A survey of nonprofit CEOs and executive directors in New England which found that a majority were preparing to move on is starting to bear out, leaving some people to wonder where the next generation of nonprofit leaders in the region will come from, the Boston Business Journal reports.

Conducted in 2003 by the New England Executive Transitions Partnership, the survey found that 70 percent of nonprofit CEOs and executive directors in the region planned to leave their posts over the next five years. Experts cite several reasons for the looming turnover, including the fact that the individuals who started the bulk of the region's nonprofits in the 1970s are either getting ready to retire or want to do something different. "It's a natural transition," said Kristen McCormack, faculty director of the nonprofit management program at Boston University's School of Management. "People have been doing this for a long time, twenty to thirty years. It's time for the next generation [to take over]."

The numbers have gotten people's attention, said Lynne Molnar, managing director of the Executive Transitions Program at Boston-based Third Sector New England. "We really need to be concerned about executive directors transitioning."

But while executive transitions can put nonprofits at risk, added Molnar, they also provide organizations with an opportunity to ask important questions such as, What are our needs for the future? Who do we want to be in the future? And what kind of leadership do we need to get us there?

Transitions can also be expensive — on average, it costs $20,000 to $25,000 for a consultant to lead an organization through a leadership transition, said Molnar. Which is one reason why Third Sector New England, which models its program after programs in San Francisco and Baltimore, where leadership turnover in the sector is also expected to be high, has put aside money to aid small nonprofits with budgets under $1 million.

To read or download the complete NEETP report (40 pages, PDF), visit: http://www.tsne.org/files/ETP-Maas-Randall-study.pdf.