The Realist Idealist

I spent this past weekend in freezing cold Yale attending the 2nd of three sessions of StartingBloc as an official StartingBloc fellow.

StartingBloc educates, empowers and connects emerging leaders to drive positive social change across sectors.

I think one of the coolest things about this program is that I get to tell people that I’m a fellow. Makes me sound really important.

StartingBloc is essentially a convening of university students and young working professionals who are involved in innovative and interesting organizations and initiatives, from government to non-profit to private sector. Reading the bios of the other fellows, it seems like the minimum requirement includes the following (or something equally and ridiculously innovative): start your own company at age 11, develop a solution to hunger in some remote African country, or research the effects of globalization on the micro-enterprise industry in Asia while running a website with your eyes closed.

There is no doubt that our generation is full of brilliant and passionate young people who genuinely want to make our world a better place.

Yet, I physically winced when I read this article about the challenges that the nonprofit sector will face in retaining good workers- how to keep us from defecting to the other side when we can no longer handle being the starving NGO workers when our friends at the i-banks and consulting firms are making double and getting health insurance?