Nonprofit Executives Research Articles

2017–2018 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

2017–2018 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

2017–2018 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

2017–2018 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

Examining the Career Trajectories of Nonprofit Executive Leaders

Although much has been written about the need for effective nonprofit leadership and management, less attention has been paid to the unique career paths taken by professionals who occupy the highest nonprofit staff positions. This study investigated who is serving in the role of executive leader of nonprofit organizations and the variables that may affect reaching the CEO position. Data for this research included a random sample of LinkedIn profiles of local and regional leaders from 12 national nonprofit organizations. K-modes cluster analysis and multiple regression modeling revealed clues for understanding the career trajectories of current top leaders and resulted in the development of a new typology for nonprofit executive career paths. Significant factors affecting the path to the CEO role included gender, education, age, mission-focused career, and sector-specific experience. These findings inform nonprofit professional career decision making and guide boards in the executive selection process.

Get board buy‐in on software expenditures by showing impact

New fundraising and donor management systems are increasingly sophisticated and now offer a “one‐stop‐shop” solution that handles email and peer‐to‐peer campaigns, online donation processing, website optimization, events coordination, year‐round donor communications and more. But it doesn't come cheap, and nonprofit executives are often hesitant to bring a request to their boards for thousands of dollars in new expenditures that can be hard to understand for those not technically oriented.

Two-Legged Stool: New Findings from California on Nonprofits and Overhead

AbstractNonprofit overhead is a prevalent and controversial topic in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. Online raters (such as Charity Navigator) point to the overhead rate as a key indicator of nonprofit worthiness. Different government entities use wildly different indirect cost rates when contracting with nonprofits, which translate into billions of dollars of funding being gained or lost. Foundations rarely have explicit guidelines, but most have informal rules of thumb that affect how a nonprofit can use grant funds. Meanwhile, nonprofit executives struggle to make sense of it all as they manage their operations amidst the conflicting requirements of their funding sources. To gain insights into how overhead costs are handled in nonprofits, the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits) conducted a survey of 451 California nonprofit executives, as well as interviews with elected members of county boards of supervisors and their staff throughout California in the spring of 2016. This paper reports on both of these, which were part of a larger initiative of CalNonprofits called The Nonprofit Overhead Project.

Turnover at the Top: Investigating Performance-Turnover Sensitivity among Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACTResearch has confirmed private firm performance as a predictor of executive turnover, but whether this relationship holds in other organizational contexts—especially those operating without a profit-distribution requirement—is not known. For nonprofit organizations, performance monitoring and governance largely occur behind closed doors under the leadership of a volunteer board of directors. Nonprofits are commonly criticized as inefficient, even ineffective, and the accountability of boards and executives for organizational performance has not been sufficiently investigated. This article engages a unique dataset of 998 U.S.-based nonprofits serving missions related to the arts, health, and human services, and uses a multiple-spell discrete-time hazard model to evaluate nonprofit financial performance and the likelihood of executive turnover. The findings provide preliminary support that tenure in the executive office is sensitive to nonprofit financial performance, and in doing so, they raise new insights about the accountability of nonprofit executives.

Slow, reduced payments hurting nonprofits

Slow or reduced payments are impacting the ability for the bulk of nonprofits to fulfill their missions, with many having to dip into cash reserves to make ends meet, new research shows. What's more, the majority of charities say the situation is likely to get worse as 2017 moves along, according to the latest Nonprofit Leadership Pulse, an annual survey of nonprofit executives conducted by accounting and tax advisory firm Marks Paneth.

Pressure to Manage Ratios and Willingness to Do So: Evidence From Nonprofit Managers

We survey 200 nonprofit executives to investigate the pressure they experience to manage so-called efficiency ratios, and their reactions to that pressure. Specifically, we investigate whether managers’ perceptions of donor pressure are influenced by (a) the degree to which they rely on contributions and government grants, (b) the existence of restricted gifts, (c) oversight by monitoring institutions that may affect donor giving decisions, and (d) the sophistication of management. We then examine factors that affect the likelihood that managers will engage in ratio management. Interestingly, we find no evidence that nonprofits that rely more heavily on donor support feel greater donor pressure. Instead, we provide evidence that specific donors, such as those who make restricted gifts and government grantors, influence perceptions of pressure. Furthermore, more sophisticated managers perceive less pressure to manage ratios. When facing pressure to manage ratios, monitors and sophisticated managers reduce the likelihood of ratio management.

