When the financial crisis struck in the fall of 2008, Jan Karlin was in the middle of her two-year grant from Irvine’s Fund for Leadership Advancement (FLA). Karlin had had great success as cofounder and executive director of Southwest Chamber Music in Pasadena. The ensemble had won two Grammy Awards, been on three world tours in the previous four years, and secured federal funding for the largest-ever cultural exchange with Vietnam, sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

“As an organization, we were looking at what we could do next,” Karlin says. “I thought the FLA grant would help move us to the next level.” Karlin used FLA funds to hire an executive coach, take seminars, and boost the capacity of her staff and board to help realize the vision she was creating. “So by the time the recession hit, we had a lot of things in place to be able to weather the recession,” Karlin recalls. “I won’t say it’s been easy, but I don’t think we’re in any danger as an organization.”

They stand at the center of their organizations. But nonprofit executive directors often place their own professional growth at the periphery of efforts to build organizational capacity. How can the development of leader and organization go hand in hand?

For one answer to this question, consider The James Irvine Foundation's new Fund for Leadership Advancement. Seeking to boost the leadership capacities of executive directors of selected grantees, the Fund helps nonprofit leaders advance mission-critical changes in their organizations. The focus is on an executive's individual development — but in the context of overall organizational growth. Eight grantees were funded in the first round, and two more rounds of funding are planned for 2006.

Irvine is focusing the leadership program on executive directors who are poised to take their organization to the next stage in its growth or respond to significant new opportunities on the near horizon. In other words, the organizational moment is key.