Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from Fast Company, author Pavithra Mohan discusses a recent report which says that nine out of ten Americans would give up a significant portion of their paycheck for a more meaningful job. She includes stories of individuals which highlight the difficulties of making this switch.

• How can nonprofit organizations use this information to recruit talent even if they lack the resources to compete with for-profit employers? How can they offset the difficulties experienced by the individuals in Mohan's examples?

• To learn how nonprofits may struggle in a tighter job market, click here.

Nine out of 10 Americans say they would give up a significant portion of their paycheck–up to 23% of their lifetime earnings–if they could swap their day job for more meaningful work, according to the Harvard Business Review. Employees who find that meaning are more likely to work more and stay loyal to their employers.

Many people I talked to about taking a pay cut echoed that sentiment. Most of them don’t regret their decision, but making such a change isn’t always financially within reach.

Amanda Ponzar ... gave up a corporate job to work at a nonprofit. “I definitely felt like there wasn’t a lot of purpose in my work,” she says. “I found myself volunteering all the time on the side.” Eventually, she felt she should integrate the impact and meaning she was craving with her actual day job. When she negotiated her new salary, she managed to match her corporate pay–but she didn’t fully account for the gap in her cost of living, given she was also moving from St. Louis to Washington, D.C.

“I took the job, we found a place to live, and we moved all our stuff out here,” she says ... “But I never looked at housing or anything. So I was really startled when I started working in this area and realized oh, there’s a very different cost of living.” It didn’t take long for Ponzar to conclude that she couldn’t stay in that job. “We saw pretty much right away that this was not going to be sustainable, and I was going to have to make an adjustment,” she says. “So I was only at that nonprofit for six months.”

Read the full article about trading salary for purpose by Pavithra Mohan at Fast Company