Professional good work

We need to talk about what it means to work for good.

Somewhere along the way, the idea of working in the NGO sector got confused with being soft. Or self-sacrificing. Or somehow less serious than a role in the corporate world. The truth is the opposite.

Working in mental health, addiction, housing, food insecurity, violence prevention, or community support is some of the most professional, high-stakes, fast-paced work being done in Aotearoa today. And it deserves to be seen — and treated — as such.

I came here from the private sector, like many of my colleagues. But I didn’t end up here because I had nowhere else to go. I made a conscious choice to work in a space where values and outcomes line up. Where I could use my skills — strategy, comms, marketing, leadership — to make something better, not just bigger.

The business of service

I want to be clear about this: we’re not in the business of charity. We’re in the business of service. Professional, accountable, often complex service. It’s fast. People need support now, not after a twelve-month stakeholder engagement loop.

NGOs aren’t slow. They’re agile. Fleet of foot. We move because we have to. Because we’re responding to crisis, not waiting for a steering group. We spend a lot of time innovating, we seek to build resilient communities and often we have to build, test, adjust, and deliver in real time, not because we’re making it up as we go, but because the need doesn’t wait.

NGOs ARE the heart of community

This pace isn’t accidental. It’s driven by proximity. The closer you are to people, to real life, the less patience you have for red tape and performative process. The sector’s most effective teams are designing with communities, not for them. We’re listening, responding, solving, not packaging things up to make a good comms story later.

And yes, it’s hard. It’s complex. You don’t get to hide behind brand spin or a well-crafted job title. You’re in it. With the community. With the system. With the real limitations and real potential of human-centred work. And you do it anyway.

Discipline and purpose

The professional discipline this requires is immense. The clarity of purpose. The emotional stamina. Our frontline kaimahi have the ability to move between trauma and reporting in a single hour. Our leaders may move from go from government negotiations in the morning to frontline realities by the afternoon. You don’t get to compartmentalise. You have to show up fully.

That’s what makes it so powerful. Working for good gives you something most roles never can: clarity. You know who you’re working for. You know what you’re trying to achieve. You know that your effort today might ease someone’s path tomorrow.

Professional skills and care – a happy collision

It’s really important that we recognise this work as work.What we do is professional. We need to say it, fund it, support it, and structure it accordingly.

Because if we don’t, we lose the people who carry this sector on their backs. We lose their talent, their resilience, their innovation. And we lose momentum — at a time when it’s never been more needed.

If like me, you’re working in the NGO sector, you’re not just doing good. You’re doing real, professional, serious work. Own it. Expect others to treat it that way. Expect to be paid properly, managed wisely, and supported to grow. We’ve earned that.

Working for good isn’t second-tier. It’s not an act of charity. It’s what happens when ambition finds direction — and decides to matter.

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The advocate for New Zealander's mental health