Leadership Challenges and Skills in Non-profit Organizations Report

This report provides a detailed examination of leadership within non-profit organizations (NPOs). It begins by discussing the nature and characteristics of NPOs, emphasizing their mission-driven focus, diverse stakeholders, and the complex environments in which they operate. The report then delves into the challenges leaders face, including resource constraints, competition, stakeholder management, and the need for effective impact measurement. It also highlights key human resource issues such as motivation, pay satisfaction, and volunteer management. The report further identifies the abilities and competencies crucial for effective NPO leadership, including ethical and values-based decision-making, board and committee development, financial management, community outreach, diversity awareness, risk management, fundraising, program planning, volunteer management, and information technology skills. The report emphasizes the importance of balancing structure and flexibility, leading paid and unpaid staff, and adapting to changing expectations to ensure the NPO's success. The report also provides case studies of leaders in the field such as Dr. Jemilah Mahmood and Anita Ahmad. This report is valuable for those seeking to understand the multifaceted aspects of leading and managing in the non-profit sector.

Week 4 – Leadership in Non-profit
Organisations

 Discuss the nature and characteristics of no
profit organisations
 Explain the challenges leaders experience i
leading in a non-profit organisation
 Identify the abilities a leader needs for lead
non-profit organisation
 Recognise the competencies a leader need
leading in a non-profit organisation

 Seek to create public good
 Usually driven by a “passion for mission”
 Involvement is usually “married to the cause” realisation of a social mission as a driving force and not profits often established or founded by individuals
 Play an important role in society
 A growing sector… many borne out of profit making entitie
 Extremely diversed sector: length in establishments categories number of staff size of budget

 Has diversed stakeholders Board of trustees Donors Volunteers Employees Members Local (and sometimes int.) government agen Visitors Prospective members/donors/volunteers

 Has diversed stakeholders
NPO
Board of
Trustees
Donors
Volunteers
Employees
Members
Local govt.
agencies
Visitors
Prospective
Members/
Donors/
Volunteers

 NPOs function in complex environment
 NPOs are experiencing increasing competition
 NPOs often are not able to have strategic plan
as they tend to tackle major issues and to quic
address them
 NPOs need to have affordable, accessible
management but with sufficient technical
assistance
 NPOs often receive a one-time only external
support E.g. government funding, corporate consultation

 Leaders of smaller NPOs often have multiple ro
and functions
 Building networks are often time consuming a
risky
 Lacking in access to resources necessary in co
with the pace and scale of change
 Have to cope with changing technologies E.g. data and information collection, technologically
mediated communication (inc. websites, facebook,
tweeting)

Dr. Jemilah Mahmood
• Founder of Mercy Malaysia
• Malaysian Medical Relief Society, 1999
• President from 1999 to 2010
• Member of Advisory Group of the
Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF)
• Recipient of several awards including
the Isa Award for Service to Humanity
"Your accountability is not just to your don
also your beneficiary. For instance, were y
beneficiaries involved in deciding what foo
buy? Did they receive it in time? Was there
bias in your distribution? Are you ethical in
way you work? Do beneficiaries have a cha
to voice complaints?"

Stakeholders:
 differences in experiences
 differences in expectations E.g. how funds should be allocated, partnerships of NPOs
 each seeking different relationships and connections w
the NPO (and leader)
 stakeholders are sometimes not clear about how they
best contribute to the NPO
 leader needs to constantly engage with stakeholders
 leaders need to learn how to effectively navigate and
consensus amongst the multiple and diverse stakehol

Measuring impact :
Stakeholders…
 are linking value to what they are doing
 wants to see impact of what they are doing
 increasingly demanding for tangible evidence
 wants to know that they are indeed making a
difference
 have differences in assumptions and perceptio
about the relationship between their efforts an
outcomes
 have different measures of impact (and succes

Measuring impact :
NPOs….
 can monitor and demonstrate effort but measu
the impact of those efforts is challenging
 tend to have limited evaluation program capac
 absence of standardised evaluation outcomes
 do not have ‘market feedback’ on how well the
is serving the community
 assessing cost-effectiveness and comparing
alternative actions is difficult

Measuring impact :
NPOs….
 sustained, measurable impact takes time to ev
 requires chain of impact with measurement fo
desired change and level of change
 measurements include quantitative and qualit