Insights

Search committees have asked us to share our knowledge about what makes for a successful search. Here is what we know, why we know it, and why it is going to save you time during your search.

The retirement announcement of a nonprofit chief executive officer can provoke any number of reactions from the board: surprise, uncertainty, anxiety, foreboding, even panic. These are natural responses and they illustrate the board’s general awareness that leadership transition is never easy, even for organizations that have strong governance and talented staff.

In the wake of so many baby boomer retirements, Generation Xers have moved into many of the open leadership positions, but there are more leadership opportunities than qualified candidates to fill them. What does that mean for boards looking to fill leadership positions in the near future? The answer may be changing the way we look at candidates.

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated swift adjustments to conducting business that would allow operations to continue—while keeping both employees and clients safe. How did the pandemic change executive recruitment for nonprofit organizations? And how can we can help clients navigate that change?

To get a better sense of the origin stories of prosperous and successful CEOs, we researched where Fortune 500 CEOs earned their undergraduate degree, then determined which colleges produce the most CEOs of leading companies. We looked at what colleges produce the most nonprofit leaders.

“How many qualified candidates should we expect to attract?” That’s the most common question we encounter. Today’s recruiting market is one that presents a wealth of opportunities for talented leaders and, as a result, is a truly competitive market for nonprofits in a leadership transition. What can boards do to best position themselves for success?

The top 50 CEOs are heads of some of the most powerful, popular, helpful, and necessary facets of modern life. From smartphones to health care, and science to social media, we ranked the CEOs who have had the greatest impact on company revenue throughout their tenure. Check out our ranking to see how they stack up.

There are over 1.5 million registered nonprofits in the United States, including public charities, private foundations, and entities like chambers of commerce, volunteer-run organizations, and civic leagues. Which are the biggest in each state? In which sectors do they operate? How long have they been in existence? We researched data from all 50 states and Washington D.C. to find the answers.

In a recent business finance article, economic data from the business sector and from the government sector were presented and analyzed. Data from the nonprofit sector—referred to as the “Third Sector”— might have made the article more informative and interesting.

The unsettling effect of the upsurge in Boomer retirements is likely to be the cruelest in the nonprofit sector, with particular regard to the transition of top leadership. Unlike the corporate sector where succession planning and management development ladders identify the next leaders, nonprofits generally lack sufficient scale, budget, and opportunities to integrate such strategies into their operations.

The identification and selection of business professionals to fill jobs traditionally held by nonprofit career professionals is becoming more commonplace. For anyone seriously contemplating this career switch, it is critically important to first realize how very different the nonprofit culture is from the business culture.

Business professionals interested in transitioning into a career in the nonprofit sector is not unusual in today’s world. But it hasn’t always been that way. Why are corporate executives increasingly interested in crossing over to nonprofit leadership roles? And why weren’t they interested in the past?

How do you begin a conversation about leadership succession without raising suspicions or causing unintended angst? Whose responsibility is it?