50 Essential NFP Leaders in Australia and New Zealand

Introduction

If you lead a not-for-profit organisation in Australia or New Zealand, you already understand the weight of this moment. Demand for community services is at record levels. Funding remains short-term, inadequate, and tied to compliance requirements that consume the very capacity needed to serve people well. The workforce is burned out. Volunteers are declining. And a sector that employs more than 1.5 million Australians alone, contributing an estimated $222 billion to the national economy according to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission's most recent national report, is doing all of this with fewer resources than the scale of its work demands.

Yet across Australia and New Zealand, a generation of leaders is navigating this pressure with remarkable clarity, creativity, and commitment. They are reforming funding structures, advocating for systemic change, building governance frameworks that can absorb volatility, and creating new models of service delivery that put community at the centre. Some lead major national organisations with thousands of staff. Others run lean, focused operations that punch far above their weight. All of them are actively shaping the conversation about what effective, ethical, and sustainable not-for-profit leadership looks like in 2026.

In New Zealand, where more than 28,000 charities operate according to the LEAD Centre for Not-for-Profit Leadership, the sector faces additional pressure from significant governance reforms and a government social investment approach that is reshaping how community organisations are funded and evaluated.

This guide brings together 50 of the most essential thought leaders in not-for-profit leadership across Australia and New Zealand in 2026. It spans the full breadth of the sector: peak body advocates, direct service leaders, philanthropy specialists, social enterprise founders, First Nations leaders, technology innovators, governance experts, and policy voices from both sides of the Tasman. The list was built to surface voices the reader may not yet have encountered alongside those who are already well known in sector circles.

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, and works with not-for-profit leadership teams on the communication, decision-making, and team dynamics challenges that accompany the complexity of running a mission-driven organisation. To discuss how Jonno can support your leadership team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Not-for-Profit Leadership Matters

The stakes of not-for-profit leadership are not abstract. When a disability service provider lacks the governance capability to navigate the NDIS, real people lose access to support. When a community housing organisation cannot sustain its workforce, families remain without safe homes. When a philanthropic foundation lacks strategic leadership, the funds it holds do not reach the communities they were intended to serve.

The ACNC's 2025 Australian Charities Report confirmed that the sector employs 10.7 per cent of Australia's entire workforce. In New Zealand, the community and voluntary sector represents one of the most significant components of social infrastructure across the country. Both nations face an accelerating gap between what the sector is being asked to do and what it is being resourced to do.

The thought leaders on this list are the people actively working to close that gap. They are making the case for multi-year funding and the full cost of service delivery. They are building the governance frameworks and technology infrastructure that allow organisations to operate sustainably. They are advocating for First Nations self-determination in service design and delivery. They are demonstrating new models of social enterprise that reduce dependency on grant funding. Their work is not theoretical. It shapes the conditions under which thousands of organisations serve millions of people every day.

For organisations navigating team dynamics, communication breakdown, or leadership transitions, Jonno White offers Working Genius facilitation, DISC workshops, and executive team offsites specifically designed for not-for-profit leadership contexts. Whether virtual or face to face, international travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to start the conversation.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, they have made a documented and substantive contribution to not-for-profit leadership in Australia or New Zealand through published writing, research, recognised professional leadership, or demonstrated practical innovation. Second, they are actively engaged in the field in 2025 and 2026, not simply coasting on past reputation. Third, the list deliberately includes voices the reader may not yet have encountered alongside those who are widely known in sector circles.

The list spans both countries, multiple subsectors, diverse disciplines, and a wide range of organisational scales. It deliberately moves past the most prominent household names in favour of the practitioners, advocates, and innovators who are doing the most consequential work right now.

Category 1: Peak Body and Sector Advocacy Leaders

The following leaders run the organisations that speak for the sector, shape its regulatory environment, and negotiate its conditions of operation with government. Their leadership directly influences the funding landscape, the compliance burden, and the public credibility on which every other organisation in the sector depends.

1. David Crosbie | CEO, Community Council for Australia

David Crosbie has been CEO of the Community Council for Australia since 2010, making him one of the longest-serving leaders of a national NFP peak body in Australia. CCA is the sector's most prominent national advocacy voice, representing the interests of charities and not-for-profits directly to federal government. His fortnightly column in the Community Advocate and the CCA's daily briefing for member CEOs position him as one of the most consistently influential commentators on the forces shaping the sector.

Crosbie's current focus is on building the evidence base that the sector has historically lacked. In CCA's 2026 federal pre-budget submission, he argued directly that Australia's charities and not-for-profits contribute substantially to GDP and employ more than 1.5 million Australians, yet receive only a fraction of the investment that the scale of that contribution warrants. His sustained advocacy for what he calls the sector's "capacity to ask for what is needed" reflects a strategic mind shaped by more than 20 years of peak body leadership across some of Australia's most complex social issues.

2. Sue Woodward AM | Commissioner, Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission

Sue Woodward AM became Commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission in December 2022, taking over one of the most consequential regulatory roles in the country's NFP sector. Her appointment was widely welcomed after a period of significant turbulence at the regulator, and she has consistently articulated a vision of the ACNC as a body that earns sector trust rather than simply enforcing compliance.

Woodward's regulatory philosophy is built on the idea that accountability and integrity are shared responsibilities, not simply matters for the regulator to impose. Her 2025 Australian Charities Report confirmed the sector's record revenue of $222 billion while also documenting the near-flatlining of individual donations, a data point she has used to make the case that sustainable sector funding requires structural change rather than incremental adjustment. Her earlier foundational work, a 2004 research report titled "A Better Framework: reforming the not-for-profit regulation," presaged the creation of the ACNC itself.

3. Cassandra Goldie AO | CEO, ACOSS

Dr Cassandra Goldie AO has been CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service since 2010. As the national voice for people experiencing poverty and disadvantage, and the peak council for community services, ACOSS occupies a uniquely influential position at the intersection of social policy, sector advocacy, and public debate. Goldie is one of the most recognised public advocates in the Australian not-for-profit sector, regularly providing media commentary on social security, housing, employment, health, and taxation policy.

Her co-leadership of the ACOSS-UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership has produced some of the most rigorous and widely cited data on the extent and nature of poverty in Australia. The partnership's research shapes both media narratives and government policy in ways that go well beyond typical peak body influence. Under her leadership, ACOSS has maintained a consistently strong voice in support of charity advocacy rights during periods of significant regulatory pressure on the sector.

4. Aimee McVeigh | CEO, QCOSS

Aimee McVeigh is CEO of the Queensland Council of Social Service and the architect of one of the most significant legislative reforms in Queensland's recent history: the Human Rights Act for Queensland. As a community lawyer and human rights advocate, she led the decade-long campaign that resulted in Queensland becoming only the third Australian jurisdiction to enact a human rights charter.

Her QCOSS 2025 State of the Sector report documented unprecedented pressure on frontline community service workers, with only nine per cent of community service providers reporting they can always meet demand for their services. Her consistent ability to translate frontline experience into actionable policy arguments for state government distinguishes her as one of the most practically effective sector advocates in the country. Her background at the Disability Royal Commission and with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples gives her a global lens on the local challenges her members face.

