Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Today's Nonprofit Wonder - Nonprofit Leadership

Pick up any nonprofit oriented magazine or journal. Check out major newspapers. They are all saying the same thing: nonprofit organizations need to start planning for the upcoming retirement of a HUGE group of nonprofit executive leaders.

Who is around to take their place? We are woefully behind in recruiting and developing competent and experienced leaders for today's nonprofit environment. We've come so far - while the career ladder at many organizations may still consist of "the last to quit gets to be the director", many groups have embraced human resource planning and recruited leaders with strong management backgrounds. Universities and colleges have created nonprofit management degree programs. There's never been more supports in place to assist nonprofit agencies in their capacity and foundation building.

Nevertheless, we are facing an executive leadership drain in our organizations. We need to be proactive in our strategic planning, identify future gaps in administrative experience and be prepared to support a system that effectively grows leadership. Boards must look far down the organizational road and prepare for the worst to ensure the best.

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