Bridgestar - An Initiative of the Bridgespan Group

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• Adapting Your Resume for a Nonprofit Job Search

  Tips and sample resumes highlight effective approaches for presenting your experience when transitioning into the nonprofit sector.
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• Attracting—and Benefiting from—Sector Switchers

  Bridgespan Group Partner Wayne Luke shares the story of a high-profile search, NASA’s recruitment of the Mercury Seven, which illustrates ways nonprofits can identify and evaluate great job candidates from outside the sector, and also integrate them successfully into their organizations.
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• Becoming a More Effective Nonprofit Board

  Board performance is widely recognized as a critical ingredient in a nonprofit organization’s ability to achieve impact. This article explores the key elements of what effective board performance looks like, and how can nonprofit boards become more effective.
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• Being Nimble in Your Interview Process: A Recruiting Caselet

  Scheduling and conducting interviews can be complex and lengthy processes, but there are times when moving quickly can help an organization land the right candidate.
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• Board Job Descriptions

  These brief job descriptions, from BoardSource, share the basic responsibilities of various nonprofit board roles.
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• Board Members and Personal Contributions

  Many nonprofit boards spend considerable time defining the board’s role in securing adequate resources for the organization, and board members’ personal contributions are an essential part of the discussion. This article from BoardSource discusses why board members should give, various giving policies, and more on the topic.
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• Board Orientation

  Every nonprofit board has a culture that is defined by its customs, traditions, and practices—and every new nonprofit board member needs an introduction to that culture. Courtesy of BoardSource, this article shares the importance of board orientation and how a nonprofit can approach introducing new board members to their roles, other board members, and the organization.
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• Brenna Copeland: Staying Focused on Your “Value-add”

  When Brenna Copeland decided to shift her career from the for-profit to nonprofit sector, her primary motive was to make a difference. But rather than framing her career switch in largely altruistic terms, Copeland focused on the specific skills that could help a nonprofit better serve its mission.
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• Bridgestar Networking Resources for COOs

  Learn about Bridgestar’s networking resources for chief operating officers: the Boston COO Group, the national COO Listserve, and COO convenings.
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• Bridging: An Overview

  Bridgers, who transition to the nonprofit sector for reasons both personal and professional, may encounter many rewards and challenges during their journey.
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• Bruce Skyer: Finding a Professional and Personal Fit at Nonprofit Finance Fund

  Bruce Skyer knew he wanted to transition from the for-profit sector to a nonprofit organization, but he had no nonprofit work experience. Through extensive networking, he discovered a field that perfectly complemented his skills and experience.
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• Building a New Foundation: Patty Stonesifer Shares Her Experiences as CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  Patty Stonesifer, the former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses bridging into the nonprofit sector and the lessons she learned while managing a fast-growing foundation.
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• Building a Recruiting Team

  The first step in the recruiting process is to identify a team of individuals in your organization to be part of the hiring process.
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• Business Planning for Nonprofits: The Organizational and Leadership Benefits

  The Bridgespan Group draws on client experience to illustrate the key components of the business-planning process. They share some practical tips about getting started and also describe a typical written plan.
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• Business Planning: What It Is, and Why It Matters: Video

  Watch and download the presentation from Bridgespan partner William Foster's presentation for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation's (LISC) "Experts on Line" conference.
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• Career Imprinting: A Conversation with Monica Higgins

  Most senior leaders are the sum of several, if not many, career experiences. These experiences, whether positive and exciting or challenging in the most difficult ways, shape the manner in which we frame our thoughts, make decisions, and even choose our teams.
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• Caroline Horton: Growth Opportunities within a Growing Organization

  Caroline Horton began her career as an entry-level finance manager and grew to become a chief financial officer. And she did it all within the same nonprofit organization.
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• CFO Fitness Quiz: Are You Tough Enough for the Caring Sector?

  Whether you are considering becoming a nonprofit chief financial officer or are hiring one, the questions in this CFO Fitness Quiz can help inform your decision.
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• CFOs Delve into Business Planning

  A group of nonprofit finance executives discuss the many facets of business planning, ranging from helpful planning tools to the wrenching decisions that have to be made when a popular program is no longer financially viable.
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• Chip Hollands: “Cold Call” Reaps Big Rewards

  Charles “Chip” Hollands explains how a cold-call led to his becoming chief financial officer at the Calvert Social Investment Foundation.
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• Christy Lueders: From Volunteer Fundraiser to a Decade as Full-time CFO at the YMCA of Greater Seattle

  Christy Lueders quickly rose through the ranks as a volunteer fundraiser while working as a commercial lender. When the Seattle Y asked if she would be interested in interviewing for the CFO position, she jumped—and over the past 10 years she has played a key role in growing the organization from $27 million to $57 million in revenues.
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• Chrystal Kornegay and Mossik Hacobian: Leaders and Partners at Urban Edge

