I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the 2024 Nonprofit Management Institute – What’s Next for the Social Sector? – hosted by the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The future is uncertain. But that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare for it, or help to shape it. At this year’s Nonprofit Management Institute, hosted annually by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, we’ll provide you with the tools and tips — and facilitate deeper connections with a diverse group of colleagues from around the world — that you’ll need to navigate four areas that are sure to disproportionately affect leaders across all sectors of society in the years ahead. From a rapidly evolving workforce to the deployment of AI, the influence of politics on the culture to a changing climate, we’ll focus on areas all decisionmakers in our sector need to address. By doing so, we’ll better support our people, strengthen our programs, and have a positive impact on the society at large.

Below are my notes from three of the sessions –

What’s Next for Nonprofits? Futurecasting Key Issues in 2024

Trista Harris

• Create vision with a long runway (50 years); you may find that once that vision is clear, you’ll get there much faster than you may have originally planned
• Future-thinking skills are critically important both for the individual with these skills (e.g., reduced anxiety, heightened optimism) and the organizations benefiting from such individual’s skills
• Futurism is a valuable tool that helps us see what is coming next and improve the future through better decision-making – see What is Futurism?
• What’s Next:
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a partner
  • Where is the next big crisis – think about probable disasters, what organizations will step up, and how their work can be supported
  • Future of democracy – our democracy may be too big – scenario-planning exercises for different contingencies (e.g., Presidential election)
• Future of philanthropy
  • Way it’s always worked vs. signals of the future (e.g., pandemic grantmaking processes, shift to racial equity frame, social impact bonds)
  • What’s coming next – philanthropy as a collaborator, regenerative philanthropy takes root (see Justice Funders’ model), seeing past the grant (including all investments in mission-related investments, including program-related investments), transformative impact (focused on solving issues rather than making things 5% less terrible)
  • Keep what works
  • See also Beyond the Magic Eight Ball – Trista Harris and the Real Future of Philanthropy in 2024 (Tim Lozier, Fluxx)
• FutureProof – building your organization’s strategic capacity
• Giving continues to move from giving to charities to giving to 501(c)(4) organizations, GoFundMe campaigns, and other alternatives for producing social good
• Tip: Spend 5% of your time on future-

Navigating DEI Backlash

Cheryl Dorsey, Joseph Sciortino, Marilee Fiebig, Lynda Gonzales-Chavez

• lncorporate DEI in every aspect of operations, which develops its strength and buy-in throughout the organization; ensure board and C-suite DEI champions
• Understand DEI locally, regionally, nationally, globally with recognition of the wide variety of DEI definitions and DEI journeys (including mitigating local risks as appropriate)
• Important not to back down on grantmaking and investing to advance racial equity (with an assumption that an organization receives appropriate legal advice to do so in a manner that doesn’t violate applicable laws, particularly in light of recent legal developments); “We will not be doing anticipatory obedience.”
• Desire from charities focused on racial equity to communicate to funders who initially funded DEI work after the George Floyd killing and have since stopped – Some criticisms may work (but understandably must balance concern of the prospects of future funding)
• Charities also dealing with internal DEI backlash challenges – Internal safe space conversations with active listening by executives may help and executives championing some staff needs to boards
• Philanthropy is more organized to fight for DEI; DEI leaders are continuing to do the work and having the challenging discussions
• Individuals need to give grace to themselves to be able to continue championing DEI in their organizations and beyond

How to Recruit and Retain a New Generation of Nonprofit Leaders

Joan Garry

• Problem: Despite the great importance of building a new generation of leaders in the nonprofit sector, nonprofits aren’t prioritizing the inclusion of development of Gen Z; a generation that will, by 2030, comprise 30% of workforce
• Challenges:
  • Workforce shortage
  • Compensation issues
  • Burnout and stress issues
  • Retirement rates are very high
  • HIgh turnovers on the leadership level
  • 77% of Gen Z employees currently employed are looking for other jobs
  • BIPOC leaders are losing their appetite for leadership – see The Push and Pull: Declining Interest in Nonprofit Leadership (Building Movement Project)
• Where are nonprofits dropping the ball?
  • We don’t market our orgs to Gen Z
  • We don’t invest in internal leadership development
  • We have no idea how to create thriving multigenerational workplaces (Boomers are not retiring and workplaces have 4-5 generations working together)
  • We expect Gen Z to play by older generations’ rules even if those rules aren’t all great
  • 49% of managers report finding it difficult to work with GenZ all or most of the time
  • 12% of managers have fired a Gen Z employee less than a week after their start date
  • Age is painfully overlooked as a core component of DEI work
• Common descriptions of Gen Z (also commonly used as microaggressions):
  • entitled
  • coddled
  • question authority
  • push organizations to weigh in on political issues (unrelated to mission)
  • lazy
  • disruptive
• Other characteristics and experiences of Gen Z, all of which impacts their relationship to power:
  • First generation of digital natives
  • The most racially and ethnically diverse generation
  • Well-educated and informed, strong desire to learn
  • Expect diversity and DEI at work
  • Have strong values, especially regarding social justice and sustainabililty
  • Speak truth to power
  • Experienced George Floyd, unprecedented gun violence, political upheavals, hybrid workplace
  • Pessimistic about financial future, about ever owning a home
  • No institutional loyalty
  • Adaptable, entrepreneurial
  • Over 50% report diagnosed mental health issues
  • Strongly desire work-life balance
• Solutions:
  • Must reframe the problem as a priority :
    • We must build a work culture that works across 4-5 generations
    • We must recruit and retain a new generation of leaders
    • We must build a culturally intelligent organization offering everyone a true sense of belonging
  • See Gen Z employees for who they are (share don’t compare)
  • Be clear, transparent, and authentic
  • Create growth plans not for them but with them
  • Hear them
  • Connect them to the impact your organization has on the world
  • Look at your own backyard – Gen Z employees have great value in the workplace
  • Need a backyard where everyone feels safe, heard, and welcome