BOSTON, May 20, 2009 — The Bridgespan Group’s recent report, “Finding Leaders for America’s Nonprofits,” which predicts a deficit of sector leadership of more than 20,000 for 2009, has spurred vigorous dialogue among nonprofit leaders and the foundations that support them.
NEW YORK, April 28, 2009 — American Express (NYSE:AXP) today kicked off the second American Express Nonprofit Leadership Academy, its nation-wide program to develop the next generation of leaders in the nonprofit sector and has announced that it will be holding another Academy in the Fall. The Nonprofit Leadership Academy is a week-long training program created in partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) that immerses participants in leadership training and development courses through sessions with American Express senior executives, including the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth I. Chenault. This week’s Leadership Academy will include guest speakers Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Marie Wilson, founder and president of The White House Project.
A Bridgespan Group poll of nonprofit executive directors found 20% of 117 respondents stated that mergers could play a role in how they responded to the economic downturn. This finding dovetails with Bridgespan’s new, far-reaching study of more than 3300 nonprofit deals across four states over 11 years. The longitudinal research finds nonprofit merger and acquisition activity occurring at the same rate in the nonprofit sector as in the for profit sector, but with a heavy skew to small deals born of financial distress or leadership vacuums. Few nonprofits pursue mergers for longer-term strategic goals and mergers involving large nonprofits happen at just one tenth the rate of such deals in the corporate sector, a watch out as nonprofits turn to mergers in tough times.
