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Spertus in the News
GRANTS AND GIVING
Spertus studies leadership issues
facing area non-profits
By Charles Storch
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 28, 2006
In March, several hundred members of the area's charitable community packed a Loop auditorium to hear some provocative findings of a national survey. The study expressed the frustrations felt by many non-profit chiefs in dealing with their boards and outside funders. It found many leaders were burned out and looking to leave, but few of their organizations were prepared to replace them.
Nearly 2,000 executive directors in Chicago and seven other cities responded to that survey by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services of California. Now, Spertus College's Center for Nonprofit Management in Chicago will explore whether there is a leadership crisis here by surveying executive directors and board heads at some 2,000 area charities.
The center wants to determine whether dissatisfaction between board and staff is creating management turmoil and leading to turnover. It also seeks "to assess the preparedness of these organizations [for leadership transition] and develop programming that may be of assistance," said its director, Lynda Crawford.
The findings are expected to be reported before year's end.
Meanwhile, a new Chronicle of Philanthropy survey shows that management turnover is helping boost executive compensation at non-profits around the country. It quoted recruiters as saying market-level pay might be needed to lure new leaders.
According to the Chronicle, the median compensation of leaders at the nation's larger non-profits rose by 4.8 percent, to $327,575, in 2005 after a 3.7 percent increase in 2004.
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Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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