I went from non-profit to quasi-governmental (which is still non-profit), to for-profit, and then back to (my original) non-profit. In like a span of 2yrs. In total, I’ve been in non-profit for like…18-19yrs now?
Like someone else said, there’s no money in non-profit. I’m a one-man IT department for a company of like 15. Along with doing other vaguely-IT or outright non-IT stuff. I get paid $65k (I am in the LCOL US Midwest).
This job, compared to my brief 18mo experience in for-profit, is a lot more relaxing and chill. I wasn’t overworked at my for-profit job, but I definitely got frustrated with the profit motive being the most important thing. Whereas in a non-profit, quality of service is more important. Sure, any business – for-profit or non-profit – needs revenue in order to grow, but revenue generation is not the same as a profit motive.
However…Do be aware that not everything is better in non-profit. Some of my past coworkers left our non-profit to go to for-profits…and it got way easier for them. I don’t know if that’s something specific to where I work where some people kill themselves for this job, or if all non-profits are this way. Perhaps that’s just a job to job thing, regardless of non- or for-profit.