  Mossik Hacobian and Chrystal Kornegay have blurred the traditional ED and COO roles to forge a unique partnership at Urban Edge.
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• Compensation Worksheet

  This worksheet can help you understand your personal finances before you start assessing specific job opportunities.
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• Conducting Successful Interviews

  The interview is the first opportunity for an organization and a candidate to get to know one another, so it is important to prepare well. This piece provides both tips on conducting successful interviews and a set of sample interview questions you can use in your next search.
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• Configuring the Interview Process: A Recruiting Caselet

  When an organization is recruiting a new member for its leadership team, creating the right interview process is an important step toward finding the right candidate.
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• Considering and Evaluating Internal Candidates for Senior-Level Nonprofit Positions

  Internal candidates surface in nearly one-third of searches for senior nonprofit roles. We offer some practical advice on how to evaluate internal candidates—and what to do if the internal candidate is not the best person for the job.
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• COO Roles and Structures: Stories from the Field

  The most salient characteristic of the COO job seems to be its variety. COO roles, and the organizational structures in which COOs operate, are highly varied across organizations and even within a single organization over time. This diversity is evident in excerpts from Bridgestar’s interviews with COOs.
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• Creating the COO Position

  Many nonprofit organizations reach a point in their development—whether at their founding, a few years later, or decades into their operations—when key stakeholders feel there is a need to add a COO to the management team. The COOs and EDs we interviewed shared their experiences working in organizations that recognized the need for a COO, faced doubts and concerns about the position, and worked through challenges to successfully bring in a COO.
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• Cultural Fit in the Nonprofit Sector: A Conversation with Brian O’Connell

  Nonprofit thought leader Brian O’Connell discusses why cultural fit is especially important to the nonprofit sector and what it really takes for an individual to succeed in a nonprofit organization.
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• David Williams: Reflections on the COO Position

  David Williams worked at Habitat for Humanity International for more than ten years, five of them as executive vice president and COO. In that position he ran the internal side of a very large, complex organization, working under its high-profile founder. In January of 2005, he became president and CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America.
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• Elizabeth Ortiz: Balancing Mission and Margin at a Fast-Growing Nonprofit

  Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) was on the cusp of a major growth phase when Elizabeth Ortiz came on board as chief operating officer. Ortiz, whose work experience was primarily in the for-profit sector, helped NFF increase the staff’s focus on economics without sacrificing the organization’s core values.
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• Encore: Finding Meaning in a Post-Retirement Career: A Conversation with Marc Freedman

  Marc Freedman, founder and chief executive officer of Civic Ventures, argues that older workers just may be the answer to the nonprofit sector’s leadership deficit.
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• Executive Director Candidates: What You Should Find Out About Your Prospective Role

  Bridgestar's guest writer, Tim Wolfred of CompassPoint, discusses what you should find out when interviewing for an Executive Director position.
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• The Executive Director: The COO’s Most Important Partner

  For an organization to run smoothly, the ED and COO must act as a unit. While some bumps in the road are always to be expected in such a complex and dynamic relationship, there are things you can look for in the job search process to avoid a potentially problematic pairing, as well as approaches you can use on the job to help make the ED relationship you are in work better.
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• Extending an Offer

  Reaching the point of extending an offer to your first-choice candidate is exciting. This piece provides some guidance on extending offers as well as a template for writing the offer letter.
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• Fiduciary Responsibilities of Board Members

  One of the main responsibilities of nonprofit board members is to maintain financial accountability of their organization. Board members act as trustees of the organization’s assets and must exercise due diligence to oversee that the organization is well-managed and that its financial situation remains sound. Here is an outline, provided by BoardSource, on how nonprofit board members can fulfill their role as fiduciaries.
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• Finding Leaders for America's Nonprofits

  Nonprofits foresee a need to fill 24,000 vacant or new roles in 2009, according to a new report by the Bridgespan Group. Yet despite the economic downturn, nonprofit organizations anticipate challenges in finding candidates who are both qualified for the roles and who are cultural fits with their organizations.
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• Finding the Right CFO for Your Organization

  The key to finding the right CFO for your organization is to consider what qualities, skills, and experience will provide a good fit with the needs of your organization. Through Bridgestar’s research and talent-matching work, we have identified practices that seem to increase the chances of finding the right person.
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• Finding the Right CFO Position

  Because of the variety in role definition across CFO positions, finding the right fit can be particularly challenging and important. The key to success in a job search is finding the right fit between your skills, interests, and personality on the one hand, and the characteristics of the potential organization, role, and leadership team on the other.
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• Finding the Right COO for Your Organization

  Because the profile of the ideal nonprofit COO varies so widely, the key to finding the right person is to consider what qualities, skills, and experience will provide a good fit with the needs of your organization. Whether hiring for a newly created COO position or filling an existing position, each organization must chart its own course. However, through our research and our talent-matching work, we have found some practices that seem to increase the chances of finding the right person.
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• Finding the Right COO Position

