In 1993 Wendy Lazarus and Laurie Lipper co-founded The Children’s Partnership nonprofit organization, and they served as co-presidents until 2015, when they turned the leadership over to Mayra E. Alvarez (Koenig). The process of transitioning between leaders in a...
In Karen Alphonse’s four-part article series, she addresses the various aspects of hiring and recruiting in the higher levels of the nonprofit sector. In her third part of the series, “References: How to Get Great Input, Part Three” she addresses the best way to...
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...
Napoleon Bonaparte allegedly once said that an army marches on its stomach, meaning that an army can only function if it has adequate supplies and food. This maxim applies to the modern world of nonprofit management as well, as a nonprofit ‘marches’ on its financial...
I am part of the senior leadership team at a national not-for-profit. We are hiring a new executive director, and I was asked to review references for the two finalists. Most of the references were superb. However, there was a reference for one of the candidates (“Candidate One”) was absolutely scathing. It seemed so out of line with what the other references shared that I am inclined to disregard it. What do you suggest?
I am a board member at a $10M non-profit in the North East. Our current Executive Director is coming up for review, and we are struggling with how to ask her to leave. The organization’s finances are in a pitiful state, morale is low, and, apparently, some key community relationships have deteriorated under her watch. How do we handle this touchy situation? Do we just ask her to leave?
Q: Can you describe your “perfect search”? How was it developed, and how did it progress? Why do you think it was so outstanding?
Q: Our organization posted an Office Manager role two months ago, and the response was disappointing. We are looking for someone with superior writing and speaking abilities, aspirations of moving ahead in his/her career and a great command of office accounting and management. We listed all of these skills in our Position Description as well as those related to being a good receptionist and public face of the organization. What is going wrong?