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Job openings for leaders and senior managers at nonprofit organizations continue to increase despite the recession, according to a new report that estimated 77,000 such positions were open in 2008 and forecast 24,000 additional openings this year.

In “Finding Leaders for America’s Nonprofits,” The Bridgespan Group says there are too few resources available to help experienced professionals in the for-profit sector fill the nonprofit leadership gap.

Bridgespan's survey of 433 executive directors of nonprofits during the first quarter of 2009 found that nonprofits had 77,000 senior openings last year – 42 percent more than was forecast in its 2006 study, “The Nonprofit Sector’s Leadership Deficit.” The 2006 study identified a need for 640,000 new nonprofit leaders in the next decade.

"It's a big wake-up call: Even as the rolls of unemployed executives swell, nonprofits are struggling to fill key positions," says David Simms in the report. As head of Bridgespan's Bridgestar Initiative, he directed the survey.

Simms adds, "The data show that now, more than ever, nonprofits are looking for talented individuals with critical functioning skills, and that they are open to finding these people in the for-profit workforce. The challenge for would-be 'bridgers' - managers moving from for-profit to nonprofit sector - is figuring out cultural fit, being clear about one's values and understanding the trade-offs that must be made when transitioning from one sector to the other."

Nonprofits need to change their outlook at well, according to Simms, who writes, "The challenge for organizations is to fully develop their own leadership talent as well as to cast nets more broadly, including outside the sector, to find rightly skilled leaders who can ensure effective operations and also, particularly in these lean times, foster much-needed innovation. In all cases, what is needed are processes that effectively attract, develop and retain high potential candidates, helping those new to the sector to adapt culturally."

The report's other key findings include:

• Seventy-three percent of respondents said they value for-profit experience in a candidate.
• Forty-two percent of nonprofit CEOs surveyed reported that they, themselves, had significant for-profit experience, while 53 percent of organizations surveyed said they had other senior leaders with significant for-profit management experience.
• There is an overwhelming perception that nonprofit roles will be difficult to fill due to the need for specialized skills, compensation and funding challenges, competition for the best candidates and lack of career development opportunities.
• "Surprisingly, for a sector that is notorious for relying on personal relationships, job boards surpassed external networking for first place as a way to reach candidates, with 49 percent of organizations using job boards versus 44 percent using external networking to identify their candidates," says the report.
• Some respondents expressed wariness of job seekers who are looking for "any port in the storm" in the current economy.

Examples of "bridgers" described in the report are John Smart, the former global director of financial planning and analysis for Deloitte, who recently became chief administrative officer at NPower, a national network of nonprofits; Keith Weaver, who had 30 years of experience in the insurance industry before he became a board member, and subsequently chief financial and administrative officer, of MicroEnsure, which provides affordable insurance to poor families in Africa and Asia; and Ruth Passo, who, after 25 years in the banking industry, became deputy director of Food Export Northeast USA, a nonprofit organization that promotes the region's food and agricultural products around the world.