GOOD NEWS: Young People
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
Young People
Many of my best colleagues and fellow board members are teenagers, twenty and thirty somethings. Their presence brings fresh perspective, keen insight, sincere commitment, and energizes others in their orbit. So why are so many donor and nonprofit boards and executive teams full of 50-90 year olds?
Yes, senior citizens bring a wealth of experiences, financial resources, and discretionary time but there are inherent limitations and risks to under-relying on, if not downright excluding, younger people from decision making conversations and genuine leadership opportunities.
Succession
Father Time is undefeated. Nobody lasts or functions at peak performance forever. Lots of boards and executive teams talk a big game about ensuring a succession plan for themselves but not enough walk the talk. It can be hard for young people to be given the chance to lead. Building a deep bench by acquiring, nourishing, and retaining the next generation of leadership should be more of an imperative for most organizations. One need only look at the national political, judicial, and business landscape to see the overwhelming evidence that failing to leave one’s position when it is time and not cultivating future leaders lead to dysfunction and chaos.
Expertise
Young people know things that we seniors don’t. The current United States Congress trying to lead the way on social media and artificial intelligence is laughable. Does your organization wish to leverage its social media presence and technologies of the future to maximize impact? How on Earth can a room full of digital immigrants compare to digital natives for expertise on topics like these, especially?
Energy
It’s not ageist to say that the human body and mind change with age. Decline is inevitable. Leading a foundation or nonprofit requires a lot of energy and the ability to constantly adapt. Younger board members and executive leadership energize the rest of the group and often take on more than their fair share of responsibilities. They are accustomed to and good at change.
Networks
More than one senior fundraiser has said to me in an honest, sad moment, “Steve, most of my network has either moved to limited, fixed incomes or died.” This reality suggests that organizations that fail to infuse their leadership, and thus donors, with the next generation or two are vulnerable to shrinking pools of people who can help with their time, talent, and treasure. Don't put all of your eggs in one age basket.
Inherited Wealth
Over relying on senior networks for leadership and donors fails to set up an organization to benefit from the massive generational wealth transfer that is occurring today and for the next few decades. Future generations' giving priorities may not be inherited but their families' wealth likely will. What is your organization doing to engage and excite the next generations in ways that go far beyond superficial flybys like giving days, reunions, and family days?
None of this is to say there isn’t an important role for older generations, of course. Ideally, boards and executive leadership teams are a complementary continuum of young and old, among other important blends of geography, gender, and race. Senior board members and executives need to play critical mentoring roles to transfer knowledge and culture. I hope your foundation or board is hard at work on these important diversity initiatives despite today’s prevailing political rhetoric.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Start When You're Young (15 minute watch)
"It's about creating an intergenerational coalition in our government. So many of the greatest presidents we've ever had - whether that was Abraham Lincoln who was 25 when he was first elected to the Illinois State House, LBJ was 28 when he was first elected to Congress - and those men went on to become so successful, I believe, because they started when they were so young. If you start when you're young, you know how to get stuff done." David Hogg, Co-Founder of Leaders We Deserve and Parkland school shooting survivor
Watch Here
One Last Time (5 minute listen)
"If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on
It outlives me when I’m gone
Like the scripture says:
'Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.'
They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made
I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree
A moment alone in the shade
At home in this nation we’ve made
One last time."
George Washington, Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Listen Here
Time to Fight Back Now? (5 minute read)
"A year ago,
Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned
of the closing of civic space in the U.S. and said this about lessons from other countries, writing 'When philanthropists first faced challenges to their grantees overseas, they viewed the attacks as disparate and disconnected. Many tried to address issues individually and quietly. Organizations sometimes thought they could quietly cut off more controversial grantees or shut down targeted parts of their portfolios to salvage the rest. They would reduce future work that governments might deem to be sensitive or refocus on service delivery rather than advocacy. Philanthropists and organizations that had not yet been caught in the closing of space undertook more risk analysis. They self-censored to avoid future problems. And they distanced themselves from disparaged organizations and more vocal donors in the hope they could remain below the radar. Many adopted the strategy advocated in the joke about hunters — one need not outrun the bear, just the other fellow being chased.' These tactics failed."
Phil Buchanan, President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy
