from an article in The Bridgespan Group newsletter Summary A nonprofit that loses a top leader faces an anxiety-producing situation even under the best circumstances. But losing an executive without a succession plan in place can be particularly agonizing. Nonprofits are increasingly engaging professional transition consultants as interim executives, which can help them fill the short-term gap to give them time to consider the organization’s longer-term future. A nonprofit organization that loses a top leader (e.g., chief staff officer, CEO, executive director, executive vice president) faces an anxiety-producing situation even under the best circumstances. But losing an executive without a […]
Category Archives: Transition
Leadership Transition in Nonprofits Presents Challenges
By Stan Burrows In March 2017 Third Sector New England published an important paper for the Boston Foundation entitled Opportunity in Change: Preparing Boston for Leader Transitions and New Models of Nonprofit Leadership. The paper was released at a conference that was videotaped that you can review. This effort was a part of the Boston Foundation’s ongoing program on Understanding Boston developed through partnerships with government and local institutions. The focus of this effort, the fifth in the series, is on preparing nonprofits for the long awaited and much discussed retirement of the baby boom generation and the passing of […]
Unhappy Endings
According to Daring to Lead 2006: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership, a recent report from CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Meyer Foundation, an executive is forced out or fired in an estimated 34 percent of nonprofit transitions. Dismissing an executive, for whatever reason, can be particularly challenging for boards and for the transition process more broadly. An outright confrontation with a CEO who is underperforming is not appealing. Many board members avoid the situation or quietly resign. In addition to creating the threat of a wrongful termination lawsuit, firing an executive can lead to a sense of crisis, […]