Consulting Services - Leadership Development

In today’s nonprofit sector, leaders find an increasing need for innovative, entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to navigate a rapidly evolving social change environment. Root Cause offers coaching and leadership development programs that combine the development of traditional skill in areas such as fundraising, program management, and board development with the development of the organization as a whole. Targeting all of these areas allows an organization’s leadership team to build skills while driving their organization toward greater sustainability and impact.

In 2010, Root Cause conducted research on leadership development programs in order to identify best practices and improve our own work. We found that most capacity building efforts focus either on the individual leader or on the organization, and the result is that either the leader or the organization does not build capacity. We concluded that work with leaders should be conducted in the context of the leader’s organization, with leaders learning in a program and immediately bringing that work back to their organizations. This process is repeated and adjustments should be made to aspects of their organizations as they continue to grow and obtain feedback.

Spotlight Organizations

• Open Society Institute: We are working with Open Society Institute to launch a Leadership and Sustainability Institute(LSI). The institute will strengthen the capacity of the Open Society Institute’s Campaign for Black Male Achievement grantees and other nonprofit organizations working within the field of black male achievement. In collaborating with OSI, we are building on the organization’s expertise and past work in a two-part process that involves LSI Sustainability planning and a national convening. Both components will strengthen the network of organizations working with black male achievement, enhance the fundraising model of the OSI campaign and increase knowledge dissemination among relevant stakeholders.

Blogs

• Lessons on Board Restructuring from the Consumer Voice