5. Cara Varian | CEO, NSW Council of Social Service

Cara Varian is CEO of the NSW Council of Social Service, the peak body for the social services sector in New South Wales and one of Australia's most influential state-level sector voices. With more than 400 member organisations and a wider network of thousands across the state, NCOSS provides the evidence base and political access that smaller organisations working on the frontline cannot generate alone.

Varian's leadership has built on NCOSS's more than 90-year history of advocating for people experiencing poverty and disadvantage in NSW. Her focus on genuine sector consultation and on ensuring that the lived experience of people affected by poverty shapes NCOSS's policy positions reflects the community organising roots of the organisation's earliest work. Her ability to work across party lines while maintaining NCOSS's independence is one of the most practically difficult skills in peak body leadership, and she exercises it with notable consistency.

6. Louise Giolitto | CEO, WACOSS

Louise Giolitto has been CEO of the Western Australian Council of Social Service since 2017, bringing more than 26 years of executive experience across youth, employment, homelessness, housing, education, and aged care to the role. Her time working in the Kimberley and Pilbara gives her direct experience of the distinctive challenges facing regional and remote Western Australian communities, a perspective that is often missing from metropolitan-focused sector advocacy.

WACOSS occupies a particularly important role in Western Australia given the state's significant distance from national policy processes and the scale of its Indigenous community services sector. Giolitto's deep membership network and her collaborative approach to advocacy have built WACOSS into a trusted voice for state government on community sector issues. Her recent focus on the governance skills gap at board level in smaller WA organisations reflects both the WACOSS training mandate and her own extensive experience as a board member across multiple organisations.

7. Dr Catherine Earl | CEO, SACOSS

Dr Catherine Earl became CEO of the South Australian Council of Social Service in July 2025, bringing more than 15 years of experience in government relations, campaign strategy, and social policy reform. She joined SACOSS from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education where she was Director of Policy and Research, having previously served as SACOSS's Director of Policy and Advocacy before a period in Canberra advising the Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care.

Her appointment to SACOSS at a moment of significant transition both in the organisation and in South Australia's broader social service landscape makes her one to watch. Her PhD and deep policy expertise position her to move the organisation's advocacy from well-informed opinions to the kind of evidence-backed arguments that can actually change government decisions in an environment where data-driven advocacy is increasingly the minimum standard for influence.

Category 2: Philanthropy and Fundraising Leaders

The leaders in this category shape how money moves from those who have it to those who need it. Their work directly determines whether philanthropic capital reaches communities effectively and whether the fundraising ecosystem operates with the ethical standards that donor trust requires.

8. Maree Sidey | CEO, Philanthropy Australia

Maree Sidey became CEO of Philanthropy Australia in June 2024, taking over after nine years leading the Australian Communities Foundation. She was appointed to the WINGS board in 2025, the global network of philanthropy support organisations representing more than 200 organisations across 58 countries, bringing an international dimension to what had been a primarily domestically focused organisation.

Sidey's strategic goal for Philanthropy Australia is to mobilise generosity at scale, building on the Productivity Commission's recommendation to double philanthropic giving in Australia by 2030. Her background at ACF, where she transformed a relatively modest community foundation into one of Australia's most respected giving vehicles, gives her direct operational experience of what it takes to build philanthropic culture rather than simply advocate for it.

9. Katherine Raskob | CEO, Fundraising Institute Australia

Katherine Raskob is CEO of the Fundraising Institute Australia, the largest representative body for Australia's $10.5 billion charitable fundraising sector. Her leadership has been focused on two connected priorities: improving the ethical standards of the sector through the FIA Code of Practice, and defending those standards against unnecessary government regulation.

The 2026 Generosity Tracker data from her FIA-commissioned research with More Strategic revealed that Australian donors are "disciplined" rather than declining, with around half giving at similar levels to previous years. Raskob's analysis of generational giving trends, including the different engagement patterns of Builder, Boomer, and younger cohorts, has been influential in helping fundraisers understand that the challenge is not simply declining generosity but changing donor priorities and engagement channels.

10. Prof. Kristy Muir | CEO, Paul Ramsay Foundation

Professor Kristy Muir is CEO of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia's largest private charitable foundation, and Professor of Social Policy in the Business School at UNSW Sydney. Her three-decade career spans direct not-for-profit sector work, academic research, and philanthropic leadership, giving her one of the most integrated perspectives on social impact of any leader in the country.

At the Centre for Social Impact, which she led from 2017 to 2021, Muir developed the Social Impact Leadership Australia program, a nationally significant capability-building initiative for NFP CEOs. Her research and leadership work has influenced policy and practice across government, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors. As CEO of a foundation with the scale of Paul Ramsay, her focus on systems change and her ability to translate complex social research into practical philanthropic strategy make her one of the sector's most consequential thinkers.

11. Rahul Watson Govindan | CEO, Philanthropy New Zealand

Rahul Watson Govindan has been CEO of Philanthropy New Zealand since October 2023, bringing a background spanning corporate, not-for-profit, community, social enterprise, philanthropy, fundraising, technology, investment, and finance to a role that demands fluency across all of these domains. His appointment marked a significant transition for the organisation, which connects funders, social investors, and social change agents across Aotearoa.

In a country where the current government's social investment approach is reshaping how philanthropy and government interact on social outcomes, Govindan's ability to position philanthropy as a complement to rather than a substitute for adequate public investment is a critical skill. His forthcoming 2026 strategy for Philanthropy New Zealand, which aims to strengthen global and regional philanthropic networks, is likely to make the organisation a more visible voice in international conversations about the future of giving.

12. Eleanor Cater | Acting CEO, Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand

Eleanor Cater is Acting CEO of Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand, the organisation that supports the country's 18-strong network of community foundations. She joined CFANZ in 2017 and moved into the Acting CEO role through a competitive internal process that her board described as reflecting her "wealth of experience, insight, and passion for community philanthropy." She completed a Master's in Philanthropic Studies through the University of Kent in 2024 and holds a Winston Churchill Fellowship researching the growth of community philanthropy internationally.

Her research background and her deep operational knowledge of how community foundations function across New Zealand give her a distinctive dual capacity: she can speak credibly about strategic direction at a national level while drawing on years of direct partnership with individual foundations serving specific communities. Her focus on transparency of philanthropic decision-making and her interest in how foundation networks can share data more effectively are likely to shape the CFANZ agenda in the coming years.

13. Julia Keady | CEO and Founder, Benefolk

Julia Keady is the CEO and Founder of Benefolk, a platform and services organisation that helps not-for-profit organisations build more effective fundraising and partnership strategies. Her 2020 national research study on the impacts of the pandemic, which involved 330 organisations, has been widely cited in sector publications as foundational evidence for the structural changes in NFP operating conditions that followed.

