Nonprofit crisis: Finding volunteer and professional leaders

A study released in October by Hawai‘i Community Foundation identified attracting effective board members and quality staff as two of the top challenges facing Hawai‘i nonprofits today, according to Kelvin Taketa, HCF president and CEO. “With Hawai'i's low unemployment rate and compensation levels in the nonprofit industry typically lower than the government or private sector,” Taketa wrote in a recent column in the Honolulu Advertiser, “the competition for talent is heating up for local nonprofit organizations.”

The number of nonprofits in Hawai‘i has grown by nearly a third since 2001, increasing demand for staff and board talent, Taketa said, which is “exacerbated by the fact there is also a growing level of complexity for nonprofits as they face more scrutiny and stiffer competition.”

The HCF study found:

• A majority of nonprofit executives in Hawai‘i are 55 or older
• More than 4 out of 10 EDs expect to leave their current positions by 2010
• Most don't plan to take executive-director positions at another nonprofit

Of the organizations in the study, 44 percent said they had difficulty attracting effective board members. While nonprofit governance is becoming more rigorous, finding people with time and ability to contribute is harder and some board members are cutting back on serving on multiple boards as demands increase.

The solution? “With the increasing number of organizations and the attrition of paid and volunteer leadership,” Taketa said, “strategies to compensate for the growing gap for leadership talent will require the three R's: retention, recruitment and reinvention.” For more, see http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jan/14/bz/FP701140309.html