Leadership Programs Benefit Charity Heads but Raise Fears About a Brain Drain in Needy Communities

TOOLS AND TRAINING

By Heather Joslyn

Chet P. Hewitt recalls that he was “ecstatic” about being nominated and picked as an Annie E. Casey

Foundation Children and Family Fellow in 1995. As head of a program at the Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, a think tank in San Francisco, he had worked for years on child, family, and social-justice issues, and, he says, he was convinced that “no one other than the constituents I served noticed what I did.”

When nonprofit leaders enter leadership programs, they are often seeking validation, says Michael Lipsky, senior program officer at the Ford Foundation. “I think there’s a hunger,” he says. “It touches a chord when people who are working very successfully, but in relative obscurity, have a chance to be recognized on a wider stage.”

But that boost for nonprofit leaders, along with the other benefits that may come with leadership education — training, time for reflection, new professional contacts — can come at a price.

Sometimes the new ideas and opportunities that spring from a leadership program can come at the expense of the very people those leaders have vowed to help, says Steven A. Schroeder, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Leadership-program participants “often are key people in their organizations,” he says. “If you take them out, you jeopardize their organization.” Also, he says, taking leaders out of their environment for long periods of time introduces the risk that they may never return. “Many of these people are from rural places, and generally the places people go for leadership training tend to receive more than they transmit.”

But intensive programs that pull nonprofit leaders out of their organizations and hometowns for education and travel can be liberating for participants, says Donna Stark, director of leadership development at the Casey Foundation, which sponsors full-time, 11-month fellowships such as the one Mr. Hewitt was awarded. “Part of our theory of change is that it’s easier for people to test out new behaviors and ideas in an environment where they’re not necessarily constrained by a series of expectations that people have of them,” she says. The Casey fellowship, she says, “invites them into a brand new environment where they can say, ‘What do I want to be and what do I want to do? ‘ — and really experiment with that in a place that has a high tolerance and actively encourages that.”

Worrying about nonprofit managers leaving their jobs because of leadership programs misses a point, says Ms. Stark: If individuals are seeking out professional-development experiences, they may already be contemplating a move.

On the other hand, the lift provided by a leadership program may prove to be just enough to alleviate burnout and rekindle a participant’s interest in his or her current work, says Catherine M. Dunham, director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Community Health Leadership Program, which recognizes grass-roots health-care workers and advocates. She says that the majority of her program’s participants have remained in their organizations, though sometimes in new roles. The leadership program, she says, has become “a good strategy for helping people stay in difficult circumstances.”

A Chance to Reflect

Getting access to leadership programs at all can be difficult for nonprofit managers. Shortages of money and time, or fears about spending those resources on professional-development opportunities at the expense of their organization’s needs, may hamper even the most motivated leadership student. Often leadership programs don’t consider the barriers that prevent people from participating — such as child-care or transportation issues, or being unable to take time off from a job that pays by the hour, says Suzanne W. Morse, executive director of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. “Leadership training has to be accessible,” she says.

Last month the Pew Partnership began a new program, LeadershipPlenty, that will groom citizens in 150 cities and towns over the next three years to become more effective at taking civic action. The new program, Ms. Morse says, could be completed by those who are only available on Saturdays.

Leadership programs designed as fellowships can bestow prestige and legitimacy to nonprofit managers’ quest for learning, and lessen their guilt over what they may consider an indulgence, says Deborah Meehan, a former W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Program fellow and now executive director of the Leadership Learning Community, in Oakland, Calif., an umbrella organization of leadership programs. “The structure and the honor of a fellowship program makes it a little bit easier for someone to clear the time and participate,” she says.

Mr. Hewitt says that when he entered the Casey program, he was seeking above all a chance to catch his breath and gain some big-picture perspective on his career. He also wanted feedback that he couldn’t get elsewhere.

“Sometimes, how you present to the external environment is different from what you think,” he says. “I was known as a fairly effective, very passionate, and articulate spokesperson. I don’t know if I was as good a listener as I needed to be.” Mr. Hewitt focused on improving his communication skills during his fellowship spent in Baltimore and Savannah, Ga. After he completed his Casey fellowship, he took a position at the Rockefeller Foundation — a decision he says was sparked by his fellowship experience — and now works as director of the Alameda County Social Service Agency in California,

Despite the wide variety of differences among them, most leadership programs include an emphasis on personal reflection — something that busy nonprofit leaders rarely have time for otherwise, says Ms. Meehan. “As you assume more leadership responsibilities, you have the opportunity to do greater good or harm,” she says. “A lot of times, people don’t stop to think about their own personal stuff, and how an insecurity or a competitiveness might be manifesting itself in the way they work — and how it’s going to have an impact on their organization.”

The opportunity for reflection may be what drives some nonprofit leaders out of their jobs, says Donele J. Wilkins, who became a fellow in 1998 under a program run by Eureka Communities, a nonprofit leadership program that paid for her to take trips to other nonprofit organizations to study their methods and meet with other Eureka fellows once a month in her home city. “It helps you determine whether you’re in the right place, and if you want to stay there,” says Ms. Wilkins, who runs Detroiters for Environmental Justice. “I know some fellows who, once engaged in the [Eureka] fellowship program, decided that they weren’t in the right place, and literally left their agencies. It provides you with an opportunity to look inward, not just professionally but personally.”

Making Contacts

In addition to the opportunity for reflection, leadership programs also offer nonprofit managers another rarity: the chance to meet others like themselves. “We told our fellows, ‘The biggest gift we’re giving you is each other, ‘” says Roger H. Sublett, who ran Kellogg’s National Leadership Program from 1991 until it ended last year.

The togetherness enforced by a program can aid executive directors in particular, who may feel isolated in their demanding jobs, says Ms. Wilkins: “You’re in a safe environment where you can let your hair down with your peers, who are not judging you, who have experience they can share with you.”

Programs that mix nonprofit leaders with those from other fields can help broaden participants’ communication skills — and shake charity workers from any feelings they may carry from their jobs of preaching only to the choir, says Taj Rashad James, executive director of the Movement Strategy Center, in Oakland, Calif., who is currently participating in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership program. “Some of us in our work can be in situations where we’re interacting with folks who share our perspective on the world, and the fellowship process brings together people who have different perspectives and give you more skills to work with them,” he says.

Participants in leadership programs not only enjoy sharing ideas — sometimes they form partnerships. Mr. James and two other fellows, who are located in Washington and the Minneapolis area, are currently working on a Rockefeller-financed project to cultivate emerging leaders, especially immigrants, an effort he says would not have been conceived without Next Generation Leadership.

Many programs maintain formal alumni networks, which can continue to be a resource for program participants for the rest of their careers. Mr. Hewitt says he consults with his fellow Casey alumni on a regular basis.

“I feel like I have a rich network of folks who know Chet a little bit,” he says. “I’ve got my own little personal think tank that I can organize for support.”

Mr. Hewitt says that those who fear charities losing their leaders should consider other culprits — such as low pay — rather than the résumé-burnishing experiences provided by leadership programs. He says that such programs can bring organization staff members closer if their participants share what they’ve learned or read with their colleagues. “You can become an emissary for the experience,” he says, “if you manage it well.”

Have you participated in a nonprofit leadership program? Tell us about your experience in the Share Your Brainstorms online forum.