What do you do when you graduate from Yale with hopes of joining a nonprofit organization only to find that you, along with 40 percent of your graduating class, cannot get a job in the field of your choice? If you're Mira Costa High School alumna Margo Lang, you go back to your roots.

"I always knew I'd come back to California," said Lang, who graduated from Yale in the spring with a degree in psychology. "Now, I didn't exactly see myself living in my parents' house in Manhattan Beach, but I'm living at home because it makes it possible for me to do this."

In Lang's case, this is working for one charitable start-up while organizing other charity events on the side, including one Sunday that will benefit a group that helps Haiti earthquake victims. Lang didn't find these jobs easily, though.

"I sent resumes to bazillions of nonprofit jobs," she said, but no work came through.  "So, my mom took my computer away. She told me to have a summer, take a month off, and go practice a lot of yoga."

Within a month, she had connected with a do-good company that offered her a job. Lang now works for Ability Calls, a company focused on bringing outsourced call center jobs back to the United States.

Though the company is for-profit, it has a distinct charitable angle: It employs individuals who are physically or socially unable to work at an off-site location. Battered women, war veterans and stay-at-home moms are trained to operate at-home call centers. "I get to work in a job where I really feel like I'm doing something," she said. 

But Lang doesn't stop there. She is also heading up a local effort to raise money for the charity Give Love started by actress Patricia Arquette (TV's Medium).  The organization builds homes, water filtration systems and sanitation infrastructure in Haiti.

Lang has gathered members of the Manhattan Beach yoga community to put on an event Sunday that includes a yoga class, a session on intuition, a musical performance and a vegetarian dinner. 

So just when did the philanthropy bug bite Lang? Not in college. "Everyone at my school was ridiculously driven," she said of her classmates' desires to join Wall Street or become high-powered attorneys.

As the California kid among the group, Lang was stereotyped as the do-good hippie. "And I did nothing to help that stereotype," she joked. 

Her goal to give back was nurtured in Manhattan Beach. "Here, we all have a lot," she said. "But I do feel people are aware and grateful, and I'm always surprised how much people give their time as well as money."

Her own family set the standard. "We have a joke that my house is 'Hotel Lang.' We always have someone living with us." When Lang was young, her family hosted a homeless girl so she could get her high school diploma.

Lang wants to pass on this dedication to giving back to Manhattan Beach's youngsters. She said her age group, which often gets a bad rap for contributing too little to the community, actually does a lot in that regard.

"Manhattan Beach would not be the same without its vibrant, active, youth community," she said. A group of her friends leads tutoring sessions at Study Hut, a company started by young Manhattan Beach residents.

Lang said she and her friends still babysit, and they are a big part of raising the children of this city. "We are role models," she said. "It means a lot to have educated, ambitious, enthusiastic young people taking care of the kids here. Plus, Beaches would not be as hoppin' without us." (The restaurant is currently closed and will reopen with a new team and name after being remodeled.)

LA Gives Love will be held Sunday at Dockweiler Youth Center. For a suggested donation ranging from $55 to $222, participants can take part in a yoga class, meditation session, intuition class, musical performance, vegetarian dinner and raffle. Arquette will be speaking. If you can't afford the donation, "come anyway!" Lang said.