Given all the research that’s been done (not to mention increasing dialogue and activity) out there around the so-called leadership crisis, it’s still baffling to me that nonprofits aren’t doing more within their organizations to prepare the next generation of leaders to take over the reins when current nonprofit executives retire. All the reports confirm what should be the nonprofit sector’s biggest fear:  there will be a significant dearth of executive leadership available to the nonprofit sector in the next decade. 

Baby Boomers (or current nonprofit leaders) are set to stop working in the coming years and the next generation is ambivalent about stepping up to the plate.  First, let’s just be clear that the looming

leadership challenge is not that we don't have enough people that want to work in nonprofits.  We have so many smart and passionate young people that want to fight the good fight, but the downsides are too often greater than the rewards.  We have a great pool of talent, but we need to realize what it’s going to take for us to harness it as a sector to ease the era of leadership transitions we have ahead of us.  In a recent Stanford Social Innovation Review Opinion Blog post, Albert Ruesga of White Courtesy Telephone asks “ten questions of philanthropy,” including this one:

How do we make sure we hear from younger people in our field and tap the new energy and ideas that they bring to our work?  How do we attract good people to the nonprofit field and keep them there?

Some things are just so common sense, so simple, it’s ridiculous.  What’s so easy that we can do right here, right now to help emerging leaders in becoming future nonprofit executives? 

•Offer competitive salaries.  Students are coming out of school with enormous education debt and can't afford to get by on $30,000 a year.  Pay people a fair salary, and they will give our organizations their fair share of dedication to our missions and the hard work of social change for the long haul.

•Provide opportunities for career advancement from within, even if it’s so simple as a job title change each year.  No one comes into the nonprofit field to be a receptionist forever, so to help emerging leaders to “emerge” we need to be allowing them the organizational room to grow. 

•Encourage and help facilitate leadership development opportunities.  Allow young employees to sit in on board meetings and give them challenging projects that can strengthen their management skills.

•Set aside time and budget allotments (no matter how small) for professional development and ongoing training for all staff.

•Be a “talent scout” and seek to mentor promising young nonprofit professionals early in their careers.

•Ensure job satisfaction through generous paid time off policies, casual dress days, and collegial working environments.

Sound too easy?  Not for the many nonprofits who aren’t even trying to help the next generation to grow into viable leaders.  Consider this anecdote shared by a nonprofit professional at the NP2020 conference I attended in Michigan over the summer where I spent two days with 100 twentysomethings who all wanted to be leaders at their nonprofits.  One young woman had been diligently trying to develop her skills through additional training and was getting blocked by her boss from doing it.  She asked her boss for permission to attend a free federal grant writing seminar, because she knew it would help the organization later as she advanced in her job.  Her boss not only told her no, but said it was because the training would be "over her head" and she wouldn't understand anything. 
I couldn't believe that in a sector where we are supposed to be helping people, there are some folks who are so "threatened" (the word many of the participants used) that they are preventing the development of future leaders and thereby shrinking the pool!

What we really need to be doing is finding useful ways to help current nonprofit employees grow.  The future of nonprofit leadership is at stake.  But do we as a sector care enough to do something about it?