Nonprofit Leadership Development: What’s Your “Plan A” For Growing Future Leaders?

Surveys consistently show that nonprofit organizations are acutely aware of their leadership development gaps, but unsure about how to address them. The nonprofit leadership teams that Bridgespan has surveyed single out leadership development and succession planning as their most glaring organizational weakness by a margin of better than two to one. Of the nearly 900 leaders who have completed Bridgespan's leadership diagnostic survey, about two-thirds disagree with the statement that "our organization is highly effective in developing a strong internal and external pipeline of future leaders."

While resource constraints are one challenge most nonprofits face, the biggest obstacle . . .