Panic-proof Your Nonprofit: Manage Leadership Succession with Vicki Burkhart
Most nonprofit leaders will tell you they hope to see their nonprofit organizations still doing meaningful work a hundred years from today. However, the reality is that many nonprofits cannot sustain long-term without intentional succession planning. Yet according to national statistics, fewer than 17% of small nonprofits have succession plans in place.
Effective leadership is essential to nonprofits, and an unplanned or poorly executed leadership transition comes with substantial risks. These include interruptions in program delivery, disengagement of volunteers, a loss of institutional knowledge, and even a decrease in external funding. This is reason enough to plan for future transitions ahead of time, but succession planning is about more than emergencies.
Succession and leadership development planning are worth your time and attention, as they are key components of sustainability that can make your organization stronger and more vibrant over time.
Planning for succession is identifying the critical positions within your organization and developing action plans for individuals to assume those positions.
During this session, we will focus on three meaningful ways succession planning can strengthen your nonprofit, supported by tactical examples:
Specific takeaways for session participants include the following:
Understanding the impact of intentional succession planning
Learning about tools to help you identify where the vulnerability exists
Identifying challenges and obstacles to leadership transitions
Exploring the Board Development Committee’s role in succession planning
Defining the key elements involved in creating a sound succession plan
By implementing succession planning, nonprofits are able to anticipate and adapt to strategic changes that result in new leadership needs and roles, ensuring readiness for any upcoming transitions. This embeds leadership development as a core organizational system, rather than as an ad hoc process, so the organization is ready for inevitable change.