Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results? Questions on the Nonprofit Leadership Model

CompassPoint Nonprofit Services has long provided significant thought leadership on the sector. This spring they’re pushing us all to reconsider how we think about nonprofit leadership. This short report, Will We Get There Hire by Hire? raises questions in many areas on the efficacy of traditional leadership models.

• Are we looking for “heroic leaders” to save our organizations?

  o Nearly 70% of new executives are external hires rather than promoted from within.

  o Should we be looking at different models of leadership, especially co-leadership?

• Do we need “heroes” to save our organizations because we’ve starved those organizations for so long?

  o 60% of incoming executives describe the financial state of the organization as “weak” or “in crisis.” o 53% of incoming executives describe programs as “in need of innovation” and 33% describe programs as “weak.”

• With nonprofit leadership nationally being nearly 80% white and with challenges on recruiting racially diverse boards, is it likely that people of color don’t see nonprofits as a viable place for social change?

  
  With questions like these raised by data from CompassPoint’s surveys, it’s not really a surprise that 63% of incoming executives described their transitions as “somewhat” or “very challenging.”
  
  We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.