Flagging an Important Issue

Nonprofit executive directors tried telling us in the first Daring to Lead report five years ago.  They said it loudly and clearly to the Annie E. Casey Foundation in 2004.  They tell us again in Daring to Lead 2006, a national study conducted by the Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services.  The sobering news from this last survey of 2,000 nonprofit executive directors is that three quarters don’t plan to be in their current jobs five years from now.  According to the report, “Frustrations with boards of directors and institutional funders, lack of management and administrative support, and below-market compensation add stress to a role that can be challenging even in the best circumstances.”

In case their message hasn’t been getting through to the funding community, here it is, put another way:

In a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy op ed., Meyer Foundation president Julie Rogers urged grantmakers to heed the cries of the nonprofit executive directors they support. According to Rogers, foundations too often behave like “well-meaning rich aunts,” full of advice for nonprofits but not always sensitive to their real needs.

The Bridgespan Group predicts that constrained supply and increased demand will result in a pronounced leadership deficit for the nonprofit sector.  Perhaps this yawning leadership gap will finally focus our attention on what nonprofit execs are telling us.

We can’t stop nonprofit executive directors from growing old and retiring, but we can help keep them from going grey and leaving their jobs prematurely.

Comments

[underalms]

You should take a look at the IRS data that shows that all those small nonprofits taken together have very little economic impact.

What the studies you refer to show (to this observer) is that there is a crying need for large numbers of small nonprofits to merge or go out of business. There are far too many organizations for foundations to support effectively, and the jury is still out on whether significant number of organizations can find earned income sources.

http://www.wheremostneeded.org/2006/02/irs_data_shows_.html

[Albert Ruesga]

I guess I don’t measure the effectiveness of these small nonprofits by their “economic impact” (not sure what that means—total operating expenses?). The community-based organizations I’m familiar with serve places where the big guys won’t or simply don’t go. The EDs of these organizations are passionate and make do with very little, often marshalling many volunteer man-hours to provide much-needed services. I don’t see a special need for these small shops to go out of business. Many will, but not, I assume, before having dome some good for the communities they serve. As for mergers: some create efficiencies, others don’t, and the trade-offs between efficiency and effectiveness aren’t always favorable.

I’m not arguing that there are no small NPOs that should close their doors or merge with other entities. I just don’t believe that “economic impact” arguments clinch the case.

[erasmus]

Help me out here. I mean, it's not just the nonprofit sector that's going to feel this demographic pinch, right? Sometimes old farts retiring and making room for fresh blood is good, right?

[wanjiru wambui]

i think a merger would help a little bit , there are far too many non profits claiming to do something for the community and most times this duplication of efforts is a waste of resources that can be used elsewhere , think about places in Africa where 100 non profits are dealing with HIV , 100 with economic development , one would assume that with increase of non profits there is a greater impact on the causes they serve but the world development report proves otherwise , poverty has increased so why dont they all merge and do strategic management and work towards the goal as opposed to focussing on whether the organisation dies or not. Most non profits infact have moved from the goal of serving to the goal of sustaining themselves , though they called it sustainable development , in so doing they end up sustaining poverty or the very issues they are addressing so that they can continue to be in existence , it is funny that we see other ills done by others but do not see things like high interest rates charged by micro finance institutions as a way to sustain the institution and sustain poverty which then forces the community to be dependent on non profits........if asked ,,a merger is in order