https://srlp.org/about/jobs-internships/

IMMIGRATION-RELATED ADVOCACY

• American Immigration Council https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/jobs
• Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project https://asylumadvocacy.org/jobs-and-internships/
• Border Angels https://www.borderangels.org/
• Human Rights First https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/careers
• The National Immigration Law Center https://www.nilc.org/get-involved/jobs/
• The National Immigration Forum https://immigrationforum.org/article/employment/
• The National Immigrant Justice Center https://www.immigrantjustice.org/careers#.XXvRMyhKg2w
• We Are One America https://weareoneamerica.org/

LGBTQ ADVOCACY (see also General Policy and Anti-Discrimination List)

• Family Equality https://www.familyequality.org/about-us/join-our-team/
• GLAAD https://www.glaad.org/careers
• GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) https://www.glad.org
• Human Rights Campaign https://www.hrc.org/
• Lambda Legal https://www.lambdalegal.org/
• LGBT National Help Center http://www.glnh.org/
• National Gay Lesbian Chamber of Commerce http://www.nglcc.org/
• LGBT Books to Prisoners https://lgbtbookstoprisoners.org/

WOMEN’S HEALTH/ADVOCACY

• CARE Women’s Empowerment https://www.care.org/our-work
• The Center for Reproductive Rights https://reproductiverights.org/careers
• Emerge America https://emergeamerica.org/get-involved/jobs-internships/
• EMILY’s List https://www.emilyslist.org/pages/entry/jobs-internships
• Girls Who Code https://girlswhocode.com/
• NARAL Pro-Choice America https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/about/jobs/
• National Organization for Women (NOW) https://now.org/about/job-and-internships/
• National Women’s Law Center https://nwlc.org/jobs-at-nwlc/
• Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/jobs-and-volunteering
• Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) https://www.rainn.org/
• The Reproductive Health Access Project https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/get-involved/join-team/
• She Should Run https://www.sheshouldrun.org/jobs

Again, this list is just a small start. Go online and do your own search for the types of organizations which most interest you.

©2019 Katharine S. Brooks. All rights reserved.