Nikita Mitchell (2011 Fellow) writes a guest post for SocialEarth
ProInspire: Addressing the Nonprofit Leadership Deficit by Utilizing Business Talent
by Nikita Mitchell
Over the last several years interest in working in the social sector has soared. President Obama has brought considerable attention to the importance of volunteerism and civic engagement since the beginning of his presidency. Fellowships and post-graduate programs have steadily gained popularity over the last few years with volunteer and service programs like Teach for America, AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps experiencing a stark increase in applications. Even schools across the country, especially MBA programs, are incorporating courses like social entrepreneurship into their curriculum in response to growing interest in the field.
The Nonprofit Leadership Deficit
With this trend, the recruiting and hiring opportunities for nonprofits are tremendous. More importantly, this couldn’t be a more critical time for such an opportunity to arise. In 2006 The Bridgespan Group released a white paper called The Nonprofit’s Leadership Deficit. In it the author Thomas Tierney identified three areas that nonprofits need to address in order to manage this deficit: