Passion and Curiosity: What Today’s Executive Search Experts are Looking For

January 10, 2025 – Nearly every person in the U.S. has some exposure in one way or another to a non-profit organization—as an employee, a volunteer, a donor, or a beneficiary, through initiatives or community impact or dozens of other touchpoints. That said, the non-profit sector—now the third largest employment sector in the U.S. according to a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies—is overly represented by organizations with budgets under $1 million. Both organizations are non-profits—but that is like saying that Coca-Cola and the Tasty Nut Shop are both part of “the private sector”. It’s true, and yet.

According to the National Council of Nonprofits:

• 97 percent of non-profits have budgets of less than $5 million annually.
• 92 percent operate with less than $1 million a year.

This underscores some of the obvious and vast differences that we see from non-profit to non-profit in their approach, governance, management, recruitment, impact measurement, and more. What is likely camouflaged by these numbers are the many similarities. And this is where two insights converge and impact the search industry across all sectors, not just non-profits and social impact:

1. Passion matters and can be a cornerstone of success for both the individual and the organization; and
2. Mid-career re-evaluation is driving curiosity in new industries and sectors.

Passion Matters

I have a friend who has served as CEO for two different public companies. He now mostly serves on boards, but he is extremely selective about which boards he sits on because of his passion for growing companies that interest him the most. Passion on the non-profit side usually centers around a passion for social impact or good.

At DRiWaterstone, we have spent nearly 25 years working with purpose and mission-driven clients and candidates in the non-profit and social impact space. In that time, we’ve gotten very good
at understanding what drives candidates to join (and stay with) organizations in this sector. Among a myriad of questions we frequently ask potential candidates and inquisitive job seekers is to force-rank the following factors as they consider a job change: the people they work with, the title or the role they play within the organization, and the impact or mission of the organization.

Those who rank impact/mission first almost always have a passion for a specific mission. These candidates want to change the world and they also understand where they want to exert their energies. Those who have it ranked second are usually thinking more along the lines of, “I want to do something meaningful”—they have a broad passion for social good and want to change the world but aren’t quite sure where to start. This second group includes a growing number of private sector professionals now seeking to enter the non-profit space.

Why does this matter? For the nonprofit and social impact sector, it can have a significant impact on both strategic planning and fundraising.

Strategic Planning

When DRiWaterstone is brought in to lead a CEO, president, or executive director search, the client is often looking to set a new strategic direction. The new CEO is a central figure, along with the board chair, executive committee, and the rest of the board. When led by a passionate and dedicated champion of the cause (candidate one), the development and execution of a strategic plan typically has a clearer path toward success because:

1. The board is energized by the CEO’s passion;
2. The staff have confidence in the direction based on the CEO’s network, experience in the sector, intimate understanding of the challenges and opportunities, and confidence in achieving the objectives; and
3. The triangulation of the CEO, board chair, and the entire board can be set in motion more quickly and effectively.

Fundraising

Funders—be they high net worth individuals, institutional foundations, corporations, or $75 donors who still love to see hard copy annual reports show up in their mailbox—typically make gifts because they trust the institution and its stated objectives and/or they trust the person at the top. When nonprofit or social impact organizations bring on an experienced champion in their space, those two objectives tend to align and the fundraising potential goes up.

Is this a perfect recipe for success? Of course not. More than one organization has struggled with a passionate champion at the helm. These “true champions” often struggle with their own (often misguided) perception that no one cares as much as them. Boards sometime err in selecting a passionate leader who lacks communication and/or executive leadership skills. And donors can be turned off by a champion CEO who has difficulty listening to their philanthropic desires and interests.

The executive search experts at DRiWaterstone are accustomed to guiding Board and search committees through the recruitment process, but our truest partnerships are forged when we serve as coaches and analysts, helping our client understand exactly how to assess and recruit high-performance champions from within the pool of candidates. We use analytics, data sets, and good old fashioned detective work as part of our process—all of which help capture not only the candidate’s passion, but also how they effectively leverage that passion to drive impact for their organization.

Curiosity is Key

As rudimentary as this sounds, a big part of job for any executive search professional is talking to people. We talk to clients, to candidates, to connections within our networks, to colleagues within (and outside) of our sectors. And one thing we’ve learned since 2020 is this: a lot of hyper-talented leaders in their 40s and 50s are unfulfilled and unsure of what they want to do next.

It’s not uncommon for people to wake up one morning and realize they are not going to be on Earth forever. This often leads to a “midlife crisis” (a term that is overly generic and probably misused, but a feeling that is all too real). The world had its own midlife crisis from 2020-22 with COVID, and that had a massive impact on how people view both their personal and professional lives. There is still a sense of career-recovery (and reflection) going on—a “mid-career crisis” if you will.

“When candidates understand their actual priorities, and when organizations understand what skills and attributes are non-negotiable in their new hires, it makes the whole process go so much more smoothly.”

When candidates understand their actual priorities, and when organizations understand what skills and attributes are non-negotiable in their new hires, it makes the whole process go so much more smoothly. Candidates are better able to assess how competitive they will be for a leadership position, and hiring committees are able to identify top candidates in a much more efficient manner.

Here’s a final exercise DRiWaterstone will often give to candidates who are re-evaluating their careers: Take a position you are interested in and, in your head, draft the press release for when the position is ultimately filled. Does it objectively describe you and your career path? And does that path logically lead to an ascension to that position? If yes, you are likely competitive.

I frequently share with candidates and clients that as executive recruiters, we are in the disappointment business: we tell nine out of 10 people they didn’t get a job. The primary reason is that clients want candidates whom they believe to be in the top 10 percent. That top 10 percent has nothing to do with the unemployment rate and nothing to do with the curiosity or knowledge base of the candidate. It’s not even the same 10 percent from organization to organization. When a client says they want someone in the top 10 percent, what they really mean is that they want a top performer.

That 10 percent is why organizations and hiring committees turn to executive search firms—we are experts at finding top performers who align to the needs and wants of clients. It’s why candidates need to be clear on their priorities, and understand the approach that organizations take in filling vacant positions. It’s why passion matters and why curiosity is key.