Generational Differences Exist in Leadership

As Baby boomers are nearing retirement, riffs in leadership have surfaced in the nonprofit arenas, just as they have in corporate America. The entire $1 trillion dollar nonprofit sector - from art museums to homeless shelters - is bracing for a difficult ride through the shift in the workplace that is beginning now as boomers try to step down.

Many executive directors have stated that they feel a deep concern for the organizations and do not want to cause suffering for the clients in the transitions that will be taking place in the near future. Most of them have been with these organizations from their inception, as founders, or nearly 20 years or more. There is no one that possesses the expertise in strategic planning and fundraising, who is willing or qualified to fill the shoes of these dedicated professionals.

Surveys have shown that 50 to 70 percent of executive directors plan to leave by 2010. Many are founders or longtime leaders and closely identify with their organizations.

"The sector is moving from relative stability to instability at the top," according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which found that two-thirds of 2,200 executive directors surveyed nationally in 2004 wanted to leave by 2009.

This is a sector where money is tight, organizational infrastructures are fragile, and transition is often caught in the mist of peril.

"That has everyone concerned," said Patrick A. Corvington, senior associate of leadership development at the foundation and the author of the survey.

"If the nonprofit sector becomes destabilized, it has an impact on the communities that are being served," he said. "If nonprofits become destabilized, the kids in after-school programs, the people who use shelters, kids coming out of foster care, the disenfranchised people in society that are served by nonprofit agencies are at risk."