I’m happy to announce that there’s a new New York City Leadership and Professional Development Directory.When I began writing this blog post to share the news, I wasn’t sure where I would begin—but ultimately decided to tell my story first.
Share your thoughts with us about how the leadership development space has been evolving and where it is going.
Deborah: I think the big change over the last 20 years has been that the mainstream of leadership development had been really focused on the individual—kind of tilting towards this big old model that comes from the dominant culture.
Our colleagues over at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations have a Non-Profit Advisory Council of 9 Non-Profit leaders. Together they have written this open letter to Philanthropy, which we think is really worth reading. Their ideas can help grantmakers like RSCF to think about what nonprofits really need, and how we can offer authentic and useful support to them.
Since his appointment as president a year and a half ago, Phil Li of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation has taken dramatic steps toward embodying trust-based philanthropy, including getting rid of lengthy reporting requirements and shifting toward multi-year unrestricted support. As part of The Whitman Institute’s ongoing series featuring funders embodying trust-based philanthropy, we sat down with him to get the scoop:
The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation has undergone a generational change in leadership with the retirement of Margaret C. Ayers after thirty-eight years of service and the arrival last year of Phil Li, our new president. The foundation’s transition has provided a welcome interlude for the Board. We have reflected on our programs and, in doing so, have thought about the nature of leadership in a foundation and, more broadly, leadership within the nonprofit and governmental sectors, especially in New York City.
Here at the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation we support leadership development as an equity strategy. It is work that I believe in deeply, but at the same time – in my understanding of leadership development, it has become more and more clear to me that not everyone should be a leader.