Developing Emerging Nonprofit Leaders: How to Spot and Grow Them
Who are emerging nonprofit leaders?
Emerging nonprofit leaders are staff members who show leadership potential before they hold a leadership title, such as a program coordinator whom colleagues already turn to for direction. You develop them through stretch assignments, one developmental relationship with a supervisor, mentor or coach, and a small amount of formal training, in a 70-20-10 split.
Consider a program coordinator three years into the job at an eight-person nonprofit. She trains every new hire, rebuilt the volunteer schedule without being asked, and is the person colleagues call when the executive director is out. There is no next role for her on the organizational chart, and a larger organization across town is hiring.
If nothing changes, the next step in her career happens somewhere else. Developing emerging leaders is how you keep that step inside your organization, and it costs more attention than money.
Key Takeaways
- Leadership potential and strong performance are different signals. Your best individual contributor may not want to manage anyone.
- A Nonprofit HR survey cited by Bridgespan ties over 40 percent of voluntary nonprofit turnover to a lack of upward mobility.
- Most development happens in the work itself: stretch assignments with a debrief, plus one developmental relationship.
- The hardest part of a first promotion is shifting from doing the work to getting it done through others.
- A local emerging leaders program adds a cohort. Coaching adds a confidential thinking partner, from $300 for six sessions at CNPC.
Who Counts as an Emerging Nonprofit Leader?
An emerging nonprofit leader is anyone without a leadership title who already acts beyond the job: asking how decisions get made, owning results instead of tasks, moving peers without authority, staying steady when priorities shift, and seeking out feedback. Title, tenure and output matter less than whether those habits show up without being asked.
The common mistake is to treat your best performer as your next leader. Strong performance shows that someone is good at the current job. It says little about whether they want to lead people. The person who writes your best grant proposals may have no interest in supervising anyone, while a steady coordinator may be the one the team already follows.
Treat the columns as signals to watch. Plenty of people show both, and current performance and the needs of the role still count. The comparison helps you spot the leadership habits that output alone can hide.
| Signal | High performer | Emerging leader |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Their own deliverables | How their work connects to other teams |
| Results | Finishes assigned tasks well | Follows up until the outcome lands |
| Influence | Respected for expertise | Peers come to them for direction |
| Ambiguity | Prefers clear instructions | Stays steady when plans change |
| Feedback | Accepts it when offered | Asks for it, then adjusts |
Why Do Emerging Leaders Leave Nonprofits?
Emerging leaders leave when they cannot see a next step. Bridgespan reports that over 40 percent of voluntary turnover among nonprofits comes from a lack of opportunity for upward mobility or career growth, citing a Nonprofit HR survey. Nonprofits also fill top leadership roles through internal promotion only half as often as for-profit companies.
Small organizations feel this most. With few rungs on the ladder, a coordinator who wants more responsibility often has to leave to find it, and the program knowledge walks out too.
Interest in the top job is falling as well. The Building Movement Project surveyed more than 3,000 nonprofit staff in 2022: the share of respondents of color who want to lead dropped to 46 percent, from 52 percent in 2019, and interest fell among white respondents too. Staff without a mentor or a supportive workplace were more likely to want to lead, which the authors read as people being pushed into leadership by hard conditions. Development with real support gives people a better reason to step up.
The sector-wide picture is in these statistics on nonprofit leadership development. Closer to home, your emerging leaders are the bench that succession planning depends on, and clear leadership development pathways show them the next step.
How Do You Develop Emerging Leaders on a Budget?
Plan with the 70-20-10 rule, a rule of thumb from the Center for Creative Leadership: about 70 percent of growth comes from challenging assignments, 20 percent from developmental relationships and 10 percent from coursework. The expensive part, formal training, is the smallest. Most of the work is designing stretch assignments and helping the person learn from them.
The 70 percent: stretch work with a debrief
Give the person something real to lead, with limits that keep a stumble affordable: one volunteer event, a pilot program, or one section of the next board presentation. Agree up front on what success looks like. Afterward, debrief with three questions. What happened? What would you repeat? What would you change?
Shadowing works the same way. Bring the person into a board committee meeting or a hard funder call, then spend fifteen minutes on what they noticed.
Skip the debrief, and a stretch assignment is just more work.
The 20 percent: one developmental relationship
This can be a supervisor who makes development a standing item in one-on-ones, a mentor from a partner organization, or a coach. One relationship that lasts beats several that fade after a month.
The 10 percent: training you can afford
Formal leadership development programs come in many forms. For most nonprofits, the 10 percent is one targeted course a year from the professional development line, chosen for the skill the stretch work exposed. Write all three parts down in a one-page leadership development plan.
