More Workers Seek Jobs with Social Impact

'Social capitalism' gaining popularity for all age groups

By Emily Glazer, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Now that the financial system has been
rocked to its core, "social capital" is getting a lot of buzz. But what
is it? It boils down to putting your efforts into jobs with a socially
positive impact, connecting money with meaning and investing with those
principles in mind.

People of all ages are pursuing those mantras -- from twentysomethings
seeking socially responsible jobs straight out of college to Gen X-ers
in their 30s and 40s leaving highly paid posts in major corporations to
launch socially aware start-ups to baby boomers investing or advising
companies on how to be more socially aware.

"A lot of organizations are forming social enterprises in a way that
they didn't used to to highlight their social mission," said Amy
Benziger, co-producer of SoCap09, a San Francisco-based conference on
social capital. "It might be perceived as potentially sacrificing
profit, but now it's looked as a positive thing."

 

Alter Eco

A farmer who is part of the fair-trade program operated by Alter Eco.

Kate Tierney was on top in the traditional corporate world. As
senior vice president of organic food distributor United Natural Foods
Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!unfi/quotes/nls/unfi
(UNFI
26.31,
-1.63,
-5.83%)
, she had been in a position to move to president. But Tierney sought more impact, not power.

"I recognized [my job] wasn't filling my mission part of my soul, and I
knew I needed to go and find something that could fill some part of
me," she said. "I had made the big bucks."

Tierney, 42, now works as the national director of sales at Alter Eco, a fair-trade start-up.

Interest in social-capital career moves such as Tierney's is likely to
swell, said Beth Lester, vice president of marketing at
Washington-based consulting firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, especially
among those age 18 to 24, who are more likely than older people to take
a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company.

"Most people are interested in working for and buying from companies
that they judge are a good company," she said. "Particularly for young
people that means having an ethical, socially responsible and
sustainable company."

In a June 2009 "Corporate Citizenship Study" conducted by Penn, Schoen
& Berland Associates in conjunction with Landor and
Burson-Marsteller 40% of about 1,000 participants said they were
willing to take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company.

And of those workers ages 44 to 70 not already in second careers
focusing on a social impact, almost 50% are interested in one,
according to a 3,500-person survey by Civic Ventures and the Metlife
Foundation.

Millennials: seeking social impact first

After working on Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Las Vegas
shortly after graduating from Stanford University in 2008, Kanyi
Maqubela's life changed.

"I realized that ... any sort of work I did from then forth had to have
a social aspect, not to necessarily be altruistic, but whatever my
impact was had to be a social impact first and anything else second."

But socially responsible jobs are not easy to find because it is an
emerging interest and covers a range of industries. Companies do not
have formal recruiting programs geared to socially responsible jobs,
said Rich Wang, University of California, Berkeley's Career Services
account manager.

Recent graduates who get jobs with a social mission often need to bank
on their personal connections, often alumni-related. Maqubela's job
with Virgance, a for-profit company acquiring companies that combine
activism and capitalism, came through a Stanford alum.

William Walter, a 2007 graduate of Williams College, got his job at
EarthWater Global, which locates, develops and manages large-scale,
sustainable groundwater resources internationally, through a fellow
Phillips Academy Andover alumnus. Walter added that the company's
interns also come through personal connections.

Dave Chen, principal at Equilibrium Capital Group and member of the
Portland, Ore., branch of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Board, said
for baby boomers and fortysomethings the idea of making an impact and
having a financial return is often seen as two different ideas. But
twentysomethings look at this ideas as an "and statement," and will
work to accomplish both.

Millennials, generally those in their 20s, are coming out of college
and seeking jobs with a social mission in droves, said Abby Conover,
postgraduate program coordinator at Stanford's Haas Center for Public
Service. Though data is sparse, in a Partnership for Public Service
study focusing on federal jobs, 74% of more than 3,200 students from
six different schools said they "wanted an opportunity to make a
difference."

"It may not be an identifiable population yet," Conover said. "It's still an emergent enough niche that is not well-researched."

There's no particular clearing house for these types of jobs, but sites
like change.org and idealist.org are collaborative efforts that fill
some students' needs, she said.

Though millennials say the idea they are taking pay cuts to work in
socially responsible jobs is a misconception, for many it is a first
job, which can be low-paying regardless.

"Our generation grew up in the information, technology and science age
where with each day we know more and more about our impact on others
and the environment and different countries and their impact on us,"
Walter said. "So with that new perspective comes a new framework for
investing and growth."

Gen X-ers: breaking free from corporate mold

Kevin Jones, co-founder of SocCap09 and founding principal of
venture-capital firm Good Capital, said many people in their 30s and
40s are stuck with a mortgage, marriage commitments or child-rearing
obligations that "keep them in the regular economy" but want to break
free.

Marc Mathieu, former head of global brands marketing for Coca-Cola Co.
/quotes/comstock/13*!ko/quotes/nls/ko
(KO
50.68,
+0.27,
+0.54%)
,
left the company 10 months ago to form Be Do, a company helping both
individuals and companies find social meanings. Mathieu compared the
move to the decision to quit smoking.

"It takes a lot to acknowledge you are a smoker, you need to really
feel that change that's going to make you discover how much better you
feel to become a nonsmoker," he said. "In terms of social or
environmental responsibility -- we've kind of all been smoking for the
last several decades."

Many Gen Y-ers have already banked on previous high-level jobs in major
companies, and find an often necessary pay cut -- between 15% and 30%
-- is worth it.

John Ujda, former vice president at Primedia Inc.'s
/quotes/comstock/13*!prm/quotes/nls/prm
(PRM
2.41,
+0.04,
+1.69%)
Rentals.com, said most people devote a large share of their lives to working, and he wants that time to matter.

Ujda, 36, works as vice president of marketing for Better World Books, an online book seller that supports literacy.

"There's definitely an extra spark right now," he said. "There's a huge
get-out-of-bed factor because what I'm doing right now matters beyond a
paycheck of a shareholder return."

Boomers: leaving a legacy

With a retirement income subsidizing her current -- lower -- wages and
no longer putting children through college, Phyllis Segal, 62, began
her second career focusing on social impact.

"Many people are able to work for less compensation after their midlife
careers, relate to different stages in their life and economic
responsibilities and the possibility of savings to subsidize one's
income," said Segal, vice president and director of research at Civic
Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and aging, who was formerly an
attorney.

"A lot of boomers who want a legacy are coming in as advisers...and
angel investors [of socially responsible companies]," Jones said. "A
much more deep involvement I've seen from that generation a year ago."

There's also a hybrid forming because of the necessity of longer
working lives combined with the spirit of service rather than
volunteering, said Marc Freedman, who founded Civic Ventures in 1998.

Additionally, impact investing, or triple bottom line investing, though
in its nascent stage is "close to tipping point; it's now going
mainstream," said Equilibrium Capital's Chen. Classic pools of capital
like endowment foundations, pension funds and investment funds are
pursuing mission-related investing, he said.

Emily Glazer is a reporter in MarketWatch's San Francisco bureau.