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Commentaries: Finding Leaders for America's Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations foresee a need to fill 24,000 vacant or new roles in 2009, according to a recent report, "Finding Leaders for America's Nonprofits," by the Bridgespan Group. Yet despite the economic downturn, these same organizations anticipate challenges in finding candidates who match the skill and experience qualifications for the roles while at the same time looking like a good "cultural fit" for the organizations in question.

Bridgespan asked 12 leaders from the nonprofit sector and organizations that support the sector to share their perspectives on the report.  Below you'll find their insights into what the report's findings mean to the sector and—in some cases—what the findings mean to their own organizations.

• The Quality of the Leadership Team Determines the Success of the Organization 
  Matt Bannick, Managing Partner, Omidyar Network
• Do We Over-emphasize Culture? 
  Jeanne Bell, Chief Executive Officer, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
• Invest in Leaders, but Don’t Neglect the Front Line 
  Daniel J. Cardinali, President, Communities In Schools
• Create a Systematic Way to Attract, Engage, Develop, and Retain Extraordinary, Diverse Talent 
  Aimée Eubank Davis, Chief People Officer, Teach For America
• Turn to Encore Careerists 
  Marc Freedman, CEO and Founder, Civic Ventures, and author of Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life
• Work with the Data 
  Peter Goldberg, President and CEO, Alliance for Children and Families
• Meeting Future Leadership Needs Will Require Multiple Pathways for Diverse Leadership 
  Carol S. Larson, President and CEO, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Support Investment in Systems that Support Growth – Including Leadership 
  Adam Myerson, President, The Philanthropy Roundtable
• Increase the Sector’s Leadership Talent Pool through Training and Development 
  Neil Nicoll, President and CEO, YMCA
• Sector-wide Strategic Intervention is Necessary 
  Wendy D. Puriefoy, President, Public Education Network
• Invest in Developing Leaders 
  John R. Ryan, President, Center for Creative Leadership 
• Build Bridges 
  Judy Vredenburgh, President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Download a PDF document of the commentaries by clicking below.

Download: Finding Leaders Commentaries

This work by The Bridgespan Group is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Bridgespan's Terms of Use page.