M E M O

From: David E. Edell, President

Date: December 11, 2007

DRG is a national Executive Recruitment Firm working exclusively within the Nonprofit sector. Learn about Dig's services, resources, recruitment strategies and current search assignments at our website www.drgnyc.com

 

Conference on Leading Nonprofits - What Have We Learned?

To note our firm's 20th anniversary in 2007, DRG Executive Search presented a year-long online forum to explore Leading Nonprofits: The Next 20 Years. Each month, more than 3000 subscribers opened and reviewed "workshop " articles and audio files that summarized interviews with panels of nonprofit leaders. The DRG conference panelists included 53 leading nonprofit CEOs, philanthropists, foundation executives, organization board members, scholars and teachers.

After the year-long virtual conference, what have we learned about nonprofit leadership?

• Teaching the challenges and skills of leading, rather than just the study of leadership, provides practice-based knowledge for those who aspire to executive leadership positions. Programs that teach how to lead must encourage students to learn about themselves and the courage required to take risk and direct change.

• Leading thinkers and practitioners throughout the nonprofit sector are willing, in fact eager, to give their time to help train a new generation of leaders.

• There is a hunger for well developed and easy to access materials for professional development.

• There is sophisticated new thinking regarding nonprofit executive leadership, but it has not yet been harnessed into curricula for preparing tomorrow's leaders. Each existing program seems to be creating its own approach and most focus on executive management skills rather than leadership skills.

• Executive succession plans and leadership development programs are an integral component in an organization's strategic plan.

• Philanthropists are taking greater roles in acting as agents of change. They see themselves as partners and sometimes provocateurs, working with organizations to lead innovation.

• Understanding how new generations of prospective donors, leaders and activists view, social issues, organizational development, communication and leadership will be crucial for maintaining organization effectiveness and sustainability.
  (Listen to an informative interview with Dan Kriftcher, formerly of AOL).

• Changing donor attitudes and expectations have made fundraising evermore challenging. Organizations are struggling to recruit and retain development staff in an ever more rapidly changing and competitive marketplace. (Listen to our interview with Naomi Levine, former Senior Vice President of New York University.)

• Corporate executives continue to consider career transitions to the nonprofit sector. Those who have successfully made the change agree that there are inherent cultural challenges. Organizations need to be more proactive in supporting their entry into our organizations, helping them to grow and encouraging them to stay in the sector. (Listen to our interview with John Read, CEO of Outward Bound.)

• It is not unusual for both Board Chairs and their CEOs to believe they lead the organizations. Ultimately, flexibility is the key component required to navigate those different leadership roles and to solidify those relationships.

Next Steps:

DRG has created a Free Library of nonprofit materials that will be linked to our firm's website, www.drgnyc.com. The Library combines the articles and interviews from the Virtual Conference with all articles that have been distributed since 2002. The articles are drawn from a variety of sources and disciplines and each has a "how to do it" style. The subjects include: Leadership, Recruiting, Retention, Talent Management, Professional Transitions and Succession Planning. If you missed any of the workshops or wish to share our leadership articles with your colleagues, please visit the Library using the link in the right column.

During 2008, DRG will resume our e-mailings with materials that we hope will both provoke and support new thinking and initiatives in organizations throughout the nonprofit sector. We are also working with consultants to consider new methods and technologies to expand our offerings.

Finally, we end DRG's 20th Anniversary year quite enthusiastic about the next 20 years. We have been working hard to adapt our methods and resources to the changing needs of our clients and professionals in the sector. Our consultants, most of whom have been at DRG for five to fifteen years, continue to learn together about how best to help our clients succeed. We remain focused on our mission "to recruit nonprofit executives who possess the experience and leadership qualities necessary to help nonprofit organizations manage change and achieve their goals."

Thank you for participating in our 20th Anniversary Virtual Conference and for your support. Please continue to let us know what you would like to read about and your reactions to the articles that we send.

Best wishes for the New Year.

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