As it does every year at this time, the NonProfit Times has published a new edition of its Power and Influence Top 50 -- its valiant/controversial/[fill in the blank] attempt to honor nonprofit executives who are creating impact and introducing innovations "to evolve the charitable sector."
This year's edition boasts the P&I debut of eighteen nonprofit leaders -- the largest turnover in the twelve-year history of the list. It also includes seven executives who were on last year's list, three executives who had fallen off the list for at least a year, and one exec -- William C. McGinly, president and CEO of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy -- who has made the list every year since its inception.
As NPT editors are quick to point out, selection to the list is not scientific. NPT solicits nominations -- more than 250 this year -- from its editorial staff, contributing editors, former nominees, and "a few elected, plugged-in people." The process, according to the publication, is also "intended to ensure that most disciplines within the sector have a representative....[T]his year the selections were weighted toward public service but the vital technology segment of the sector is also represented."
That may be, but a number of nonprofit practitioners and people who follow the sector on Twitter are questioning the list's claim to be "representative" of current trends and developments in the sector, citing, among other things, the conspicuous absence of influential bloggers and social media thought leaders and a less obvious but still noticeable lack of diversity on the list.
What do you think of this year's Power and Influence Top 50? Is it sufficiently representative of current trends and developments in the sector? Does it adequately reflect the diversity of the sector? And if not, who is missing? What say ye?
-- Mitch Nauffts
