Introduction
Statement of the Problem
Nowadays, non-profit organizations, particularly charity ones, have a serious impact on society in the USA and the whole world. Since it is leadership that shapes the image and guide the actions of an organization, it is highly important to invest time and efforts in studying the features of charity leadership, accumulate the experience of the current charity leaders and work out recommendations for the emerging leaders. It is also significant to examine the context that affects leadership, determine what are the gaps in the current charity leadership, and study the way leaders interact with the other employees in a charity organization in order to find the possible opportunities for future improvement.
Methodology
In the present research, the challenges and opportunities of non-profit and charity organizations are taken as an independent variable, while non-profit, and charity leaders are the dependent ones. The search and analysis of the relevant literature on the topic of non-profit and charity leadership were used as a method of conducting this research. In the search for the relevant information, the author used the websites of organizations promoting leadership, library resources, and the website of Save the Children organization.
Thesis Statement
In the course of this research, it was found that an effective leader in the charity sector is a leader, who manages to overcome the challenges of the charity environment, successfully cooperates with trustees, freely communicates with other organizations and individuals to find additional support for their organization, and is able to alter the strategy if the conditions require that. The leadership in Save the Children is a great example of such leadership.
Literature Review
In the course of this research, various types of literature were used, including the results of the researches conducted by the representatives of leadership groups (in the forms of books and articles), the articles devoted to the personality of Carolyn Miles, and the website of Save the Children.
The authors of “The Center for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development” are scholars and professionals in the field of leadership, whose work was supported by the Center for Creative Leadership. In their book, the authors integrated multiple leadership initiatives coming from different areas of experience and outlined the major ways of thinking and practices of leadership.
The research “Emerging leadership in nonprofit organizations: Myths, meaning, and motivations” was conducted with joint efforts of American Express and the Center for Creative Leadership. The aim of this work is to promote the understanding of non-profit leadership with the focus on future leaders. The authors collected narrative data, as well as conducted surveys, from current and emerging leaders in non-profit.
Sandra Pershing and Eric Austin based their work, “Organization theory and governance for the 21st century,” on their experience in teaching, management, and research. The authors explore various types of public organizations, explore the organizational theory, studying both historical perspectives and future opportunities. Pershing and Austin have also illustrated their book with relevant examples as evidence.
The Brindespan group is an organization that provides assistance in achieving the tasks of leadership for non-profit organizations and philanthropists. In the article “How to develop yourself as a nonprofit leader,” the author offers the ways to gain valuable experience necessary for an emerging non-profit leader, illustrating the advice with the opinions of current non-profit leaders.
The article by Chao Guo and others contains the results of their research on the prevalence of strategic HRM approach in a non-profit organization. The research was based on survey data received from 299 charity organizations. The authors emphasize the difference between the HRM practices while operating volunteer and paid workforce. They distinguish different types of organizations and examine the differences in HRM.
Graeme Salaman, John Storey, and Jon Billsberry, professionals in the fields of management and HR, provide a full critical review of the major problems in strategic human resources management. The authors mention the main writers on this subject. Their book contains a series of articles intended to increase the knowledge on various topics related to strategic HRM.
The article by Jennifer Buttery, initially published in Leadership Trust magazine, is devoted to the problems of leadership in charity. The author has interviewed Andrew Hind, an eminent charity leader, and other leaders in charity about their experience and recommendations for the emerging charity leaders.
Significance of the Study
In the present study, the major requirements for non-profit leadership and charity leadership were examined, and an image of a successful and efficient charity leader was worked out, and an example of such a leader was presented and studied. Developing this image and studying the requirements is important for the future emergence of charity leaders.
Body
Leadership in Non-Profit Organizations
The aim of non-profit organizations is to promote the public good and civic participation. The importance of their role in society places a great responsibility on a leader in non-profit management. Leadership is perceived as “the roles and processes that facilitate setting direction, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment in groups of people, who share common work” (Van Velsor, McCauley, & Ruberman, 2010, p. 2). Therefore, the primary task of a leader in a non-profit organization is to establish a direction, unite the employees, and keep the employee commitment on a high level, taking into consideration the specificities of non-profit management.
Opportunities and challenges of non-profit organizations
The term “non-profit organizations” unites a variety of diverse entities that require different kinds of work. Some types of such organizations are products of the latest times (such as green organizations), others have been existing for centuries (such as universities and museums). In the USA, non-profit organizations are divided into 26 groups, and inside of each group, a number of variations can exist. Non-profit organizations have different tasks, focusing on community service, charity, advocacy, research, and education. The figures of the human resource may vary as well: some organizations require a few employees while others hire hundreds of staff. Some organizations experience financial difficulties while others are able to fund numerous projects. Thus, leadership in each group and every organization have different tasks and specificities (Hannum, Deal, Howard, Lu, Ruderman, Stawiski, Zane, & Price, 2011, p. 7).
