CompassPoint

The Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services released The Board Paradox, completing a series of three briefs based on a national study of more than 3,000 nonprofit executive directors. The briefs report survey results and findings not included in the Daring to Lead 2011 main report, which was released in late June. The three briefs in the series are:

• Leading Through a Recession
• Inside the Executive Director Job
• The Board Paradox

Many philanthropists are handing out human resources advice along with the money they give to nonprofit groups, a strategy that underscores concerns by donors and even some organizations’ leaders about the management of nonprofits. “Pretty early on, I realized that when I asked these organizations about management, the response I usually got was, ‘That’s business and we’re not a business,’ ” Peter Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance, said. “I told them baseball teams have managers, too, but that seemed to have little impact on their opinion.”

Daring to Lead 2011, a new national study of nonprofit executive directors conducted in the aftermath of the deepest economic recession in decades, reports that a significant number of executives plan to leave their jobs within the next five years, citing frustration with their organizations’ shaky finances, under-performing boards of directors, and the difficulty of maintaining healthy work-life balance in their demanding roles.

The study was conducted by San Francisco-based CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Meyer Foundation in Washington, D.C.

In spite of the economic swoon of 2008-9, the consultants who serve charities and foundations have seen a huge boom in demand for their services over the past decade, in part because of the accompanying boom in new nonprofit organizations—and increasing pressure from donors, government, and the public to show results in exchange for support.

The consulting field is evolving as well as growing, with more specialists and more independent operators presenting a wealth of new options and challenges to nonprofit leaders looking for affordable outside help.

Mobilizing board members to fundraise often requires a jump start. In her book, “The Best of the Board Cafe: Hands-on Solutions for Nonprofit Boards,” Jan Masaoka offers actionable tips that provide the spark necessary to enhance board involvement. Masaoka is the former executive director of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, a nonprofit consulting and training firm, and is editor of the Board Cafe, an online newsletter that offers ideas, information, news and other resources to help board members maximize their service. The book is a compilation of some of the most popular articles from the Board Cafe e-newsletter. It includes page after page of useful information