Renewing Leaders As They Face a Perfect Storm

Written by Benjamin Webb Tuesday, 13 July 2010 19:28

This has been a year of great blessings for the Center for Regenerative Society that few startup nonprofits experience. From Day #1, the confidence and generosity we received from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has allowed us to do all the necessary spadework involved in planning, organizational development, and pilot programming. Because of their strong commitment we are now well positioned to deliver solid leadership renewal programs for those on the frontlines of creating a healthy, just and sustainable society in our region.

The challenging “upstream” work of the leaders we serve, and the public resistance they often meet, make their road a tough and lonely one under the best of circumstances. In the “new normal,” more and more services are now expected to be delivered with fewer and fewer resources (the “nonprofit starvation cycle”). Add all of these stressors together, and we have a perfect storm that threatens the social sector’s ability to retain its leaders, deliver on promises and sustain cultural change, and therefore secure funders’ long-term program investments at the community level.

In "Coping With Change," (the Philanthropy Journal, May 11, 2010) Todd Cohen affirms our understanding of the challenges faced by those CRS intends to serve. Cohen reports that the nonprofit world faces a seismic exodus of executive directors and senior managers (2/3rds in the next 5 years). This is due not merely to the onset of Baby Boomer retirements but a set of cumulative stresses that generate burnout and turnover. Among those are: low pay, exhausting hours, economic downsizing while demand for services increases, lackluster board support, and a climate that requires nonprofits to perform at an exceedingly high level -- raising money, delivering services, making a big impact, and measuring that impact.

Yet as Ret Boney says, “…the overwhelming need for nonprofits right now is leaders with a compass and the ability to read it.” So this is no time to flag in our support of leadership renewal. Instead we should be joining the wise senior staff of the Haas Foundation who recognize that we “cannot achieve the goals we have for social change in our communities without strong nonprofit leadership.” (quoted from “Coping With Change,” linked above.)

Our mission at CRS is to improve nonprofit services to our communities by helping renew and sustain the effectiveness of social sector leaders and their organizations, all of whom are finding it increasingly difficult to hold missions and achievements together while satisfying multiple demands, in a time of fewer resources and higher expectations. Without such programs as ours for organizations in our service territory, good leaders will continue to burn out and give up. And without healthy and effective leaders committed to their work, the programs they administer stand little chance of success.

Look at it this way. How can funders realize gains on their investments in direct service if nonprofit leaders don't stay long enough to make an impact? In the largest sense, the value a donor or funder gets out of their investment or gift to CRS comes from the personal and organizational renewal that these leaders experience in our programs, since this is the biggest key to their organization's overall success.

In the article by Cohen linked above, Kathleen Enright points out that nonprofits’ ability to perform at a high level, particularly in our troubled and changing economy, is directly tied to their investment in professional development.

We hope you – as donors and funders, nonprofit leaders and governing boards – will join us in supporting this mission of leadership renewal that is our passion and our calling! We are here to serve you, by “Renewing the Leaders Restoring our World.”

ShareThis