Legal Compliance & Transparency

Adapt from these sample bylaws only for organizations without members.

Best practices for adapting template CEO contracts to fit your organization's needs:

Adapt from these sample confidentiality agreements for Information about clients. (National Council of Nonprofits)

Every organization will eventually experience a change in executive leadership, which is a time of both risk and opportunity. Nonprofit organizations can adapt this executive director succession policy example to create their own succession policy (Raffa, formerly TransitionGuides).

Executive transitions can be stressful for everyone involved. Transition Guides makes this transition easier with an "Executive Search & Transition Time Line Worksheet" to assist your organization in the process. (Transition Guides)

Practice Note

Sample Emergency Succession Plan by Tim Wolfred gives a model plan with emphasis on "identifying the key leadership functions carried by the executive, identifying the agency managers best qualified to step into the executive role in an emergency, and prescribing the cross-training necessary to prepare the back-up managers to cover the leadership functions." (CompassPoint Nonprofit Services,

This question raises the blood pressure of many executive directors, and opinions are sharply divided, but what is the answer?  See what Jan Masaoka, publisher of Blue Avocado and CEO of CalNonprofits, has to say on the topic.

© North Carolina Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Inc. From Common Ground, a publication of the N.C. Center for Nonprofits, www.ncnonprofits.org.

In this 2019 BoardSource article, Should Your CEO Serve as a Board Member?, and 

Here are a number of helpful resources from the National Council of Nonprofits to help with your succession planning efforts.