Developmental Culture and Effectiveness in Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACTNonprofit organizations have historically been seen as a vanguard in U.S. civil society, supplying places and spaces for innovation and change to flourish. According to the Competing Values Culture Framework (CVCF), a developmental organizational culture, characterized by innovation and risk-taking, may help organizations respond to changes in their operating environments and be more effective at boundary-spanning activities, such as fostering external support, acquiring resources, and spurring growth. Despite its importance, the culture–effectiveness relationship has not been studied sufficiently in nonprofit organizations. The exploratory study described in this article examines the links between developmental culture and nonprofit organizational effectiveness. Results suggest that nonprofit executive directors see organizational culture as more than a phenomenon to be experienced. Specifically, findings indicate that executive directors perceive there to be a positive and significant relationship between developmental culture and how effective their organization is at performing boundary-spanning activities. The practical and theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.

An Exploratory Study of the Nonprofit Executive Factor: Linking Nonprofit Financial Performance and Executive Careers

As the nonprofit sector professionalizes, organizations face pressures for dual proficiency in mission and operations. The sector is led by an increasingly professionalized workforce, but not much is known about what is gained in terms of organizational performance as the sector shifts from its voluntary roots. Therefore, we report the results of an exploratory study in which we examined the effect of individual characteristics of nonprofit executives on nonprofit financial performance. Using a unique sample of 69 health and human service nonprofits, we applied upper echelons theory and linked educational background and professional experience of top management to different measures of organizational financial performance. Although we did not find a link between different career characteristics of nonprofit executives and nonprofit financial performance, this study poses new insights into nonprofit professionalization and the influence of the nonprofit executives over the performance of their organization. Subscribe to JNEL

Nonprofits stressing over compliance with new finance rules, regulations

Nonprofit executives are increasingly concerned about compliance with the various finance‐related rules and regulations that govern the sector, according to new research by nonprofit software firm Abila. The report, coming on the heels of new federal rules on overtime pay, deferred compensation and new accounting standards for charities, highlight the headaches such changes can be for the nation's nonprofits.

2016–2017 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

Board & Administrator for Administrators OnlyVolume 33, Issue 2 p. 9-9 Survey 2016–2017 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation First published: 22 September 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30352Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume33, Issue2October 2016Pages 9-9 RelatedInformation

2016–2017 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

2016–2017 Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

What Nonprofit Executives Want and What They Get from Board Members

In theory, nonprofit boards of directors exist to perform mission-setting and oversight functions that help to ensure organizational accountability. Yet there is evidence that board behavior often falls short of this ideal. Using survey data from a sample of 241 executive directors of nonprofit agencies, we investigated whether nonprofit boards are meeting executive directors’ expectations, and if not, what factors explain this? We find that although board behavior tends to align closely with executive directors’ preferences for involvement in administration and management tasks, there is a greater disconnect between board behavior and executive directors’ preferences for involvement in mission-setting and oversight duties. Factors that mitigate this gap include organizational professionalization and stability, whereas more extensive reliance on government funding exacerbates it. Female executive directors experience a greater disconnect in their preferences for board involvement and actual board involvement than male executive directors. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.

Donor Reaction to Salient Disclosures of Nonprofit Executive Pay

We evaluate the effect of highly salient disclosure of private college and university president compensation on subsequent donations. Using a differences-in-discontinuities approach to compare institutions that are highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual “top 10” list of most-highly compensated presidents against similar others, we find that appearing on a top 10 list is associated with reduced average donations of up to US$5.0 million in the first full fiscal year following disclosure, despite greater fund-raising by “top 10” schools. We also find some evidence that top 10 appearances are correlated with slower compensation growth and rising enrollment in subsequent years. We interpret these results as consistent with the hypothesis that donors care about compensation but are typically inattentive to pay levels. We discuss the implications of these findings for the regulation of nonprofits and for our broader understanding of the pay-setting process at for-profit as well as nonprofit organizations.

