Not-for-Profit Archives - Battalia Winston – Executive Recruiting Firm | Executive Search

How Your Nonprofit Can Attract Top Executives

Battalia Winston — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 17:22:41 +0000

The success of any nonprofit organization hinges on its ability to attract and retain top executives. Finding, hiring, and developing the right leadership for a nonprofit is paramount for engaging stakeholders, increasing donations, and meeting organizational goals.

Explore how nonprofits can use various strategies to source qualified candidates and cultivate an appealing working environment that incentivizes their best hires to stay. Learn how your nonprofit can attract top executives.

Write a Compelling Job Description

The first key tactic is to craft a compelling job description that outlines desired skills and qualifications, as well as any perks or benefits offered by the organization. A job description should clearly communicate the purpose of the position and list any required experiences or certifications needed for success in the role. By providing an accurate and informative job description, nonprofits can source the talent they need to effectively develop their organization.

Craft an Attractive Compensation Package

In addition to crafting a well-written job description, nonprofits should create attractive executive compensation packages to draw in top talent. An effective compensation package should include a competitive salary, health insurance, and retirement contributions.

Show Off the Organization’s Culture

Finally, it’s important to present an engaging work environment where executives feel comfortable developing their skills and taking on new challenges. Demonstrate that the organization has a diverse, vibrant culture that values different perspectives. Show that employees at all levels, including executives, are able to maintain a positive work-life balance.

Provide professional development opportunities and access to resources that enable executives to stay current with trends in the nonprofit industry.

Build a Diverse Candidate Pool

When it comes to hiring top executives, non-profits should also strive to build a diverse candidate pool. This means actively seeking out candidates from various backgrounds, genders and races… Research has shown that organizations with a more diverse candidate pool tend to be more successful in developing innovative programming that advances their mission.

By learning how your nonprofit can attract top executives, you can draw in top executives who will help the organization reach its goals. Professional association executive recruiters can streamline the search process and help nonprofits and professional organizations build exceptional candidate pools. With a well-crafted job description, an appealing compensation package, and a diverse candidate pool, nonprofits can ensure they are hiring the best talent for their leadership roles.

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5 Qualities of Effective Nonprofit Leaders

Battalia Winston — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 18:21:14 +0000

Nonprofit organizations have distinct cultures centered around their mission, membership, donors and boards. Executives in nonprofits must serve all these constituencies with integrity, consistency, and clarity. Learn five qualities of effective nonprofit leaders.

Focus

Executive directors and senior staff at nonprofits get pulled in many directions. Board Members, donors and staff all seem to need the leader’s attention simultaneously. An effective nonprofit leader will be able to stay “on message,” attending to matters that correspond closely with the organization’s mission and strategic plan. They won’t alienate those who believe their issue deserves more immediate attention.

Humility

Nonprofits are the perfect environment to practice “servant leadership.” Putting the organization’s goals first, ahead of personal ego, is critical to being an effective nonprofit leader. So is recognizing and advancing talent. Even the smallest nonprofits won’t run efficiently under a leader who tries to do everything. Delegating with confidence, building up staff to take on more responsibility and showing appreciation for staff at all levels will produce better results.

Communication

Nonprofit leaders must be relentless storytellers, getting the organization’s message and mission out to all who will listen. At the same time, leaders must listen three times as much as they talk and be able to quickly adapt their message to the audience they address. The story is much different for prospective donors and board members than it is for operational staff.

Technical Expertise

Executives have no excuse when it comes to proficiency with technology. Even if a nonprofit is financially able to hire a CIO and support robust IT operations, nonprofit leaders can’t be effective if they don’t speak the language of the current technology or understand innovations that could benefit the organization. Keeping up with advances in enterprise, fundraising and marketing communications is critical to understanding the challenges and opportunities facing nonprofits.

Thick Skin

Associations, foundations and nonprofit institutions attract vibrant and passionate people. Members, staff and donors have their own ideas about what’s best. High-profile organizations that are in the in the public eye get noticed, criticized or questioned in news media. An effective nonprofit leader must have the resilience to never let criticism get under their skin. Additionally, they cannot take criticism personally. They must recognize the interest in the organization’s direction as an opportunity to gain and broaden support.

Our mission at Battalia Winston is, to conduct successful nonprofit executive searches. We recruit and place leaders in nonprofits with an emphasis on finding the best fit for the executive and the organization.

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Reducing Staff Turnover for Nonprofits and Associations

admin — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 11:08:09 +0000

Dale Winston recently contributed the following article to Associations Now.
With smaller, less hierarchical organizational charts, associations often struggle with attrition, losing aspiring leaders to other organizations. However, with a focus on better succession planning, leadership assessment, and onboarding, an association can slow the outflow of top talent.
Late last year, one of the largest health research foundations in the world approached our firm with an urgent request: It needed to find a transformational head of human resources to help the organization address an alarmingly high rate of employee turnover. The foundation was struggling to retain top performers within its junior- and mid-level ranks. The losses were creating disruption throughout the organization, particularly at the leadership level. Without a sufficient pool of “high-potentials” capable of moving up through the organization, the existing management team was unable to develop and nurture a pipeline of potential successors.
Continue reading on Associations Now.

