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Credit: Fred Stucker
The Center for Nonprofit and
Philanthropic Leadership opened in March
2005 at Rutgers’ business school in
Newark. The center offers symposia,
workshops and a certificate program for
nonprofit executive leadership. Alex
Plinio, left, a veteran executive of the
Prudential Corporation, and James
Abruzzo, head of one of the largest
executive search firms in the United
States, envisioned the idea for the
center several years ago.
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By Abigail Meisel
Several years ago, Alex Plinio and James Abruzzo, corporate leaders steeped in board memberships and civic activities in the nonprofit world, had a vision: a place where they could pass along their years of accumulated experience to the next generation of nonprofit senior executives.
Longtime activists, the pair began creating a center where heads of New Jersey’s more than 25,000 nonprofit organizations could learn more about what it takes to be a visionary leader in today’s complex environment. By spring 2005, Plinio and Abruzzo had opened the doors of the Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leadership at Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick.
Plinio, a 25-year veteran executive of the Prudential Corporation and past president of the Prudential Foundation, had a foot in the nonprofit world since college and was instrumental in many volunteer initiatives, including the creation of the Governor’s School of New Jersey, a program that develops the talents of gifted New Jersey high school students on college campuses across the state.
Abruzzo is a managing director and head of the nonprofit practice at DHR International, one of the largest executive search firms in the United States. He is responsible for recruiting executive leadership for nonprofit organizations and, like Plinio, was a seasoned civic volunteer. The two met while serving on the board of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, which they helped gain financial health and thrive as an international dance company. Each understood firsthand the value of having peers who could provide advice and counsel; the two friends had met informally for years to lend each other support and guidance about both professional and personal matters.
In 2002, they began scouting sites for their center, visiting campuses in the tri-state area, before holding several successful meetings at Rutgers with Newark Provost Steven J. Diner and Howard Tuckman, dean of the business school.
“We’re entrepreneurs, and we wanted to work with college administrators with an entrepreneurial vision,” said Plinio, who has also made a career transition to the nonprofit world as president and chief executive officer of American Field Service, a cross-cultural exchange organization. “We also wanted Rutgers because it has two urban campuses and a very diverse population of students.”
The enthusiasm was mutual, and led to a formal agreement between Plinio, Abruzzo and Rutgers to locate the center in Ackerson Hall at Rutgers Business School in Newark. “The nonprofit center enables Rutgers to take a leading role in training a new generation of leaders to serve both the state and the nation,” Tuckman said.
An unusual addition to a business school, the nonprofit center’s curricula and programs were determined in a businesslike fashion. Abruzzo and Plinio contracted with Capek and Associates, a research and consulting group, to assess issues and trends facing the nonprofit sector in the coming years. The firm surveyed 300 peer-nominated leaders in the nonprofit sector and identified several key issues of common concern, including the need for visionary leaders, greater accountability and stronger governance in the nonprofit world. Capek’s survey gave Abruzzo and Plinio the data they needed to back their hunch that nonprofits across the board were suffering from lack of direction.
The pair set out to help rectify the problem. They drew up business strategies and strategic plans, and won funding from four of the most prestigious nonprofits in New Jersey: the Prudential Foundation, the Victoria Foundation, the Dodge Foundation and the MCJ Foun- dation. All supported the idea of a place where New Jersey’s nonprofit organizations, including some of the nation’s largest charitable foundations, could find guidance and support.
At the same time, Abruzzo and Plinio brought on a full-time staffer, Wendy Dockray, who joined the center as its manager. Dockray, an alumna of the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University, is responsible for the center’s daily operations
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