Exit strategy: Investigating the transition of nonprofit professionals into consultant roles

• In Event: Staffing challenges

Abstract

The growth of nonprofit consulting is undeniable as more firms position their services, targeting specialized expertise and skills that professionalized nonprofits require. Consultants provide executive search and transition, organizational development, or fractional leadership. Consultants provide part-time, short-term capacity and insights, equipping nonprofits on a more limited basis than full-time workers. Interestingly, there are no widespread membership organizations for consultants, so data on the scale and scope of nonprofit consulting is limited to scattered rosters of localized or niche groups.

Traditional career path studies of nonprofit workers have examined how individuals rose through the ranks, both documenting the steps, as well as the motivations behind nonprofit career patterns (Einolf, 2022; Kuenzi & Stewart, 2021; Suarez, 2010). Evidence about career paths out of the sector is limited, but we do know that those who seek nonprofit-related graduate degrees, seemingly a choice that opts professionals into nonprofit work, do not necessarily pursue nonprofit work (Walk et al., 2019). We observe two rationales for this movement. Blurred lines between sectors allows professionals to position their skill sets and experiences as relevant regardless of organizational context. Another explanation is that motivations for work, including extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, as well as job elements, such as flexibility and work modalities, draw nonprofit professionals to mission-oriented work that is adjacent to, but not directly in the nonprofit sector.

In this study, we explore a career path out of the nonprofit sector: nonprofit workers who leave work in the sector to become consultants to the sector. Our study is rooted in an observation from a separate study investigating the field of nonprofit consultants (working paper). Nearly 45% of the executive recruiters we surveyed were under the age of 54, implying they still had years in their career, and all had prior nonprofit work experience. Thus, the nonprofit consultant role may not be reserved for those who are seasoned professionals, but may be an intentional career move for nonprofit professionals. This exit path has evidence of a duality: Workers seek to maintain their connection to nonprofit work, but do not desire to be entrenched in the sector. This move has implications for both these workers, as well as the nonprofit organizations that may have trouble filling nonprofit positions given the loss of people, along with their expertise and skills.

To investigate these career moves, we are engaging in an interview study, and our sample is derived from a snowball sample of nonprofit consultants. Since there is no single infrastructure list of nonprofit consultants, we are engaging with consultants and then growing our sample until we reach data saturation by extending invitations to other consultants through those we interview. These interviews are semi-structured, exploring factors of career development, work motivations, and conceptions of work. We anticipate that the results will be insightful for how we understand motivations for nonprofit-related work, and how nonprofit employers, as well as educators, may need to update logics of retaining and preparing nonprofit professionals.

References

Einolf, C. J. (2022). The career paths of executive directors: Founders, fillers, planners and risers. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 33(2), 229-248.

Kuenzi, K., & Stewart, A. (2021). Promising pathways: Investigating personal factors promoting nonprofit executives. Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 7(3), 417-433.

Suarez, D. F. (2010). Street credentials and management backgrounds: Careers of nonprofit executives in an evolving sector. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 39(4), 696-716.

Walk, M., Stewart, A., & Kuenzi, K. (2019). Should I stay or should I go? Investigating nonprofit sector commitment among nonprofit education alumni. Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, 11(4).

Authors

• Amanda Stewart, North Carolina State University

• Marlene Walk, University of Freiburg

• Kerry Kuenzi, University of Wisconsin Green Bay