US: Nonprofit Executive Directors and Their Work Experience

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Dear Forum memebers,

Some of you may find the following report interesting.[Moderator]

Daring to Lead: Nonprofit Executive Directors and Their Work

Experience New Report Available Online

For more information visit

http://www.compasspoint.org/temp/research_reports/index.html

Or call (415) 541-9000

A new research report by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, Daring to

Lead: Nonprofit Executive Directors and Their Work Experience, is now

available in PDF format. Based on a national study of more than

1,000 nonprofit leaders from around the country, the report includes

findings on nonprofit executive career paths, tenure, salaries and

job challenges. The report highlights a series of Calls to Action --

strategies for supporting and retaining talented nonprofit

leadership -- for funders, technical assistance providers, boards of

directors and executives themselves.

This national study of nonprofit executive directors expands on the

findings of CompassPoint¹s1999 report, Leadership Lost: A Study of

Executive Director Tenure and Experience by looking more closely at

professional experience, compensation, tenure trends, and executive

training and support. To conduct this study, CompassPoint partnered

with four foundations and technical assistance providers from a cross-

section of regions around the country: the Eugene and Agnes Meyer

Foundation in Washington D.C., the Center for Nonprofit Management in

Dallas, Texas, the Hawaii¹s Community Foundation in Honolulu, Hawaii,

and the Nonprofit Advancement Center in Fresno, California. The five

regions yielded 1,072 survey responses from executive directors of

nonprofits of all types and sizes. The report¹s findings are divided

into five sections: characteristics of executive directors,

professional background and recruitment, compensation, job

satisfaction and retention, and executive training and support.

Some key findings:

Women substantially outnumber men in nonprofit executive director

positions‹in most regions they make up 60% or more of the population.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of executive directors are European/white,

with representation of other ethnic/racial groups varying by region.

Career paths:

Sixty-four percent (64%) of current executives were recruited from

outside their agencies‹ just 36% were promoted from within their

agencies. Nearly two-thirds of executive directors are in the role

for the first time.

Salaries:

The national average (5% trimmed mean) for executive compensation is

$57,332, with compensation varying significantly by region.

Women executives are paid less than their male counterparts for the

same jobs. The differential is especially acute among large agencies:

the average salary for a female executive director of a nonprofit

with a budget between $5 and $10 million is $82,314, while the

average salary for a male executive is $98,739.

Men disproportionately lead large agencies. Although men make up 38%

of the total population, they run 55% of the agencies with annual

budgets of $5 million or more.

Tenure:

Despite enjoying their work a great deal and reporting to be very

skilled at it, fewer than half of current executives plan to take on

another executive director role. The most significant challenges of

the executive role are high stress and long hours, anxiety about

agency finances, fundraising, and managing people. The relative

intensity of these challenges varies by agency size and developmental

stage.

Executive director training:

Executive directors rely most heavily upon their work colleagues and

other peers for both information and support‹less so on formal

supports such as coaching and college-based course work.

Boards have an impact on executive tenure and satisfaction and on

agency success. Longer-tenured executive directors and those leading

larger agencies perceive their boards to be more supportive and

helpful than executives projecting shorter tenures for themselves or

heading smaller agencies. Respondents spoke to what additional

support they could use. After ³more money² which was mentioned by 36%

of the executives, help with board development was requested by 23%

and more staff to lighten their loads (additional management and

administrative assistance) was specified by 21%.

The picture that emerges from this study is one of hundreds of

thousands of nonprofit executive directors around the country,

working to serve and change communities, and largely prevailing in

that work despite the difficulty of their jobs and dearth of targeted

supports for them. When this important group of leaders is at risk of

being overwhelmed or forced out due to low pay, or when the pool

cannot be sufficiently replenished, all communities suffer. But there

are ways for funders, technical assistance organizations, and boards

of directors to provide intentional and effective support to

nonprofit leaders. This report concludes with a series of calls to

action‹ways each of these groups might positively impact executive

retention and the quality of nonprofit leadership.

For More Information

For more information on the report, contact principal investigators

Dr. Tim Wolfred, director of leadership services, and Jeanne s,

MNA, research manager at CompassPoint at (415) 541-9000 or by email

at timw@... or jeannep@... respectively.

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