Effective Leadership In Nonprofit Organizations

According to Richard Moyers, there are ten basic responsibilities for the CEO in nonprofits, including having a good understanding of the organization’s mission, maintaining the organization’s structure and making sure the organization’s daily operation, keeping an eye on the financial conditions, fundraising, setting an example for members, planning for the organization’s future, finding suitable successors and preparing for a smooth leadership transition, giving enough attentions to external environment, ensuring programs on the right track, and supporting the board.
An excellent nonprofit leader should have both management and leadership abilities. The following five parts are considered common standards to evaluate the effectiveness of a nonprofit leader: to what extend is the leader loyalty to the organization’s mission, does the leader maintain a good relationship with the board, does the leader focus much on the external environment and activities, is the leader willing to share his/her power with capable members, and does the leader have an accurate judgement and focus on the priorities? In order to achieve effective leadership, scholars suggest nonprofit leaders to use the political frame and put the right person in the right position at the right time.
Leading a nonprofit …show more content…
As the founder contributes too much passion and effort to the development of the organization, he/she seizes too much power and cannot easily concede the right to other members or successors. Conflicts will occur between the founder and the board. I think the founder syndrome exists in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors, or might be even more severe in for-profit organizations. As the founder of a for-profit organization tend to have more centralized power and numerous benefits, including money, reputation and so on, than the founder in a nonprofit organization, it will be much harder for them to relinquish their