How to capture the market of people who want to do service?

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a story on Jobless Professionals Yearn to Do Good. The article looks at the increase in applications from people with business and legal experience to service programs:
– Applications to Teach for America are up 42%. Nearly one-quarter of this year's applications came from people working, as opposed to graduating college students, the traditional source of TFA applicants.
– Applications to the Peace Corps are up 16% over last year.

This is the first year for the Inspire Fellows program, so the 120 applications we received for the pilot definitely exceeded our expectations. While it is exciting that all of these service programs are receiving so much interest, what do we do about the people who have great talent but don't get selected? Wendy Kopp, Founder and CEO of Teach for America says: "This is the first year when we've had to turn away people who would have met our admission bar in any previous year." I have seen the same thing with applicants to Inspire Fellows – there are many more candidates who meet our selection criteria than positions available.

Some people say that we don't need more talent coming into the social sector, but I disagree. The nonprofit leadership deficit is not going away, and social problems are only getting worse. I think there is a need for more "niche" intermediaries that match people who want to do service with roles that are relevant to their skill set. It is challenging for broad programs like AmeriCorps to effectively connect people who have work experience with organizations that want their skills. The Taproot Foundation has been successful partially because of its focus on specialized types of pro bono work. ProInspire aims to develop this model by focusing on specialized types of jobs that can leverage business experience. But there needs to be greater support for intermediaries in order for programs like ours to scale and make a meaningful impact.