In this issue:

Bridging The Sectors
Practitioners Reflect
Further reading
Upcoming Topics
Be interviewed by Bridgestar
Join Bridgestar!
Find candidates

The entry into the nonprofit world of managers with business experience and MBAs holds great promise and poses great challenges for the sector. The need to deliver breakthrough results on sliver-thin margins puts a premium on their strategic and project implementation skills. But the difficulty of adjusting to work in a mission-based environment, where quarterly financials no longer define success and failure, can leave some new entrants to the sector unsure of their moorings.

This year, Bridgestar sought to understand the dimensions of this phenomenon. Between June and September 2003, we interviewed 48 nonprofit leaders who had moved into the sector from business and government. We wanted to better understand their motivations for entering the sector, their pathways into the sector, and their perceived challenges and successes.

Nonprofit leaders and donors agree that the sector will need an influx of talent to realize an impact for people in need. What the sector does to groom emerging leaders already working in nonprofits and what the sector does to attract talented leaders from outside the sector will be critical to the realization of ambitious goals.

Our interviews with leaders who have “crossed a bridge” into the nonprofit world indicate that the sector as a whole lacks clear channels for accessing and assimilating talent. A system based on serendipity and personal networks is no system at all. Many good people who are ready and able to make an impact will find the pathways into the sector too circuitous and will give up. And good organizations that are in a position to become great organizations will stall because of their inability to put the right people in a position to develop and implement sound strategies.

More of our interviewees (44%) came to nonprofit work based on a general desire to make a difference in society rather than a desire to make a difference on a specific issue (40%).

The majority of interviewees (77%) found their positions through personal networks with the balance identifying an opportunity through classified ads or executive search firms.

40 percent of respondents cited the quality of people in the sector as one of the most positive aspects of the change, and 42 percent spoke of the passion that employees bring to nonprofit work from top to bottom.

The biggest challenge encountered by most respondents was driven by the financial constraints under which nonprofits operate. The resource limitations slowed the pace of decision-making, stretched the responsibilities of management, and undercut the ability of leaders to develop and implement ideas.

David Nelson: Scaling A Wall into the Sector
Judy Vredenburg: Advice to New CEOs
Dana White: Balancing Motherhood and Nonprofit Leadership
Frederica Williams: Transitioning to Fulfillment
Practical Advice for Switching Sectors

" The nonprofit CEO really has time to worry about one thing and that is where the next dollar is coming from, and that was the big change. The role much more resembles a small business owner than a big business CEO. You really are a slave to your cash flow".

— Larry Wiseman, American Forestry Foundation

Herminia Ibarra
Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career
(Harvard Business School Press, 2002)

Author Herminia Ibarra, a professor at INSEAD, writes that typical career advice—carefully assessing your skills in order to find the perfect career—is backwards. For those seeking career change that represents true transformation, experimentation with a number of potential career options, through volunteering, free-lancing, and internships is the higher-return strategy.

Tobie S. Stein
Workforce Transitions from the Profit to the Nonprofit Sector
(Plenum, 2002)

This volume offers a comprehensive, if somewhat academic, analysis of the subject, focusing in particular on the experiences of displaced workers re-entering the workforce through the nonprofit sector.

Ted London & Dennis Rondinelli
"Managing Tensions in Nonprofit-Corporate Partnerships"
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2003.

While this article does not explicitly address the issue of leaders with corporate experience moving into the nonprofit sector, the advice to corporate and nonprofit partners to "teach, but learn" is clearly applicable both to those who hire candidates from the for-profits and those who would consider moving into the sector: "While each wants its partner to better appreciate its own viewpoints and knowledge by coming together, conflict can arise when either partner becomes more interested in teaching than in learning, and a 'race to teach' occurs." [subscription required to view article]

Eilene Zimmerman
"To Veer in Midcareer, Away From the Money"
The New York Times, May 18, 2003.

Profiles of three executives who made mid-career transitions into mission-based work, along with commentary on the trend from executive coaches, transition counselors, and staff at a nonprofit job site. [site requires article purchase]

Jill Lerner
"For-Profit execs eye move to nonprofits"
Boston Business Journal, June 3, 2002.

Boston-area nonprofit executives, search firms, and prospective sector switchers discuss the trend, which the article ties to the downturn in the economy and a renewed focus on civic values following the Sept. 11th attacks. [free registration required to view the article]

All The Right Moves A guide for the perplexed exec,
Fast Company, July 2003.

A 21-point guide to career change from the editors and staff of Fast Company. Advice on balancing ambition with the need to pay your dues and your bills. How to think about risk and change in a bleak job market.

Post your reactions to our research:
Do our findings ring true?
Are bridgers having an impact on your organization? Your service area? The sector?

Click here to go to Bridgestar's discussion section

We are looking for respondents for upcoming research.
Please email us if you are:
A working mother who returned to the workforce via the nonprofit sector.
A nonprofit leader who has worked exclusively in the nonprofit sector.
A board member or ED who has hired staff from the for-profit sector.

Career Paths of established nonprofit leaders
Hiring for diversity in the nonprofit sector
Mothers returning to the workforce via nonprofits
Hiring for functional vs. content knowledge
Evaluating EDs and staff members

We are building a community of experienced leaders working together to strengthen their organizations, their careers, and the nonprofit sector. Join Bridgestar today to:

Gain access to the knowledge and support of your peers in the sector.

Match a broader pool of talented individuals to your organization's staffing needs.

Find guidance in an active job search and in long-term career planning.

Click here to join the Bridgestar community

Bridgestar organizational members can:

Connect with talented, experienced individual members through online job postings.

Select from a variety of services—ranging from candidate assessments to full executive searches—that help you find and hire talented individuals for your senior management positions.

Find board candidates, using boardnet USA's unique online tool to match board needs with the talents and skills of community members.

Contact Kathleen Yazbak-Chartier to learn more about Bridgestar's Talent-Matching services.