(from the WSJ)

This is the time of year when all of us think about giving back. But for some, it seems to be in their blood.

When Cory Doctorow co-founded the open-source software company OpenCola in 1999, he was just another techie genius. Then he had a discussion with people at the Electronic Frontier Foundation — a technology advocacy nonprofit and proponent of Internet civil liberties — and he became passionate about liberalizing copyright laws so he could help EFF provide citizens with greater access to and use of digital material.

Mr. Doctorow sold his software company and began working with EFF to further the cause of free digital media sharing. “They couldn’t afford to employ me at first, but then they got a grant and I became their outreach coordinator,” he says. “I set up blogs, went to meetings with studio executives, and helped to defeat proposals that weren’t in our favor.”

Mr. Doctorow eventually became the director of European affairs for EFF and was able to boast of a career as an activist.

For those who are interested in doing the same, he stresses the importance of volunteering for a cause first. “Your best bet is to join up with a cause pro bono or part time,” he says. “You have to be realistic and see the value of each experience.”

Among the various types of nonprofits, some of the most visible are community-based organizations that provide direct services such as Meals on Wheels, job-placement assistance and child care. Others are concerned with arts and culture, advocacy and social policy, scientific research or international outreach.

How do you go about targeting a nonprofit with which to work? Mr. Doctorow recommends approaching organizations as a donor would and looking carefully at their statistics. “Find out their ideology, how they pay their executives, how they administer their funds and how they handle crises,” he says.

If your hope is to procure a full-time job, your odds will be better if you select a larger nonprofit. Staff roles at these organizations include the executive director, the director of development (fund raising), the director of programming and the director of marketing.

Most nonprofits hire staffers through their human-resources departments, although volunteers can be brought on more informally. To assess your options, check out Web sites such as Guidestar, Idealist, and the Nonprofit Career Network.

In your interviews, you should emphasize your entrepreneurial spirit. Running a nonprofit is complex, so the more business savvy you can bring to the table, the better.

Even if you do manage to snag a paid position, you should prepare for a difficult climb. The majority of activists employed by nonprofits make less than $50,000 annually. And the nature of the work is known to cause high stress and burnout.

If you aren’t able to start working with a nonprofit immediately, you can still engage in experience-building activist activities on your own. From forming a group in your local community to hosting a fund-raising event, there are a lot of things you can do now to move your cause forward and whet your appetite for a career in the nonprofit world.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com

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