DEVELOPMENT: NEW RECRUITMENT AGENCY FOR NGOS
Stefania Bianchi
LONDON - A new international recruitment agency has been set up to respond to the globalisation of non-governmental organisations.
Global Charity Jobs aims to provide web-based recruitment solutions within the not-for-profit sector for charities, foundations, higher education institutes, the cultural sector and United Nations agencies.
The agency is designed to help those looking to fill senior posts in leadership, development, fundraising, finance, administration, marketing, human resources, new media, communications, campaigning and advocacy.
A joint initiative of the recruitment agencies CR Search and Selection (CRSS) and Daryl Upsall Consulting International (DUCI), Global Charity Jobs will seek to put charities in touch with prospective candidates wherever they are based.
The newly formed international company for Global Charity Jobs will be called Global Recruitment (UK) Ltd and will be owned by both recruitment agencies.
"As an international search agency we are witnessing ever increasing movement of people globally in the not-for-profit sector," Olga Johnston, chief executive of the London-based CRSS told IPS.
"This exciting new international service is long overdue," said Daryl Upsall, chief executive of DUCI. "Having worked in the international NGO sector in some 40 countries over the last 20 years, I have always sought a place where I could go to find what NGO work opportunities there are for me, be it in Australia, India, Italy or Argentina. Now that is possible."
Although CRSS and DUCI have both been involved in international recruitment already, Upsall says Global Charity Jobs will be "100 percent focused" on international recruitment across a broad sector of the non-profit world.
"In time we would also hope that it expands its language versions into French, Spanish, German and who knows, in a few years time, to Mandarin (the official Chinese language)," he said.
Upsall already offers a class on recruiting and retaining fundraising staff in Canada, Holland, and Britain.
To date NGO recruitment has mainly focused on local employment, Upsall said. He said no such international agency was set up earlier because many people are unaware of NGO activity around the world.
"In certain well-developed NGO markets such as the United States, Canada, Australia and UK, specialist agencies and websites exist but they only really have value for NGOs and people looking for jobs inside that country," he said. "However, if an international NGO or UN agency headquartered in Geneva is looking to hire a senior regional fundraising director for Southern Africa, they previously had no special place to advertise the post to a global audience."
An agency like this has not been set up before "because most services are run, owned and staffed by people who have themselves lived and worked almost all their lives in their home country," Upsall said.
"The world of NGOs is internationalising and globalising much the same as the corporate sector," he said.
For the first time, national and international NGOs will have a single place to announce new job opportunities. Job seekers will be offered advice on how to apply, and how to prepare for interviews.
With offices in London and Madrid, Global Charity Jobs has associates based in Geneva and in most major NGO centres.
Jaap Zeekant, director and editor of the Dutch-based Funds Magazine which covers international development issues welcomed the initiative, and said he will use and support the service.
Zeekant said such a service is needed because knowledge about fundraising is currently limited to a few areas.
"Working for charities means working on making the world a better place, so if the world is the place where we work, vacancies are global in essence," he told IPS.
"Besides that, the charity community is becoming more and more a global community, where people from all over the world meet, get connected, work together and exchang (END)