It is known that leaders have a serious influence on the activity of the organization and the level of its performance due to the fact that leadership is connected with the implementation of a company’s mission and vision (Pershing & Austin, 2014, p. 185).
To make a good non-profit leader, a person should possess the necessary characteristics and gain some useful experience. According to the article by The Brindespan Group, an advising group for non-profit activists, volunteering, especially in fund-raising activities, can be a perfect experience to obtain the skills needed for a non-profit leader (The Brindespan Group, n.d., para. 4-8). Additionally, since non-profit organization presents a variety of ways to gain skills, a future leader should seek both formal and informal opportunities for professional development (The Brindespan Group, n.d., para. 12-20).
Leaders and human resources in non-profit organizations
A leader of a non-profit organization should be aware of the specific features of human resources management for such organizations. It is known that in old non-profit organizations, HR strategies are often outdated, and such companies are inertial and resistant to change. Transformational leadership would be a worthy choice for such situations. It is also essential that a leader distinguishes the tasks and regulations for volunteer and non-volunteer staff. Volunteers differ from the paid staff at many points, particularly in the attitude to their job.
Volunteer employees should be provided with a different system of reward and encouragement. For instance, you cannot offer them monetary compensation for an excellent work. A leader should be able to develop a specific way to increase volunteer commitment (Guo, Brown, Ashcraft, Yoshioka, & Dong, 2011, p. 262-263).
A non-profit leader should strive to expand the value, which their employees add to the work. Nowadays, successful non-profit leaders employ technologies to facilitate the task of the staff and, at the same time, make it more meaningful and less routine.
In the sphere of human resources management, the best choice for a contemporary leader in strategic HRM. Strategic HRM, additionally to the common constituents of HRM, such as employing, paying, and maintaining certain regime, also includes creating a successful collaborative working environment for the employees in order to increase commitment and the quality of experience (Salaman, Storey, & Billsberry, 2005, p. 1).
Leadership in Charity
Challenges and opportunities of the charity sector
Charity sector presents opportunities, as well as challenges, that are specific and different from other kinds of organizations. Charity has a serious influence on the life of the whole society, as well as it has a high potential for promoting change. This fact makes a position of a charity leader highly influential and linked to a great responsibility. However, charity leaders face significant challenges.
Charity organizations often depend on trustees, as well as on volunteer workforce. A charity leader has to be careful with changes, especially when it comes to alterations in strategic direction since it may be unacceptable for trustees and volunteers. The tasks of such an organization require that a leader keeps in touch with trustees and even involve them in strategic planning. Such a measure makes the process of planning slower (Buttery, 2009, p. 1). Additionally, beneficiaries require attention to their needs since they have a sense of “ownership” of an organization (Lumley, 2013, par. 1-3).
It places extra responsibility on a leader, for instance, they have to devote much time to conflict resolving. It is a work of a leader to set a right direction for the personal passion of trustees, employers, suppliers, and volunteers. In charity, it is a personal passion that keeps an organization working, and losing it means a complete fail, so a leader has to maintain the level of commitment. Moreover, the leader also has to keep (and increase) the level of activity. Nowadays, people are often suspicious of charity organizations if they do not know how their money are distributed. A leader has to maintain a positive image of the company, making the distribution as transparent as possible (Buttery, 2009, p. 2).
The requirements to a charity leader
In many charity organizations, it is considered that the chief executive is a senior servant or the head of the administration rather than a leader. However, for the sake of the effectiveness of an organization, chief executive needs to be a leader, and a lot of requirements are to be placed on them.
First, a leader has to have a full understanding and commitment to the cause. A leader must clearly perceive the mission and vision and translate that understanding to the other employees so that they know what the organization is striving to achieve.
Second, a charity leader needs to possess a certain level of personal bravery, for charities challenge the society’s status quo and present new ideas, and a leader should be ahead of this process. Bravery is also needed to present criticism, which is sometimes needed.
Third, to maintain a positive image of a charity organization, a leader has to be morally virtuous and take care of their reputation. People would hardly give their donations to a company, whose chief executive behaves immorally or leads a luxurious lifestyle, not to mention that the employees of a company should have an appropriate role model. The set of values of a charity leader should be consistent with the values of the organization, which they lead.