Her Philanthropy Weekly column and the Benefolk platform's practical tools have built a following among fundraising practitioners who value accessible, evidence-backed guidance they can apply immediately. The Benefolk Drafter tool, which helps smaller organisations write grant applications more efficiently, reflects her underlying commitment to reducing the resource asymmetry between well-resourced organisations and the smaller charities that often serve the most marginalised communities.

14. Catherine Brooks | CEO, Equitable Philanthropy

Catherine Brooks is CEO of Equitable Philanthropy and a member of the Community Directors Council. Her 2026 commentary on governance and AI for not-for-profits, published in the Institute of Community Directors Australia's major annual sector report, identified a critical gap: most Australian NFPs are already using AI tools in their fundraising, communications, and service delivery, but only 14 per cent have an internal AI policy or governance framework.

Her specific contribution to the sector conversation on AI governance is to insist that managing AI is a board-level responsibility, not purely an operational or technology matter. Her case study approach, drawing on her practical consulting work with a small environmental organisation to establish shared AI clarity across staff and board, reflects the kind of practical, actionable thought leadership that distinguishes genuine sector contributors from those who discuss problems without helping solve them.

Category 3: Technology and Digital Innovation Leaders

These leaders are building the digital infrastructure, data capability, and technology governance frameworks that allow not-for-profit organisations to serve their communities more effectively and more equitably.

15. David Spriggs | CEO, Infoxchange

David Spriggs is CEO of Infoxchange, Australia's leading social enterprise focused on technology for social justice. Infoxchange's work spans two connected areas: building digital solutions that help community organisations deliver services more effectively, and advocating for digital inclusion so that the communities those organisations serve can access the benefits of digital technology. With more than 25 years of experience in the not-for-profit and technology sectors, Spriggs chairs the Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance and sits on the board of Specialisterne Australia, which creates employment pathways for people on the autism spectrum.

His November 2025 Digital Technology in the Not-for-Profit Sector Report documented a striking shift: data and reporting for evidence-based decision-making rose from being a priority for 17 per cent of not-for-profits in 2023 to 44 per cent in 2025. He also documented that AI adoption in the sector has doubled in the past year, with the vast majority of staff and volunteers now using the technology, while cyber security planning remains dangerously underprepared. Spriggs' consistent argument that digital capability is no longer a "nice-to-have" but essential social infrastructure is one of the most urgent messages in the current sector conversation.

16. Charlie Nowaczek | CEO, BoardPro

Charlie Nowaczek is CEO of BoardPro, a board governance platform used by hundreds of not-for-profit organisations across Australia and New Zealand. His practical focus on what he calls governance maturity, moving organisations from reactive compliance to systematised, risk-aware, trust-led governance, has found a substantial audience among NFP board members and executives navigating an increasingly complex operating environment.

His 2026 analysis, published in the Institute of Community Directors Australia's annual sector report, argued that the organisations that will thrive are those that simplify, focus and execute consistently rather than adding new initiatives in response to external pressure. This "do fewer things better" argument cuts against the tendency of under-resourced organisations to respond to rising demand by layering new programs on existing ones, and it has resonated strongly with leaders who are struggling with that exact dynamic.

Category 4: Community Services and Social Justice Leaders

These are the leaders running the organisations that provide direct support to people experiencing disadvantage, exclusion, poverty, and vulnerability. Their operational experience gives their leadership writing and advocacy a grounding that purely strategic or research voices sometimes lack.

17. Travers McLeod | Executive Director, Brotherhood of St Laurence

Travers McLeod has been Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence since April 2022. BSL is one of Australia's oldest and most respected social justice organisations, and its combination of direct service delivery, policy research, and advocacy at Parliament gives Travers a platform that spans the full spectrum of NFP influence. A Rhodes Scholar with a DPhil in International Relations from Oxford and the author of Rule of Law in War published by Oxford University Press, he brings unusual intellectual firepower to the operational realities of running a major social justice organisation.

His 2024 parliamentary exhibition, which combined live panel events on partnerships to reduce poverty and social procurement with research launches on NDIS digital platforms and women's economic security, exemplifies the BSL model of using practice evidence to shape policy. His advocacy on the National School Reform Agreement and his contributions to the Goodstart syndicate on early childhood reflect the breadth of a leader who understands that social justice requires engagement across multiple systems simultaneously rather than one at a time.

18. James Toomey | CEO, Social Ventures Australia

James Toomey became CEO of Social Ventures Australia in January 2025, having previously served as CEO of Mission Australia and Deputy Secretary within the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. SVA is Australia's leading social impact consultancy and one of the sector's most important connective organisations, working with governments, philanthropists, not-for-profits, and communities to co-design solutions to complex social challenges.

His long-standing connection to SVA, his experience co-creating the Constellation Project and the Possibility Partnership, and his End Street Sleeping Collaboration work give him a practical understanding of what genuinely cross-sector collaboration requires at scale. His stated ambition to challenge the "too hard basket" in Australian social policy reflects the SVA mandate to tackle problems that other parts of the sector find too complex or contentious. His background in social work grounds this ambition in a direct understanding of what disadvantage looks like in individual lives.

19. Doug Taylor | CEO, The Smith Family

Doug Taylor has been CEO of The Smith Family since August 2021, leading one of Australia's most respected children's charities with a 100-year history of supporting young people experiencing educational disadvantage. His 30-year career in the social sector spans national and international experience in leading social impact initiatives, and his board appointments at Wayside Chapel and as Chair of Warakirri College reflect a genuine personal commitment to the communities The Smith Family serves.

His podcast conversation series, where he speaks with researchers, educators, government officials, and community members about the systemic forces affecting young people's life chances, has built a substantial following among sector practitioners. His consistent advocacy for evidence-based programs and for honest assessment of what works, including in his public commentaries on how The Smith Family measures its own outcomes, reflects a leadership posture of intellectual honesty that is rare in a sector where positive framing often takes precedence over accurate evaluation.

20. Sharon Callister | CEO, Mission Australia

Sharon Callister has been CEO of Mission Australia since March 2022, leading one of Australia's largest and oldest Christian charities with more than 160 years of service to Australians in need. With a background as a registered nurse and executive leadership in aged care and community services through the Salvation Army and other faith-based organisations, she brings a clinically grounded, care-focused leadership approach to one of the sector's most complex operational challenges.

Mission Australia serves well over 100,000 people annually across homelessness services, social and affordable housing, mental health, disability, employment, and early childhood programs. Callister's focus on achieving measurable outcomes for people at the margins of Australian society, and her commitment to Mission Australia's founding purpose of meeting human need, reflects both the Christian ethic that underpins the organisation and the operational rigour that managing a $500 million-plus operation requires.

21. Sherri Bruinhout | CEO, Launch Housing

Sherri Bruinhout is CEO of Launch Housing, one of Melbourne's most prominent homelessness services organisations. Her leadership at Launch Housing has emphasised two connected goals: demonstrating that homelessness is a solvable problem with the right combination of housing supply, support services, and systemic change, and building the operational model that can sustain that demonstration at scale.

Her partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence to renew the Broadmeadows Education First Youth Foyer for a further decade, supporting more than 1,000 young Victorians through integrated housing, education, and employment pathways, is one of the most effective examples of cross-sector collaboration in Australian social housing. Her operational experience navigating the complex dynamics of state government housing policy, community housing regulation, and frontline service delivery gives her commentary on housing and homelessness a credibility that purely advocacy-focused voices cannot match.

22. Hang Vo | CEO and President, Sacred Heart Mission and ACOSS

Hang Vo is CEO of Sacred Heart Mission, a Melbourne-based community services organisation with 40 years of experience supporting people experiencing homelessness and social exclusion, and the President of the Australian Council of Social Service. As the first queer person of colour to hold the ACOSS presidency, her leadership represents a visible expansion of who speaks for the sector at the national level.

Vo arrived in Australia as part of the Vietnamese refugee "boat people." Her lived experience of displacement and exclusion directly shapes her advocacy for structural change rather than palliative responses to disadvantage. Her focus on pacing passion as a leader, documented in her podcast appearance discussing how sustained leadership requires managing energy rather than simply channelling it, reflects the kind of practical leadership wisdom that comes from years of operating at the intersection of mission intensity and organisational sustainability. She holds an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School and a Graduate Certificate from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

23. Kevin Barrow | CEO, The Benevolent Society

Kevin Barrow became CEO of The Benevolent Society in October 2025, leading Australia's oldest charity through its next phase of growth and diversification following a period of significant strategic transition under his predecessor. He brought extensive leadership experience and a people-focused approach to an organisation that provides services to older Australians, people with disability, children and families across New South Wales and Queensland.

The Benevolent Society was established in 1813 and remains one of the most important laboratories for innovation in Australian social services. Barrow's appointment signals the board's intention to consolidate the organisation's service base while pursuing growth through genuine partnership and connection in community service delivery rather than simply expanding existing programs. His previous leadership of Sydney North Health Network and the Butterfly Foundation gives him a track record of building highly collaborative, values-driven organisations.

Category 5: First Nations Leadership and Self-Determination

These leaders represent some of the most important and underrecognised thought leadership in the not-for-profit sector: the work of Indigenous-led organisations and their advocates in reshaping how services are designed, delivered, and governed in community-controlled environments.

24. Paul Stewart | CEO, Lowitja Institute

Paul Stewart is a proud Taungurung man and CEO of the Lowitja Institute, Australia's only national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled health research institute. He took over the role in May 2024, having served previously as Deputy CEO and Interim CEO, and having worked with the Institute since his early career as an Indigenous health researcher. His career spans the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Cricket Australia, and the University of Melbourne.

The Lowitja Institute's scholarship programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researchers and its international conferences on Indigenous health and wellbeing reflect the organisation's commitment to building a self-sustaining research ecosystem led by and for First Nations communities. His advocacy through international forums on Indigenous data sovereignty and health equity signals his intention to make the organisation a globally visible voice on the issues most directly affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

25. Nerita Waight | CEO, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service

Nerita Waight is a proud Yorta Yorta and Narrandjeri woman with Taungurung connections, and CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. Her career at VALS spans over a decade, beginning as a civil lawyer and progressing through family and children's law and policy and advocacy before becoming CEO. She is also an elected member of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and Treaty Co-Convenor, placing her at the centre of the most consequential legal and political development for Victorian Aboriginal communities in decades.

Her November 2025 Barak Wonga Address at Swinburne University argued that Treaty offers a genuine pathway to a fairer justice system for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and drew directly on the historical resistance of Aboriginal peoples as both the source of hope and the justification for legal reform. Her distinctive contribution to the NFP sector leadership conversation is to insist that genuine self-determination requires structural change, not improved service delivery within existing systems that were not designed with Aboriginal communities as their primary consideration.

26. Shelley Reys AO | CEO, Arrilla Indigenous Consulting

Shelley Reys AO is a Djiribul woman of far north Queensland and CEO of Arrilla Indigenous Consulting, which she established nearly 30 years ago following the death of her cousin and Arrilla's founder, Darren Auyeung. She is the inaugural Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia, Vice-Chair of the National Australia Day Council, and Chair of the Council for the Order of Australia, positions that reflect her standing as one of Australia's most respected voices on reconciliation, cultural competency, and Indigenous leadership.

Arrilla's work with KPMG through a joint venture arrangement demonstrates her belief that reconciliation is not merely a values statement but a practical business and organisational capability that requires structured development. Her vision of "a culturally competent Australia, one workplace at a time" has translated into specific capability frameworks that thousands of Australian organisations have used to build genuine inclusion rather than symbolic acknowledgement. As a member of the Organising Committee for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, she is also shaping how Australia presents itself globally through an Indigenous lens.

27. Andrea Goddard | Founder and CEO, Stars Foundation

Andrea Goddard is Founder and CEO of Stars Foundation, which provides school-based mentoring and holistic engagement support to improve health, education, and employment outcomes for First Nations girls and young women across Australia. She founded Stars to address a specific gender equity gap she identified in First Nations educational engagement programs after more than a decade as General Manager of Development at the Clontarf Foundation.

Since 2015, Stars has supported more than 3,500 students in schools and nearly 1,000 alumni, with data showing that Stars programs directly improve school attendance, Year 12 completion, and transition to further education or employment. Her specific contribution to the sector conversation is the evidence she has built that gendered, culturally grounded, and relationship-based mentoring produces measurably better educational outcomes for First Nations girls than either generic school programs or gender-neutral Indigenous engagement initiatives.

28. Carly Stanley | CEO and Co-founder, Deadly Connections

Carly Stanley is a proud Wiradjuri woman and the CEO and co-founder of Deadly Connections, an Aboriginal survivor-led, community controlled not-for-profit organisation working at the intersection of criminal justice, family violence, and First Nations healing. She co-founded Deadly Connections in 2018 and led it to win AbSec's Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation of the Year award in 2020, a recognition of what authentic community control looks like in practice rather than as a policy commitment.

Her Master of Criminology and lived experience of the systems she navigates give her an unusual capacity to translate between the policy world and the communities most directly affected by criminal justice and family violence system failures. Her Churchill Fellowship and recognition as an AMP Tomorrow Maker reflect the sector's growing appreciation that survival knowledge, when combined with structural analysis and organisational leadership capability, produces some of the most practically effective advocacy available.

29. A/Prof Corey Tutt OAM | Founder and CEO, DeadlyScience

A/Prof Corey Tutt OAM is a proud Kamilaroi man, 2020 NSW Young Australian of the Year, and Founder and CEO of DeadlyScience, an organisation that provides STEM resources, mentoring, and training to remote and regional schools across Australia. He founded DeadlyScience in 2018 after discovering that many remote schools were completely under-resourced for science education, and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were being actively discouraged from pursuing STEM by resource poverty.

