I agree with the sentiment, but there are structural differences between the way organizations use lawyers and the way they use technologists that make this difficult to do sustainably. Legal expertise is typically seen as a means of mitigating quantifiable risk; technology is a cost center that tends to accumulate risk. Lawyers have clear models for both in-house counsel and, crucially, project-based work as a time-limited consultant. They even have standard, clear-cut structures for contracting against future work on a finished product (and for firing clients).
Technologists on the other hand often add to the complexity of an organization’s portfolio of responsibilities, and typically require competent technical management–not to keep them on track, but to act as a bulwark between them and non-technical stakeholders. Both of those things make it very easy for technologists to have negative experiences working in the non-profit sector.
