This report describes the findings and implications from a study of Medical Directors within California’s community clinics field. It looks at Medical director’s career pathways and their current job satisfaction, the most significant rewards and challenges of their leadership position, the extent to which they share leadership with others and important sources of support and training. It is part of a larger compendium of studies that provide a snapshot of clinic leadership within the state and important implications for consideration by clinic leaders, their partners, funders and other community clinic stakeholders.

This report describes the findings and implications from a study of emerging leaders within the community clinics field in California. It looks at the degree to which their group of clinic staff are interested in and poised to become future CEOs, medical directors or other senior leaders in community clinics and consortia and what types of support they need to do so. It is part of a larger compendium of studies that provide a snapshot of clinic leadership within the state and important implications for preparing the next generation of clinic leaders.

In 2008, BTW examined the ways in which the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI), a joint project of Tides and The California Endowment, has sought to develop and strengthen leadership in community clinics in California. Throughout the life of the Initiative, CCI has aimed to enhance the capacities of its grantees and strengthen the broader community clinics field in California.

In this brief, we use CCI’s leadership cultivation efforts to show the variety of ways in which leadership can be developed and strengthened within the nonprofit sector. Read about how leadership has been, and continues to be, cultivated within a broad social change initiative.

Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson was an extraordinary political leader and public servant. With help from BTW, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation conceptualized and produced a new publication to document Senator Jackson’s legacy of leadership in public service.

In The Nature of Leadership: Lessons from an Exemplary Statesman (July 2008), interviews with 15 of Jackson’s colleagues and staffers shed light on the qualities of leadership embodied by Senator Jackson.

In 2005, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation initiated the Coaching and Philanthropy Project to assess the use of coaching within the nonprofit sector. Coaching is a powerful strategy for cultivating strong leadership and building effective organizations, and the Foundation sought to expand the use of coaching among nonprofits.

BTW’s research identified substantial rewards for nonprofits prepared to use coaching as a tool for growth. These included

• The philanthropic sector’s support of coaching for nonprofit grantees
• The demand for coaching among nonprofits
• The readiness of the coaching profession to provide services to nonprofits
• The added value of coaching to enhance the work of the nonprofit sector

BTW’s findings and report provide a framework for strategic advancement of coaching as a nonprofit leadership and organizational development tool.