Achieving Success in Nonprofit Organizations

Chapter 1

Introduction

Over 2.3 million nonprofit organizations operate in the United States.1 They range from neighborhood organizations that meet a few times per year to major universities and foundations that have billions of dollars in assets.

This book is focused on the topics and skills that leaders of nonprofit organizations in the United States have indicated in recent research (conducted by the authors) that they need to understand and master, to lead their organization to success as defined by their organization’s mission.

Rather than the ­co-­authors of this book selecting topics that we thought were important for leaders of nonprofit organizations, we elected to do the research and ask the leaders of nonprofits themselves what topics ...