The story of governance begins with who is included at decision-making tables. Composition is not incidental — it sets the stage for how boards understand their role, what they elevate as priorities, and how those choices are carried into practice. The 2023 Leading with Intent study is structured around four core findings: who serves on the board matters, how boards understand their work matters, what boards prioritize matters, and how boards prioritize their time matters. Each builds on the next, beginning with the people around the table.
This Participant Profile brief establishes the study context. It describes the nonprofit organizations represented in the 2023 survey, including mission area, geographic distribution, financial size, and service model. It also presents descriptive characteristics of board chairs and chief executives, including tenure and demographics. Most organizations in the sample are small to mid-sized public charities focused on direct service delivery. Leadership reflects both stability and imbalance, with long-tenured board chairs and executives, a majority of women in executive roles, and predominantly white leadership.
Participants in this study include 410 chief executives and 133 board chairs representing 543 distinct public charities headquartered across 49 states and Washington, DC.
These characteristics provide essential context for interpreting the findings that follow and situate the results within the governance realities of nonprofit organizations in the United States.
The organizations represented in the 2023 Leading with Intent (LWI) survey span a wide range of mission areas. The largest proportion, 44%, focus on human services, while others are dedicated to public and societal benefit (13%), health (12%), arts, culture and humanities (11%), education (8%), and environment (7%). This diversity in mission reflects the broad impact of public charities across the United States. Regionally, the sample is well distributed, with 25% of organizations located in the Midwest, 19% in the Northeast, 28% in the South, and 28% in the West, ensuring a comprehensive geographic representation.
Leadership demographics also matter for legitimacy. When board chairs and executives are predominantly white and older, the perspectives shaping governance may not fully reflect the communities organizations serve. This gap in representation underscores why later findings on equity, inclusion, and recruitment are so critical.
Leadership stability is evident among survey participants. The median board chair has served on their board for six years, including two years as chair, while the average tenure is 7.8 years, with 3.2 years as chair. Chief executives have a median tenure of seven years and an average of 9.2 years in their roles, indicating experienced leadership at the helm of these organizations.
Chief executives are predominantly female (75%) and White (84%), with board chairs also majority female (53%) and White (77%). Other racial and ethnic groups are represented, including Black/African American (8% of chief executives, 9% of board chairs), Hispanic/Latino (3% and 4%), Asian/Asian American (2% each), multiracial (1% and 3%), and Native American (0.5% and 0.6%). This demographic breakdown provides insight into the current composition of nonprofit leadership.
The participant profile is more than descriptive context. It frames how the core findings should be interpreted. Smaller organizations, service-oriented missions, and stable but homogeneous leadership create the backdrop against which governance takes shape. These realities help explain why boards consistently rate themselves strong in mission and fiduciary oversight, but weaker in areas like equity, fundraising, and strategy.