Succession Planning

Jeanne Canina Tedrow, President & CEO, North Carolina Center for Nonprofits

Even with a clear fundraising plan in place, nonprofits sometimes can find themselves temporarily short of cash, due to unforeseen circumstances like disasters or delays in payments. The Foundation Center does not provide grants, recommend specific funders, or approach them on your behalf, but they can point you to resources to find possible funders and useful advice. (Grantspace)

Sabbaticals can be a win-win for your organization and everyone in it. Sabbaticals Help Keep Good Executives offers lessons and advice from nonprofit leaders who have taken sabbaticals. (North Carolina Center for Nonprofits)

This BoardSource blog post tackles the issue of proactive succession planning. Learn more about the board's role in preparation, leader development, and planning for the future of your organization.

Key Transition Decisions to Consider and to Avoid (Raffa, formerly TransitionGuides) is a checklist to minimizing the risk and upheaval of a leadership transition and increasing organizational capacity and effectiveness.

Everyone agrees – well-led organizations do more good in the world than organizations that aren't well-led. But what about leadership change, how does that fit into the picture? Executive Transition: Trauma or Transformation? (©2011 Common Ground, North Carolina Center for Nonprofits) will give you practices that reduce risk and boost positive change, even transformation, during transition.

Example documents for finding sample language when drafting a Request for Proposals during the process of hiring executive search services to aid your organization with hiring a President/CEO.

The job of the nonprofit executive is one of the most rewarding. It's also among the most challenging, requiring a deep passion for the work and the ability to juggle competing demands, sustain multiple relationships, and manage a very possibly under-resourced infrastructure. Failed executive transitions often cause repeated executive turnover, loss of organizational focus and momentum, and extended periods of underperformance. This resource outlines how to approach executive transitions intentionally and mitigate these negative outcomes.

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

Use this sample inventory sheet to keep record of both onsite and offsite locations of important documents, bank account numbers, and other important information. (TransitionGuides)