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Release: Sector Focuses Sights on Generation Change

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
April 6, 2007

Contact:
Brigette Rouson
Program Director
(202) 955-8406
brigette@allianceonline.org

Nonprofit Sector Focuses Sights on Generation Change

Washington, DC - "Recent research findings make it clear that generation change is a central issue for the nonprofit sector," said Alliance for Nonprofit Management's Executive Director and CEO, Tangie Newborn. "It is imperative that we immediately begin paying attention to generational dynamics in order to benefit from experience, reinvent nonprofits, and create effective transitions."

Newborn continued: "Generational issues are a part of all our efforts at building the capacity of those who provide support to nonprofits through technical assistance, funding, education and research. It is at the heart of the Alliance Cultural Competency Initiative, which works to increase the knowledge, the will, and the skill of capacity builders to address cultural dynamics throughout their work."

The Annual Conference of Alliance for Nonprofit Management in Atlanta, July 18-20, 2007, "Pathways to Nonprofit Success," offers important opportunities to connect with leading practitioners on generation change and executive transitions. Also in Atlanta, the Alliance Cultural Competency Institute hosts full-day Intensive Workshops addressing research and practice on power relations-including generational issues-at the core of cultural competency.

Newborn noted that the sense of urgency about generation change in the nonprofit sector is growing, based on a body of knowledge that Alliance member organizations are building. Recent findings point to:

A major leadership vacuum as Baby Boomers near retirement-with national studies indicating two-thirds to three-fourths of executive directors expecting to depart from their positions by 2010, plus an emerging need for 640,000 new senior managers in nonprofits by 2016;

Nearly half of young nonprofit workers predicting they will leave the sector entirely, according to a new survey released at the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network-with 45 percent heading to government or business, and 70 percent who do not anticipate ever becoming an executive director;

Nonprofit workforce development as a key challenge, especially to ensure cultural diversity among young workers and leaders, as observed by American Humanics and a coalition of organizations (including the Alliance) formed to address the sector's future workforce;

A growing population of Baby-Boomer volunteers, but to date a retention rate of about one-half beyond the first year of volunteering.

Additional Alliance training and resources are in development, and meanwhile Newborn invites all interested parties to obtain more information via the Alliance website, including resources on baby boomers and volunteering (see

www.allianceonline.org/boomers.page).

Founded in 1997, Alliance for Nonprofit Management is located in Washington, D.C., and is the professional association of individuals and organizations devoted to improving the management and governance capacity of nonprofits nationwide.

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