The Nonprofit Crisis Leadership Through the Culture Wars

A bracing look at what's gone wrong in American nonprofits--and how it might be fixed.

We rely on nonprofits every day to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and perform a host of other essential work, but American nonprofits have been under siege in recent years. Attacked by the left (for being part of the "nonprofit industrial complex") and the right (for advancing a "woke" agenda), nonprofits have also faced a serious threat from within: a rising generation of staffers who expect their employers to share their social justice convictions.

In The Nonprofit Crisis, Greg Berman takes an in-depth look at the challenges faced by American nonprofits in the years since Donald Trump's first election. It highlights the very real problems that have plagued the nonprofit sector and shows how some organizations have lost their way during the culture wars. Berman, an award-winning nonprofit executive, argues that if nonprofit leaders cannot figure out a way to handle the challenges of racial justice, the generational divide, and political polarization effectively, we are doomed to a future of declining public trust in some of our most important American institutions. The Nonprofit Crisis offers nonprofits, and those that care about them, a way forward in trying times.

Greg Berman is the co-editor of Vital City and the distinguished fellow of practice at the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. He previously served as the executive director of the Center for Court Innovation from 2002 to 2020. Part of the founding team responsible for creating the Center, he helped guide the organization from start-up to an annual budget of more than $77 million and more than 600 employees. Under his leadership, the Center for Court Innovation received the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. He is the author of several books, including Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age, which was named one of the best books of 2023 by The Economist.

Acknowledgments
Part I: A World of Pain
Introduction: Nonprofits Under Attack
Chapter 1: Fault Lines
Chapter 2: The Generational Divide
Chapter 3: Polarization
Chapter 4: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again?) of DEI
Part II: A Way Through
Chapter 5: Good Stewardship
Chapter 6: Who Decides?
Chapter 7: The Nonprofit Mentoring Crisis
Chapter 8: Mission Creep
Chapter 9: Leadership Transition
Conclusion: The Challenge of Accountability