Sabbaticals for Charity Chief Executives Yield Big Benefits, Study Finds

Sending nonprofit leaders on sabbaticals often helps those executives return to their jobs with renewed enthusiasm, and helps their organizations nurture up-and-coming talent within their ranks, according to a new study.

• Sabbaticals helped organizations improve the management abilities of their second-tier leaders: Eighty-three percent of sabbatical awardees said the managers under their supervision had grown more skilled since the sabbatical, and 77 percent of staff members said the same.
• Eighty-two percent of leaders who took sabbaticals reported that their ability to balance their work and personal lives improved either “somewhat” or “very much.” Sixty-eight percent also reported that their physical health improved either “somewhat” or “very much.”
• Sixty percent of people who took sabbaticals and 53 percent of interim leaders said their organizations’ boards had become more effective due to the process of planning for an executive’s sabbatical.

Copies of the report, “Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals for Capacity Building & Leadership Development in the Nonprofit Sector,” are available for free download on the CompassPoint Nonprofit Services Web site. Go to: http://www.compasspoint.org/creativedisruption.