Managing multigenerational nonprofit teams takes more than a shared mission. Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z bring different experiences to nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and daily operations. But assuming someone’s age tells you how they communicate (or whether they embrace technology) can send your management strategy sideways before the meeting even starts!
Our Co-hosts, Tim Sarrantonio and Julia Patrick, explore how communication standards, clear decision ownership, and better feedback help four generations work together without turning every difference into a workplace showdown.
The conversation gets wonderfully specific with a fish tank. Tim explains RACI—Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed—through his family’s fish-feeding responsibilities. Multiple people can perform tasks, but one person remains accountable for the outcome. Translate that to a campaign, board meeting, or finance deliverable, and suddenly “I thought somebody else had it” becomes much harder to hide behind.
As Tim puts it: “And then once people understand the rules of communication, I think a lot of the friction goes away.”
Julia shares a leadership approach that gives employees room to think: bring two or three possible solutions, then work through them together if support is needed. Tim also challenges overreliance on feedback scores and makes the case for listening long enough to hear what people actually mean.
Their discussion connects staff retention, leadership access, and hybrid work to a fundamental human need. Tim points to the most important question: “I’ve worked for people younger than me, older than me, and really it comes down to, do you see me?”
Key Takeaways:
– Define communication channels before preferences become organizational friction.
– Use RACI to distinguish task responsibility from final accountability.
– Help employees make decisions by requesting two or three proposed solutions.
– Combine feedback measures with conversation, observation, and patient listening.
– Make leadership accessible while keeping decision authority clear.
– Approach hybrid work through team needs and individual circumstances.
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