March 1, 2018 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Most nonprofit leaders can’t spend a lot of time away from their daily demands to think deeply about how to fix big social problems. Along with handling many other responsibilities, they’re expected to keep overhead low and show donors that their support is producing measurable results.
But the growing emphasis on measuring a charity’s impact in ways that can be counted, such as services delivered or people helped, has stunted leadership development, experts say. Although private companies routinely invest in building employees’ skills to stay competitive, only 1 percent of all foundation giving goes to leadership training, according to data from the Foundation Center.
“There’s such a dearth of supply in leadership development [at nonprofits],” says Carrie Avery, president of the Los Angeles-based Durfee Foundation, “that it really feels like a great opportunity for funders” to make a big difference.
Since 2007, the Durfee Foundation has taken an experimental approach to supporting local leadership development. Through its Stanton Fellowship Program, it supports proven leaders in Los Angeles’s nonprofit, public, and private sectors to explore an open-ended question about a complex social challenge faced by those in their fields. Over the course of two years, fellows receive $100,000, take at least three months’ leave from their jobs to pursue their line of inquiry, and test solutions.
Fellows have tackled and “reimagined” some of the city’s toughest social challenges: air pollution, homelessness, and poor graduation rates, among others. At the end of the program, participants must share their findings with colleagues so others can learn from and build on that knowledge.
The foundation recently shared a report that outlines benefits and lessons learned from the first 10 years of the fellowship. Based on the report and an interview with The Chronicle, here are some useful steps foundations can take to support nonprofit leadership development:
Take calculated risks to effect change.
Don’t shy away from risk, but do your homework to make sure it’s a calculated one, says Claire Peeps, executive director of the Durfee Foundation. For example, the Stanton Fellowship has applicants submit a clear proposal for how they’ll use the time and money to pursue their inquiry. A review panel asks questions to determine whether the leader, organization, and timing are right to take on a particular issue.
Peeps says, “There needs to be a willingness to step back and also to take risks.” Keep in mind that a line of inquiry is rarely straight, but stepping back or changing direction may lead to a more successful outcome.
Take a longer, broader view of impact.
Nonprofits are trained to “demonstrate that every penny spent is going directly to services,” Peeps says, “but what we’re doing is a lot of quick fixes.” Instead of thinking about quarterly, or even one- or two-year results, donors should ask how nonprofits are making progress toward solving bigger problems in the long term. “When funders create very strict measurable outcomes and expectations,” Avery says, “they’re actually constraining nonprofits from discovery and a longer arc.
Invest in individuals and foster networks.
In the end, it’s people who are doing the work, not organizations, Avery says. The Durfee Foundation intentionally supports individual leaders — and brings them together. It has found that, although most Stanton fellows are drawn to the program for the chance to focus on a particular issue, “at the end of the two-year program, they say the value has been in the peer network,” says Peeps. As people move throughout their careers, they stay in touch and share what they learn along the way, she says.
Ask, listen, and learn.
Grant makers should check in regularly with the leaders and organizations they support, as well as be responsive to their needs. To stay in touch, ask what they’re learning, what’s working, and what they’ve had to tweak, Peeps recommends. And rather than thinking about what you can teach nonprofit leaders, create spaces for peer-to-peer dialogue and relationship building.
Nonprofit leaders “have a tremendous amount of knowledge to share with each other and with us too,” Peeps says.