  The key to success in a job search is finding the right fit between your skills, interests, and disposition on the one hand, and the characteristics of the potential organization, role, and leadership team on the other. Because of the tremendous variety in role definition across COO positions, finding the right fit can be particularly challenging and important for COO candidates.
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• Finding the Right ED: Creating and Managing an Effective Search Committee

  An organized, effective search committee is a key factor in the successful recruitment of an ED. We show you how to put together your search committee and equip it with the necessary tools. 
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• Flexible Work Arrangements: A Win-Win for Organizations and Employees

  Flexible work arrangements are on the rise, and may be one way for nonprofits to better attract and retain talented senior managers.
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• Flexible Work Arrangements: Stories from the Field

  Creating more flexible work arrangements is one way to better attract and retain talented leaders and managers. In this article, both employers and employees who have experience with flexible work options share thoughts on this important topic.
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• Frequently Asked Questions: About the COO Role

  Answers to some common questions about the COO position.
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• Frequently Asked Questions: Becoming a CFO

  Bridgestar developed these questions and answers based on in-depth interviews and focus groups with a diverse group of 25 nonprofit CFOs and 15 nonprofit technical assistance providers and funders, combined with the Bridgestar talent-matching team’s experience in recruiting and placing nonprofit CFOs.
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• Frequently Asked Questions: Becoming a COO

  Answers to some common questions from people considering and seeking COO positions.
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• Frequently Asked Questions: Bridging into the Nonprofit Sector

  Answers to some common questions, including how to get started and what to expect regarding salary and work hours.
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• Frequently Asked Questions: Hiring a CFO

  The key to finding the right CFO for your organization is to consider what qualities, skills, and experience will provide a good fit with the needs of your organization. Through Bridgestar’s research and talent-matching work, we have identified practices that seem to increase the chances of finding the right person.
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• Frequently Asked Questions: Hiring a COO

  What is a COO? What do nonprofit COOs do? How can I tell whether my organization needs a COO? What advice do you have for organizations designing or restructuring a COO position? For organizations recruiting and selecting a COO? Answers to some common questions from organizations at various points in the search process.
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• From Second in Command to Chief Executive: How Big a Leap?

  Many experienced chief operating officers of nonprofit organizations aspire to become chief executive officers or executive directors. That said, these individuals are in a better position than most candidates to see that the top job has challenges of its own and that the two positions are very different.
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• Fulfill the Dream of Leading a Nonprofit

  In this Harvard Business Review article, Bridgespan Group Partners David Simms and Wayne Luke advise for-profit executives who want to bridge into the nonprofit sector to start by volunteering and call on employers to find ways to give these executives a hand.
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• Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Jim Collins on Leadership

  Best-selling author Jim Collins discusses the biggest future challenge for the social sectors: leadership. He argues that having the right leaders in the right seats at organizations throughout the social sectors can make the difference between a good and a great society. April 2007.
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• Good to Great: Lessons for the Social Sector

  While conducting research for his 2005 monograph, "Good to Great and the Social Sectors", Jim Collins addressed an audience of Bridgestar members and reflected on how the principles of Good to Great apply to nonprofit organizations and took questions from the audience. January 2005.
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• Governance as Leadership: A Conversation with William Ryan

  “Governance as Leadership,” a book published by John Wiley & Sons in October 2004, challenges traditional thinking about the role of nonprofit boards of directors with a new framework for understanding the modes in which boards govern.
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• Governance Practices

  Results of a Bridgestar survey of nonprofit board members and executive directors in September 2004 focusing on their experiences serving on, or reporting to, boards of directors.
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• The Growth of Youth-Serving Organizations

  A report on the Bridgespan Group white paper commissioned by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
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• A Guide for Nonprofit Organizations When Hiring Senior Managers

  The following tips, which are based on Bridgestar’s experience in client engagements, are designed to create an interview process that enables nonprofit organizations to find the right people for their positions.
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• A Guide to Engaging an Executive Search Firm

  Organizations have the option, when attracting senior leaders, to conduct their searches for senior management internally (i.e., through personal networks, board and staff) or to engage professional assistance. This guide focuses on the latter option, with the goal of providing guidance to boards and executive directors seeking to best utilize professional assistance during a senior management search.
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• Guide to Selected Self-Assessment Tools

  A starter list of self-assessment tools for you to investigate as you begin your job search.
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• Hands-on Paths to Full-time Nonprofit Work

  There are many paths that can lead to a senior staff position in the nonprofit sector. This article focuses on the hands-on approach of volunteering.
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• Helping Internal Hires Succeed in Their New Roles

  The transition from staff member to senior leader at the same nonprofit can be a bit tricky. But there are steps organizations can take to make the process go more smoothly. 
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• Hiring a Bridger

  To position themselves to take advantage of the skills bridgers have to offer, organizations should be aware of the challenges some bridgers encounter and utilize the lessons learned by nonprofits that have hired bridgers in the past.
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• Hiring a Bridger: Interview Guide

