The Ethics Of Leadership Within Nonprofit Organizations

The diversity of nonprofit organizations, services provided and the problems faced shows that nonprofits require leadership with an in-depth understanding of the multifaceted nonprofit landscape. Understanding the culture of nonprofit work is also crucial and much easier to understand once you have been through a nonprofit management program. My career interests lead me towards an avocation of a deeper knowledge of strategic management/planning, legal structure and standards, increase my skills in quantitative analysis of policy, financial governance and developing fundraising strategies. These areas allow for macro management within the nonprofit

To ensure this non-profit group operates smoothly, the Competing Values Framework will be applied. This framework helps identify guidelines that will allow the leaders to diagnose and manage issues that may appear (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). Studies have shown the Competing Values Framework is positively related to organizational commitment, job involvement, empowerment, and job satisfaction (Goodman & Zammuto, 2001).

Most nonprofit agencies follow the same management structure. The structure normally consists of a vertical hierarchal structure with the chief executive manager at the helm, and divisional leaders rounding out the strategic leadership team. Since 9/11, then government shutdowns, multiple wars, natural disasters, and the government sequester, the challenge to most nonprofits is to compete for every available charitable dollar. Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of nonprofits must not only be skillful in maximizing the outcomes with fewer dollars, but also politically savvy in vying for monies for federal, state, local, foundation, and private funding sources.

The nonprofit sector in America is a reflection some of the foundational values that brought our nation into existence. Fundamentals, such as the idea that people can govern themselves and the belief that people should have the opportunity to make a difference by joining a like-minded group, have made America and its nonprofit sector what it is today. The American "civil society" is one that has been produced through generations of experiments with government policy, nonprofit organizations, private partnerships, and individuals who have asserted ideas and values. The future of the nonprofit sector will continue to be experimental in many ways. However, the increase of professional studies in nonprofit management and the greater

The fourth nonprofit I analyzed is called GreaterGood which is an online website that sells a wide range of products that have been made across the world and uses the profit generated by sales to donate to a variety of different nonprofits that have a specific mission (Help, 2015, p.1). The specific nonprofits that GreaterGood donates to breast cancer, animal rescue, veterans, autism, diabetes, the rainforest, and the one that is specific to my area of analysis the hunger site. This style of nonprofit expressed by the GreaterGood charity is extremely unique because of the extreme differences in charities they are partners with. With the multiple charities they work with I would be confident in arguing that the GreaterGood-hunger site is a path-goal leadership style.

The Non-profit has been in existence for 43 years. It was organized in response to a rift between the original organization and some of its members. Over the years, the organization has not been able to adapt and develop sufficient training and development within the new organization to foster growth and maturity in members or develop capable leaders from within the organization. The morale and level of viable activity has experienced times of growth and decline due to the change in leadership and lack of clear vision and mission.

One of the things that I have seen happen repeatedly is that some Executive Directors truly “fall in love” with their agency and fail to adjust to the needs of the stakeholders. One of the things that nonprofits need to do is to learn from the

1. What foundational things seem to be necessary in order to develop the leadership models needed for a nonprofit organization?

The organization who will be discussed in this paper is currently evolving from a grassroots phase to a growth phase. As this nonprofit prepares to embark on another strategic planning phase, the CEO and chair are aware that the role of the board is moving through its own phases of growth as well. The organization is no longer in its early stages of development, as such, leadership has self-reflected and is committed to amending the organization’s vision to take it to the next level. The CEO and chair are focused on providing the board the tools needed for appropriate management and effective governance as it moves through this stage in its lifecycle to the next. The leadership of this nonprofit is committed to maintaining a strong and constructive partnership which will assist in keeping everyone focused on the mission, foster the further definition of board members roles and responsibilities, introduce a performance evaluation of the board, honor legacy/founding members by instituting a legacy board, and provide additional resources and documents which strengthen the communication of the board’s fiduciary role.

A nonprofit organization has turned into one prominent highlight to American life in which non-profits are the drivers of social change for the delivery of needed goods and services to the population (Hess & Bacigalupo 2013). Nonprofits expresses the American ideals and beliefs in which a group of volunteer members seek to provide societal benefit, identify social problems, and advocate for change (Heyman, 2011, pg 7). Nonetheless, nonprofits are essential to public policy and advocacy that has created a significant amount of pressure and demand on the role of leadership among those organizations. In this paper, I will discuss the aspect of leadership I found interesting on managing organizations and people, strategic and planning, and integrating

In this discussion, I will reflect on the future of nonprofit leadership and management. I will discuss how nonprofits could remain sustainable and discuss what I vision as likely to change.

Crutchfield and Grant identify six practices of high impact nonprofits: advocate and serve, make markets work, inspire evangelists, nurture nonprofit networks, master the art of adaptation, and share leadership. All of these practices proved to be crucial in the success of the twelve-featured nonprofits, however, there are two practices that I find to be more intriguing than the rest. “Advocate and serve” and “inspire evangelists” are the two practices that stand out. The practice of “advocate and serve” was a new concept to me, which is, in part, why I found it particularly interesting. The practice of “inspiring evangelists,” is a concept I am familiar with, but I have never seen it articulated this well.

Individual nonprofit organizations must develop a leadership succession plan. A successful succession plan will not only have a strategy for on-boarding a new leader, it will also provide strategies for developing future leaders internally, Further, nonprofit organizations as a whole must develop a plan for creating future leaders in their sector. To combat the leadership deficit, it is imperative that organizations not only think about preparing for leadership transition, they must also commit to identifying and addressing key issues their organization is faced with so that it is no longer dependent upon one leader or one donor for its survival (Norton,

Nonprofits, for the most part, are judged solely on performance. Their organizational capacity refers to how well they serve their constituent group, or achieve mission fulfillment (Paynter & Berner, 2014). Today’s nonprofits are faced with increasing demands for their service, while operating on dwindling funding support. Attainment of organizational capacity, or its hindrance, is dependent on multiple aspects such as structural design, effectiveness measures, sustainability of funding, as well as leadership. Paynter

After many years of management in the profit sector of business I set my sights on the not for profit arena. With all the determination, commitment and leadership that I thought I had acquired throughout the years I ventured forth with high levels of confidence that ended abruptly when I began this course. I was thrown off track and almost derailed by the possibility that managing a not for profit organization could be any different than managing a multimillion dollar retail establishment. As the reading and assignments continued I faltered and fell into a state of doubt regarding my ability to master the management of such a complex entity with aspects that were so foreign to the thought process that had been instilled into soul of my