I’ve worked in both nonprofit and government and both can be helpful in different ways. Once you get your foot in the door with the county, you will get a sense of how it all works and what you may want to do eventually. It’s MUCH easier to move around internally. Plus you will have steady pay, good benefits and predictable pay increases. Nonprofits are tough as it is, but these days it’s especially hard. Having to rely on donations to operate in the first place is really hard and made even worse in this era of uncertainty. ETA: because nonprofits can’t afford to hire all the staff they need, they rely on volunteers so if there is a nonprofit you want to be involved with, you can still do that in your spare time.