The Young And The Relentless – New Study on Next Gen Nonprofit Leaders

With more than half of all nonprofit leaders retiring in the next decade -- what does the future leader of the philanthropic sector look like today? What motivates these rising leaders? What drives their vision for the future of the sector? Is it salary – is it satisfaction? Or maybe it’s time we scrap our focus on "the sector" all together and instead look at the blending of sectors and approaches that drive social change.  

As nonprofits prepare for the inevitable leadership transition, a new report by Changing Our World and Future Leaders in Philanthropy provides some compelling perspectives for nonprofits -- from Millennials themselves -- on how to attract and retain future leaders.  It’s not the first time we’ve explored these issues here on Social Citizens, but with the release of the new report, we thought it was worth breaking down these issues a little more.  The report focuses on the following four areas:

•    The disappearance or blending of traditional sectors;
•    A reflection on the importance of salary;
•    Overall job satisfaction; and
•    The Impacts of volunteering.

Let’s take a look first at the disappearance of or blending of traditional sectors.  The study shows that while nonprofits have traditionally “bucketed” their work into the familiar categories of education, health, environment, etc. when Millennials were asked in which “bucket” their work fit into – after “education” the next highest selection was “other” with a wide range of themes coming to light from technology, to social justice, advocacy and human rights to name just a few.  

What’s more, we know that beyond identifying with these issue areas – Millennials aren’t just looking at entering traditional nonprofit institutions to influence social change. They can “do good” by joining businesses with a double or triple bottom line, or by entering a start-up with a pro-social mission.  And until nonprofits are able to attract the entrepreneurial, technologically savvy Millennial – they may  struggle to contend with their pro-social competitors across other sectors.

We tend to think that more than money, prestige, titles or promotions – Millennials have an almost innate desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves.  And the survey further reinforced this notion by exploring why young people choose to do the work they do.  An overwhelming majority cited the “idea of working for a socially mission driven organizations as the primary driver for their choice” – and this answer crossed demographics, young and old, experienced and inexperienced, etc. Of all the reasons to work in the nonprofit sector – salary ranked dead last. 

However, that’s only part of the story. The study showed that “Salary may not be why young professionals enter the sector, but it is a big part of what they think about on the inside, irrespective of gender, length of time in the sector or area of work.”  But perhaps what was most fascinating was that 43% of respondents felt that a nonprofit salary level that is lower than those in the for-profit sector is actually acceptable, compared to 46.4% who felt it was never acceptable. This means that as many people are willing to accept lower salaries in nonprofit work as those who are not, whether because those lower levels reflect “working for a greater cause” or because the nonprofits themselves are “strapped financially for resources.” 

Nonprofits who can’t seem to find ways to be competitive when it comes to salary – are going to have to think again.  According to the study, a much higher percentage of young people consider for-profit/nonprofit salary parity as a motivating factor in choosing nonprofit employment than do older workers.

Whether they want to believe it or not, and whether they’re tired of hearing it or not, today's nonprofit leaders need to recognize that Millennials think about and approach their work differently  just as each generation before them has added their own “flavor” to the workplace. Millennials are mixing things up, and regardless of how driven they are by working for organizations with a social mission - they are just as passionate about being compensated for this work and they expect high performance from the organizations of which they are a part.

For more insights or to download a copy of The Young and the Relentless: An Original Survey of the Next Generation of Nonprofit and Philanthropy Leaders please click here for the whitepaper, or click here to view the webinar.