I try to not lead folks too much in my interview process. However, this President of a local museum came out and said “This is my cause” The cause being the President of the museum and the integration of education thereto.
It was a thrilling moment for me to hear those words. Sometimes, I think of being “caused” as a more mystical idea vs. a reality. I believe this interview gave me a great deal of hope and she did not realize this at the time, but she provided me some great advice.
1) You are going to get found out in life if you are not “caused” by your work. In other words, life is short love what you do.
2) Those who raise money for non-profits are able to align themselves for a time to the “cause” and the great ones have the “cause” living in their souls
3) It is a great idea to have business acument to run a non-profit. That may seem obvious, but you better have some skills.