Social and Community Service Manager Career Assessment

2What is a Social and Community Service Manager?

A social and community service manager keeps a program alive and running. You hire and supervise the staff who do the direct work. You build a budget out of several different pots of money — a state contract, a federal grant, a United Way allocation, donations, a small fee — each with its own rules about what it can pay for. You write the grant applications that bring in next year’s money, and you write the reports that prove last year’s money did what you said it would. You sit in front of a volunteer board of directors and explain both. You track who you served and what happened to them. And regularly you sit with a person in front of you who needs something your program cannot give them, and you help them anyway.

The Reality: Read this part twice. This is a promotion job. Almost everyone in it started in direct service — case manager, social worker, counselor, youth worker, care coordinator — and moved up over five to ten years, usually while adding a degree. The money is the second honest thing. Grant money comes in cycles and it ends. A program that is fully funded this year can be half funded next year, and you will be the person who decides which staff position goes away and which family gets told no. You will also raise money, which many people did not expect and do not enjoy. The third thing is emotional: your staff burn out, your clients have hard lives, and the person carrying all of it upward is you. Many ND managers here also hold a social work or counseling license, and that license is worth keeping current.

Your Responsibilities:

• Hire, train, and supervise case managers and direct service staff
• Build and manage a budget made of several grants and contracts with different rules
• Write grant applications and the reports that funders require afterward
• Report to a board of directors or to county or tribal leadership
• Track who was served and what outcomes the program produced
• Follow program rules, confidentiality laws, and contract requirements
• Work with other agencies, schools, courts, clinics, and law enforcement
• Raise money and speak for the program in the community

You keep the program open so the help keeps reaching people.

3A Day in the Life

7:45 AM — Read email. A case manager resigned, and her caseload has to go somewhere today.

8:30 AM — Staff meeting. Redistribute the caseload and tell everyone plainly what it will cost them.

10:00 AM — Work on a grant application due Friday. The outcome section has to be honest and still competitive.

11:30 AM — A client in the lobby needs help your program does not fund. Make two calls and find someone who can.

12:30 PM — Lunch at your desk while you reconcile which grant paid for last month’s mileage.

1:30 PM — Meet with the county about a contract renewal. The rate has not moved in three years.

3:00 PM — Coach a case manager who is close to burning out. This is the most important half hour today.

5:30 PM — Evening board meeting. Present the budget and explain the funding gap without scaring anyone.

People, paperwork, and money that never quite stretches.

4Training in North Dakota

Start in direct service. Add the degree and, for many jobs, the license. Employers here want someone who has done the work, understands the rules, and can manage money and people. A bachelor’s is standard and a master’s is common for larger programs. If your program is clinical — behavioral health, addiction treatment, child welfare — a North Dakota license may be genuinely required for you or for the people you supervise, so check that early rather than late.

Training Pathways:

• Direct service to supervisor to manager (5 to 10 years): Case manager, youth worker, counselor, or care coordinator, then team supervisor, then program manager. This is how nearly everyone gets here, and the direct-service years are what make your staff trust you.
• Social work degree and license (4 to 6 years, while working): A CSWE-accredited social work degree plus the ND license opens the clinical programs and the supervision roles inside them. The ND Board of Social Work Examiners publishes the requirements for each level on its own site.
• Business or public administration degree (2 to 4 years, often online): If you already have the direct-service years, this fills in the grant, budget, and board side. UND’s NASPAA-accredited Master of Public Administration is aimed squarely at government and non-profit management, and ND two-year colleges are a cheap place to start.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Master of Public Administration, accredited by NASPAA, aimed at the strategic challenges facing government and non-profit organizations, plus a Public Affairs major and certificates in Public Administration and Policy Analysis (business.und.edu/academics)
• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Master of Public Health, 42 credits and fully online with no campus visits, with Health Management & Policy and Indigenous Health specializations; the Indigenous Health program is the only fully online one in the country (und.edu/programs/public-health-mph)
• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Management B.S. and Business Administration B.S., both available 100% online, for the budget and supervision side (ndsu.edu/business/academic-programs/undergraduate)
• Minot State University (Minot) — Management B.S., a Master of Science in Management, and graduate certificates in Leadership Studies and Knowledge Management (minotstateu.edu/business)
• University of Mary (Bismarck) — online MBA and Master of Organizational Leadership, plus a graduate certificate in Human Resources Management that applies toward either (online.umary.edu/academics/business)
• Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Management AAS and a Leadership certificate, online or on campus, with no prior coursework or experience required — an inexpensive first step for someone already doing direct service (catalog.bismarckstate.edu/catalog/degrees/career-technical-education/management and bismarckstate.edu/academics/programs/Leadership)
• United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck) — Business Administration, and a natural fit if you want to work in tribal social services (uttc.edu/academics)
• ND Board of Social Work Examiners (ndbswe.com) — publishes the LBSW, LMSW, and LCSW requirements; check these before you choose a degree if you want the clinical side

Before You Start: Direct service experience is close to required. A bachelor’s degree for most jobs. Comfort with spreadsheets and with grant reporting. Real writing ability, because grant applications are how the program gets paid. A background check, which nearly every employer in this field requires.

Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.

5Certification & Licensing

No license for the manager title itself — but many of these programs require licensed people. Nothing licenses a social and community service manager as such. What matters is whether your program is one North Dakota licenses. Clinical, behavioral health, addiction, and child welfare programs regularly require licensed staff and licensed supervision, and a great many ND managers in this field hold a social work license from their direct-service years and keep it current. Find out early which rules apply to the programs you want to run.

