Nonprofit Executive Makes a Jump Into the ‘Trenches’

While many nonprofit leaders may feel most passionate about being “in the trenches” of a social-service organization, others — like Peter V. Berns — are quite happy

working behind the scenes. “I’m one of a limited number of people who can get really jazzed about the work even when I’m one step removed from the front line,” says Mr. Berns.

At 51, however, Mr. Berns has decided to move one step closer to the front line — or at least, to put his advocacy and organization-building skills in the service of one specific mission. Next month he will become executive director of the Arc of the United States, in Silver Spring, Md., a national network of 850 state and local organizations that help people with cognitive and developmental disabilities and their families. In addition to providing oversight and support to its chapters, the Arc’s national organization advocates for public-policy changes to benefit people like its clients. In his new job, Mr. Berns says, he will earn a salary of $283,000.

He will be leaving his position as executive director of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, in Baltimore. Mr. Berns has spent 16 years building the group from a start-up into a leading source for information and advocacy on behalf of the state’s nonprofit organizations.

He has also become influential nationwide as the chief executive of the Standards for Excellence Institute, a major project of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations. The institute developed ethics and accountability standards to define best practices in nonprofit government and management. It also administers educational programs and a certification process to honor organizations that adhere to its standards; the programs are spreading around the country via membership services and a network of providers the institute has licensed.

“Sometimes I tell people, ‘We work on the boring stuff so you don’t have to,’” he jokes.

The move away from the “boring stuff” and into the job at the Arc of the United States is prompted by a need to shake things up professionally, he says: “When you spend a career in public interest or public service, it’s important to always be open to new challenges, to stay active and fresh in your work.”

Although he has never been employed by an organization that focuses on helping disabled people, he received an early education in some of the challenges it involves. As a second-year Harvard law student in the early 1980s, under the guidance of a professor, he pursued a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a man with a disability who lost his Medicaid benefits due to a slight increase in his veteran’s benefits. The case went on until after his law-school graduation and ultimately, Mr. Berns says, played a role in changing the Medicaid rules throughout the United States.

“That was my first exposure to the complex world that individuals with disabilities and family members have to navigate in order to access the benefits and supports that they’re entitled to as a matter of law,” he says.

In an interview, Mr. Berns spoke about his jump into social-service work.

Why the career move at this time?

I could be kind of the poster child for the nonprofit executive in his early 50s who’s been with the organization for a long time and thinking, Am I going to stay here the rest of my career or am I going to do something else? For the past three or four years I’ve been open to a new opportunity. I’ve had a tremendously successful run, but I couldn’t envision spending the rest of my career in the same organization. I had a hankering to be closer to, if not on, the front lines, to put my knowledge and energy and professional skills in service of a set of issues I could really care about.

What attracted you to the Arc’s top job in particular?

Over the years I have had a tremendous amount of respect for people who work in the Arc community. At the state level here in Maryland, the local and state legislative advocacy done by Arc executives and volunteers are really formidable and sophisticated. The quality of the services and support they provide, and their level of passion and commitment, have impressed me tremendously.

Coming from outside the disabilities arena, what skills do you bring?

This is a community that’s facing some extraordinary challenges. I just really sense that there’s an opportunity here to put my skills as a lawyer and an institution-builder to work.

The Arc network was founded in 1950 to provide a vehicle for people with a broad range of different disabilities to work together, and since then, we’ve seen many other organizations come into being — two different organizations for Down syndrome, others that work with children who have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, and so on. It’s a positive development, but the Arc continues to be the place where everybody can get together and speak with a unified voice. From a health-care or diagnostic perspective, everything gets sliced and diced, but when it comes to protecting people’s civil rights, there’s a common legal framework that cuts across, and we need to make sure people have the information they need to protect their rights.

What are some of the current challenges?

First of all, there are the waiting lists for services. We don’t have the total number, but there are literally hundreds of thousands of people throughout the U.S. on waiting lists for services that will support them in living in the community and having a decent quality of life — services that they are fully entitled to.

This is exacerbated by a second major issue, the aging of the population. We have individuals in their 50s and 60s who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, who are being cared for by their elderly parents, and the community resources aren’t there to help.

It is a major civil-rights issue, and part of the job for the Arc of the United States, in coalition with a lot of other organizations in the field, is to really educate the public and decision makers about this issue. We have to make them see the human side of this and not get lost in all the statistics.

The third major challenge today is recruitment and retention of direct-service workers. If you don’t have a good work force in place, you can’t deliver quality services. A lot of the funding flows through the state governments, so as states experience financial stress, they are making it harder and harder for nonprofits to hire and retain the kind of staff they need.

So how do you start to attack these problems?

You can boil a lot of these issues down to money, but that simplifies it in a way that doesn’t really address the underlying issue. It’s about the values of a community and about the civil rights that we think everybody in America ought to enjoy.

Does the political climate bode well for raising these issues as a civil-rights matter?

I tend to be a perennial optimist. I believe change is possible, but it doesn’t happen by itself. It really does require inspired leadership.

There is something of a wind blowing that suggests we may be entering a period of change in this country, but we can’t take that for granted.