The Annie E. Casey Foundation The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Next Shift

Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis

Posted January 1, 2008
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation
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Summary

Study after study in the nonprofit sector has pointed to an impending leadership crisis, with roughly 75% of executive directors/CEOs reporting that they plan to leave their jobs within the next five years. However, the emphasis on leadership transition reinforces rather than challenges the prevailing issues facing nonprofit organizations. As Baby Boomers leave, the sector will approach an important turning point ripe with both challenges and opportunities that will ultimately lead to a different type of sector, with a new kind of leadership in the decades to come.

Findings & Stats

Statements & Quotations

Key Takeaway

During the past six years, there has been a rising sense of alarm in the nonprofit sector about the future of its leadership.

The dominant "crisis" frame uncritically accepts the sector and its leadership as is and looks past broader structural issues, failing to raise questions about where the sector could or should go in the future.