What Changes When a Doer Becomes a Leader?
A first leadership role changes where a person’s value comes from. As an individual contributor, they were judged on their own output. As a leader, they are judged on what the team produces, which means delegating, accepting work done differently, and getting satisfaction from other people’s progress. That shift is often harder than learning any new skill.
We see it in the coaching applications CNPC receives. Roughly three in ten describe some version of it: leaders who built their reputation by doing the work and now feel stuck in the weeds, unable to delegate or stop firefighting. The cause is usually an identity tied to doing, more than a missing skill.
A first promotion over former peers adds a second strain. Yesterday they shared complaints about the workload. Today they assign it. Some new supervisors avoid authority to protect friendships, and others turn distant. What works better is naming the change out loud (“our working relationship has changed, and we should talk about how”), setting clear expectations, and treating every team member the same way. Supervising others is the bridge to the next stage, covered in what middle managers need next.
Is an Emerging Leaders Program Worth It?
An emerging leaders program is worth it when the person needs a peer network and structured reflection time that your organization cannot provide. Local programs are run by community foundations, universities and nonprofit centers, usually as cohorts that meet over several months. Two current examples charge between $1,000 and $2,500 per participant.
The Emerging Leaders Academy at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Charlottesville, Virginia, is an eight-month peer learning program with monthly two-hour sessions and five hours of coaching, at $1,000 for members and $1,650 for nonmembers. The University at Albany’s Emerging Nonprofit Leadership Accelerator runs 14 weeks for mid-career staff aiming at roles such as program director, at $1,800 to $2,500.
Even a strong program meets a few hours a month. Leaders are made in the hours between sessions.
Before you enroll someone, ask four questions. Does the program include coaching, or only workshops? Will the person bring a real project back to the job? Can the team cover their work during sessions? Will you debrief what they learn? A cohort adds a network. The stretch work still happens at home.
For the full range of options, from certificate courses to peer groups, see the guide to nonprofit leadership development.
Where Does Coaching Fit for Emerging Leaders?
Coaching is the 20 percent in 70-20-10: a confidential, one-to-one relationship that helps the person stepping up think through real decisions as they make them. A mentor passes on how things work. A coach asks the questions that help the person find their own answers, which builds the judgment a leadership role depends on.
CNPC coaching serves program directors, development staff and emerging leaders, not only executive directors. The application asks what the person wants to work on, and the match starts from those goals.
Each engagement is six sessions with a volunteer coach matched to the person and their goals. The fee depends on your organization’s operating expenses: $300 under $250K a year, $400 under $500K and $600 above that. Our coaches donate their time because they believe in your mission, which keeps fees 85%+ below market rate.
To develop several people at once, organizational coaching enrolls them through one point of contact, each with their own coach, at $500 per person for three to five people, $400 for six to ten and $300 for eleven or more. See how coaching several staff members at once works, or read how executive coaching works for nonprofit leaders.
Keep expectations bounded. Six sessions are enough to shift two or three specific patterns, such as how the person delegates or prepares for a hard conversation. They do not replace the stretch work or your debrief.
Where Should You Start This Month?
Start with two lists. On the first, write your three strongest performers. On the second, write the three people you could picture leading part of your organization in five years, whatever their current output. Where the lists differ, you have found a signal worth testing, so pick one person and one stretch assignment for this month.
Tell them why you chose them, agree on what success looks like, and book the debrief before the work starts. If a coach would help while they take it on, our executive coaching program pairs them with a volunteer coach for six sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an emerging leader get coaching through CNPC?
Yes. CNPC executive coaching serves program directors, development staff and emerging leaders as well as executive directors. The organization must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a government agency or an analogous non-U.S. entity. Six sessions cost $300 to $600, set by operating expenses.
How do you keep an emerging leader you cannot promote yet?
Give them a bigger scope before a bigger title: lead a project, represent the organization at a coalition meeting, or supervise volunteers. Pair it with a written development plan and regular feedback, so they see progress even when the organizational chart stays the same.
Should a small nonprofit promote from within?
When someone shows the leadership signals, yes, with support. Internal candidates already know your programs, funders and culture. The risk is promoting on performance alone, so test the person with a stretch assignment first.
What skills should emerging nonprofit leaders build first?
Start with the skills a first leadership role tests: delegating, giving feedback, running a meeting, reading a program budget and talking with the board. Work on the one the current stretch assignment exposes.
A Coach for the Person Stepping Up
CNPC matches nonprofit staff and executive directors with volunteer coaches for six confidential sessions, from $300. Our coaches donate their time to your mission.
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