Since 2018, DeadlyScience has shipped more than 25,000 books and STEM resources to over 800 schools across Australia. Some partner schools have seen a 25 per cent increase in STEM engagement and attendance. Tutt's 2022 award-winning book The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples reframes the history of Australian science from a First Nations perspective and has become required reading in hundreds of Australian schools.

30. Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM | Founder and CEO, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM is the Founder and CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Australia's largest independent human rights organisation for people seeking asylum and refugees. Proudly born into a working-class Greek family in rural Victoria, he founded the ASRC in 2001 at 28 with a vision to create a place of hope and welcome where no one was turned away.

The ASRC is run by a team of over 1,000 volunteers and around 100 paid staff, and has raised more than a quarter-billion dollars for refugees through grassroots community engagement. Karapanagiotidis is a human rights lawyer, social worker, and twice-published author, with his memoir The Power of Hope and his Greek cookbook Philoxenia reflecting the personal and community dimensions of his advocacy. His recognition as the 2023 Melburnian of the Year reflects the breadth and depth of his contribution to both the sector and the city.

Category 6: Social Enterprise and Innovation Leaders

Social enterprise is reshaping the not-for-profit sector's relationship with markets, employment, and financial sustainability. The leaders in this category are building hybrid models that demonstrate what it looks like to put people and planet first without sacrificing organisational effectiveness.

31. Jess Moore | CEO, Social Enterprise Australia

Jess Moore is CEO of Social Enterprise Australia, the national peak body for Australia's social enterprise sector. Her 17-year career spans social enterprises, peak organisations, and people-centred services across Australia. Before joining SEA, she was CEO of Community Resources, one of Australia's largest jobs-focused social enterprises employing more than 650 people.

Her role as SEDI Education and Mentoring Coordinator under the Commonwealth Government's Social Enterprise Development Initiative has made SEA a central node in the federal government's strategy to build the sector's capability to grow social impact through business models rather than grant dependency. Her consistent argument, backed by parliamentary submissions and government engagement, is that social enterprises are not a niche curiosity but a structurally important component of an economy that delivers outcomes beyond profit.

32. Tom Dawkins | Co-founder and CEO, StartSomeGood

Tom Dawkins is Co-founder and CEO of StartSomeGood, a platform and programme that helps people design and launch social enterprises and impact projects. He is a champion of the Social Enterprise World Forum and a vocal advocate for the idea that doing good and doing business are not in conflict but mutually reinforcing when the model is right. He has a background in online fundraising and community building that gives him a distinctively digital perspective on how social entrepreneurs build audiences, demonstrate impact, and access capital.

His practical work supporting emerging social entrepreneurs across Australia and internationally fills a gap that traditional not-for-profit capacity building has often missed: the early-stage innovation support that helps mission-driven people test ideas and build organisations before they are ready for major grant funding or institutional investment. His thinking about the intersection of social entrepreneurship and digital platforms is some of the most forward-looking currently being published in the ANZ sector.

33. Rebecca Scott OAM | Co-founder and CEO, STREAT

Rebecca Scott OAM is Co-founder and CEO of STREAT, a Melbourne-based social enterprise that provides young people experiencing homelessness, disadvantage, or trauma with employment pathways through the hospitality sector. STREAT's model combines food, drink, hospitality, and horticulture businesses with intensive youth support programs that provide the wrap-around care that young people need to sustain employment.

Her sustained advocacy for social procurement and for government policies that channel public spending toward enterprises with social outcomes, rather than simply lowest cost, has been influential in the Victorian and national conversations on the role of social enterprise in public service markets. Her ability to build genuine cross-sector partnerships, including with corporate partners who understand the business case for social enterprise procurement, distinguishes her as a leader who makes the conversation about social enterprise concrete rather than aspirational.

34. Marcus Godinho | CEO, FareShare

Marcus Godinho is CEO of FareShare, a social enterprise that cooks and distributes nutritious meals to charities and emergency food relief services across Victoria. FareShare rescues surplus food from farmers, retailers, and manufacturers and turns it into free, healthy meals for people in need. Under Godinho's leadership, FareShare has grown into one of the most operationally efficient food relief organisations in the country, combining social enterprise revenue with philanthropy and volunteer engagement to achieve impact at scale.

His approach to leadership is rooted in the social enterprise conviction that financial sustainability and social mission reinforce rather than conflict with each other. The FareShare model, which employs people experiencing barriers to employment alongside its volunteer workforce of more than 2,000 people, demonstrates that "doing well and doing good" is a practical operating model rather than an aspirational statement.

35. Suzie Riddell | Head of Evidence and Impact, The Smith Family

Suzie Riddell joined The Smith Family in December 2025 as Head of Evidence and Impact, having previously served as CEO of Social Ventures Australia for six years. Her career transition from chief executive of one of Australia's leading social impact organisations to a specialist evidence and measurement role reflects her conviction that the sector's capacity to demonstrate its own value through rigorous, honest evaluation is one of its most important strategic assets.

Her creation of evidence-based initiatives during her CEO tenure, including Evidence for Learning and The Parkville Institute, demonstrated that innovation in the social sector requires the same financial rigour and performance accountability as innovation in any other sector. Her new focus at The Smith Family on how evidence is built, communicated, and translated into practice reflects the continuing evolution of her thinking about how the sector can make the strongest possible case for its own effectiveness and value.

36. Ronni Kahn AO | Founder and Visionary in Residence, OzHarvest

Ronni Kahn AO is the Founder and Visionary in Residence of OzHarvest, the Australian food rescue organisation she established in 2004 that has grown into one of the country's most recognised and respected social enterprises. She leads hundreds of staff and thousands of volunteers, with the goal of Nourishing the Country by rescuing good food and delivering it to those in need, with more than 200 million meals delivered since OzHarvest's founding.

Her vision for OzHarvest has consistently moved beyond food rescue to address the systemic causes of food insecurity and food waste, including through the NEST nutrition education program and OzHarvest Market, Australia's first free supermarket for people in need. Her advocacy on food waste, food systems, and the role of business in solving social challenges has made her one of the sector's most distinctive and widely followed voices across Australia and internationally.

Category 7: Aotearoa New Zealand Community Leadership

These leaders bring a specifically New Zealand perspective to not-for-profit leadership, shaped by the distinctive context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the current government's social investment approach, and the rich tradition of community-controlled service delivery across Aotearoa.

37. Katie Bruce | Tangata Tiriti Chief Executive, Hui E! Community Aotearoa

Katie Bruce is Tangata Tiriti Chief Executive of Hui E! Community Aotearoa, which she co-leads with Tangata Whenua Chief Executive Patrick Gemmell in a co-leadership model designed to give effect to Te Tiriti in the governance and operations of Aotearoa's national community and voluntary sector peak body. Her March 2026 message from the Hui E! website captures the approach clearly: bringing Ngai Tahu leadership thinking into the organisation's strategic work, sitting in the problem without jumping to solutions, and focusing on sharing and activating what already exists rather than creating new structures.

The co-leadership model at Hui E! is itself a sector thought leadership contribution: a practical demonstration of what Tiriti-centred governance looks like in a national peak body, including the messy, iterative, and "uncomfortable" conversations that genuine partnership requires. Her advocacy for better sector data, particularly on how funding flows within the New Zealand community sector and whether those flows respond to actual community need, reflects a strategic mind focused on structural change rather than service delivery optimisation.

38. Patrick Gemmell | Tangata Whenua Chief Executive, Hui E! Community Aotearoa

Patrick Gemmell is Kaiwhakahaere Matua, Tangata Whenua Chief Executive of Hui E! Community Aotearoa, sharing the co-leadership of the organisation with his Tangata Tiriti counterpart Katie Bruce. His appointment in late 2025 was described by the Hui E! board as bringing experience navigating government systems while maintaining community accountability, a combination that is essential for the peak body role at a time when the New Zealand government's social investment approach is fundamentally reshaping how community organisations are funded and evaluated.

His attendance at sector leaders hui in 2026, where leadership, collaboration, Te Tiriti, devolution, and data use were the key themes, reflected the immediate operational priorities of his new role. The Hui E! co-leadership model, which Patrick and Katie are documenting through video and personal reflection throughout 2026, is itself becoming a reference point for how other community organisations can implement partnership governance in practice rather than in principle.

39. Sarita Divis | Executive Officer, Child Poverty Action Group New Zealand

Sarita Divis is Executive Officer of the Child Poverty Action Group in Aotearoa New Zealand, a charity that has advocated for systems-level changes to solve child poverty in New Zealand for more than 25 years. Her June 2025 article challenging the New Zealand government's social investment approach, published on the CPAG website, reflects the organisation's determination to maintain evidence-based critique of policy frameworks that, whatever their stated intentions, risk doing harm to the communities most directly affected by poverty.

Her specific contribution to the sector leadership conversation is to insist that "when systems start targeting support based on who's most cost-effective to help, it becomes less about lifting people and more about sorting them." This critique of social investment's potential to reproduce discrimination and stigma is one of the most substantive and rigorously argued challenges to a policy framework that is becoming increasingly dominant in both New Zealand and Australian social policy conversations.

40. Alicia McKay | Strategist and Author, Independent

Alicia McKay is a New Zealand-based strategist, author, and consultant who works with public sector organisations and not-for-profit leaders on practical strategy and decision-making. She has worked with more than 120 organisations including councils and corporations, and her three books on leadership and strategy, combined with her weekly newsletter Wednesday Wisdom, have built a substantial following across Aotearoa and internationally.

Her distinctive voice in the ANZ leadership conversation is built on candid, accessible analysis of why strategy and leadership so often fail in practice, and what doing it better actually requires. Her focus on authenticity, real-world impact over bureaucratic performance, and the specific challenges of leading public and community-purpose organisations gives her work a relevance to the not-for-profit sector that distinguishes her from management consultants focused primarily on private sector leadership.

41. Tupe Solomon-Tanoa'i | Chief Philanthropic Officer, Borrin Foundation

Tupe Solomon-Tanoa'i is a Samoan/Fijian New Zealander and Chief Philanthropic Officer of the Borrin Foundation, which funds legal research, scholarship, and education in criminal justice and family law. She brings to the foundation a career spanning trade, economic, and policy issues in the public sector and development cooperation work in the Pacific. She is also a producer of content that highlights Pasifika success and an advocate for diversity and inclusion through a web series on unconscious bias.

Her representation on the Philanthropy New Zealand board gives the Pasifika community a direct voice in the strategic direction of New Zealand philanthropy, and her practical work at the intersection of legal justice, Pasifika communities, and philanthropic strategy reflects the cross-cultural leadership capacity that the sector increasingly requires. Her facilitation of sessions on supporting Pacific aspirations and reimagining philanthropy through talanoa at major philanthropic conferences reflects the depth and specificity of her contribution to the field.

Category 8: Leadership Development and Governance

These leaders are building the capability infrastructure that allows other not-for-profit leaders to do their work more effectively. Their contribution to the sector is systemic: by strengthening leadership quality and governance capability across hundreds of organisations, they multiply the impact of every other leader on this list.

42. Carmel Molloy | CEO and Founder, For Purpose Alliance

Carmel Molloy is CEO and Founder of the For Purpose Alliance, a social enterprise dedicated to building leadership capability within Australia's not-for-profit sector through peer-to-peer leadership programs. She has been building this model for more than a decade, working with NFP and social enterprise leaders through multiple "Leadership Hubs" each month, each designed to catalyse the collective wisdom, knowledge, and experience of peers facing similar challenges.

Her 2026 contribution to the sector conversation articulates the crisis of isolation in NFP leadership: "Leadership can be isolating. But having a chance to speak honestly with peers who understand the weight of responsibility, the uncertainty of decisions, and the human impact of those choices creates shared understanding that is hard to replicate elsewhere." Her model addresses this isolation structurally through sustained peer connection rather than one-off training events, making it one of the most practically responsive leadership development approaches currently operating in the Australian sector.

43. Melissa Macpherson | Managing Director and Co-Founder, People for Purpose

Melissa Macpherson is Managing Director and Co-Founder of People for Purpose, Australia's leading provider of executive and board search and advisory services to the for-purpose sector. With more than 20 years of sector expertise, she and her team have placed hundreds of CEOs and directors into leadership roles across the for-purpose sector and have accumulated more than 1,000 hours annually of board-level engagement that gives them a uniquely longitudinal view of how leadership quality and governance capability actually develop over time.

Her work at the intersection of executive search, governance advisory, and leadership development gives her a perspective on what separates effective not-for-profit leadership from the rest that is grounded in thousands of direct observations rather than theoretical frameworks. Her commitment to embedding diversity as a genuine value in every search and advisory engagement, rather than as a compliance box, reflects the conviction that inclusive leadership is what actually delivers better social outcomes rather than simply better optics.

44. Paul Higgins | Futurist, Emergent Futures

Paul Higgins is a futurist with Emergent Futures, which offers what he describes as "low-bono" consulting services to not-for-profits, and is Chair of Social Venture Partners Melbourne, which assists not-for-profits working with disadvantaged young people through pro-bono capacity-building and grants. His contribution to the sector leadership conversation is consistently focused on the strategic and systemic forces that will shape the environment in which not-for-profit organisations operate.

His February 2026 analysis of the implications of rightward political drift, AI vendor sustainability, climate change, and global financial instability for Australian not-for-profits was one of the most comprehensive and sobering strategic assessments available to sector leaders at the start of 2026. His key message, that not-for-profits that cannot articulate a credible response to donor expectations about climate are at risk regardless of how strong their service delivery model is, reflects a strategic mind that connects macro forces to organisational-level decision requirements with unusual clarity.

45. Angus Crowther | Executive Director, Tanck

Angus Crowther is Co-founder and Executive Director of Tanck, a specialist government engagement consultancy that works exclusively with not-for-profits and philanthropic organisations. His framework of the "supernormal," the way in which major crises become normalised even as they are still unfolding, was one of the more arresting analytical contributions to the sector leadership conversation in early 2026.

