Matthew Boyle recently left a nonprofit job to return to the private sector. His main reason? Money.

Boyle, 26, who had worked as a systems analyst at Humanim, a nonprofit human services agency in Columbia, says he received a 55 percent pay increase with his new job as a financial systems analyst for a financial services company. Boyle joined Humanim in March 2006 because he was sick of the corporate grind and wanted to work for a place with a mission. He left in August.

"I would have stayed forever if I could have," says Boyle, who lives in Laurel. But, he says, there was "no real long-term potential for a career and homeownership."

The nonprofit sector is facing a dilemma in filling its executive ranks. Although young workers want to take on executive roles, they face significant barriers, including insufficient earning potential, work-life balance issues and lack of mentorship, according to a national survey of nearly 6,000 potential nonprofit leaders.

The survey was produced by the Meyer Foundation with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and nonprofit job site Idealist.org.

"Young people are committed and interested in and dedicated to doing work for the sector," says Patrick Corvington, one of the study's lead researchers and a senior associate at the Casey Foundation in Baltimore. "The challenge has been, is the sector ready for them?"

The survey found that 69 percent of respondents feel underpaid in their current positions, while 64 percent said they have financial concerns about committing to a nonprofit career.

Robert Causer, vice president of human resources at Humanim, says the nonprofit competed as much as it could for Boyle but "we do have limits on budgets and funding."

Competing against the private sector for information technology talent is especially tough, Causer says.

"We were sorry to see him go," he says.

While there have always been complaints about low pay in the nonprofit world compared with the private sector, Corvington says the conversation has shifted recently because financial concerns are rooted in meeting basic needs of young workers.

"It's about very concrete things that we all want. The level of student debt they're graduating with, being able to afford to raise a family. It's about 'I can't live a normal, comfortable middle-class life,'" Corvington says.

The survey also found that young workers want to work for social change, but 42 percent of respondents who were active job seekers said they did not feel strongly one way or another when asked about their level of commitment to the nonprofit sector.

Corvington says young workers are no longer wedded to the nonprofit sector to find mission-driven work because corporate America offers those opportunities, too.

"If you're somebody doing youth development or housing policy stuff, where in the past, I'll work in the nonprofit sector, people are saying now, 'I could work through the public school system or the economic development arm of the government,' " he says.

In order to address talent attraction and retention issues, Corvington says nonprofit groups have to make some changes, including rethinking how workers are compensated, not only in pay but in benefits. Nonprofit organizations also have to make sure that they stay relevant not just to the people they serve but in the way they manage employees, Corvington says.

"It's clear from the data that they want to lead. Do they have opportunities to lead and is the sector a viable option for them given the financial barriers and the other barriers?"

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On the Job is published Monday at www.baltimoresun.com.