Leading Forward: How Inclusive Search is Powering Non-Profit Success
October 9, 2025 – Lindauer serves higher and secondary education, hospitals, academic research centers, think tanks, research facilities, and foundations, as well as advocacy, public service, social justice and other mission-driven non-profits. The firm has led searches for the Boston YMCA, Center for Applied Special Technology, Healthy Minds Innovations/Center for Healthy Minds, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Cockrell School of Engineering, among others.
Deb Taft is CEO of Lindauer. She has over 25 years of executive and senior-level experience across the non-profit sector, from education to healthcare/academic medicine to the youth service and voluntary sectors. Her expertise includes governance, strategic planning, fundraising, program and staff management, strategic marketing, analytics, and constituent engagement, as well as talent recruitment, retention, and development. Ms. Taft recently sat down with Hunt Scanlon Media to discuss how non-profits are rethinking how they hire leaders—balancing tradition with the need for inclusion, agility, and impact.
Deb, how would you describe the current state of executive recruiting in the non-profit sector?
Executive recruiting in the non-profit sector today is marked by both constraints and opportunities. Amid tightened budgets and evolving donor expectations, some organizations are gravitating toward familiar hiring patterns. In the process, they are prioritizing traditional career pathways as a safeguard against the perceived risk of looking outside conventional talent pipelines. But in moments of change, institutions have an opportunity to imagine new paths forward. Now is the time for boards and hiring leaders to think expansively: to consider not only a candidate’s education and institutional experience, but also the competencies and leadership capacity most critical to future success.
How do you access candidates in this sector?
At Lindauer, we believe that assessing a candidate’s full arc (credentials, lived experience, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and strategic acumen) leads to better outcomes. The goal is not to dismiss background, but to weigh it alongside the less quantifiable skills that increasingly define great leadership. Our sector’s challenges require a fine-tuned balance between continuity and transformation. By recruiting for where an organization is going—not just where it’s been—leaders have the chance to write a new chapter. Executive search, when approached with both discernment and imagination, becomes the catalyst for that forward momentum.
Which characteristics are currently most valued by non-profit when selecting executive candidates?
Organizations are seeking leaders who can navigate economic uncertainty, reimagine revenue sources, and galvanize teams to engineer solutions that get tangible results. Amid declines in workplace engagement, non-profit boards and CEOs must regard the ability to engage, motivate, and guide teams forward as essential functions of leadership. Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace shows that declining rates of employee engagement have become entrenched and pervasive. According to the latest data, employee engagement fell from 23 percent to 21 percent, while manager engagement saw a steeper decline, from 30 percent to 27 percent. Leaders have a critical role to play in boosting employee engagement and putting people in a position to do their best work for the organization. To find leaders who can think strategically and act relationally, organizations are orienting their hiring strategies around the skills and competencies that are correlated with driving engagement and achieving results. As a result, boards are increasingly seeking candidates with the demonstrated ability to build trust, inspire team cohesion, and translate strategy into actionable plans that center people and impact.
“When it will serve their highest goals, we encourage them to place as much value on what a leader can do as where they have been. By combining traditional assessment criteria with a skills- and competencies-first lens, we help ensure our clients identify leaders who will not only fit but stretch and strengthen their teams.”
In what ways are you supporting clients in developing more inclusive and representative leadership teams?
One of the most impactful ways we support inclusive leadership is by embedding our clients’ organizational values into every stage of the search process. We help clients align their leadership recruitment strategies with their long-term vision. When it will serve their highest goals, we encourage them to place as much value on what a leader can do as where they have been. By combining traditional assessment criteria with a skills- and competencies-first lens, we help ensure our clients identify leaders who will not only fit but stretch and strengthen their teams.
Why are inclusive organizations so important?
We also emphasize what the data confirms: inclusive workforces perform better. They’re more innovative, resilient, produce stronger performance outcomes, and are more deeply attuned to the communities they serve. Building representative leadership isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s a business and mission imperative. Our approach is grounded in responsibility, respect, and relationships. We foster transparency, mutual evaluation, and values alignment that allow both clients and candidates to make informed, intentional decisions.