His specific contribution to not-for-profit leadership is the argument that effective government engagement is not about being louder but about being more legible to government, more clearly understood by decision-makers and more skilled at translating frontline insight into forms that travel inside public institutions. For sector leaders who feel frustrated by the gap between the urgency of what they see in their organisations and the pace of government response, his practical frameworks for building government engagement capability represent one of the most action-oriented approaches currently available.

46. Mark Pearce | CEO, Volunteering Australia

Mark Pearce is CEO of Volunteering Australia, the national peak body for volunteering, drawing on his extensive experience in the social purpose and commercial sectors and a previous senior executive role at the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. His leadership of Volunteering Australia comes at a period when the sector's volunteer workforce, one of the most significant human resources available to Australian not-for-profits, is under sustained pressure from demographic change, an ageing volunteer base, and the lingering effects of the pandemic on volunteering habits.

The National Strategy for Volunteering, which Volunteering Australia plays a central role in implementing, addresses the structural challenges of sustaining volunteering as a meaningful civic practice in an environment where the informal social structures that historically supported volunteering are weakening. Pearce's focus on connecting individuals with meaningful volunteer opportunities and on building employer-supported volunteering programs reflects the strategic thinking that has made Volunteering Australia a more visible presence in the national policy conversation.

47. Michelle Kitney | CEO, Volunteering New Zealand

Michelle Kitney is CEO of Volunteering New Zealand, the national body supporting the volunteer sector across Aotearoa. Her leadership of the organisation comes at a time when New Zealand's volunteering ecosystem is navigating significant structural change, including reforms to incorporated societies legislation that affects thousands of volunteer-governed community organisations and demographic shifts that are reshaping the volunteer workforce.

Her contribution to the Volunteering Changemakers Hui and her focus on volunteer wellbeing as a strategic priority, not merely an operational nicety, reflects an understanding that sustainable volunteering requires emotional and structural support for volunteers as people rather than simply as labour inputs. The governance changes affecting thousands of incorporated societies that need to reregister under new legislation create a particular moment of leadership pressure for an organisation responsible for supporting the volunteer-governed community sector.

Category 9: Sector Research and Insight

The final category recognises three leaders whose work provides the intellectual and data infrastructure that the rest of the sector depends on for evidence-based advocacy and leadership.

48. Tim Costello AO | Executive Director, Micah Australia

Tim Costello AO is Executive Director of Micah Australia, the Australian Christian advocacy network for global poverty, and Chair of the Community Council for Australia. He is also a Director of Ethical Voice and serves on numerous boards and advisory groups in the international development and faith-based sector. His more than 30 years in public advocacy on poverty, justice, gambling reform, and international development have made him one of the most recognisable public voices in the Australian not-for-profit sector.

His sustained presence in Australian public discourse on the intersection of faith, justice, and social policy, combined with his genuine global network and his willingness to speak to moral questions about the distribution of wealth and the obligations of the affluent, gives him a distinctive authority in sector conversations that purely professional advocates lack. His podcast series and regular media commentary continue to shape how Australians think about global poverty and the responsibilities of the sector.

49. Jo Cribb | Co-founder, Mind The Gap

Jo Cribb is a New Zealand governance and strategy expert, co-founder of Mind The Gap, and one of Aotearoa's most consistent advocates for gender equity in leadership and governance. Her advisory work with government agencies and not-for-profit organisations on inclusive leadership and governance reform has made her a trusted voice on the specific challenges of building governing boards that actually reflect the diversity of the communities organisations serve.

Her work with community organisations on governance strategy, combined with her public advocacy through media commentary and her authorship on women's leadership, gives her a practical understanding of the gap between governance aspiration and governance reality in the community sector. Her consistent argument that diversity in leadership and governance is not simply an ethical obligation but a strategic imperative, backed by specific frameworks for achieving it, makes her one of the most practically useful voices on governance in the ANZ not-for-profit space.

50. Juanita Pope | CEO, Victorian Council of Social Service

Juanita Pope was appointed CEO of the Victorian Council of Social Service in November 2023, bringing strategic and policy leadership to one of Australia's most active state-level sector peak bodies. VCOSS advocates for people experiencing poverty and disadvantage across Victoria and coordinates the policy work of hundreds of member organisations working at the community services frontline.

Her background spanning public policy, sector advocacy, and community services leadership gives her the ability to operate simultaneously in government negotiations, media engagement, and direct sector capacity building. Her focus on ensuring VCOSS amplifies lived experience voices in policy development, rather than merely speaking on behalf of the people its members serve, reflects a commitment to genuine rather than tokenistic community engagement that is shaping the next generation of Victorian social policy.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several significant voices in not-for-profit leadership were seriously considered for this list but did not make the final fifty.

Brene Brown, Adam Grant, and Simon Sinek would appear on most lists touching on leadership for purpose-driven organisations, and their work has shaped how leaders across every sector think about vulnerability, generosity, and meaning. By editorial choice, this list moved past these household names to surface voices doing their most consequential work in the ANZ not-for-profit context specifically.

Among ANZ-specific voices, Lin Hatfield Dodds represented nearly four years of extraordinary strategic leadership at The Benevolent Society and three decades of social sector contribution before that, but stepped down from that CEO role in March 2025 and her current focus was not publicly documented at the time of compilation. Bronwyn Pike AM, who departed Uniting Vic.Tas at the end of June 2025 after six years leading one of Australia's largest community services organisations, is another voice with deep sector significance whose current chapter of contribution was still emerging. Ross Womersley, who led SACOSS for more than fifteen years before stepping down in mid-2025, produced some of the most sustained and rigorous poverty and inequality advocacy in South Australian history and remains an important sector voice in his ongoing work.

Common Mistakes in Not-for-Profit Leadership

The most common mistake in not-for-profit leadership is confusing mission intensity with strategic clarity. Leaders who care deeply about their cause, and nearly every effective NFP leader does, can mistake the depth of their commitment for the rigour of their strategy. A board that is passionate about ending homelessness still needs a financially sustainable model, a clearly articulated theory of change, and a realistic assessment of what the organisation can actually deliver at its current scale. Passion is the entry requirement, not the exit qualification.

The second mistake is under-investing in governance capability. The ACNC's governance standards set a minimum floor, not a best practice ceiling. Boards in the sector chronically under-invest in their own development, in succession planning, in the skills audits that would reveal what they are missing, and in the honest conversations about performance that healthy governance requires. Not-for-profit governance is harder than corporate governance in many respects, because you are governing to improve people's lives rather than to maximise a financial return. That harder problem requires more investment in governance quality, not less.

The third mistake is treating government funding as a stable base rather than a strategic risk. The Commonwealth's standard grant conditions include the right to terminate "for convenience," meaning that the assumptions most organisations make about their government contract portfolio are not legally supported by the contracts themselves. Building financial reserves, diversifying revenue, and actively managing government relationships as strategic rather than administrative functions are leadership priorities that too few organisations treat with sufficient seriousness until the funding disappears.

