NONPROFIT BURNOUT
- Executives who:
- Expect to leave jobs within five years: 75 percent
- Leave jobs annually: 9 percent
- Eventually are fired or forced out of job: 33.3 percent
- Have discussed succession plan with boards: 29 percent
- Stay in nonprofit sector after leaving jobs: 70 percent
- Strongly agree their boards challenge them in ways to make them more effective: 33.3 percent
- Strongly agree their funders have good understanding of nonprofit executive job: 33.3 percent
Source: Daring to Lead 2006: A National Study of Executive Leadership – A Joint Project of Compasspoint Nonprofit Services and The Meyer Foundation
EXECUTIVE PROFILES
- Gender
- Women: 66 percent
- Men: 34 percent
- Age
- Under age 40: 18 percent
- Age 40 to 49: 25 percent
- Age 50 to 59: 41 percent
- Age 60 to 69: 15 percent
- Age 70 and older: 1 percent
- Race/ethnicity
- White: 82 percent
- African American: 7 percent
- Latino: 4 percent
- Asian Pacific Islander: 4 percent
- Other: 3 percent
- Country of origin
- U.S.: 92 percent
- Other countries: 8 percent
- For-profit management experience
- No: 57 percent
- Yes: 43 percent
- Highest level of education completed
- High School: 6 percent
- Bachelor’s: 32 percent
- Master’s: 49 percent
- PhD or other advanced degree: 13 percent
- Nonprofit sector experience
- None to 5 years: 16 percent
- 6 to 10 years: 18 percent
- 11 to 20 years: 33 percent
- 21 or more years: 33 percent
- Years in current job
- Less than 2 years: 20 percent
- 2 to 5 years: 30 percent
- 5 to 8 years: 18 percent
- 8 to 11 years: 11 percent
- 12 years or more: 21 percent
- Public sector management experience
- No: 79 percent
- Yes: 21 percent
- Prior nonprofit executive experience
- No: 70 percent
- Yes: 30 percent
Source: Daring to Lead 2006: A National Study of Executive Leadership – A Joint Project of Compasspoint Nonprofit Services and The Meyer Foundation
NONPROFIT GOVERNANCE
- Annual salaries, nonprofit chief executives reporting to survey:
- $50,000 to $100,000: 46 percent
- Under $50,000: 29 percent
- Over $100,000: 25 percent
- Chief executives’ tenure:
- Over 5 years: 54 percent
- Three to five years: 17 percent
- Three years or less: 29 percent
- Chief executives’ seat or vote on board:
- No board seat: 82 percent
- A vote on board: 18 percent
- Up from 9 percent, 1994
- Average board size: 17 members, 2004
- Down from 19 members, 1994
- Organizations with larger budgets tend to have larger boards
- Board membership by:
- Gender
- Men: 55 percent
- Women: 45 percent
- Race/ethnicity
- White: 91 percent
- Black: 4 percent
- Latino or Hispanic: 2 percent
- Asian American: 1 percent
- Native American: 1 percent
- Other: 1 percent
- Age
- 40 to 59: 64 percent
- 60 to 69: 15 percent
- 70 and older: 5 percent
- Under 30: 2 percent
- Field
- For-profit world: 40 percent
- Down from 54 percent in 1996
- Nonprofit world: 18 percent
- Self-employed: 14 percent
- Retired: 13 percent
- For-profit world: 40 percent
- Gender
- Top three criteria for selecting board members
- Commitment to mission
- Professional skills
- Community visibility
- Frequency of meetings:
- Monthly: 41 percent
- Bimonthly: 25 percent
- Quarterly: 24 percent
- Audits
- 84 percent of boards hire auditor to conduct annual external financial audit
- 18 percent have audit committee
- Conflict-of-interest policy
- 76 percent of boards
- Up from 61 percent in 1994
- 76 percent of boards
- Directors’ and officers’ liability insurance
- 87 percent of organizations
- Up from 76 percent in 1994
- 87 percent of organizations
- Fee or honorarium paid to board members for service
- 2 percent
- Evaluation of chief executive
- 80 percent of boards conduct annually
- Organizations requiring board members to:
- Identify donors and/or solicit funds: 57 percent
- Attend fundraising events: 57 percent
- Make personal monetary contribution: 55 percent
- Boards that assess own performance: 43 percent
- Up from 38 percent in 1999
- Up from 23 percent in 1994
- Chief executive and board members generally agree board performance is:
- Strongest in understanding organization’s mission and financial situation
- Weakest in understanding individual responsibilities and making personal commitment
Source: Nonprofit Governance Index 2004, BoardSource