Generating Change
By Peter Brinckerhoff, President, Corporate Alternatives, Inc. Springfield, IL
Reprinted with permission from the September/October 2007 edition of Board Member, Volume 16, Number 5, a publication of BoardSource, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards. For more information about BoardSource, call 800-883-6262 or visit www.boardsource.org. BoardSource © 2007.
Ready or not, here it comes — a change in generations that will rock the nonprofit world. Of course, it’s best to be ready.
One of the most important issues facing nonprofits today is generational change. As the Baby Boom generation, the most populous in history, retires, its members will do several things: Start a second career, volunteer, hand off leadership to the GenX and Gen@generations, spend a major portion of its lifetime health care costs, vote more, and stress the social fabric of society. Nonprofit boards, staff, directservice volunteers, clients, donors, marketing, technology, and finances will be affected, not to mention the amount and quality of mission nonprofits provide to communities.
Six Big Trends
During the next decade, both volunteer and paid nonprofit leaders will wrestle with six overarching trends that arise from generational change. There’s no way to avoid or escape them. But you can prepare your organization for them. Begin by asking questions and initiating discussions about the impact these trends will have on your organization and their relationship to your resources, services, and mission. Then, encourage actions that focus on keeping your organization relevant and able to meet the changing needs of your staff, volunteers, donors, and the community you serve.
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1. Financial stress
News flash: There’s not enough money. The aging of the Boomers (born 1946-1962) will skew the flow of government, insurance, and private funds toward Boomer issues for thenext 20 years at a minimum. Our ability to respond to this group of retirees also is limited by our national debt. The U.S. government spends nearly $52 million per hour on interest on the debt. This precludes a lot of other spending. While “Mission, mission, and more mission” is the first rule of nonprofits, “No money, no mission” is a close second. Any trend that affects the flow of money into your organization is one to attend to.
Questions to consider
• Is your organization providing any service that relates to Boomer issues? If not fee-based, will the funding for this service increase or will it remain set while demand (and thus expense) increases?
• If the stock market begins a long decline, as Boomers pull money out of their retirement funds, what impact will this have on your endowment, the portfolios and funding ability of foundations, and the giving habits of your wealthier donors?
• Is ramping up your development effort a viable option to reduced or static government funding over the next 10 years?
• With 90 percent of lifetime health care costs coming in the last years of life, what is the impact of Boomer aging on your health care insurance premiums?
• What kind of retirement options can you provide to younger workers if Social Security benefits are reduced?