5 reasons EDs fail (and how to avoid them)

Nobody wants to fail. It can lead to job loss and a decline in professional stature, and can be very difficult emotionally for the nonprofit executive.

Pondering your relationship with the board: ‘What can I do better starting now?’

I have been speaking with nonprofit executives recently who are coming to the end of their careers. In doing so, I've picked their brains about mistakes they have made with their boards and some of their ideas on how they could have improved or strengthened the board and administrator relationship over the years. Here are their thoughts.

Influence of age and gender on decision-making models and leadership styles of non-profit executives in Texas, USA

Purpose The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by investigating the relationship between age and other demographics on decision-making and leadership styles of executives in the non-profit sector. Design/methodology/approach This study is a quantitative research using correlation analysis and analysis of variance. The quantitative approach establishes facts, makes predictions and tests stated hypothesis and used the Pearson correlation coefficient, the ANOVA and the two-way analysis of variance. This study used surveys to collect data. Findings H1 states that there will be no significant difference in the decision-making models used among non-profit organizational leaders (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidant) based on demographic variables: gender and age. H2 states that there will be no significant difference in the leadership style used among non-profit organizational executives (selling, telling, delegating and participating) and different dimensions of demographic variables: gender and age. Research limitations/implications This study explored the relationship between the demographics, age and gender and the decision-making models (rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous and avoidant) and leadership styles (selling, telling, delegating and participating) of executives in non-profit organizations. The age of the executives also showed to be important factors that influenced executive’s leadership styles and decision-making models as well. Practical implications Rational decision-making as reflected to in this study has been used by older, possibly more experienced non-profit executives. This model is favorable towards making decisions on complicated issues. The final choice rational decision-makers select will maximize the outcome; it is assumed that the decision-maker will choose the alternative that rates the highest and get the maximum benefits (Robbins and Decenzo, 2003, pp. 141-142). The researcher suggests that non-profit executives, especially the younger executives, should attend management and leadership conferences that focus on rational decision-making models as concerns business strategies and making the best choices based on possible alternatives. Social implications Rational decision-making as reflected to in this study has been used by older, possibly more experienced non-profit executives. This model is favorable towards making decisions on complicated issues. The final choice rational decision-makers select will maximize the outcome; it is assumed that the decision-maker will choose the alternative that rates the highest and get the maximum benefits (Robbins and Decenzo, 2003, pp. 141-142). The researcher suggests that non-profit executives, especially the younger executives, should attend management and leadership conferences that focus on rational decision-making models as concerns business strategies and making the best choices based on possible alternatives. Originality/value This is an original piece of research that contributes to the literature on leadership style.

Nonprofit Leader Perceptions of Operating Reserves and Their Substitutes

This exploratory study has three objectives: (1) to understand the various ways academics, consultants, and practitioners conceptualize operating reserves; (2) to explore differences among academic findings, consultant recommendations, and nonprofit leader perceptions of operating reserves; and (3) to identify how practitioners operationalize operating reserves within their organizations. Using intensive interviews with nonprofit executives, we find that the operating reserve ratio (ORR) commonly used in the nonprofit literature does not accurately indicate whether an organization holds an operating reserve according to nonprofit leaders. In addition, results indicate that experienced nonprofit leaders perceive a variety of other fund types including endowment and investment savings as well as ability to borrow, other assets, sister foundations, and donor networks as legitimate substitutes for a reserve.

Give us feedback on the 2016 Nonprofit Executive Compensation Report

Board & Administrator for Administrators OnlyVolume 32, Issue 7 p. 2-2 Report Give us feedback on the 2016 Nonprofit Executive Compensation Report First published: 26 February 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30238Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue7March 2016Pages 2-2 RelatedInformation