Kate Grant *94, is the CEO of the Fistula Foundation, a non-profit that treats obstetric fistula for the poorest women in the world.
Q. Was shifting into the nonprofit world difficult financially?
A. You don’t go into the nonprofit world with maximizing your financial return as being your goal for your professional life. There are other areas in our private sector, market-driven economy where people are definitely trying to maximize their salaries and that's what it's about. Nonprofits not so much. But does that mean you have to starve? No. Where I am in Northern California, most of the executive or CEO positions at nonprofits make over $100,000 a year. They're not expecting you to live out of your car.
Would I make a lot more money if I had stayed in my career in advertising? Of course I would have. If I had gone to law school 20 years ago instead of going to a policy program and I were a partner at a law firm? Of course I'd be making a lot more money. But I've made a different choice, because I think I'm actually more content, happy, and thriving. And there's tons of research out there that basically says after roughly $70,000 a year more money does not increase happiness. Yeah, if you make less than that, and probably twice that if you're in Manhattan because it's so expensive, but on average, that marginal dollar isn't going to make you happier. So think hard about what work is. If you're only working for money it’s going to feel like work every day, but if you're getting up and going to do something because it's an extension of your soul? It doesn't feel like work. It almost never feels exactly like work.
Find Kate's full interview here: [ Ссылка ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAREER & LIFE VISION CONVERSATIONS is a video series by Princeton Career Services highlighting lessons learned by inspiring Princetonians. For the whole series visit: [ Ссылка ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Produced by Lisa Einstein '13
Music by [ Ссылка ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
