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Alliance for Nonprofit Management
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Generational Change

 

 

Generational Change: Bridging the Gap

By Peter Brinckerhoff

Author of "Generations: the Challenge of a Lifetime for Your Nonprofit", published by Fieldstone Alliance, May of 2007.

 

Generation change in nonprofits is on everyone's mind. Foundations study its impact, the sector's press report on different angles of the story, state and national organizations highlight the issue as their annual conference theme. The Alliance has done good work in this area, hosting e-learning sessions on the topic and an area on the Alliance website for Baby Boomer Volunteers.

Questions abound: Will we really run out of good leadership when the boomers retire? What will happen when we start to reshape the role of the executive director to meet the management style of GenX and Gen@? Is this really the coming of the Apocalypse? My answers? No way, don't know, and, of course not.

As someone who has traveled the country speaking on this issue for the last year, I can tell you that smart nonprofits (and smart capacity builders) are already going after this issue in interesting and resourceful ways. A recent issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy discussed ways nonprofits are preparing the next generation of leaders. Over the past few years, Bank of America's Neighborhood Excellence Initiative has helped develop hundreds of emerging nonprofit leaders around the country. Resources (some from Alliance members) abound for executive transition. So things are moving in the right direction, but as capacity builders it's our job to keep them on track.

Talk to your clients and grantees about leadership development on their staff and board. Have them look at how they are developing and marketing services to the people they serve and jobs to their prospective employees. Are they being generationally sensitive and aware? Are boomer leaders rethinking their leadership style to accommodate the needs of GenX and Gen@? These are all key issues (and there are dozens more) as we all work together to help our sector to successfully navigate the transition that our society as a whole is struggling with.