The fourth mistake is confusing activity with impact. The pressure to demonstrate that grant funding is being spent actively produces reporting cultures focused on outputs, the number of people seen, the services delivered, the events run, rather than the changes those activities are actually achieving in people's lives. Building genuine impact measurement capability is difficult and expensive, but it is the difference between an organisation that can demonstrate its value to funders, government, and the communities it serves, and one that cannot.

The fifth mistake is neglecting staff wellbeing in the name of mission. A workforce that is burning out at the pace that recent sector surveys document, with close to 90 per cent of leaders in some studies reporting significant burnout, is not sustainable regardless of how important the mission is. The leaders on this list who are building genuinely sustainable cultures are doing so by treating workforce health as a strategic priority rather than a secondary concern that can be deferred to a better-resourced future.

Implementation Guide: Building Your NFP Leadership Learning System

The most effective way to engage with the voices on this list is not to follow all 50 simultaneously but to build a curated, intentional learning system that connects you with the perspectives most relevant to your current leadership challenges. Here is a practical approach.

Start by identifying your three most pressing leadership challenges right now. Are they in governance, funding sustainability, workforce, advocacy, digital capability, or impact measurement? Once you have named them, identify five to seven people from this list whose work most directly addresses those challenges. Follow them on LinkedIn, subscribe to their newsletters or organisational publications, and commit to reading what they produce for the next 90 days.

The next step is to move from passive consumption to active engagement. Comment on posts with substantive responses rather than simply likes. Share content with your own commentary. Tag peers in your network when you find something directly relevant to a conversation you are already having. The leaders on this list are, without exception, actively engaged on LinkedIn precisely because they want to have conversations with people doing this work, not simply to broadcast content to passive audiences.

The third step is to identify the two or three sector events or conferences where the highest concentration of relevant voices will be physically present. The Institute of Community Directors Australia annual events, the Third Sector Leaders Forum, the Philanthropy Australia Conference, Philanthropy NZ events, and QCOSS and VCOSS annual gatherings are the most consistently valuable for anyone working across the ANZ sector.

If your organisation is navigating the specific challenges of team dynamics, leadership communication, or building a high-functioning leadership team, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, works specifically with not-for-profit leadership teams on these challenges. International travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

For more on how to build sector networks and leadership capability, check out the blog post 50 Best Thought Leaders on Leadership in Nonprofits (2026) at consultclarity.org/post/thought-leadership-nonprofits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most important not-for-profit thought leaders in Australia right now?

The most consistently influential voices shaping the sector in 2025 and 2026 include David Crosbie at the Community Council for Australia, whose daily analysis of the national policy context is the most comprehensive available; Cassandra Goldie AO at ACOSS, whose sustained advocacy on poverty, inequality, and sector rights is backed by rigorous research; and David Spriggs at Infoxchange, whose digital technology reports provide the most credible data on the state of technology capability in the sector. For governance and regulation, Sue Woodward AM at the ACNC and Juanita Pope at VCOSS are the most important voices. For philanthropy and funding strategy, Maree Sidey and Kristy Muir provide the most strategically relevant thinking.

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on the basis of three criteria: a documented and substantive contribution to not-for-profit leadership in Australia or New Zealand, active engagement in the field in 2025 and 2026 rather than simply coasting on past reputation, and deliberate inclusion of voices the reader may not yet have encountered alongside those already well known in sector circles. The list spans both countries, multiple subsectors, diverse disciplines, and a wide range of organisational scales.

What is the biggest challenge facing not-for-profit leaders in Australia and New Zealand in 2026?

The most consistent theme across the voices on this list is the gap between the sector's contribution to community wellbeing and the resources it receives to sustain that contribution. The ACNC's 2025 Australian Charities Report confirmed that the sector employs 10.7 per cent of Australia's workforce and generated $222 billion in revenue in the most recent reporting period, yet operates with short-term funding, inadequate indexation, and compliance requirements that consume capacity needed for service delivery. In New Zealand, reforms to the incorporated societies legislation and the government's social investment approach are reshaping the operating environment in ways that create both risk and opportunity for community organisations.

Can I hire someone to facilitate not-for-profit leadership workshops or team sessions for my organisation?

Yes. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally, works with not-for-profit leadership teams on the communication, decision-making, accountability, and team health challenges that make or break organisational performance. He delivers Working Genius facilitation, DISC workshops, and executive team offsites for not-for-profit, school, and community sector organisations around the world. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your team's needs.

What is the difference between not-for-profit leadership in Australia and New Zealand?

Both sectors operate under similar pressures: funding constraints, workforce shortages, governance complexity, and rising community need. The key structural difference is scale and policy environment. Australia's sector is significantly larger, with more than 600,000 registered not-for-profits compared to New Zealand's 28,000-plus charities, and benefits from more established national peak bodies. New Zealand's sector is currently navigating a significant shift in government philosophy toward social investment approaches that are reshaping how community organisations are funded and evaluated, creating particular challenges for kaupapa Maori organisations and community-controlled services.

How do I follow the thought leaders on this list?

Each person on this list is active on LinkedIn and many maintain their own newsletters, podcasts, or organisational publications. The most efficient way to follow the full group is to search for each name on LinkedIn, follow their profiles, and pay attention to the organisations they lead. For more on nonprofit leadership globally, check out the blog post 50 Essential Thought Leaders in Human Resources in Australia and New Zealand at consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-human-resources-australia-new-zealand.

Final Thoughts

Not-for-profit leadership in Australia and New Zealand has never been more demanding and, in a certain sense, never more important. The conditions in which the sector operates are genuinely difficult: under-resourced, over-scrutinised, and carrying social functions that neither government nor market has been willing to sustain adequately. And yet the quality of leadership that is emerging in this environment is remarkable.

The 50 people on this list represent something significant: a generation of leaders who have chosen the hardest version of the leadership problem not because it is easier or more comfortable than alternatives, but because the communities they serve deserve leaders of this calibre. From the peak body CEO navigating complex political environments to protect sector advocacy rights, to the First Nations leader rebuilding community-controlled services from the ground up, to the social enterprise founder demonstrating that financial sustainability and social mission can reinforce each other, these are people who have decided that the gap between what is and what should be is worth spending a career on.

If you lead a not-for-profit organisation in Australia or New Zealand, this list is not a passive reading exercise. It is an invitation to engage. Follow these voices. Respond to their ideas. Build the connections that will make your leadership stronger and your organisation more resilient. The sector is stronger when its leaders learn from each other than when they learn in isolation.

For leadership teams navigating the specific challenges of working genius, communication breakdown, team conflict, or strategic alignment, Jonno White, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, offers practical facilitation and coaching. Whether your team is in Brisbane or beyond, international travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Next Read

The not-for-profit sector is one of the most demanding leadership environments on the planet. For a global perspective on not-for-profit leadership thought leaders, see: 50 Best Thought Leaders on Leadership in Nonprofits (2026) at consultclarity.org/post/thought-leadership-nonprofits.