Fourth, a charity leader has to be competent. They should have some (better good) idea about financial management and project evaluation.
Additionally, to be a successful charity leader, it is good for a person to possess a good sense of humor, high labor capacity, humility, fairness, openness to people, and creative vision. A charity leader should also be resistant to burnout (Buttery, 2009, p. 2).
Leadership in Save the Children Organization
Save the Children is a charity organization founded in 1920. In works in around 120 countries additionally to the USA. Save the Children cares about the health of newborn babies, children, and mothers by struggling with the primary cases of their death and ensuring their access to high-quality and low-cost medical care. Apart from that, Save the Children is engaged in the activities that provide children around the world with access to education. The activists train teaching staff, fund the education of children, and help the learners, who are in a difficult situation, to prevent dropping out of school.
Save the Children has a rich history of effective leadership. The first leader of the organization, Eglantyne Jebb, did not afraid to challenge the world’s leaders for their neglect for the rights of a child and was the author of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Jebb managed to found an organization that is still successfully operating.
The current president of Save the Children, Carolyn Miles, is a no less effective leader than Eglantyne Jebb.
Miles was working in Asia as an entrepreneur previously to joining Save the Children. Being impressed by the unbearable conditions, in which Asian children lived, she engaged in charity activism. Miles is experienced in leadership in general and charity leadership in particular: she used to serve on multiple boards, such as InterAction, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, Blackbaud, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where she achieved her MBA.
Miles joined Save the Children in 1998. Having no experience in charity at that time, she accepted a marketing position in Save the Children and managed to use her business leadership experience to increase the effectiveness of a non-profit organization, helping it with the direct-response TV and mail campaigns, involving new donors (Carolyn Miles, n.d., par. 6). She was fulfilling the duties of a chief operating officer between 2004 and 2011 and was elected president and CEO in 2011. During the period of her leadership, the organization has more than doubled the quantity of children, whom they helped in health, education, and nutrition.
The resources of the organization have increased significantly, reaching almost $700 million, with the previous amount of $250 million. As an effective leader, Miles keeps the organization’s financial affairs absolutely transparent. Anyone can see the annual report on the expenditures on the company’s website and learn that 89% of finances are spent directly on helping children (Financial information, 2014, table 1). In 2015, Miles was named one of the world’s top 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine (World’s greatest leaders, 2015, p. 2).
As a leader, Miles puts a stress on the importance of using social media and technologies to strengthen the ties with the employees, beneficiaries, volunteers, donors, and partners, in the USA and around the world. During her presidency, Miles developed a partnership with many other organizations, both profit and non-profit, to increase the ability to benefit children. For instance, she succeeded in involving Johnson & Johnson into a national gala to boost the awareness of the educational programs and child survival programs, as well as include celebrities in the work of the organization.
The conflict in Syria made the organization alter its leadership strategy. As Miles herself has told, in Syria she and her team learned that leaders needed a flexible strategy and strong partnerships (Carolyn Miles, n.d., par. 15-16).
Overall, Save the Children is a remarkable example of effective leadership with rich traditions.
Conclusion
In the course of this research, leadership in non-profit organizations in general and charity leadership in particular were studied, as well as the example of leadership in Save the Children.
In was found that since non-profit organizations have a serious impact on society, it is important that the leaders were highly competent and committed, no matter the size and budget of an organization. Leaders in this sphere need to gain necessary experience, for which aim volunteering serves the best. A non-profit leader should also choose an HRM approach carefully, considering the difference in keeping volunteer and paid staff committed to the cause.
It was also concluded that charity leaders face certain challenges related to the type of their organization. In particular, charity leaders have to ensure the cooperation with trustees, care for the needs of beneficiaries, and find right ways to maintain the passion and commitment of the staff on a certain level. A charity leader has to be committed, brave enough to challenge the status quo, competent, resistant to burnout, and have a good reputation to maintain the positive image of their organization.
Save the Children organization has rich traditions of effective leadership. The current leader, Carolyn Miles, managed to achieve success in increasing the income of the organization and the number of children, whom the company helps. She and her team successfully adapted to the changes in the environment and altered their strategy.
The author of the present research has concluded that an effective charity leader faces the challenges of environment successfully, closely cooperates with their team, openly interacts with other organizations and individuals to find support for their cause, and has a flexible strategy. The leadership in Save the Children is a perfect example of such effective leadership.
References
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Carolyn Miles. (n.d.). Web.
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Van Velsor, E., McCauley, C. D., & Ruderman, M. N. (2010). The Center for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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