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Dr. Hanh Cao Yu Joins The California Endowment as Chief Learning Officer

admin — Tue, 17 May 2016 17:42:52 +0000

Los Angeles (May 10, 2016) – The California Endowment announced today the appointment of Dr. Hanh Cao Yu as its Chief Learning Officer, an executive position responsible for leading The Endowment’s learning and evaluation activities. The Chief Learning Officer is responsible for learning, evaluation, and impact activities, and ensures that local communities, local and state grantees, board and staff understand the results and lessons of the Foundation’s investments. Ellen Romberg, Partner at Battalia Winston, completed the search.
A nationally-recognized researcher and evaluator, Yu has more than 20 years of leading projects, providing oversight of multi-million dollar budgets and leading cross disciplinary teams. She has partnered with over 40 philanthropic and nonprofit organizations to bring intellectual rigor and strategic recommendations to transform organizations, systems, policies, and communities.
“Dr. Yu has a stellar record leading large-scale evaluations of complex philanthropic initiatives, along with creating and facilitating strong learning communities and knowledge sharing among boards, staff, grantee partners and diverse community members,” said Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The California Endowment. “We are honored to have her join our executive leadership team, as she brings a combination of brilliance and commitment that will benefit our entire organization.”
Prior to her appointment at The California Endowment, Yu served as Vice President at Social Policy Research Associates in Oakland where her responsibilities included setting strategic and budget priorities, developing an organizational learning agenda, providing oversight of external strategic digital communications, staff development and diversity action plan. During her 20-year tenure at Social Policy Research Associates she also served as the Division Director of Philanthropy, Equity and Youth. Yu earned her doctorate at Stanford University in Education Administration and Policy Analysis.
Yu will join The Endowment on July 5, 2016 and will work in the Oakland Office. She will report to Dr. Ross and serve on his Executive Team.

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The Value of a Consensus-Based Search Process for Nonprofits

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 21:58:45 +0000

The following article, authored by Battalia Winston’s CEO and Chairwoman Dale Winston, was originally published in Philanthropy News Digest.
If the leadership of a nonprofit or association is not on the same page prior to launching a search for a new team member, there’s a high probability the search will go awry. Therefore, it’s essential that everyone involved in the search — directors, members of the search committee, key management expected to work with or report to the new person, etc. — begins the process with an agreed-upon set of requirements and qualifications for the position, general agreement as to prior experience needed for the job, and first-year deliverables.
Recently, my firm, Battalia Winston, was working with a client that found itself in this very predicament. The organization — a nonprofit focused on supporting the arts — had recently hired a CFO who was failing to meet expectations. His failure to deliver as expected was frustrating for everyone across the organization. As soon as my firm was brought in, I realized the newly hired CFO wasn’t meeting the organization’s objectives for the position simply because they had never been clearly established or communicated to him.
I see this a great deal when recruiting new leadership for mature nonprofit organizations. In many cases, the incumbent leader has been with the organization for many years, even decades. When a long-time leader retires, the role he or she has been playing may be dramatically different than what the organization now requires. Or, the incumbent’s position may have evolved so much over time that it is difficult for anyone but the incumbent to fully describe it, much less be able to wear all those hats. Without a clear understanding of the role as it has been performed, each person involved in the search process tends to develop his or her own opinion about the ideal candidate and vets candidates against those criteria.
To help nonprofits avoid such situations, Battalia Winston has developed a unique service, the Consensus Based Search Process, that eliminates potential roadblocks to a successful search process, establishes clear expectations for all parties, and helps to ensure a smoother recruitment effort.
First, we gather all decision makers together for a facilitation meeting. The sixty- to ninety-minute meeting is designed to help the group come to an agreement on the critical requirements of the search. (Even if your organization is not using an executive search firm, it is important that a third party leads the process to ensure its objectivity and neutrality.)
During the facilitation meeting, we ask each committee member to write down his or her understanding of:

day-to-day responsibilities of the position;
key qualifications candidates must have to be considered; and
year-one objectives and deliverables.

Then, each team member is asked to read his or her responses aloud. We write all the responses on a white board so that everyone can see the common themes. The session allows search committee members to express their thoughts and concerns while moving toward common ground regarding the essential criteria for a successful candidate.
The process is simple and highly effective. We focus the group on the three most important elements of the position, thereby avoiding meandering conversations that may or may not lead to consensus. The process also quickly identifies outlier opinions and serves to encourage dialogue between members of the group so that each member understands the perspective of the others.
After discussing common themes and excising the outlier opinions, we evaluate and prioritize the remaining metrics.
At the conclusion of the meeting, a clear, agreed-upon set of specifications has been established for the search. This is helpful to us, the recruiters, because it provides a clear mandate. For the search committee, it provides a clear set of criteria by which to evaluate candidates as they move through the interview process. And for the candidates, it provides clarity regarding expectations and deliverables.
There are many risks associated with a misdirected search effort. Without clearly defined expectations and benchmarks, nonprofits risk losing qualified candidates. Internal conflict and a lack of agreement and understanding between search committee members also can lead to unnecessary rounds of interviews and drawn-out searches — an incredibly frustrating process for candidates that can hurt an organization’s reputation. To protect your organization’s brand and ensure that it is positioned to secure top talent, you should begin with a consensus-building process.

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Battalia Winston Completes Search for W.K. Kellogg Foundation

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 16:59:29 +0000

Battalia Winston Executive Search is proud to announce that Dr. Anitra N. Manning was selected and has started her new position at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation as Talent and Human Resources Manager, Talent Development. Battalia Winston Partner Ellen Romberg completed the search.
Anitra has served as a leadership development executive across sectors for over 15 years. She has led fortune 500 and non-profit organizations in conceptualizing and implementing leadership and learning programs through the integration of innovative solutions, platforms and on the job sustainability approaches. She was most recently the first vice president and business learning strategist lead for SunTrust Banks, Inc. in Atlanta. Prior to this she was a leadership development consultant with Bayer CropScience, director, strategic partnerships at the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, founding director for Meredith College’s Institute for Women’s Leadership and leadership development consultant with Girl Scouts of the USA, National Learning Services.
Anitra received her Doctorate of Education in higher education management from the University of Pittsburgh, her master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz College and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hampton University.

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