This Headhunter Is Definitely in It for Charity

When William Donaldson rolls off the SEC at the end of his term next year, he might do well to consult his wife about his next career move. Jane Phillips Donaldson is cofounder and co-owner of Phillips Oppenheim, a top headhunting firm specializing in not-for-profit hires.For instance, recently she was searching for a replacement for Joe Volpe, legendary manager of the Metropolitan Opera (talk about large shoes to fill), and for a new president for Antioch University. The Met post has been filled, and the Antioch job might not be particularly suitable for her husband, but, never mind, she has others going as well. Phillips Oppenheim has done searches for numerous large organizations such as Save the Children, the Red Cross, the ASPCA, the Aspen Institute, the Central Park Conservancy, the Rockefeller Foundation, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Fashion Institute of Technology. The client list includes well over 200 names.Working with these organizations, Ms. Donaldson has participated in one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic sectors of the economy, believe it or not. Consider this: there are 1.5 million tax-exempt organizations in America. Astonishingly, they employ one in 10 American workers and generate 7% of gross national product.The high-roller days of the 1980s and 1990s led to a huge accumulation of wealth in America, on Wall Street, especially in the technology sector. Happily, charitable organizations benefited from the excesses so roundly condemned elsewhere.Budgets for foundations, arts enterprises, hospitals, schools, and social services agencies have ballooned, developing a need for a very different kind of executive director. Ms. Donaldson notes that when she and her partner started out in 1991 their biggest competition was the tendency of nonprofits to hire in-house, or through word of mouth.These days, the stakes are simply too high. Consider that the American Red Cross, for instance, raised over $1 billion in its fiscal 2002 year, partly in response to September 11. Think about this – in 2001, the 60 largest donors in the country gave away $12.7 billion. The next year was relatively disappointing, with only $4.6 billion. Who are these philanthropists?There are some well-known names, for sure. One was Walter H. Annenberg, who died in 2002 leaving more than $1 billion to various institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Roth Lilly, the Eli Lilly heiress, who gave $520 million to several arts organizations.But there are newer givers, such as Paul Allen of Microsoft, Steven Spielberg, Sandy Weill, Peter Lewis of The Progressive Corporation, and no less than four donors who made fortunes through eBay. In 2001 Bill Gates gave away $2 billion. It used to be a mark of distinction to have $ 1 billion; now what separates the men from the boys is donating $1 billion.All this wealth is what’s driving Ms. Donaldson’s business, along with a pristine reputation for serving the nonprofit sector exclusively, with professional capabilities. Not that the firm conducts searches only in the non-profit world. Not at all. With salaries climbing faster than in the corporate world, executive recruiters can sometimes attract corporate and government types to move across the profit barrier.The median salary in 2003 for chief executives of nonprofits totaled nearly $300,000, and for foundations the figure is considerably higher. Also, fringe benefits are adding up to significant add-ons to total comp. In fact, the growth in salaries in charitable organizations has aroused some inquiries by the Internal Revenue Service and the Senate Finance Committee.Not that most people working for foundations or charities are driven by remuneration considerations. Most come to the field with a desire to give back, as did Ms. Donaldson. Her path, though, was anything but straight.With an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Illinois, Ms. Donaldson applied to the Yale University Press for work when she and her first husband moved to New Haven in the early 1970s. She accepted, instead, a better paying job on Yale’s admissions staff.Yale was just beginning to cope with the implications of going co-ed; first, they obviously had to accept women. The radical notion of hiring a woman to do so opened the door for Ms. Donaldson to assume a quite visible and important role for the university – before her 30th birthday.Her success was such that not long after, she was offered the prestigious job of dean of admissions of Wesleyan University. From there, it was a move to creating the Admissions Department for Yale’s brand new School of Management.In 1982 her husband, Bruce Morrison, decided to run for Congress, and Ms. Donaldson volunteered to resign her post in order to run his campaign. No one was more astonished than his wife when Mr. Morrison won and went off to Washington.Ms. Donaldson’s marriage ended in the late 1980s,at the same time she met Deborah Oppenheim, who was working for the MacArthur Foundation.In 1991 the Phillips Oppenheim firm was born. The company was unique at the time, serving only nonprofits. They agreed to focus on all aspects of the nonprofit world – arts, foundations, and education.Their searches today take them all over the country and overseas. They have offices in New York, San Francis co, and Washington, staffed by 12 search professionals and 10 administrators. Today, typically, they are engaged in about 15 searches; in a year they will fill 45 to 50 posts.About half the time the group is looking for the equivalent of CEOs or presidents; they will also search for CFOs or chief development officers. The firm is compensated along the same lines as corporate search executives, receiving one-third of total first year cash compensation. The average search takes three to five months.Ms. Donaldson and her firm are busy, especially with organizations that are ramping up fund-raising capabilities. The downdraft in the economy and the weak stock market have made it tougher to maintain recent levels of support. Investing in a top-notch development director often pays off; demand for such people is high.The question is, where will she put Mr. Donaldson?

This Headhunter Is Definitely in It for Charity

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