Does the nonprofit world need a seasoned lobbyist to serve as one of its most prominent voices in Washington? A technology specialist? Or a drum major who can draw attention and whip up support for charity work across the country?
Those are some of the questions being asked as the search begins to find a replacement for Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, who announced last week that she would leave the nonprofit advocacy organization in October to lead Feeding America.
Independent Sector, which represents many of the nation’s biggest foundations and charities, declined to comment on what qualities it is seeking in a new leader The organization has named a search committee, led by Steven McCormick, co-founder of the Earth Genome Project and former president of both the Nature Conservancy and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
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Does the nonprofit world need a seasoned lobbyist to serve as one of its most prominent voices in Washington? A technology specialist? Or a drum major who can draw attention and whip up support for charity work across the country?
Those are some of the questions being asked as the search begins to find a replacement for Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, who announced last week that she would leave the nonprofit advocacy organization in October to lead Feeding America.
Independent Sector, which represents many of the nation’s biggest foundations and charities, declined to comment on what qualities it is seeking in a new leader The organization has named a search committee, led by Steven McCormick, co-founder of the Earth Genome Project and former president of both the Nature Conservancy and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
In interviews with The Chronicle, a dozen nonprofit officials floated several names as a possible replacement for Ms. Aviv. None of those interviewed would make their recommendations for attribution.
Given Independent Sector’s active presence on Capitol Hill, several people thought policy veterans would be key contenders, such as William Daroff, director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office; Neal Denton, chief government-affairs officer of the Y-USA; and Steve Taylor, senior vice president at United Way Worldwide.
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The three have logged time on Capitol Hill and represent both large and small affiliated charities across the nation.
Mr. Daroff declined to say whether he is interested in the job. He said Ms. Aviv’s successor should be someone who is “comfortable in the halls of power.”
“It’s a plus if they can name the House and Senate office buildings,” he said.
Mr. Taylor said he had not had any contact with Independent Sector about the position.
In an email, Mr. Taylor said the next president would have to work to enlarge the group’s membership, be proficient in technology, and if the organization continues to stress advocacy, be fluent in the policy-making process.
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“The value of substantial staff experience in Congress is hard to replicate,” said Mr. Taylor, who spent a decade working on Capitol Hill as an aide to senators and for a Senate committee.
Mr. Denton joked that he’d prefer to be “commissioner of baseball” and said his predecessor, Audrey Tayse Haynes, now cabinet secretary of Health and Family Services in Kentucky, would make a good pick.
Understanding Data
Other nonprofit leaders who were suggested included two that have stressed the need for collecting data on nonprofits: Jacob Harold, GuideStar’s chief executive, and Phil Buchanan, head of the Center for Effective Philanthropy and a Chronicle columnist. Both men said they intended to stay in their current jobs.
Other nonprofit leaders who were mentioned included several chief executives: Jeanne Bell, of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services; Donna Butts, of Generations United; and Nancy Lublin, of Crisis Text Line. Another possibility: Jason Lee, the top lawyer at the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Jatrice Martel Gaiter executive vice president for external affairs at Volunteers of America, said the group’s next leader could hire people with political experience and technology skills. More crucial, she said, was the need for that person to act as a “shepherd” who can corral newcomers to participate in Independent Sector’s activities.
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The next president of Independent Sector, she said, needs to get recently minted technology billionaires into the mix as well as people at community foundations and investment companies that offer donor-advised funds “We need to expand our net beyond Washington and beyond traditional policy staff on the Hill and traditional nonprofits and foundations,” she said. “Let’s go to California and talk to them. Let’s talk to donor-advised funds and get them inside the tent.”
Others argued that the most important thing for a new leader is bring a diverse group of nonprofits together behind a common purpose.
“A fluency with that data and an ability to take the raw numbers and turn them into a story, a narrative, will be an important characteristic of that leader,” said Mr. Harold of GuideStar.
But more important, the leader will have to clarify whom Independent Sector intends to serve, he said.
The leadership change at Independent Sector comes at a time when the perception of what it means to be a nonprofit organization has blurred, he added. He said the next president will have to help determine whether the organization should represent only nonprofits, as defined by their tax status, or a more diverse family of organizations working for social good, including divisions of corporations, organizations that focus on impact investing, and financial-services companies that promote social-impact bonds.
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Independent Sector has “an identity challenge,” he said.
Aspen Baker, co-founder of Exhale, a nonprofit that provides emotional support after abortions, said Independent Sector should train its sights on a leader who can rally nonprofits with a positive message.
“We need someone to move from defining the nonprofit sector as having a deficit-based culture to having a strength-based culture,” where nonprofits focus on the talents of their members and their influence in society.
Before joining the Chronicle in 2013, Alex covered Congress and national politics for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He covered the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and reported extensively about Walmart Stores for the Little Rock paper.