Improving Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations

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Summary: Help Wanted: Effective Leaders
Review: Help Wanted: Effective Leaders
By: Brian Walsh, 03/19/04
Improving Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations, by Ronald E. Riggio and Sarah Smith Orr, Kravis Leadership Institute, Hardcover - 320 pages, November 2003, Jossey-Bass.

As readers of this newsletter no doubt already know, nonprofits no longer have the luxury of being supplementary. As governments face budget cutbacks and nonprofits expand both in number and in reach, their impact on society is becoming more and more significant. Nonprofits are becoming equal partners with both government and the private commercial sector in helping to solve society's most pressing issues. They are no longer home to mere charity work, but are now increasingly more responsible for providing society with essential services. As society depends more and more on the nonprofit sector, it becomes increasingly important for nonprofits to be effective and properly run. This requires strong leadership.

In "Improving Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations", editors Ronald E. Riggio and Sarah Smith Orr assemble an impressive collection of articles by prominent academics, nonprofit professionals, and experts on leadership. The book is the product of a two-day event, the twelfth annual Kravis-de Roulet Leadership Conference, held in 2002 at Claremont McKenna College. The conference brought together leadership scholars, experts in nonprofit issues, and practitioners and leaders of nonprofit organizations to discuss and explore various issues associated with nonprofit leadership.

A great leader can mean the difference between a successful nonprofit organization with enormous social impact and one that may have an important mission but ultimately fails. There are many important issues that today's nonprofits must consider, from mission articulation to program assessment to infrastructure capacity building. However, the development of effective leadership should not be overlooked because the right leadership is crucial to any other nonprofit endeavor.

As this book proves, effective leadership is just as important in the nonprofit sector as it is in the corporate and governmental sectors. Nonprofit organizations are facing significant challenges. As Frances Hesselbein puts it, "The greatest challenge of this nonprofit century is to provide the leadership, the competence, and the management that will determine the quality and the performance of the twenty-first-century society. This is the big picture of our work and our challenge today and the significance of the social sector organization."

"Improving Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations" is not meant to be a step-by-step manual or handbook for leaders. Rather, it serves as a guidebook to help the reader explore a wide range of issues facing the nonprofit sector. Since the book is a collaboration of many different contributors, it does not have to be read chronologically from cover to cover. Instead, the reader can determine which chapters and articles are most relevant for them. The book covers a variety of topics, from board leadership development to increasing the organizational capacity of organizations. With a mixture of theory and real-world examples, this book should be a useful tool for people in all segments of the nonprofit sector - heads of organizations, board members, volunteers, and scholars.

As the book makes clear, society must take seriously the importance of capable leadership for nonprofits. Just as effective leadership is fundamental in the corporate and political worlds, the nonprofit sector needs to increase its capacity to recruit, develop and support leaders who are able to combine practical management expertise, passion for a cause, and a coherent vision for their organization.