Segment 4 | Who shapes change
Leadership, teams and decision-making dynamics
This segment examines who drives and supports change inside nonprofit organizations — from executive teams and boards to staff, volunteers and donors. The results reveal a sector where leadership plays a defining role but where perspectives on support and clarity diverge sharply across levels.
Who influences change
Executive leadership stands out as the dominant force shaping change in organizations of every size. Nearly all respondents cite executives as key drivers, rising from 83 percent in the smallest nonprofits to full agreement in the largest.
External voices remain present but fade with scale. Donor influence peaks among smaller organizations, while community and volunteer input declines sharply once staff numbers exceed 100.
Where responsibility sits
Most organizations report having someone formally responsible for change management, but the likelihood increases with size. About 60 percent of nonprofits under 100 staff name a change lead or team, compared with three-quarters among the very largest.
Mid-large organizations around 100 to 1,000 staff stand out as an exception: barely half report a designated change role and many say “no” or “don’t know.” This dip suggests a visibility gap: formal structures may exist but are not clearly recognized.
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Pattern insight:
Formal accountability grows with complexity, yet visibility drops in the middle: the “missing-middle” gap where structures exist but are not clearly recognized.
Who is seen as responsible
When asked openly who is responsible for leading change, respondents most often pointed to executive leadership positions such as Executive Directors, CEOs or boards. Strategy and transformation teams, and project or programme management offices followed. HR and OD functions appeared regularly, while only a small share — roughly 5 to 7 percent — mentioned dedicated change-management roles or teams.
This pattern reinforces that formal change functions remain rare and that leadership accountability for change is still deeply personal rather than institutional.
Perceptions of leadership support
Views on leadership support differ sharply by role. Executives see themselves as highly supportive, while people managers and change practitioners rate that support much lower. 43 percent see leadership support as effective or very effective, while only 14 percent of people managers and the same share of change managers agree. Nearly half of those two groups rate leadership support as slightly or not effective.
These contrasts point to a communication gap more than a credibility issue. The intent to support change is strong, but it is not experienced consistently across levels.
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Pattern insight:
The communication chasm runs downward: leaders believe they are clear and supportive, but that message thins as it travels through the organization.
Direction during change
Executives overwhelmingly believe they provide clear direction: three-quarters said yes. Only 29 percent of people managers and 10 percent of change managers agreed. More than half in both groups said leaders provide direction only sometimes, and more than a third of change managers said not at all.
The numbers underline a widening disconnect between strategic intent and operational clarity — one that surfaces repeatedly across the dataset.
Leadership training in change
Reports of leaders being trained in change management vary widely. Most small and mid-sized organizations say their leaders have some form of training, but in large entities the share drops below one-third, with many saying “no” or “don’t know.”
Open responses show that much of this training is broad leadership or sector-specific learning rather than change-management programmes. Only around one in five descriptions referred to formal qualifications such as Prosci or other dedicated CM courses.
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Pattern insight:
Training in change remains informal and uneven: experience substitutes for structured learning in most leadership teams.
What good change leadership looks like
When asked which leadership behaviours make the biggest difference during change, nearly half of respondents pointed to clear and transparent communication: explaining the why, providing frequent updates and being open about challenges. Smaller shares highlighted participatory and inclusive leadership, leading by example and empathy. Vision and adaptability appeared far less often.
Segment 4 reflection
Across organizations of every size, executives remain the central engine of change, but the view from below is different. Formal change-management capacity is uneven, leadership training inconsistent and communication the universal fault line. Influence and responsibility concentrate at the top, yet the success of change depends on how well that intent travels through the rest of the organization.