Survey Overview
Respondent: Nonprofit organizations, general incorporated associations, general incorporated foundations, and public interest corporations in Japan.
Survey period: November 13 -December 12, 2024
Number of valid responses: 144 organizations
The full survey report, Investing in People and Solving Social Problems: A Survey Report on Middle Manager Development in Nonprofits, in English is available here.
URL: https://file.etic.or.jp/eticreport202502_en.pdf
This survey was conducted by ETIC with financial support from the Apollo Opportunity Foundation (AOF).
One of the attendees asked if it would be good to have a common understanding of what “development” really means. In response, Ms. Miyazaki, who leads the curriculum design for our capacity-building program, shared the program’s important ideas.
“‘Development’ often gives the impression that capable people are teaching less capable ones. But why is developing people necessary? We NPOs create projects to create the world and society we want to see. These projects are made by people, not robots. So, people’s growth equals project growth, and project growth means getting closer to realizing our vision. That’s why we call helping people grow ‘development.’
I think it’s more about ‘growing together’ rather than just ‘developing someone.’ I often call it a ‘system change.’ Just giving middle-managers knowledge won’t make them grow; to change them, everyone around them needs to change, and the underlying system needs to change too.
We give program participants tasks like ‘Talk to your supervisor.’ The supervisor should feel some change of the manager, and by experiencing that change, they will realize they need to transform themselves too.’
