As the Nonprofit 2020: Issues and Answers from the Next Generation conference begins today in Grand Rapids, Mich., Rosetta Thurman of the blog Perspectives from the Pipeline cautions the nonprofit world to recognize the challenges it faces in recruiting and nurturing young nonprofit professionals like herself.

Citing what she calls “some pretty fundamental leadership deficits in the nonprofit sector,” Ms. Thurman, director of development and finance at the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, writes about the need for greater professionalism at the executive level.

A discussion of this topic this month with Kathleen Enright, Executive Director of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations at a DC Young Nonprofit Professionals Network meeting, Ms. Thurman writes, left her unsatisfied, she writes.

Ms. Enright said that she believed the coming generational shift at the top levels of nonprofit organizations would result in greater emphasis on professionalism and effectiveness.

“OK, maybe,” writes Ms. Thurman. “But to my mind, that generational shift cannot in any way possibly happen if young people don’t 1) come into the nonprofit sector in the first place and 2) stay in the nonprofit sector long enough to want and be able to influence change.”

Current nonprofit leaders, Ms. Thurman writes, need to do more to “cultivate their younger staff to take over their jobs when they retire in the next decade or so.” And a recent study by the Building Movement project underscores her conclusion.

To read more about the frustrations of young nonprofit professionals, read this recent Chronicle article. And share your thoughts about the challenges faced by twenty- and thirtysomethings in the nonprofit world by clicking on the comments box below.