  The key to success in any hiring process is finding the candidate with the right skills, interests, and qualities for your organization. This interview guide can help organizations assess a bridger candidate’s transferable experience and qualities.
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• Hiring a Bridger into the COO Role: Reflections from the Field

  Hiring bridger talent can be both rewarding and frustrating on both the side of the new hire and the organization. Bridgestar conducted an interview with the CEO and COO of the Greater Boston Food Bank to get the perspective of an organization that successfully created a new role—Chief Operating Officer—and recruited, hired and assimilated a bridger to fill it.
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• Hiring a Bridger: Referencing Guide

  Conducting professional references is an important step in the search process. This guide, used as a supplement to an organization’s existing reference-checking process, can help assess a bridger candidate’s transferable experience and qualities.
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• Hiring a CFO: Interview Guide

  The key to success in any hiring process is finding the candidate with the right qualities, skills, and experience for your organization’s needs, culture, and leadership. The candidate interview is an essential part of this process. This interview guide provides a broad overview of the fundamental competency areas in which a CFO candidate should be assessed, the types of questions interviewers should ask, and what they should look for in candidate answers.
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• Hiring an Executive Director during a Difficult Time of Year: A Bridgestar Success Story

  Learn how one organization used a variety of online resources to conduct a successful search for a new executive director during the dog days of summer.
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• Hiring Toolkit: Navigating the Hiring Process

  Making great hiring decisions is both challenging and critical. Bridgestar has created this Hiring Toolkit to help you navigate the hiring process and create the right match between your organization’s talent needs and potential candidates.
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• How Do You Hire Staff From Outside Your Area of Expertise?

  Members of Bridgestar's LinkedIn Groups weigh in on how to best recruit and hire staff for your organization when the position you seek to fill is outside your area of expertise.
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• How Should a Nonprofit Board of Directors Be Structured?

  Every nonprofit board is responsible for creating a structure, policies, and procedures that support good governance. In this article, BoardSource provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about board structure and organization.
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• How to Begin Your Transition into the Nonprofit Sector

  You have already decided that you would like to find a career in the nonprofit sector, but how do you know what opportunity is right for you? How do you ensure that you find a place where you can have meaningful impact and use your skills effectively? Read this article to find out more.
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• How to Develop Yourself as a Nonprofit Leader

  Six senior nonprofit leaders who have spent their entire careers in the nonprofit sector offer advice to mid-level nonprofit managers looking to move into senior nonprofit leadership roles.
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• How to Market Yourself in the Nonprofit Sector

  In a buyers' market, simply being a talented candidate is often times not enough to land a senior leadership role, so job seekers need to get out and sell themselves to prospective nonprofit employers. The idea of coming up with a personal marketing plan may be intimidating, but the six steps laid out in this article will help nonprofit job seekers put their best foot forward during a nonprofit job search.
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• How to Talk About Finances So Non-Financial Folks Will Listen

  A variety of nonprofit chief financial officers and technical assistance providers offer ideas and advice on how to make financial information come alive for your organization’s frontline staff.
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• The Impact of a CFO: Profile of Rubicon Programs, Inc.

  Sometimes adding the right position and the right person at the right time can really help transform an organization. In Rubicon’s case, hiring Kristen Growney as CFO did just that.
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• The Impact of a CFO: Profile of Rubicon Programs, Inc. Audio

  In these audio clips, key leaders of Rubicon Programs, Inc., talk about the organization's decision to hire a CFO for the first time.
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• Insights on Bridging: Videos

  Watch video clips of members of the Bridgestar talent team discussing bridging to the nonprofit sector.
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• Interim Leadership: Looking Beyond the Executive Director

  How one organization used an interim COO to buy itself the necessary time to find the right person for the long term.
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• James O’S Morton: Life as a Nonprofit CEO

  The day-to-day responsibilities for nonprofit chief executive officers (CEOs) can vary greatly. To help would-be nonprofit CEOs better understand the role, we interviewed James O’S Morton, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Springfield, about the challenges he first faced when joining the Y, and his ongoing responsibilities as CEO.
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• Janice Bigelow, CPA: Becoming the First CFO at Communities in Schools

  Communities In Schools hired Janice Bigelow as its first full-time CFO in January 2005. Prior to accepting the position, she conducted a thorough assessment of whether the organization was ready to hire a CFO, and whether she was the right fit for the position. 
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• Jessica Zander: Wearing Multiple Hats at The Steppingstone Foundation

  Jessica Zander, Director of Finance and Administration at The Steppingstone Foundation, wears more than a few hats in this $4 million organization—an experience typical of many CFOs of smaller nonprofits.
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• John B. Latchford, CPA: From Board Chair Through Catastrophe to CFO and CEO

