Home » Research & Publications » Research Reports

Research & Publications | Research Reports

CompassPoint's research and publications are timely, relevant and addresses the issues that nonprofits face today. Our "on the ground" approach and experience, combined with the ability to move quickly on these issues, allows us to find the information that will be useful for nonprofits now. In addition, our research is furthered by the guidance and support of a national advisory council. Below are some of our most recent reports and publications.

Building Leaderful Organizations: Succession Planning for Nonprofits
This monograph seeks to continue to detoxify the topic of nonprofit succession, looking closely at the tough issues organizations may face when planning for succession. It provides nonprofit boards and executive directors a framework for their own succession planning activities and offers tools and resources, many of which have been used by the leadership consultants who designed the approaches outlined.
Download the PDF: Building Leaderful Organizations
[This is the sixth of a six-monograph series on executive transitions and executive transition management, funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Evelyn and Walter Haas. Jr. Fund. The complete series is available to download here.]

Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out
From recent reports, including our own Daring to Lead 2006 study, we know that the sector is facing large-scale executive turnover and has turned its attention to strengthening its leadership pipeline by focusing on the recruitment, retention and development of next generation of leaders. To better understand and address these issues, CompassPoint (in partnership with The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Meyer Foundation and Idealist.org) recently surveyed over 5,700 nonprofits. Our findings suggest that there are indicators of strength within the leadership pipeline. Despite these promising indicators, we also found that next generation leaders face significant barriers to pursuing executive positions.
Download the PDF: Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out

Cultural Competence Monograph Series
This series came about as a result of the desire to promote learning and to strengthen effectiveness of both theorists and practitioners in the field of cultural competence and multicultural organizational development in health care. Produced by CompassPoint and supported by a grant from The California Endowment, these three monographs explore a variety of frameworks for organizational development or capacity building and their implications for practice, taking in a number of issues that arise in real world practice.
Download the PDFs:

Multicultural Organizational Development: A Resource for Health Equity
This paper discuss the applicability of multicultural organizational development (MCOD) for building the multicultural capacity of health organizations, positing that multicultural capacity and equity are interconnected.
Encouraging More Culturally & Linguistically Competent Practices in Mainstream Health Care Organizations
This paper is written as a survival guide for change agents and systems who intend to advance the cultural and linguistic (C & L) practices of mainstream health organizations.
Cultural Competence in Capacity Building
The National Community Development Institute's paper delves into the definition of culturally –based capacity building, presenting three field experiences in which this framework was applied. CompassPoint’s paper discusses the relationship between improving cultural competency and improving organizational effectiveness. It also describes a capacity building approach to improving cultural competency in an organization where systems issues are dealt with through the lens of multicultural organizational development.

Daring to Lead 2006
Three surprising findings from CompassPoint's new national study on executive directors: a) 30% of executives leave their jobs involuntarily (either fired or forced out); b) Executive directors plan to leave their jobs but will stay active in the nonprofit sector; and c) A key driver of executive burnout is frustration with funders.
Download the PDF:daringtolead2006.pdf

Interim Executive Directors: The Power in the Middle
The following monograph describes the benefits and basics of using an interim Executive Director in a leadership transition. It covers the issues that nonprofits in transition should then consider when weighing whether to use an interim ED—either in tandem with a transition consultant or on their own. The case studies in this monograph present stories of nonprofit groups capitalizing on the special growth opportunities that appear between the tenures of permanent leaders.
Download the PDF: Interim Executive Directors: The Power in the Middle
[This is the second of a six-monograph series on executive transitions and executive transition management, funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Evelyn and Walter Haas. Jr. Fund. The complete series is available to download here.]

2005 Santa Clara County Nonprofit Benchmark Study
In this report, Community Foundation Silicon Valley and CompassPoint look at the challenges, successes, risks and opportunities faced by the local nonprofit sector. One word emerges—resilience.
Download the PDF: SantaClara_benchmarkstudy.pdf

Convergence & Competition: United Ways & Community Foundations
For more than 100 years, United Ways and community foundations have helped shape the landscape of American philanthropy. They champion giving-providing means by which every individual and business can be philanthropic.
Download the PDF: CP_UnitedWayCommunityFdn.pdf

What We Really Need
Eight reforms to make nonprofits more accountable and effective.
Download the PDF: SSIR_Regulations_6.05.pdf

