Succession Planning:
It’s More than Finding a New Executive Director

Skip it at your own risk!

Let’s see. What are the chances your nonprofit will have a different director 5 years from now (even if you think he’ll/she’ll be there forever)? Maybe, 5 percent, 25 percent, 40 percent?

Not even close. Four different studies surveying more than 5,000 non-profit leaders report that 66 percent to 82 percent of current executive directors will soon leave their jobs.¹ At least two-thirds of your colleagues will have transitioned out of or into the role of executive director by 2014.

Most of us join nonprofits because we believe in their particular missions. Naturally we want our organizations to succeed – and even prosper – despite and beyond the ever-present likelihood of leadership change.

There’s one way to ensure the success of an executive transition at your non-profit organization: Always have a plan!

Don’t Wait for an Emergency to Start Succession Planning at Your Nonprofit

If you’re reading this because your executive director of 20 years just gave you one week’s notice and is leaving no written records, you’re too late for succession planning. However, have no fear. You can contact Hez Norton, 617.523.6565 at Third Sector New England’s Executive Transitions Program for help. You will get the benefit of succession planning with the executive transitions process. And you will do it much more quickly, against a deadline, and perhaps with lots of nervous employees, funders and board members watching.

Succession Planning Is Having Answers to Many Key Questions Before They Must Be Asked

Questions like:

Who runs the agency if the executive director has a long-term emergency?
How do we know the current needs of the agency at any given time?
How do we ensure a respectful, productive and thoughtful transition?
What are our legal and ethical obligations to a departing executive director?
Should transition automatically trigger revisiting our mission?
Is our “succession readiness checklist” always up to date (see below)?

Having the right answers improves the likelihood that your nonprofit will weather a transitioning process and view it as an opportunity to improve.

Succession Planning Comes in Three Flavors

You can reasonably prepare for 3 succession situations for your nonprofit organization.

Emergency. The executive director leaves unexpectedly for a lengthy period or forever. Causes may be sickness, death, resignation under stress or sudden termination of employment. While this type of departure is always at least emotionally disruptive to people associated with the organization, succession planning ensures that reporting hierarchies are clear and lines of communications are open from the start.
Departure-defined. With a reasonably distant departure date, this transition offers the executive director the space to negotiate her/his closing role with the board. That might include helping search for a successor or writing the ultimate history of the agency.
Strategic leader development. The next leader of your non-profit organization may be sitting around the table right now. She may be senior staff or a promising intern. This type of succession planning asks how – and if – the nonprofit prepares its own talented staff members to assume leadership roles.

Sometimes it is you who are retiring, changing jobs and/or looking for a new adventure. Departure-defined succession planning allows the departing and incoming executive directors to have the best possible transition.

A very special situation and opportunity is when the founder is the executive director who is leaving. Every executive director should have unusual passion for her work and agency, but a founder usually eclipses even that. The organization has so many questions:

Will or should the vision change?
What are we looking for in our first non-founder director?
How do we guarantee that s/he a) has the freedom to lead the organization as its new director and b) keeps the valuable qualities, ideals and mission points that the founder personified?

Key Elements Hold True When Departure Is in Sight

To varying degrees, experts agree, key elements are consistent throughout each of the 3 models once the idea of leaving has been broached. These key elements are:

Ensuring the appropriate departure of the current executive director, from job counseling and unfinished business, to setting a date and having a party.
Advancing agency sustainability. The structure of the organization should be reviewed and strengthened, from identifying and addressing staff and budget weaknesses to preparing systems for the handoff.
Preparing the stakeholders. More people are anxious than you think: board members, staff at every level and funders, to name a few. They want to know, “What’s going to change for me?”
Identifying future leadership needs. However difficult it may be or seem at the time, leadership transitions are also the best opportunity to assess where the organization is going and what type of person will best lead it.
Recruiting, hiring and successfully orienting the new executive director. Yes, there are some nitty-gritty rules and best practices for choosing the best leadership and making sure s/he is assisted in adjusting into the new environment well. After all, you don’t want to be going through this process again right away, right?

Always Do Your Job Well – the “Succession Readiness” Checklist

Nothing can replace being ready for a successful transition better than the practices your nonprofit should be doing anyway-- to be at your very best. We like this (abridged) list compiled by our friends at CompassPoint^®:

A strategic plan is always in place, including objectives for leadership talent development.
The board evaluates the executive director annually.
The board, based on an annual self-evaluation, is satisfactorily performing its major governance jobs: financial oversight, executive support and oversight, policy development and strategic planning.
Top management is a high-performing team.
Another staff person or board member shares important external relationships (major donors, funders, community leaders) maintained by the executive.
A financial reserve is in place with a minimum of 3 months’ operating capital.
Financial systems meet industry standards.
Top program staff have documented their key activities in writing and another staff person can conduct their duties in an emergency.

What Can Third Sector New England Do For You and Your Nonprofit?

Articles on Executive Transition

Third Sector New England has built a reputation as the place to go for social change organizations in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We have provided hands-on organizational assistance to literally hundreds of nonprofits of all sizes over a period of decades. We incubate some, rent office space to others, provide fiscal sponsorship, train staff, convene workshops and consult one-on-one with countless more.

TSNE is also home to the Executive Transitions Program, which helps nonprofits with leadership transitions along the qualities identified above. We can work directly with you on any and all of the elements of succession planning described above. We also present tailored workshops, seminars and programs. For more information, contact Hez Norton.

The Time Is Now to Plan For the Future

A change in leadership will happen, for you and for your nonprofit. If not in the next 5 weeks or 5 years, then perhaps in 7 or 8.

It’s up to you to do something proactive about it. Start now, while you have time.

¹ Daring to Lead 2006; Casey Study: Change Ahead, 2004;
San Diego Study 2005; Calgary Centre for Nonprofits 2005

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Succession Planning: It’s More than Finding a New Executive Director