The report, Investing in Leadership: A Grantmaker's Framework for Understanding Nonprofit Leadership Development (40 pages, PDF), notes that workforce growth in the United States has slowed from an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the 1970s to 1.1 percent today, and is expected to decline to 0.4 percent between 2010 and 2020. Because corporate America and the public sector typically offer higher pay and better benefits than the nonprofit sector — in 2004, for example, businesses spent $6.5 billion on executive training — a prolonged labor shortage and intense competition for top talent would be especially challenging for nonprofits.

Funded by the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation and the San Francisco-based Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the report provides a summary of current leadership development theories and approaches, examines the connections between leadership and organizational performance, and discusses how grantmakers can be more effective supporters of nonprofit leadership development.

"Recognizing the challenges nonprofit leaders face, grantmakers are becoming increasingly involved in supporting leadership development," said GEO executive director Kathleen Enright. "We produced this publication to provide a framework to help grantmakers decide how best to invest in leadership development support."