Two Wagner School RCLA Summer Events Focus on Nonprofit Development

How do investments in talent management and development help nonprofits achieve their organizational goals? This question was the focus of two in-depth learning sessions, sponsored by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and hosted by the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service’s Research Center for Leadership in Action (RCLA) for 15 leading youth development nonprofits in late July and early August.
     RCLA partnered with the Center for Applied Research (CFAR) on this capacity-building pilot program for CEOs, COOs, board members, and human resource managers to establish integrated talent development systems and succession plans as essential components of organizational effectiveness and sustainability.
     As part of the process, nonprofit leaders evaluated how well their current talent development strategies, such as investing in staff trainings and skill-building seminars, advance their broader organizational goals. The nonprofit executives also examined how well talent management is integrated across their organizations — from recruiting and orientation to ongoing professional development. Finally, participants identified the systems they would need to measure the effectiveness of individual investments and integrated talent management systems.   
    Launched in 2003 with core funding from the Ford Foundation, RCLA crafts and runs customized, experiential leadership programs that both expand individuals’ skills and strengthen the organizations in which they work. It develops structured gatherings where leaders explore the complexity of the challenges they face and together advance their efforts to make change possible. As an academic center, RCLA also conducts social science research, employing a variety of participatory methodologies to the issues of contemporary leadership.
—Colleen Coffey