Supported by fundraising, individual donations, and corporate sponsors across many industries, the US Olympic Committee is one of the largest sports-related nonprofits in the world and has a large number of jobs available for candidates in many different fields. Though the primary goals of the USOC are to oversee successful participation in the Olympic games and to find a suitable host city for the Olympic games within the United States, its structure is setup in a corporate manner that appeals to managers, sports experts, talent scouts, fundraisers, and even those in the clerical professions. The most common types of jobs within the USOC, however, are actually very specific.
Fundraisers and Financial Managers
The USOC simply cannot function without a concentrated fundraising campaign, which ranges from soliciting individual donations to finding corporate partners. Because this is so central to the survival and success of the organization, it’s one of the most concentrated areas of hiring. Professionals who wish to work with the USOC in this capacity often have significant experience in corporate finance and management, or in nonprofit management and fundraising solicitation. In their role as a USOC fundraiser, they’ll host events for donors to encourage new contributions, communicate with existing corporate sponsors to extend a fundraising sponsorship, and work on new leads that recruit new corporate sponsors between each Olympics. In this capacity, a successful fundraiser will “sell” the organization and its goals, and will be under a great deal of pressure to maintain or improve the organization’s fiscal solvency.
Facilities Management at American Venues
Another significant area of hiring within the United States Olympic Committee is facilities management. For more than a century, the United States has been bidding to host the Olympics. It has won that bid several times, and has assisted in the building and maintenance of official USOC facilities ever since. Facilities managers primarily work in Lake Placid, NY, where the committee maintains a training center for prospective Olympic athletes. Management and maintenance of these facilities includes everything from janitorial work to management of events staff and other athletic coordinators, and it’s a job that’s taken seriously among the USOC’s leadership. After all, it is the USOC’s various facilities that help to prime and prepare American talent for competition in this international sporting event, even when the event is held in another country’s host city.
Paralympic Employment Options Are Also Available
The USOC oversees the Paralympic Games as well, which means that an entire subset of the organization’s professional team must scout locations, set policies, and work alongside their international counterparts to make sure that these games go off without a hitch. The most common professions hired to oversee the Paralympics are coaches, fundraisers, developers, and facility managers, all of whom work together to keep this important aspect of international competition viable and exciting for everyone involved.
An Exciting Place to Work and Grow a Career
The USOC employs nearly 400 people, all of whom are tasked with ensuring the profitability and viability of American athletic competition in the Olympics. The staff of the USOC primarily works on fundraising, facility management, and scouting for new venues or host cities, which means they must come from either a business or athletic background in most cases. Even so, the large number of US Olympic Committee jobs across several departments indicates that there is a great deal of opportunity to be found in this fascinating nonprofit organization.
