I am starting to shift my thinking about the work/life balance issue in the sector. If you read my blog you know I tend to have a big picture approach to the sector. I believe there is a systemic problem in the sector — there is too much pressure from the public and funders to keep nonprofits’ overhead expenses low but still produce high outcomes. These pressures cause nonprofit to be overworked and in crisis!! Well trained ED’s can challenge the system and provide support to their staff. However, there are still many nonprofits with capacity issues that do not provide the needed support to their staff. For those staff members the work/life balance issue must happen on an individual basis. Read More
I’m Teachers Assistant for an undergraduate nonprofit class this semester and a few weeks ago a panel of volunteer managers from Dovia spoke to our class. The panel provided great statistics about millennials.
Millennials will have 10-14 jobs by the time they are 38.
1 in 4 millennials have been in a job less than 1 year.
Millennials are 1/3 of the US population.
They spend 170 billion a year.
They appreciate family values and volunteer.
28% author a blog.
30.4% volunteer.
The panel also provided volunteering statistics and helpful tips about recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers. Read More
I recently had a request from some colleagues of mine about research on Next Gen Board Members. I found a few articles from CompassPoint and BoardSource which I found really useful. I also was able to pull out an excerpt from my research, Preparing the Path to Leadership, although it wasn’t an exact fit. Clearly we need to have more discussion as a sector about engaging emerging leaders at the board level.
There has been a great deal of focus in the sector about the leadership “crisis” which has been primarily focused on Executive Directors. We should be focusing more on incorporating emerging leaders on boards of directors. Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, Resource Generation, and more are comprised primarily by emerging leaders. There are some nonprofits out there who may have a next gen board member scattered here and there, but how do we make this a priority and why is it a priority? Read More
