The Not-for-Profit Lane

You can’t buy my love with money ‘cause I never was that kind. Silver bells and golden needles cannot mend this heart of mine.

Linda Ronstadt

Lions and Tigers and Bears

In their second half, many boomers would like to figure out how to earn a living while serving the wider community. Willing to give up some of the financial benefits of their careers for the psychic benefits of working for the common good, they hope to be considered for leadership roles in the Not-for-Profit arena. Susan and I went on the road to learn about this type of lane change and made some interesting discoveries.

The Not-for-Profit (NFP) world does indeed value the experience gained in For-Profit (FP) business careers. But the criteria for leadership positions include some requirements that are specific to the NFP environment. Ira W. Krinsky, Ed.D, Senior Client Partner, Korn/Ferry International laid it out for us this way:  “In considering a person changing from FP to NFP, search committees look for several things—First, they seek a person whom they feel is clearly adaptable to the different organizational culture.  Next, they seek someone who has a passion for the mission.  And finally, they seek someone who has that one great intangible attribute—that is, the ability to make them comfortable that the organization will be in good hands with this person."              

We met Deborah Cannon when she co-hosted our first book signing party in Houston. Her story is very instructive for those of you who want to explore making this lane change.

After a three decade career in banking, Deborah Cannon gave herself a year to play. She studied photography, traveled in Africa, took cooking classes in Italy—allowing herself to decompress and achieve a quiet mind.

For thirty years, she had overcome the barriers to success for a woman in business. Early on, she learned how to field the interview question “How many words a minute can you type?” and years later, she was still dealing with the gender issue upon moving into her bank’s subsidiary president’s role when her predecessor left though she was deprived of the title for two years.

Deborah has never let the petty stuff get in her way and for the most part, her straight ahead strategy has worked. In 2004, she was elected Chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership (a merger between the Chamber of Commerce, the World Trade Organization and the Economic Development organization) as its first and only woman leader in its history dating back to the 1840’s. Gotta love it.

In retirement, Deborah became intrigued by the possibility of applying her business management background to the not-for-profit sector. She had lots of experience working on community boards and started to put out the message that she would be interested in a leadership position, provided she could run the NFP as a business.

The opportunity came when the Houston Zoo board approached her about taking the helm as CEO and president. The organization had recently privatized and had embarked on an aggressive expansion plan. Deborah’s one year sabbatical was not yet over, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to run this mission and people driven organization with a $23 million operating budget, 300 employees, serving 1.5 million visitors a year.

She finds the steep learning curve and the challenge of building a world class zoo completely invigorating. Applying her business skills, she focuses on driving more revenue through raising attendance and hosting special events. Meanwhile, she is taking a professional approach to controlling expenses.

Deborah is highly skilled at what she does, but she sometimes gets frustrated by the slow pace of progress in transforming the institution. A big part of her job is the care and feeding of the board (of course the animals are fed and cared for by the excellent staff). This involves a delicate balance between encouraging their support while not allowing them to run the show. Since the zoo is no longer under the city government’s budget, Deborah is keen on coaxing the board to step up their fund-raising activities. She draws on her executive experience and leadership ability every day.

Her efforts are paying off both for the Zoo and for her personal satisfaction. Of course, a big part of that satisfaction comes from working with and for the animals. When Susan and I were in Houston, the biggest story in town was the birth of the baby Masai giraffe, Neema, who was cause for celebration and endless curiosity about the exploits of the gangly newcomer to the Houston community. 

Deborah’s advice to those of you who want to go this route is to get active on community boards and make your interest known in those circles. Word of your experience and interest will travel among those aware of the searches going on for leadership positions. Get your name out there and be open to the possibilities. 

For me, the most surprising insight I got from Deborah’s story was the fact that the Zoo job placed the same demand on her time as did the presidency of the bank. My friend, Lynn Rosenfeld, made this point to me after reading Changing Lanes. Like Deborah, Lynn had left a career in banking for the not-for-profit sector. Lynn is VP for Special Projects in the president’s office of California Institute of the Arts. In this role she oversees everything from recovering from the devastating Northridge earthquake to the launching of a new black box theater she aptly named REDCAT, for the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater.    Lynn wanted to dispel the notion that the not-for-profit world is a place to go to retire while still working. She attests to the fact that she has to work just as hard—or harder—than she did in the for-profit world.

So what’s the attraction? Do you really need to ask?

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