Generational Shifts
Balance the ideas and skills of newer generations while supporting seasoned workers.
Concerns about the breadth and depth of new nonprofit leadership have grown since the beginning of the new millennium. As the nonprofit workforce expands to include four generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z), organizations have struggled to make room for new ideas and skills while supporting the continued presence and experience of older leaders.
In these resources, learn how to strategize around generational diversity and build collaboration to advance your organization's mission.
Introduction: Roles & Tasks for Each Generation
Tools in this Section: Reflections on My Roles and SupportsNew Lifecycle of WorkVision for Change Introduction: Differences in how generations approach leadership are based not only on each cohort’s experiences but also on their stage of life. How they view themselves and the world changes as they age and approach different development tasks, with […]
Introduction: Understanding the Generations and Bridging the Gaps
Tools in this Section: What Are My Personal and My Generation’s Accomplishments and Lessons? Up Next What’s Next Introduction: During the past decade, there has been a rising sense of alarm in the nonprofit sector about the future of its leadership. Study after study has pointed to an impending crisis, […]
What Works: Developing Successful Multigenerational Leadership
Since the beginning of the new millennium, there has been growing concern about the breadth and depth of new leadership in the nonprofit sector. Until recently, the alarm was focused on the departure of the Baby Boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1965. This large cohort – so key […]
What Are My Personal and My Generation’s Accomplishments and Lessons?
This is a primarily individual reflective exercise, with opportunity for a larger group discussion or small group reflections. You may decide to have participants fill the worksheet out before attending a large-group discussion, or you may decide to have people work in pairs or groups to fill out the worksheet together. Depending on what you decide, this exercise takes about […]
Up Next: Generation Change and the Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations
This monograph reports on the findings of a study conducted by the Building Movement Project on generational differences in leadership in small- and mid-sized social change organizations. The monograph also details follow-up sessions to discuss the study’s findings with young leaders ages 25-40 years old. In 2002, the Building Movement […]