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When long serving nonprofit executive directors leave their role, it is a pivotal moment in an organization’s lifecycle. When handled effectively, leadership transitions can lead organizations to resilient futures continuing to serve critical missions. When mishandled, these transitions can lead to a decrease in organizational productivity, missed opportunities, burnt bridges, and negative community impact. Transitions can even lead to organizations closing down, merging or re-inventing their approach.

Let’s start a new dialogue around executive director transitions!

Through honest and courageous conversations, we can achieve better outcomes for all stakeholders involved in long-time executive director transitions.

After leaving my role in 2018, as the founder of Unity Charity after 15 years, I struggled with my transition both personally and professionally. I learned a ton from diving into transition and it was an incredibly emotional journey. I had no one I could talk to about it because no one really understood what I was going through. I did the best I could and followed what felt right. In the end it was a dream transition. Since transitioning, I’ve spent the last few years building a social enterprise empowering nonprofit leaders to thrive in their leadership development journey through my work at EPIC Leadership and in my book ‘Building Unity’: Leading a Non-Profit From Spark to Succession.

Ever since leaving my job as a founder and executive director of 15 years, I wanted to have a more candid conversation about the real challenges in long-time leadership transitions. Executive directors don’t often get the opportunity to share their experiences about their transitions candidly. I found there was a lot of taboo in sharing how I felt with others during and after my transition. There was little to no peer learning or stories told directly by those who had experienced transitions, at least that I could find.

This led me to dreaming up this research project. I wanted to interview long-time leaders who had made the transition to gather their unique experiences as well as emerging Executive Directors taking over these vital roles.

I wanted to start a new conversation around Executive Director and Founder transitions.

Transitions are natural and every executive director will go through at least one in their career, whether it is by choice or otherwise. It is part of an inevitable lifecycle of an organization.

I wanted to move away from a “me” versus “you” mentality around transitions and towards a “we” mentality. We need to work together. To get through transitions successfully, it is my belief that we need to look at each individual involved as part of an interconnected and interrelated ecosystem of support.

I wanted to share the stories, told directly by those who experienced them. There are a ton of undocumented learnings in the sector, which present major opportunities for learning and reflection on how to improve organizational outcomes during these essential transitions. 

Ultimately, how do we effectively manage outcomes for as many stakeholders as possible and create bridges of organizational continuity during transition? This is not to neglect the individuals involved. It is a careful balancing act to serve the needs of many diverse and interrelated stakeholders while putting mission and organizational continuity first.

I hope you’ll join me on July 8 to continue this discussion – register here for the free webinar I’m presenting with CharityVillage.

Michael Prosserman is a professional speaker who specializes in team culture, development, succession and start-ups. He is the Founder of Unity Charity, an organization using Hip Hop to improve youth mental health. Michael built Unity from the ground up over fifteen years out of his passion for Hip Hop and mental health. Michael grew Unity from a group of volunteers to employing eighty staff, raising $7 million and having an impact on the lives of over 250,000 youth. Michael is an instructor at the University of Toronto for the Non-Profit Leadership for Impact certificate. Michael is currently the CEO of EPIC Leadership, a firm focused on helping social impact leaders build sustainable organizations.