Summer 2006

Dear Friends,

Any grantmaking organization is only as good as the nonprofit partners it is privileged to support. To that end, all of us in philanthropy should be concerned about the strength and vitality of the nonprofit sector and especially how best to support those who lead nonprofit organizations. A recent study conducted jointly by the Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services should give us all pause.

The report, Daring to Lead 2006: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership, finds that three-quarters of the executive directors surveyed do not expect to remain in their current jobs five years from now. Other findings describe a growing level of burnout among these leaders, frustration with their boards and funders, and increasing financial pressures facing their organizations. My colleague, Julie Rogers, President of the Meyer Foundation, wrote a recent opinion article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy describing the constructive role that foundations could play to address these challenges. I commend her thoughtful article to you and appreciate her and the Meyer Foundation's leadership on this critical issue.

At The James Irvine Foundation, we are trying to do our part. In the course of our grantmaking, we try to work closely with the leaders of our grantee organizations to ensure that our support can address some of these challenges. In addition, last year we launched the Fund for Leadership Advancement, a cross-programmatic effort that focuses on the leadership needs of executive directors of Irvine's current grantees.

The Fund for Leadership Advancement is premised on a belief in the strong link between executive leadership and organizational performance. The Fund offers individually tailored support to executive directors in the context of their day-to-day jobs, including executive coaching, mentoring, peer exchange or review, and focused technical assistance for research, facilitation, or strategy development. The unique perspective of this pilot program is that all leadership development activities and supporting strategies will be geared toward achieving the grantee’s organizational goals, and to enhancing the individual leadership capacities of its executive director. In 2005, the Fund’s inaugural year, Irvine awarded grants to eight organizations. The executive directors of these organizations are a diverse group in terms of their tenure and experience, demographic profile, geographic location, and size and type of organization they lead. If you wish to read more about the Fund, we profiled it in a recent edition of the Irvine Quarterly.

At this stage, the Fund for Leadership Advancement remains by invitation only and is focused on current Irvine grantees. As we assess the first full year of this pilot, which will include a second round of grants in July and a third round in December, we will determine whether we should expand the program's availability. We also intend to share broadly the lessons we are learning from this effort given the growing interest in this subject throughout the funding community.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and questions, and appreciate your interest in the Foundation's activities.

Sincerely,

James E. Canales
President and CEO

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