The M Word: A Board Member's Guide to Nonprofit Mergers
This study provides a road map to a merger's expectations, processes, and obstacles. Special sections depict seven organizations' actual merger experiences, feature sample resolutions and worksheets, and highlight the key roles executive directors play in a merger. Also offers advice on how to close down an organization.
Download the PDF: M_Word.pdf

All Hands on Board: The Board of Volunteers in an All-Volunteer Organization
All-volunteer organizations comprise a huge economic force, but few resources exist to help them. This booklet outlines the "Top 10" jobs of the board.
Download the PDF: All_Hands_On_Board.pdf

Securing the Safety Net: A Profile of Community Clinic and Health Center Leadership in California
CompassPoint recently completed two studies on California's community clinic leadership. The first, Securing the Safety Net: A Profile of Community Clinic and Health Center Leadership in California, commissioned by the regional and statewide clinic consortia, examines the demographics, career paths, and job challenges of clinic CEOs. Among CEOs the data suggest a need for attention to succession planning as many founders and long-time CEOs approach retirement.
Download the PDF: Securing_Safety_Net.pdf

Bridging Medicine and Management: A Profile of Community Clinic and Health Center Medical Directors in California
This companion study on California's community clinic leadership, commissioned by the California Primary Care Association, used a similar research design to explore these same issues among Medical Directors. Among Medical Directors, the central issue is preventing turnover and developing the managerial skills of doctors who are bridging medicine and management.
Download the PDF: Bridging_Medicine_Management.pdf

Executive Coaching Project
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services embarked on a 12-month demonstration project of Executive Coaching with 25 Executive Directors in the San Francisco Bay Area. A longitudinal evaluation by Harder + Company studied these new executive directors who worked one-on-one with executive coaches who helped them navigate both personal life issues and organizational leadership matters.
Executive Summary: CP_Coaching_ExecSumm.pdf
Full Report: exec_coaching.pdf

Flying Blind: Proposition 54 and Philanthropy
Concerned over the impact of Proposition 54 - the Classification by Race, Ethnicity, National Origin (CRECNO) Initiative, The San Francisco Foundation commissioned CompassPoint to conduct a statewide study of its potential impact on philanthropy.
Download the PDF: flying_blind_crecno.pdf

A case study was written on how the San Francisco Foundation acted to help defeat Proposition 54, including its commissioning and use of this study. The case study is part of the Public Policy Toolkit of Northern California Grantmakers: www.ncg.org/toolkit/flash_splash.html

On The Rise: A Profile of Women of Color in Leadership
This study finds that minority leadership is on the rise in nonprofits of all types and sizes, including mainstream organizations.
Download the PDF: on_the_rise_final.pdf

Flashpoint: Loss of Expected Funds Forces Bay Area Nonprofits to Change Programming, Fundraising Strategies
While the media reports that the economy is beginning to pick up, the executive directors and development staff who attended CompassPoint's East Bay Funders Fair in February 2002 say that significant cuts in foundation, corporate, and government funding are taking a heavy toll on their 2002 programming.
Download the PDF: flashpoint-economy.pdf

Help Wanted: Turnover and Vacancy in Nonprofits
This study of more than 400 nonprofit organizations quantifies the position vacancy challenge at nonprofits and highlights the characteristics of the problem.
Download the full PDF: HelpWanted.pdf

Flashpoint: Bay Area Nonprofits Respond to the Economic Downturn
CompassPoint surveyed local nonprofits to find out how they are responding to today's economic climate.
Download the PDF: flashpoint.pdf

Daring to Lead: Nonprofit Executive Directors and Their Work Experience
This groundbreaking report includes findings on nonprofit executive career paths, tenure, salaries, and job challenges.
Download the PDF: Daring.pdf

Nonprofits At Risk: The Space and Occupancy Crisis Facing San Francisco Nonprofits
Rapidly escalating real estate costs and competition for space has resulted in a crisis of affordability and availability for San Francisco's nonprofits. Concern over the impact of space availability on nonprofits-and therefore on San Francisco residents and neighborhoods-led a group of civic institutions to commission this study and identify strategies for effective response.
Download the PDF: nonprofits_at_risk.pdf

The Market for a San Francisco Nonprofit Multi-Tenant Project
The study is essentially market research, taking ideas for tackling the space problem and putting them to the test with a potential target market of nonprofit leaders. This study is the follows up a study done in th Fall of 2000 that alerted us to the magnitude of the nonprofit space crisis.
Download the PDF: market_for_multi_tenant_project.pdf

Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view downloadable documents on this page. For resources designed to help people with disabilities work more effectively with Adobe Acrobat software go to http://access.adobe.com.