An Acute Dearth of Leadership Plagues the Nonprofit World

To the Editor:

While I find myself in substantial agreement with the thoughtful comments of the various individuals interviewed for the special report on the lessons of September 11 and with Lester Salamon’s views (“What Really Matters About September 11,” September 5), I would like to add a few observations.

I believe the nonprofit sector, not unlike the government and business sectors, suffers fundamentally from an acute leadership deficit, at both the individual and the organizational levels. I cannot think of a single individual in our sector who commands the admiration and respect of the nonprofit sector as a whole.

Clearly, we are blessed with many very able and dedicated individuals who lead their respective organizations or specialties unstintingly, but I am hard put to name one who stands head and shoulders above everyone else in the sector, one who can act as the advocate and champion of the sector and who is listened to with respect by significant people in government, business, and the media.

We face a similar predicament at the organizational level.

We have nothing comparable to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or the Business Roundtable or the National Association of Manufacturers. Who speaks for the nonprofit sector? Independent Sector has attempted to play this role but with limited success. Its own inherent structural weakness does not allow it to serve in that capacity and speak on behalf of the sector with one voice.

Powerful forces at the subsector level (arts, environment, education, health, human services, religion, etc.) are rarely united to let Independent Sector speak for them and the sector as a whole.

It is disheartening and worrisome but not surprising to learn that public trust in the sector is diluting. The problem is that “the person in the street” has no clue as to what the nonprofit sector is all about. Most people relate to individual charities and nonprofits they are familiar with, but when asked about the nonprofit sector qua sector they seem to draw a blank.

What difference does the nonprofit sector make on the lives of people? What is the cumulative impact of the sector on society?

Over 25 years ago the Filer Commission report, “Giving in America, Toward a Stronger Voluntary Sector,” characterized the sector as terra incognita. Today it remains terra incognita as far as the public at large is concerned. It therefore falls upon us individually and organizationally to do our best to emphasize and promote efficiency, effectiveness, truthfulness, transparency, compassion, and ethical conduct in our everyday work. Hopefully the cumulative effect would be to regain some public trust in the sector.

As for Lester Salamon’s reflections on September 11, again, I find myself in full accord with his views and exhortations. I would like, however, to expand a little with respect to his comments on “building global civil society.”

What is urgently needed at this juncture is substantial investment in social-infrastructure building in developing nations by both government and private donors. Just as, for example, the international financial institutions provide funding for physical infrastructure projects, we need infusion of resources for building civil-society infrastructure organizations — hundreds and perhaps thousands of one-stop nonprofit-resource centers all over the developing countries with expertise in training, technical assistance, research, accountability, effectiveness assessment, governance, resource development, and start-up.

Over the past 15 to 20 years, donors, mostly from the West, have subsidized the growth of civil-society organizations in less-developed countries breeding perpetual dependency on external donors. This is not sustainable. Some of these countries are developing burgeoning middle and upper classes. We need to help them harvest indigenous charitable contributions for public good and work with governments to provide a more hospitable environment to foster the growth and sustainability of the civil-society sector. A few enlightened donor groups have already seen this need and have invested their resources in infrastructure building. The challenge now is to take it to scale.

Russy D. Sumariwalla
President
Global Philanthropy & Nonprofits
St. Helena, Calif.