Businesses, nonprofits, academic institutions, and other groups often claim to be ‘service-based’ organizations. What does that really mean though?
When you claim to be a service-based organization, it means that you receive funding to offset the costs of providing support to your clientele. Regardless if your clientele is responsible for covering some of those costs, the work you do somehow benefits their mission and advances their agendas in ways that ease challenge and burden.
Throughout my career, I have primarily done service-based work in a variety of formats that include:
- Via mentorship
- Via nonprofit work
- Via consulting with public agencies
- Via securing funding to support research at academic institutions
- Via drafting and advocating for improved public policy
- Via creating public-private partnerships that simultaneously meet market needs and advance social mobility
Service-based work matters because we all need each other to help fulfill the potential of our world. While seemingly lofty, I believe that service-based work is actually the most practical and tangible work we can all do. From waiting tables to changing tires, preparing taxes to grooming pets and many more disciplines, this work helps us answer the calling we have within to rise to the occasion to offer selfless service to one another. In some cases, it can even feel divine when clients exclaim, “Thank God you were there to help me through that!” Or “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
The question we need to ask ourselves as those who have dedicated our lives to service-based work, is who is serving us? Who has our backs when we feel trapped between helping others and helping ourselves? Who is going to be there to support us when we continue to show up tirelessly for everyone else? Especially when we have taken such time and effort to pour over the offerings we so freely give to others?
The Edit Genie team has got your back. If you are on a mission to serve, a mission to unlock people’s potential, a mission to save the planet or improve public health or expand education or inspire through storytelling: you are in the right place. We handle your website so you don’t have to. Our team knows what it’s like to have a dream for how the world can benefit from our services, but feel stuck or overwhelmed at the prospect of having to manage the virtual storefront that is a website.
Edit Genie is here to help you make your mark through service by granting your website wishes. No matter if you are just getting started or are a seasoned professional, we are ready to help.
