Building the Bench: Developing Leaders from Within

From culture to accountability to mentorship, leaders across the nonprofit sector discuss what it takes to build a resilient leadership pipeline.

Mission-driven organizations are increasingly facing a leadership skills gap.

The skills and competencies that once defined effective leadership may no longer be enough on their own. Leaders are navigating rapid technological change, shifting donor expectations, workforce burnout, economic uncertainty, and increasingly complex organizational dynamics.

While hiring external candidates with transferable skills and non-traditional backgrounds can be an effective way to fill these emerging gaps, it isn’t the only or always best solution for every organization.

Instead, some leaders are investing more intentionally in the people already on their teams, building internal leadership benches equipped for both today’s responsibilities as well as the realities ahead.

“You can’t recruit for loyalty,” says Lindauer Assistant Vice President Terri Rutter. “We can bring organizations candidates with talent, skills, and years of experience. But proven commitment to the organization only comes from within. When organizations can create pathways for advancement, that loyalty only strengthens.” We spoke with leaders across healthcare, higher education, and national nonprofit organizations to learn about how they are approaching this challenge. The themes that emerged from our conversations say a lot about how organizations can prepare emerging leaders for any future.

Key Takeaways

• Start with culture. Leadership development begins with creating a culture of trust, transparency, ownership, and psychological safety where people feel empowered to grow.

• Build intentional systems for career advancement. Strong leadership pipelines require clear expectations, visible pathways for advancement, and consistent structures that support development across the organization.
  

• Allow room for non-linear growth. Modern leadership development must recognize that growth is rarely linear and that adaptability, curiosity, and varied experiences are essential to preparing future leaders.

Build a culture where people can grow

Before organizations can develop future leaders, they must create environments where people feel trusted enough to lead.

At Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Beth Castleberry (Associate Vice President, Philanthropy) experienced this firsthand during a major organizational transition that significantly expanded the philanthropy team. In integrating new staff into an existing structure, Castleberry found herself building a new culture in real time.

This meant hiring and managing differently.

People are most likely to grow into leadership when they feel trusted, supported, and empowered to take initiative.

Rather than hiring solely based on resumes or previous titles, Castleberry and her team prioritized qualities like nimbleness, curiosity, and adaptability.

“We had to focus on qualities and principles that mattered more than a resume,” she said. “Who could navigate this amount of evolution?”

Just as importantly, those same principles shaped how the organization developed people once they arrived. Junior fundraisers retained ownership of donor relationships instead of functioning only in support roles. Informal mentorship became part of the team’s day-to-day culture. New hires were trusted with meaningful responsibility early, allowing leadership skills to develop through experience rather than waiting for a promotion.

That investment pays dividends over time.

“Really when fundraisers hit that two-year mark, we see such an acceleration in their prowess,” Castleberry said. As they gain a deeper understanding of the institution, its donors, and relationship-centered fundraising, they become significantly more effective leaders.

For Maureen Sedonaen, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, creating that kind of culture also means helping people connect their work to a larger purpose. Leadership development is not simply about building technical expertise. It requires curiosity, trust, and a clear sense of mission.

“You want people to be successful,” Sedonaen said. “It isn’t always the skills alone that matter.”

Sedonaen also believes leaders should create environments where people can take ownership of their own growth, even when that path eventually leads outside the organization. Supporting employees as they pursue new opportunities or return later with broader experience reflects a culture built on trust rather than control.

People are most likely to grow into leadership when they feel trusted, supported, and empowered to take initiative. Culture creates those conditions, making it the foundation on which every other leadership development strategy depends.

Create clear pathways for leadership development and career advancement

Social researcher Brené Brown famously writes, “Clarity is kindness.” It’s a mantra as important in the workplace as it is in life.

Several leaders we spoke to noted that organizations often rely too heavily on informal mentorship, institutional knowledge, or individual heroics to develop future leaders. While relationships matter, leadership development becomes far more sustainable when organizations create clear systems, expectations, and pathways for growth.

Leadership development today cannot follow a single, predictable path.

At Fred Hutch, Castleberry and her team implemented transparent scorecards and advancement frameworks that clarified both expectations and opportunities for progression. Performance was measured not only by fundraising totals, but also by relationship-building capabilities, the complexity of donor conversations, and readiness for broader responsibility.

Importantly, those metrics were visible across the organization.

“Metrics were the tool,” Castleberry said. “But the goal was transparency.”

That transparency helped create a more collaborative environment during a period of significant change. Instead of relying on informal gatekeeping or unclear promotion standards, employees understood how growth was measured and what advancement required. The goal was not bureaucracy for its own sake. Structure, when implemented thoughtfully, creates the conditions for people to focus on high-impact work, collaborate effectively, and develop leadership capabilities more consistently across the organization.

Recognize that leadership growth is not linear

Perhaps the most important shift these leaders described is that leadership development today cannot follow a single, predictable path.

Organizations are operating in environments that change too quickly for static leadership models. As a result, the most effective leaders are increasingly those who can adapt, continue learning, and navigate ambiguity.

Sedonaen spoke often about the importance of helping people identify where their strengths, leadership styles, and motivations align best. Not every leader develops in the same way or on the same timeline.

Some employees may even need opportunities outside the organization before they are ready for their next leadership chapter. Rather than resisting that reality, Sedonaen has learned to embrace it.

Over the course of her career, she has seen numerous employees leave for new opportunities and later return with expanded perspectives, stronger confidence, and broader leadership experience. She refers to them as “boomerang leaders.”

“We can’t always give people what they need next,” she said. “Sometimes they leave, grow, and come back bringing exactly what both they and the organization needed.”

That perspective reflects a broader shift in how organizations think about talent retention and leadership growth. The goal is no longer simply keeping people in one role or one institution indefinitely. It is helping leaders continue developing in ways that ultimately strengthen both the individual and the broader field.

Castleberry echoed that future-oriented mindset when reflecting on organizational planning.

“It is essential to think about the culture you are hoping to have in three years’ time,” she said. “Thinking only about who you need today is shortsighted.”

Final thoughts

In a moment when leadership demands continue to evolve faster than traditional pipelines can keep pace, organizations have an opportunity to rethink how leadership is cultivated. The institutions best positioned for the future may not simply be those hiring the most experienced external candidates, but those building cultures where people are continuously prepared to grow into what comes next.