Nonprofit Leadership Challenges: Refining a Typology of Issues Faced by Nonprofits and Their Leaders

Authors

  • Jayce Sudweeks Georgia Southern University
  • Richard Clerkin University of North Carolina Wilmington
  • Sapna Varkey University of North Carolina Wilmington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18666/JNEL-2025-13237

Keywords:

Nonprofit leadership, nonprofit management, nonprofit challenges

Abstract

Recent research confirms that a typology characterizing the challenges faced by nonprofit leaders, known as the Five Nonprofit Leadership Challenges, encompasses the academic research published in the top three nonprofit and voluntary action academic journals. During this content analysis, subthemes emerged for each of the leadership challenges. We believe a better understanding of these subthemes could help refine the leadership challenges typology and further its use as a tool for research and practitioners. Using content analysis, the authors examined 453 abstracts from three major nonprofit journals published between 2005 and 2017 to identify and quantify the subthemes associated with each leadership challenge. We identified 29 subthemes across the five leadership challenges. Our results indicate that the subthemes are present in 99% of the abstracts in the literature, providing a more nuanced approach to organizing and thinking about nonprofit research and practice. 

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Published

2026-01-08

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Articles

License

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