IT leadership
Nonprofit IT Leadership Redux
The blog post Holly wrote recently on the leadership gap in Nonprofit IT departments has been gaining traction -- along with quite a few comments. It seems she's touched a nerve, and that's a good thing. As she says, "More nonprofit EDs need to understand technology's strategic importance."
Nonprofit technology leadership is one of the issues we care about the most here at NTEN. For the sector to work as efficiently as possible, Executive Directors and other nonprofit leaders need to feel comfortable making technology decisions without formal technology training. Equally as important, IT Staff need leadership skills to bring technology out of the back office and into the strategies of their nonprofit organizations.
We're doing what we can to address the issue with our Technology Leadership Series of webinars.
Nonprofit Leadership Gap: IT Edition
Flickr Photo: RobjtakThe leadership gap: wherever I go in the nonprofit world these days, the leadership gap comes up in conversation. Lots of research by lots of smart people points in one direction -- nonprofit leaders are leaving the sector at an increasing rate, and their staff don't feel ready or aren't interested in replacing them. (Get the specifics from Bridgespan's "Leadership Deficit" report and "Ready to Lead" from the Meyer Foundation, Idealist and Compasspoint.)
At the same time, I've heard rumbling in the NTEN universe from those of you who play another role in your organizations: technology leadership. CIOs and CTOs -- and those who do the work without the official title -- are all talking about a vacuum of technology leadership at their organizations. But if you go, who will follow?
If that's how you've been feeling, you're not imagining things.
