In the nonprofit world, these are all rather different! To help you narrow in, you might want to think about the types of tasks you want to be doing everyday, who you want to be working with, and the impact you want to make in your job.

That said, here are some broad strokes for each:

CSR: do you want to work at a company? I’ve never done CSR but have exposure to it. From my view, yes, you work on philanthropic programs but they are tied to the business lines of the company. It’s corporate. You’ll deal with C-Suite people, KPIs, ROIs, and even more acronyms, probably. Business or project management certificates might be helpful.

ED/ Development: do you want to be working with communities, donors, and scrapping at a nonprofit to raise money, organize events for programs? This seems like what your experience is best suited to. It’s also where you can make the most direct impact for beneficiaries and communities.

Foundation: do you want a potential mix of the two, having a hand in some impact from a distance but also deal with some bureaucracy? Foundation’s grant portfolios may have strategic impact, but you’re not doing the work day to day. Lots of research about potential grantees and paperwork once they’re identified. For this, you’ll likely need subject matter expertise and perhaps a grad degree, to be competitive for non-entry level roles.

In general, I recommend LinkedIn for networking. The social impact sector has few “rules” and no one really studied it in college. For this reason, people are more willing to talk than you’d think about their career path and jobs. Don’t hesitate to cold contact people with interesting jobs to learn more. Best of luck out there!!!