  John Latchford followed an atypical career path: originally serving as board chair and then CFO of San Francisco Goodwill Industries, he then moved across the Bay to become CEO of its sister organization, Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay.
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• Kym Luqman: Focusing on Transferable Skills

  After working exclusively in information technology for 30 years and volunteering for nonprofits, Kym Luqman was ready to make a career in the nonprofit sector. But how would her extensive for-profit experience influence her ultimate goal of finding an executive director (ED) position? Luqman shares how she was able to adapt her for-profit experience to the nonprofit sector and how her past experience has influenced her current nonprofit role.
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• Audio: The Leadership Deficit in Nonprofits and What Philanthropists Can Do About It

  Listen to Tom Tierney, Bridgespan's chairman and co-founder, speak at the Philanthropy Roundtable's annual meeting about the nonprofit sector's leadership deficit.
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• Leadership Priorities: What Facets of Management Shouldn’t You Delegate?

  Delegating some responsibilities, and the attendant decision-making authority, can help nonprofit leaders address all the issues vying for their attention. However, two critical areas of responsibility should not be assigned to anyone but the top manager: aligning staff and other stakeholders around a common set of priorities, and developing the organization's leaders.
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• Leading Change and Rebuilding Confidence

  Marty Evans came to the Red Cross with a mandate from the board and stakeholders to lead change and rebuild confidence. On August 9th 2004, Evans sat down with Bridgestar to discuss how she approached this unique leadership challenge, using her experience and her commitment to serve as a guide.
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• Leading in Mid-Life: Nonprofit Careers for Older Workers

  The desire to contribute has no age limit. Examples of men and women creating social impact span the generations, and we can expect to see even more as a new generation of older Americans – the “baby boomers” – seeks to be engaged in meaningful roles past the point where their parents and other elders simply moved to the sidelines.
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• Leading in the Second Half: The Nonprofit Opportunity

  Leading in the Second Half: Commentary by David L. Simms, Managing Partner of Bridgestar, for the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures New Face of Work Survey.
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• Leveraging Social Media in Your Nonprofit Job Search: Q&A with Beth Kanter, Author of Beth’s Blog

  Social media expert Beth Kanter discusses the role that new media tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter should play in a nonprofit job search.
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• Lost in Translation: Common Language Pitfalls for Bridgers

  Even the most prepared job candidate may inadvertently say the wrong thing during a job interview. For those bridging to the nonprofit sector, the risk is even greater because there are distinct differences in the language used in the two sectors.
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• Making the Jump

  What should those who are looking to transition to a career in the nonprofit sector do to prepare themselves for their new roles? What skills do they need to hone? What cultural changes can they expect?
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• Making the Right Hire: Assessing a Candidate’s Fit with Your Nonprofit

  Finding the candidate who is the best cultural fit for your organization can be very challenging. But there are practices that can help you make a successful hire.
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• Managing a New Employee's Transition

  The important work of making a successful hire is not complete when the candidate accepts the offer. Rather, the process continues through the new hire’s first 30 to 90 days as he or she manages the transition into the new role.
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• Managing in a Tough Economy: How Nonprofit Leaders and Their Organizations Are Facing the Uncertainty

  Facing tough economic times, some nonprofit chief financial officers and chief operating officers share how they are aggressively managing costs while keeping the lines of communication open with their organizations’ stakeholders.
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• Marshall Chapin and Envision Schools: Reflections on Hiring a Bridger

  A bridger and the nonprofit CEO who hired him share their perspectives on the process of hiring and transitioning a bridger.
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• More Effective Boards: A Detailed Guide

  This list of effective practices is designed to serve as a guide and to spark discussion within an organization about its top priorities for board development.
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• Moving within the Sector: A Bridgestar Success Story

  When you have built a career as a leader in one a specific type of nonprofit organization, it can be challenging to move into a different part of the sector. Learn how one person leveraged her skills to successfully take on a role in a new domain.
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• Nancy Lewis: Moving Within the Nonprofit Sector

  Over the course of 30 years, Nancy Lewis had built a successful career in the Massachusetts nonprofit performing arts arena. But in December 2008, severe financial pressures forced the theater where she served as general manager to lay off virtually its entire staff, including her.
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• Networking

  Professional career coaches and executive recruiters share their expertise on how both job-seekers and nonprofits can build and navigate their networks to find jobs and recruit senior leaders most effectively.
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• Networking Opportunities for Nonprofit CFOs

  This list includes CFO networking groups across the country that are specifically targeted to nonprofit CFOs and others that include CFOs in addition to a broader membership base. 
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• A New Seat at the Table: When Is It Time to Add to Your Senior Management Team?

