In the past few years, we have witnessed stunning examples of great - and greatly flawed - leadership that has contributed to a new norm of regulation and accountability, breached stakeholder trust, and dubious public confidence. No consensus is needed to acknowledge that the nonprofit sector has suffered from a lack of leadership, whether it is social service agencies, advocacy organizations, charities and foundations, philanthropic institutions or associations. Many top executives of nonprofit organizations have displayed consistent shortcomings in vision, courage, responsibility, and commitment. Still too, many others have exercised impressive perseverance in the name of service, education, and social change that contributed to the benchmark successes of the past twenty years. Underneath it all there remains an unprecedented public and private concern for the state of authentic leadership: what it is, what it is not, and what it now needs to be.