Nonprofit Succession Planning: Creating Good Endings and New Beginnings

April 01, 2008

For 11 years, Linda Stewart, a 2002 Weinberg Fellow, served as the executive director for the Maryland Mentoring Partnership. Under her leadership she established the organization as the preeminent advocate, resource and expert for youth mentoring in the state.

Naturally as the time came for Linda to transition into a new career, the continued growth and success of the organization was in the forefront of her and the board of directors’ minds. As a Weinberg Fellow, Linda learned about succession planning and its role as an ongoing part of organizational development and sustainability in nonprofit organizations. Linda and the board of directors knew the importance of building and developing competent leaders and staff members to carry Maryland Mentoring Partnership despite future changes in the executive leadership.

Considering this, they set out to build a succession plan that would ensure The Maryland Mentoring Partnership’s mission “to develop and support high-quality, sustainable youth mentoring programs in Maryland” was not compromised and the organization was positioned to continue to be an advocate, clearinghouse and expert resource for the advancement of youth mentoring statewide.

From November 2006 until November 2007, Linda, the board of directors and an outside consultant agency (Transitions Guide) developed a plan that led to the appointment of an internal candidate for the executive director position, Selwyn Ray. Selwyn, recently selected as a 2008 Weinberg Fellow, had been with the organization for 5 years as the director of Recruitment and Partnerships.

There are three main phases in succession planning. Listed are the phases and a brief description of key considerations and decisions for each phase.

» Phase I: Getting Ready – defining short-term ownership, assessing organization priorities, developing a job description for new executive, and saying a proper good bye for the departing executive.

» Phase II: Recruiting - pro actively seeking candidates, screening/ ranking candidates against profile, and spending informal time with finalists and ptroducing to key stakeholders.

» Phase III: Post-hire - welcoming and introducing new executive, orienting new executive to organization and community, making agreements between board and new executive on three- and six-month work plan, and agreeing on executive evaluation process.

Having the succession plan in place serves as a tool to ensure The Maryland Mentoring Program continues to be a vehicle connecting Baltimore young people to mentors that will help mold and shape their lives. It also fosters an environment in which good endings and new beginnings are created for leadership and staff transitions.

When asked how the Weinberg Fellows’ Program helped Linda as a former executive director she responded, “The fellowship program knows the challenges and has very strategically set the course, topics, networking and presenters—the fellows can take that knowledge into their work.” And in her case, the proof is in the pudding as one former graduate passes the torch to a newly selected fellow.

Learn more about this story: http://transitionguides.com/resources/CP%20Succession%20full.pdf

Fellows Featured in this story