  Most organizations reach a point in their growth when adding to their senior management team makes sense. But convincing stakeholders to spend significant money and perhaps to insert a new layer of management can be a challenge.
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• Nonprofit Accountability: Inside & Out

  A transcript of the remarks made by Diana Aviv, President of Independent Sector, from her speech to the Bridgestar community about accountability in the nonprofit sector.
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• Nonprofit Boards: How to Find a Rewarding Board Position

  Becoming a member of a nonprofit organization's board can be a meaningful way to explore how an individual's experience and expertise can be applied in the nonprofit sector at the governance level, and ultimately, how one's experience and expertise can help advance a nonprofit organization's social impact. It also can be a rewarding, high impact way that for-profit executives can do community service while learning new skills that can enhance their own careers.
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• Nonprofit Careers: Tips for Moving Up

  When a leadership role opens up at your nonprofit, here are some ways to boost your chances of getting the promotion.
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• The Nonprofit Chief Financial Officer

  In this era of increased scrutiny of financial performance and reporting, greater accountability to the public trust, and rapid growth in the size and complexity of individual organizations, many nonprofits are focusing on the chief financial officer (CFO) function. What exactly are the roles and responsibilities of the nonprofit CFO? What unique challenges do nonprofit CFOs face and what are their keys to success? How do the challenges and success factors vary depending on the size and type of organization? Bridgestar explored these questions with 25 nonprofit CFOs representing a variety of sub-sectors, budget sizes, funding sources, organizational growth stages, and geographies. 
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• The Nonprofit Chief Operating Officer

  In today’s environment, with the increased complexity of the nonprofit executive director’s job, the imperative is ever greater for nonprofits to hire and retain strong senior management to complement the chief executive. This trend has led to a renewed focus on the chief operating officer. However, the COO role means different things to different people and organizations. Perhaps more than any other role, the COO position is tailored—and in some cases created or eliminated—to fit the needs of an organization at a particular point in its development.
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• Nonprofit COOs: Where to Turn for Support

  Nonprofit chief operating officer (COO) roles vary widely, and so do the resources they use to gain advice. The key to finding support is in tapping a variety of resources and choosing the ones that work best for the individual COO.
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• The Nonprofit Sector's Leadership Deficit

  In an extensive study conducted by the Bridgespan Group it was found that over the next decade, nonprofits will need to attract and develop some 640,000 new senior managers—the equivalent of 2.4 times the number currently employed. By 2016, these organizations will need almost 80,000 new senior managers per year. 
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• Nonprofit Job Description Samples

  This page offers several sample job descriptions for senior management roles, including both generic job description templates and specific examples of well-written job descriptions shared with permission of the organizations.
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• Nonprofit Job Seekers: Finding the Right Fit for You

  Determining whether a prospective employer is a good cultural fit can be a challenging process for job seekers, especially those who are entering the nonprofit sector for the first time. But there are practices that can help.
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• Nonprofit Teams

  A group of executive directors discuss the challenges to building teams in nonprofit organizations.
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• Onboarding: Tips for Transitioning into a Senior Nonprofit Role

  Onboarding—a systematic method for transitioning new staffers into an organization—can be especially important for the for-profit professional moving into a senior nonprofit role.
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• The Overhead Trap: An Executive Director Roundtable

  Bridgestar convened a roundtable discussion of the executive directors of 15 member organizations to discuss the results of our study of compensation practices among Bridgestar members. The group discussed their own compensation practices, the internal and external pressures that affect their practices, and how increased donor attention to ‘overhead’ issues affects both their strategy and their communication.
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• Patty Stonesifer on Adjusting to a New Role

  In this video interview, Patty Stonesifer, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, explains to Bridgespan Group Chairman and Co-founder Thomas J. Tierney how she had to adjust her approach to managing an organization to take on the role of CEO of a start-up foundation.
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• Patty Stonesifer on Career Reinvention: Video

  See a video interview with Patty Stonesifer, the former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discussing transitioning to the nonprofit sector with Bridgespan Group Chairman and Co-founder Thomas J. Tierney.
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• Performance Evaluation Practices

  Bridgestar invited our members who were currently employed in the nonprofit sector to participate in an online survey regarding their personal experiences with performance evaluations.
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• Phil Cunliffe: Transitioning from Money Management to Helping the Poor and Disenfranchised

  Phil Cunliffe, a successful investment manager, was surprised to find how much he loved the interim leadership role he’d assumed at a small nonprofit. He became the director of financial services at the $17 million nonprofit St. Anthony Foundation in 1998 and has been helping people who are poor or disenfranchised ever since. 
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• The Power of Networking: Kathy Heagney Williams' Path to the Nonprofit Sector

  Making the most of her personal and professional networks has been a hallmark of Kathy Heagney Williams' career path. Here, Williams shares how her networking skills led her to a position as a chief financial officer at Zoo Atlanta, and how networking continues to help her as she builds her nonprofit career.
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• Practical Advice on Bridging into the Nonprofit Sector

  Five pieces of practical advice for those who have, or are contemplating switching into the nonprofit sector, drawn from our research with those who have already made the transition.
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• Processing Applications and Screening Resumes

