Leadership Pathways and Aspirations

Racial gaps in reported promotions, raises, and bonuses were much smaller in 2025 than in 2019 and 2022.

In both 2019 and 2022, White respondents reported receiving promotions, performance-based raises, and bonuses more frequently than BIPOC respondents. By 2025, those differences had narrowed. BIPOC respondents were slightly more likely than White respondents to report receiving a promotion—20% compared with 18%. White respondents remained slightly more likely to report a performance-based raise—19% compared with 17%—while approximately 13% of both groups reported receiving a performance-based bonus. These results show a change in the experiences reported by Race to Lead respondents, but they do not explain why the gaps narrowed or whether the changes reflect broader trends across the nonprofit sector.

When asked what had affected their career advancement, respondents viewed their professional track record and educational background most positively. Disability and caregiving responsibilities were more often viewed negatively. Respondents reported a mix of positive and negative effects from race and ethnicity, social and economic class, age, and gender identity. Many respondents said religion and sexual orientation had no impact on their advancement.

Views of identity’s impact have also changed over time. The identity impact score combines respondents’ ratings of eight factors, including race and ethnicity, gender identity, disability, age, class, religion, sexual orientation, and educational background. A score above 3 indicates a more positive perceived impact, while a score below 3 indicates a more negative perceived impact.

White respondents rated the combined impact of these factors more positively than respondents of color in every survey year. Among White respondents, the average score declined from 3.6 in 2016 to 3.3 in 2022 before rising slightly to 3.4 in 2025. Among respondents of color, the score declined from 3.4 in 2016 to 3.0 in 2022 and remained at approximately 3.0 in 2025.

Taken together, these patterns suggest that career advancement reflects more than individual qualifications or effort. Even when respondents identify merit-based factors as important drivers of advancement, persistent racial differences in both advancement outcomes and perceptions of identity indicate that opportunities are experienced differently across groups, underscoring the continued importance of addressing structural barriers to equitable career mobility.

In 2025, most respondents stayed in the same role, but those who changed jobs were more likely to move to another organization than to take a new role within their current organization.

More than two-thirds of respondents—68%—stayed in their current role during the previous year. Among all respondents, 18% moved to a different organization and 14% moved into another role within the same organization. Compared with 2022, moves between organizations became more common, while moves within the same organization became less common. Race to Lead did not collect comparable information about job changes before 2022, so the data cannot show when this shift began or whether it will continue.

Job changes reflected both new opportunities and unmet needs. Among respondents who changed roles, 32% reported receiving a promotion within the same organization, making it the most frequently selected reason. More than one-quarter left for a higher salary, while 17% sought a new professional challenge and 17% transitioned to another role within their organization. Respondents also cited wanting better work-life balance (16%), having no room for advancement (15%), and seeking safer working conditions (12%).

These findings surface an important tension for nonprofit employers. Some workers are advancing internally, but others are leaving their organizations in search of better pay, greater opportunities, more balance, or safer working conditions. Clear advancement pathways, equitable compensation, and supportive workplaces may help organizations retain workers while expanding access to career growth.

Leadership is not limited to formal titles: 42% of staff respondents see themselves as leaders, and respondents at every role level report contributing in important ways.

Leadership identity becomes more common at higher organizational levels. In 2025, 91% of executive leaders and 76% of managers identified themselves as leaders, compared with 42% of staff respondents. Respondents in more senior roles also reported a larger number of leadership contributions. Still, both respondents of color and White respondents reported contributing through activities such as mentoring, strategy, relationship building, advocacy, fundraising, and other organizational responsibilities at every role level. 

Interest in executive leadership was divided. In 2025, some respondents were interested in becoming an Executive Director, CEO, or other top executive, while others were unsure or uninterested. Among those not interested, 49% gave a primary reason grouped under Preference or Role Satisfaction: they were satisfied in their current role, were not interested in ED/CEO work, or had previously served as an ED/CEO and did not plan to do so again. Another 32% gave a reason grouped under Structural or Sustainability Concerns, including work-life balance, inadequate support for executive leaders, or doubts that they would be hired.

The additional reasons respondents selected provide more context. In 2025, 53% cited work-life balance concerns, 42% said they were not interested in traditional ED/CEO work, 40% preferred shared leadership, and 38% cited inadequate support for the executive role. Among 2025 respondents who were not interested in a traditional ED/CEO position, 37% said they would reconsider executive leadership if the role were structured differently; another 36% were unsure.

Together, these findings surface an important tension: nonprofit organizations have people leading and contributing at every level, but traditional executive roles do not appeal to everyone who already exercises leadership. Stronger leadership pathways require recognizing leadership beyond formal titles while also creating executive roles that people view as sustainable, supported, and worth pursuing.

Many respondents want more leadership support than they have received, with some of the largest gaps reported by staff and respondents of color.

In 2025, sabbaticals and coaching were the most frequently requested supports, selected by 46% and 44% of respondents, respectively. More than one-third wanted additional leadership training, career pathway guidance, or a more supportive workplace culture. The largest differences between the shares of respondents wanting and receiving a support appeared for sabbaticals and career pathway guidance.

The size of the support gap also varied by race and organizational role. Staff respondents often wanted more types of support than they had received, but this pattern was not uniform across every group. At the same role level, several groups of respondents of color reported larger average gaps than White respondents. Multiracial executives and managers also reported particularly large gaps, showing that unmet support needs are not limited to staff positions.

Caregivers identified workplace conditions—not only training—as critical to making leadership more accessible. In 2025, flexible work hours were the most frequently selected accommodation across all three caregiver groups, including 90% of respondents caring for both children and adults. Remote or hybrid work, a workplace culture that normalizes caregiving, paid leave, and reasonable workload expectations were also frequently selected. Respondents caring for both children and adults generally reported especially strong demand for these accommodations.

These findings surface two related equity challenges. Leadership supports do not reach every group equally, and training alone cannot make leadership accessible when roles are incompatible with caregiving responsibilities. Expanding access requires both meaningful career-development opportunities and workplace policies that give people the time, flexibility, support, and financial stability needed to pursue and sustain leadership roles.