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One pertinent challenge facing nonprofit organizations today is leadership turnover, as described in the article The Nonprofit Leadership Development Strategy, from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. A significant number of nonprofit executives and managers have left their positions to join other organizations, and these empty positions are filled by executives and managers moving from other organizations, which leaves those other organizations with empty positions, and so on. The consequence of this kind of turnover is severe inefficiency within the organization, in terms of the organization fulfilling its mission and in financial terms. New managers hired from outside the company take twice as long to become productive compared to managers from within the company (Landles-Cobb, Kramer, and Milway), and the cost of replacing a truly valuable company leader can be as much as nine times the yearly salary of that leader (Landles-Cobb, Kramer, and Milway).

For nonprofits, this information can sound quite grim. However, the article explains that there is hope. There is a way to cope with this kind of rapid turnover within the nonprofit sector. One important step is to recognize the causes. Desire to learn and expand, to find suitable mentors, and simply to be promoted, are all reasons that managers leave organizations. To prevent this turnover, the article suggests that nonprofits provide its managers opportunities to learn and grow and outlines specific examples of organizations that have done this successfully, such as DonorsChoose.org and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. By providing managers with the growth and opportunity they seek in the workplace, the issue of rapid and costly turnover can be avoided, and the organization can benefit from having more effective and motivated members.

Landles-Cobb, Libbie, Kirk Kramer & Katie Smith Milway. ‘The Nonprofit Leadership Development Deficit’. Stanford Social Innovation Review. 25 March 2017. Web. 22 October 2015.

Read more about how ExecSearches can help nonprofit organizations with managerial turnover.

Last updated on August 1st, 2017 at 03:44 pm

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