  Creating a system for reviewing applications and resumes will help you improve your chances of including the most relevant candidates in your interview pool, including uncovering some hidden gems. This piece discusses key steps and shares an assessment tool Bridgespan executive search consultants use when evaluating candidate resumes.
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• Profiles of Nonprofit Practitioners

  Meet some experienced leaders who are currently at the senior level in nonprofit organizations. They share their career paths, as well as some of the rewards and challenges of their current positions.
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• Prospective Bridgers: Combating Common Myths

  Common misconceptions prospective bridgers may encounter and techniques they can use to allay hiring managers’ concerns. 
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• Q & A with Jim Collins

  An interview with Jim Collins, after the publication of his monograph "Good to Great and the Social Sectors", in which he shares his thoughts on topics related to nonprofit leadership, and discusses a particular advantage nonprofits have in attracting great people: mission focus. February, 2006.
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• RAPID Decision-Making

  Decision-making in nonprofits can be challenging for a variety of reasons, but there are tools that can help improve the process. A tool called RAPID^SM has been highly effective, and is easily adaptable to different situations, team sizes, and types of organizations.
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• Recruiting and Job Hunting in Tough Economic Times

  Finding the right candidate—or the right nonprofit job—in a tough economic climate takes preparation, perseverance, and an inherent sense of optimism.
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• Recruiting and Keeping GOOD Board Members

  A member of our LinkedIn groups asked the community how to best recruit active and involved board members who can provide leadership, here are their suggestions.
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• Recruiting and Vetting Nonprofit Board Members

  Understanding your organization’s key priorities is the first step in understanding which individuals should be recruited to join your board.
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• Recruiting Diverse Talent

  Recruiting, retaining, and managing a diverse workforce at all levels of an organization is a significant priority for nonprofit leaders. The good news is that for organizations committed to building diverse teams, there are some tactical steps that experts agree will help you conduct a successful search.
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• Recruiting in a Crisis

  When a nonprofit is in crisis, filling vacant executive positions may seem like a daunting task. But such a time can also present strategic hiring opportunities.
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• Reference Check: More than a Formality

  Conducting reference checks will help you ensure that the candidate you ultimately choose will be well-positioned to succeed within the organization. This piece provides guidance on the process and a set of useful reference checking questions for you to use in your next search.
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• Resources to Find Board Positions

  After identifying the types of organizations that spark your passion, where do you find board positions? One way to start is to do some web research.
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• Ross Maund: Doing Your Homework to Smooth the Transition

  Ross Maund, CEO and President of Junior Achievement Canada and the Canada Business Hall of Fame, shares what he wishes he had known before taking his current nonprofit role.
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• Ruth Passo: Discovering the Role That is the Right Fit

  Finding the right nonprofit role can be challenging. Learn how one bridger used online resources to refocus her job search efforts and find the nonprofit role that was the best fit.
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• Sample CFO Job Descriptions

  CFO roles vary across organizations and within organizations over time. Based on the extensive experience of Bridgestar’s talent-matching team, we created sample job descriptions illustrating how the CFO role might be configured in four different organizations: a small nonprofit, a large nonprofit, a medium-sized nonprofit with complex funding sources, and a medium-sized nonprofit with straightforward funding.
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• Sample COO Job Descriptions and Organizational Charts

  COO roles—and the organizational structures in which COOs operate—are highly varied across organizations and even within organizations over time. Sample job descriptions illustrate three approaches to defining COO roles and responsibilities.
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• Sample Cover Letter: John Jones

  Your cover letter is often your first chance to make a good impression on a potential employer, so it should be personalized for each job opportunity and, together with your resume; it should tell a compelling story about who you are, what you have accomplished, and why the potential employer should want to meet you.
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• Sandra Timmons: From COO to Chief Executive

  After five years as chief operating officer of Girls Incorporated, Sandra Timmons was enjoying her job, but an unexpected conversation caused her to consider a chief executive position. In 2003, she became president of A Better Chance.
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• Saying "No"

  The best part about the hiring process is extending an offer to a terrific candidate and taking him or her out to a celebratory lunch when the offer is accepted. But what about contacting the candidates that you did not choose? And on the candidate’s side, while saying yes is easy and fun, turning down an offer, especially after a fairly in-depth interviewing process, can be both difficult and awkward. Bridgespan's executive search team gives advice and tips for navigating this often difficult part of the hiring and job seeking process.
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• Selected Compensation Resources

  The following set of suggested resources can help you determine salary ranges for particular roles and organizations in the nonprofit sector.
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• Selected Nonprofit Job Search Resources

  A collection of articles and tools to help nonprofit leaders and career changers navigate the search for a nonprofit management role. 
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• Self-Exploration: The First Step in the Job Search

  The first step in moving into the nonprofit sector should be to gain clarity on your own motivations and what aspects of jobs are most appealing to you.
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• Sid Johnston: Leveraging Political Savvy in a Nonprofit Career