What North Dakota Licenses and What Employers Want:

• LBSW (baccalaureate social work license) — the ND Board of Social Work Examiners requires a bachelor’s degree in social work from a CSWE-accredited program and a passing score on the ASWB Bachelors exam within one year of applying. The board lists a $25 application fee plus a $75 initial license fee (ndbswe.com)
• LCSW (clinical social work license) — a master’s or higher in social work from a CSWE-accredited program, 3,000 hours of supervised clinical social work practice within a 4-year period after the master’s, and the ASWB Clinical exam within one year of filing. The board does not publish the LCSW fee on that page, so ask the board (ndbswe.com/lic/licsw/reqs.asp)
• Addiction counseling licensure — if your program provides substance use counseling, the ND Board of Addiction Counseling Examiners licenses the counselors, and a separate program license from the state Division of Behavioral Health is required for the agency itself. NDBACE does not publish its fees or its degree and hour requirements on its licensure page, so contact the board at (701) 805-5244 (ndbace.org)
• Grant writing skill — not a credential and the most valuable practical skill in this job. Short courses are offered by non-profit associations, foundations, and community colleges, and the best training is writing real applications alongside someone who has won them
• A background check — standard for anyone working with children, elders, or vulnerable adults in North Dakota, and required by nearly every employer in this field

The Exams: There is no exam for the manager job. The social work exams are the ASWB Bachelors exam for the LBSW and the ASWB Clinical exam for the LCSW, and each must be passed within one year of applying. Addiction counseling has its own board requirements.

Cost: The ND social work board publishes $25 for the LBSW application plus $75 for the initial license. It does not publish LCSW fees on the clinical requirements page, and the addiction counseling board does not publish fees on its licensure page, so ask each board directly rather than guessing. ASWB sets its own exam fees. Non-profit employers rarely have tuition money, but foundations and state agencies sometimes fund staff training — ask.

Keeping It Current: ND social work and addiction counseling licenses renew on their boards’ schedules with continuing education. Nothing about the management job itself renews, but grant-reporting rules change constantly and staying current on them is part of the work.

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Social and Community Service Manager Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $29.99–$36.54/hour ($62,380–$75,990/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $41.65/hour ($86,630/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $47.21–$55.78/hour ($98,200–$116,030/year)

What that means: Here is the good news, and it is genuinely unusual. North Dakota pays social and community service managers better than the country does at every level. The ND middle is about $86,630 against a national middle of about $80,390. The ND bottom tenth is about $62,380 against about $53,150 nationally — more than $9,000 better at the entry end. Even the ND top tenth, about $116,030, edges out the national $132,260 less than you might expect given how far behind ND runs in other manager jobs. This is the only job in this series where North Dakota beats the national middle. The other side of it: this is also the lowest-paying job in this series, and the range is narrow. The distance from the bottom tenth to the top tenth is about $53,650, where a sales manager’s spread is nearly $118,000. Non-profit and county pay scales simply do not stretch that far.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 520 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 570 (about 9% growth). Expect about 50 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 6% growth.

Outlook: Good, and better than most of this series. O*NET shows North Dakota going from about 520 social and community service managers in 2024 to about 570 in 2034 — about 9% growth, with roughly 50 openings a year. Nationally the job grows about 6%, so ND is growing it faster than the country. Fifty openings a year is second only to medical and health services management in this series, and the jobs are genuinely spread out: every human service region in the state, every reservation, most counties, and the non-profits in each city. Aging, behavioral health need, and housing pressure are all pushing demand up. The catch is funding — these positions live on grants and government contracts, so a program can grow one year and shrink the next, and a strong statewide growth number does not guarantee the particular program you work for.

Who Hires in ND: County social service offices and the state human service regions, tribal social services and tribal health programs, non-profits running shelters, food pantries, housing, and youth programs, behavioral health and addiction treatment agencies, senior centers and aging services, Head Start and early childhood programs, disability service providers, community action agencies, veterans service organizations, and faith-based charities.

Work Setting: An office in a program building, plus community meetings, home visits with staff, and evening board meetings. Usually 40 to 50 hours a week, with more around grant deadlines and budget season. Small-town and reservation programs mean fewer staff and more of everything landing on you. Some driving across the region is normal.

Physical Demands: Low. Sitting, meetings, driving, and some standing at events and in the community. The load in this job is emotional rather than physical: clients in crisis, staff who are worn out, and funding that never feels secure. Protecting your own limits is a survival skill here, not a luxury, and the managers who last are the ones who learned it early.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 11-9151); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Case Manager or Direct Service Worker — You carry a caseload and work with people directly. Everyone starts here.

Path 2: Senior Case Manager or Team Lead — You take the hard cases and start helping new staff.

Path 3: Program Supervisor — You supervise a team and own part of the budget and the reporting.

Path 4: Program or Agency Manager — The whole program is yours — staff, budget, grants, and the board.

Path 5: Director of Programs — Several programs and the managers who run them, plus the funding strategy.

Path 6: Executive Director — You run the agency, answer to the board, and raise the money.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• North Dakota pays this job better than the national average — the only one in this series that does
• About 50 openings a year, spread across the whole state
• You can get here from direct service without starting over
• About 9% growth, faster than the national 6%
• The work helps real people in a way you can see
• A clear ladder all the way to executive director

What's Hard:

• The lowest pay in this series, with a narrow range — about $53,650 from bottom tenth to top tenth
• Grant money ends, and you are the one who decides what gets cut
• Fundraising is part of the job whether you enjoy it or not
• Staff burnout is constant and you carry it
• Board meetings in the evening, on top of a full day
• You will tell people no when your program cannot help them

Be Honest: Can you carry other people’s hard stories without taking them all home? Can you write a grant application that is honest and still wins? Can you cut a position when the funding disappears and then keep the rest of the team going? And can you accept that this is the lowest-paid manager job on this list, in exchange for work that matters to you?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Social and Community Service Manager Assessment Results