Nonprofit Center program offers leaders a safe place to locate peers, share experiences

• Date: 01 January 2015
• Published date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30028

January 2015

5

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Professional Development

Nonprot Center program offers leaders a safe place

to locate peers, share experiences

A unique concept developed nearly 13 years ago

offering nonprot executives, board presidents and

emerging leaders a place to share experiences and

gather valuable insight still attracts a crowd, accord-

ing to Dr. Laura Otten, director at The Nonprot

Center at La Salle University’s School of Business.

“When we started, we wanted to give nonprot

executives directors a place to nd peers,” Otten said.

“We recognized that nonprot directors often feel iso-

lated and [they] are between a rock and a hard place.

They’ve got no one at their tier of the organization

chart to talk to.”

The Center’s Peer Leadership Learning Circle

initiative (originally known as Cultivating Leader-

ship Excellence and Responsibility, or CLEAR) rst

targeted nonprot executives, the director said. Since

then, the initiative has expanded to include circles for

board presidents and emerging leaders, but the model

remains the same for all of the groups, because each

has issues that they’d prefer to talk about outside of

their organizations.

“Sometimes the executive director doesn’t want

to talk to subordinates or the board yet, but they do

want to talk through an issue—do a reality check by

picking someone’s brain,” Otten said. “On the reverse

side, a board president may have a problem with a

director, or an emerging leader may not want to talk

about professional development with her executive

director for fear he’ll think she wants his position or

is planning to leave.”

Learning circles are formed by bringing together

seven to eight people that are all of the same rank,

and who decide what issues, questions or problems

they want to work through during each session.

Circles are structured around a geographic loca-

tion, allowing attendees to congregate or take place

virtually, but everyone is required to meet face-to-face

for the rst meeting, regardless of which platform

they join. The initial meeting usually lasts for three

hours in order for participants to make a connection,

the director said, but subsequent meetings generally

last between an hour-and-a-half and two hours. A

facilitator from The Nonprot Center attends each

meeting to keep the conversation moving.

“There are two key rules: You must attend all

sessions, and condentiality must be maintained,”

Otten said. “Consistency of participation and con-

dentiality build a bond of trust between members,

reinforcing that ‘What gets said there, stays there,’ and

fostering peer relationships,” she said.

The greatest benet of the meetings is that help

isn’t limited to two hours, Otten said. As relationships

develop, members pick up the phone or email each

other with questions such as ‘Hey, we’re going to be

interviewing for a new position. Does anyone have

any great interview questions?’ she said.

Another benet of the circles is the way that pro-

fessionals start to support one another’s missions

through combined events and/or attendance at their

peers’ fundraising or celebratory activities.

“When we started our pilot program, we told

funders that one of our outcomes would be new

partnerships—that people that hadn’t known each

other before would come up with ways to work with

members of their group and that has happened, so

that’s been a nice cross-fertilization,” Otten said. “The

support happens in their daily mission as well as when

a member has a problem.”

Peer Leadership Learning Circles touch on a

myriad of topics, but the director said the three most

popular arise regardless of the type of group meeting:

•  Human resources. Executive directors often share

issues concerning the board chair or the board; board

presidents share issues regarding their executive direc-

tors or committee staff; and emerging leaders share

stories about their relationships with their executive

directors.

•  Operations. Executive directors often share is-

sues around staff and procedures. Board presidents

discuss concerns about energizing board members

for fundraising, and emerging leaders talk about

suddenly managing former colleagues or putting new

systems in place.

•  Money. Each group shares its unique struggle for

funding to cover issues such as new staff positions,

(See DEVELOPMENT on page 6)