  Sid Johnston credits a string of political experiences—in the for-profit world, and on the campaign trail—for giving him the skills to work with disparate groups on charged issues.
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• Size of the Board

  Is there an ideal board size? Possibly, but the ideal size is likely to be different for each board. And each nonprofit board needs to define its optimal capacity at any given time. Here’s how to determine an nonprofit ideal board size, from BoardSource.
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• Social Networking Resources for Nonprofit Job Seekers

  Helpful links to websites, blogs, articles, and other resources to help nonprofit job seekers use social networking in their job search.
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• The State of Nonprofit Hiring

  Bridgestar conducted an online survey of 138 executive directors in September 2004 on their plans for hiring senior managers in the coming six months as well as their experiences with turnover of senior management in the past year.
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• Strongly Led, Under-managed

  Nonprofit culture tends to emphasize visionary leadership at the expense of management disciplines, but opportunities do exist for nonprofits to improve their management practices.
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• Tackling Tough Hiring Questions

  A group of nonprofit executives discuss some common hiring questions and offer valuable insights based on their experiences.
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• Talking About Compensation in Your Nonprofit Job Search: Q&A with Karen DeMay

  Discussing compensation during a job search is often tricky, particularly if you’re a for-profit executive trying to make a move to a nonprofit organization. An experienced search professional answers some of the most common questions she hears from bridgers about compensation and how to address it in the interview process.
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• Transferable Skills

  When an individual is making a transition from the for-profit or government sector into the nonprofit sector, she needs to better understand the skills necessary to be successful in leading a nonprofit. Both parties—the individual and the organization—should understand the conditions necessary for the successful transfer of skills and experiences from the private sector into the nonprofit sector.
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• Transitioning Into the ED Role: Four Keys to Success

  An experienced nonprofit leader, Judy Vredenburgh, the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, shared her experience transitioning into a new leadership role at an organization. She highlighted four key pieces of advice for ensuring a successful transition.
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• Unexpected Directions May Benefit the Organization: Executive Search

  Sometimes—despite careful thought, preparation, and execution—an executive search can reveal that what you thought your organization desperately needed is not what it really needed after all. This case study of Fellowship Health Resources illustrates the importance of being open-minded and flexible as you fill your organization's leadership gaps.
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• What Are the Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards?

  Ten basic responsibilities of nonprofit boards and their individual members are outlined in this BoardSource article.
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• What Are the Legal Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards?

  Under well-established principles of nonprofit corporation law, a board member must meet certain standards of conduct and attention in carrying out his or her responsibilities to the organization. These standards—usually described as the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of obedience—are explained in this article from BoardSource.
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• What Are the Responsibilities of Individual Nonprofit Board Members?

  This article from BoardSource shares a list of individual responsibilities and beneficial personal characteristics to help prospective board members explore what the role entails and better assess their interest in joining a nonprofit board.
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• What Nonprofit Employers are Looking for Today

  Karen DeMay, a senior director on the Bridgespan Group’s executive search team, explains how the tough economy has changed many nonprofits’ approach to hiring and what organizations are now looking for in job candidates.
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• What Should I Know Before Joining a Nonprofit Board?

  Serving as a nonprofit board member is one of the most challenging and rewarding of volunteer assignments. While appointment or election to a board is an honor, board members have important legal and fiduciary responsibilities that require a commitment of time, skill, and resources. This article, from BoardSource, shares basic questions prospective nonprofit board members should ask before joining an organization’s board. Long-time nonprofit board members might also benefit from an organization review that answers these questions.
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• Why Do You Need a Board?

  All nonprofit organizations need a board. Although the specific responsibilities may vary due to mission focus and different phases of an organization’s existence, the basic role and purpose of all nonprofit boards remain the same. There are legal, ethical, and practical reasons to build a board when a nonprofit is created. These reasons create the foundation for good governance and are explained in-depth in this article from BoardSource.
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• Writing Effective Resumes and Cover Letters: Q&A with Janet Albert

  An experienced search consultant provides tips on how to put your best foot forward with your resume and cover letter.
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• Writing the Job Description

  Writing great nonprofit job descriptions is critical to finding great nonprofit senior managers and leaders. This piece offers tips on how to write a job description along with several samples to get you started.
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• Young Leaders: Helpful Tips for Developing Yourself

  Each of the young leaders mentioned in the article "Young Leaders: The Challenge of Developing Yourself" went through, and continues to go through, a process of growth and development, and each has benefited greatly from the advice of others. Reflecting upon their experiences, they shared the following tips for others seeking to develop their leadership capabilities.
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• Young Leaders: The Challenge of Developing Yourself

  Is leadership talent innate, or can it be taught – and learned? Popular wisdom is that many, if not most, leaders are born with certain skills and a predisposition to both guide and influence outcomes in the world. Most leaders – and those who study leaders – would argue, however, that whatever their innate skills, becoming and being a leader requires constant attention and commitment to developing oneself and one’s team.
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