Commongood Careers

Our Story

At these organizations and others, we experienced the challenges of recruiting top talent and conducting searches in environments with limited human resource capacities.  As department managers, we conducted searches with practically no time, support or training to do so.  When we called search firms for help, we found that they were only interested in the top 1% of all our hiring needs for positions earning well into the six-figures.  And, when we finally had such a search to discuss with them, we learned that it would cost $30,000 to $40,000 just to get the attention of any reputable firm.

Because we knew that there had to be a better way, we formed Commongood Careers in 2005 in partnership with New Profit, Inc, a national venture philanthropy fund. Our earliest clients were members of the New Profit, Inc. portfolio, such as BELL, College Summit, Jumpstart, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and Year Up. We are proud to continue to support these organizations today. 

Our success has led to a nationwide expansion of our services. Today, Commongood Careers works with over 175 organizations in 28 states. We’ve completed over 500 searches, which makes us one of the most experienced nonprofit search firms in the country.

As we celebrate our 6th anniversary in 2011, our commitment to providing best-in-class search services remains. We continue to offer personalized, engaged services throughout the entire hiring process and to leverage the aspects of service that have made us successful, namely, our streamlined service model, flat-fee pricing structure, and dedicated and experienced staff.

Our Mission

The mission of Commongood Careers is to enable innovative nonprofits to build strong organizations through the recruitment and retention of outstanding talent.

Our Vision

One day, all those working for the common good will be able to efficiently access and develop the talent they need to achieve their full potential for social impact.

Our Values

In order to support our mission and vision, Commongood Careers values:

• Purpose:  We are mission-driven and work intentionally to maximize the impact of the nonprofit sector because we believe in the sector’s potential to address society’s greatest challenges. 
• Innovation:  We are continually developing and experimenting with new ideas, approaches, solutions and models in order to ensure the greatest impact by providing the best possible service to our clients and through building a healthy and sustainable organization.
• Diversity:  We recognize, embrace and utilize individual backgrounds and perspectives because we believe that diversity makes our team stronger and more effective.
• Accountability:  We take responsibility for the success of individual and organization-wide tasks, projects, and outcomes, holding ourselves and our colleagues to the highest performance standards possible so that we meet ambitious organizational goals.
• Respect:  We treat others with consideration, valuing each person’s time, contribution and potential which creates an environment conducive to strong performance.
• Fun:  We foster an environment that is professional and collegial while infused with creativity, energy, and humor because we believe that such an environment leads to high productivity and the retention of valued staff members and clients.

Our Plans for Growth

We plan to expand our work 5-fold over the next 5 years to the point at which we are placing 500 nonprofit professionals each year.  Specifically, we will focus on:

• Domestic Expansion: We aim to support clients in all 50 States and grow our client base in major hubs of social innovation such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
• International Expansion: Although we currently only work in the United States, in the next several years we plan to support the hiring needs of socially entrepreneurial NGOs worldwide.
• Mission Diversification: Because of their prominence among innovative and growth-oriented nonprofits in general, a majority of our current clients have missions that are focused on education and youth related issues.  Over the next several years, we will focus particularly on expanding our work with organizations focused on health and environmental issues.
• Sector Diversification: Although 98% of our current clients are nonprofits, we are interested in supporting more private and public entities that have a true spirit of social innovation.