Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2018
Time: 10:00 am – 11:30 am
ZOOM Videoconferencing Technology
Class Registration:
Member Fee: $18.00 includes free template*
Non-member Fee: $64.00 includes free template*
No matter the age, health or happiness of the current key leader, all organizations — small, large, new, or established — should be prepared for a sudden, unplanned change at the helm. No one likes to think about the possible of sudden illness, injury or death of a nonprofit key leader. Nevertheless, such a situation can happen. When emergency circumstances do occur, there is an enormous level of stress experienced by an organization’s staff, board, funders, volunteers and recipients of service. Without preparation, an unplanned departure can throw an organization into turmoil and lead to immediate and long term adverse consequences for the organization. The good news is – your organization can be better prepared.
Nonprofits that are serious about their own sustainability will also be serious about planning for smooth and thoughtful transitions of leadership – as well as making sure their nonprofit is prepared for unexpected departures. Unfortunately only 34% of nonprofits surveyed reported that they had a written succession plan in place. Whether a transition occurs due to an unexpected vacancy on the staff or board, or the anticipated transition of a long-tenured leader, being ready with a plan in place can help a nonprofit weather the inevitable challenges of leadership transition.
This session will take the pain and the scary out of executive succession planning. We’ll focus on two key ingredients for sustaining your organization: a board-adopted succession policy (so they’ll know what the heck to do when you eventually decide to leave) and an emergency backup plan (for when you hit the lotto and run off to Tahiti with the love of your life). We’ll make implementing what you learn painless by providing you with a step-by-step guide and fill in the blank templates. Sustain your mission work and protect your leadership legacy in just 90 minutes.
Learning Objectives of this Presentation
- How to get started with succession planning.
- What goes into an executive succession policy, and why.
- How to prepare an executive backup plan for the CEO position and other key leadership roles.
Overall Goal: After this presentation, the participants should be able to
- Work with the board to get these good management tools in place.
*Note: following the session Kansas Nonprofit Centre will provide a template to help you start your own plan.
All nonprofits that attend will receive this template/toolkit for free.
About the Speaker
Don Tebbe (pronounced “teb-bee”) is an author and consultant based in Montgomery Village, Maryland whose expertise is in leadership succession, executive transition, and organizational sustainability.
Don has been a leader in the nonprofit sector since 1983 and a capacity builder since 1986. As a consultant since 1993, he has helped 119 nonprofits manage CEO and other senior leadership transitions, and dozens of others prepare leadership succession and organizational sustainability plans.
Early in his career, he served for over a decade as a nonprofit executive and CEO, where he experienced first-hand the challenges of sustaining an organization and navigating leadership succession. He then co-founded a consulting firm that became a national thought leader on nonprofit sustainability, leadership succession, and executive transitions.
In addition to numerous articles, Don is the author of three books: Chief Executive Transitions: How to Hire & Support a Nonprofit CEO; a new book, The Nonprofit CEO Succession Roadmap: Your Guide for the Journey to Life’s Next Chapter; and an earlier book, For the Good of the Cause: Board-Building Lessons from Highly Effective Nonprofits.
Chief Executive Transitions, published by BoardSource, won the Terry McAdam book award and has been adopted by national organizations, such as the YMCA of the USA, as a guide for their members on CEO transition.
Don is a frequent speaker at conferences across the country. He has led workshops for thousands of executives facing retirement and turning over the leadership reins to the next generation, as well as leaders looking to move up the ladder. Venues have included ANCOR, Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders Program, BoardSource Leadership Forum, Jewish Funders Network, NeighborWorks America, The Arc of the U.S., The Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and others.
He edits a blog on nonprofit leadership succession, executive transitions, and organizational sustainability at dontebbe.com.
