Executive Vacancies in Nonprofit Sector

A 2009 study conducted by the Bridgespan Group,  Finding Leaders for Americas Nonprofits , which looked at position vacancies during the 18 months from June 2007 to December 2008, found about 77,000 senior-level jobs were open at nonprofit groups nationwide.  This figure was about 43 percent higher than was forecast in Bridgespan’s 2006 study. About 25 percent of those leadership vacancies were filled from within, but 41 percent of were filled from other nonprofit groups, and 21 percent came from the business world.

According to the Executive Summary of this study:

• “In the next 12 months, 28 percent of nonprofit organizations with revenues of $1 million and above plan to make one or more senior management hires, translating to 24,000 vacancies in 2009.
• Projected vacancies are largely the result of retirement, since much of the existing leadership is comprised of boomers. Vacancies also stem from new roles being created due to an increase in organizational complexity based on growth in prior years. The need is especially acute in human services and arts organizations.
• Top barriers to finding suitable leaders included compensation and difficulty finding executives with specialized skills, as well as competition for the same in-sector talent pool and lack of resources to find or cultivate new leaders.
• The most important attributes recruiters are seeking include anticipated relevant experience as well as “cultural fit,” or shared passion for the mission (68 percent on average cite fit as a very important asset. That number climbs to 82 percent in the education field).
• 73 percent of respondents said that they value for-profit experience in a candidate.
• 53 percent of U.S. nonprofits surveyed have significant for-profit management experience represented on their senior management teams, including 20 percent in financial roles.
• Additionally, 42 percent of the EDs surveyed had significant management experience in the private sector.

In addition, a series of messages emerged from the survey data, further highlighting key data and its implications in the hiring and recruiting plans of nonprofit organizations.”   Read more

A full copy of the study can be downloaded by downloaded from Bridgespan’s website .