Succession Planning: Now is the time

July 20, 2009 By Ruthellen S. Rubin, CFRE

Last week, at our quarterly roundtable meeting of the Nonprofit Executive Council of the Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce, the discussion topic was Succession Planning.  The lively group of fourteen mostly "founders" was engaged and not at all wary of speaking in terms of "their" nonprofits after they have retired or moved on.

As the facilitator of the group, I collected the enlightened comments and I would like to share them with you.  But first, the stats:

1.  10-12% of the 1.6 million nonprofits in America are undergoing a transition of executive directors at any given time

2.  71% of transitions are non-routine (unexpected)

3.  75% of nonprofit EDs expect to leave their positions in the next five years

4.  29% of nonprofits have a succession plan.

YOU DO THE MATH.

Simply put, and in no particular order, the comments were as follows:

1.  Communicate with your board re:  succession planning...NOW

2.  Transfer all the information (especially relationship information) out of the head of the ED and onto paper or into a database

3.  Strengthen: your board, your financial systems, your technology systems, your filing systems

4.  Consider succession planning as an impetus to strengthen the skills of your management team

5.  Create a working document journal.

As for the transition process, some of the more salient comments were:

1.  The way you present your successor to the community and to your constituents will set the tone going forward

2.  Be sure to show your successor where the land mines reside and where the bodies lay buried

3.  Pass along the relationships - with constituents, donors and loyal supporters

4.  Once your successor is in place, get the heck outta Dodge!

Creating a plan and preparing a roadmap for succession, whether you have plans to leave or not, will considerably strengthen your nonprofit organization.  Remember EDs ... it's not about you; it's about your responsibility to your constituency.

Great resources on this topic from the Annie E. Casey Foundation Knowledge Center.

Good luck. 

Best Practices - Charity: Water

July 12, 2009 By Ruthellen S. Rubin, CFRE

Nicholas Kristof's column in today's NY Times:  Clean, Sexy Water features a terrific example of best practices in fundraising and nonprofit management in today's economy.  After reading the column I was prompted to visit the website of Charity:  Water and much to my delight I found a number of examples of collaboration, articulation of the case for support, personalization of the donation and social entrepreneurship (yes, nonprofits can, and should, have a profit making arm to help fund the mission.)    The Get Involved page makes it inviting for you and your group to get in on the action.  Donors get naming rights and GPS coordinates to see their wells.  The first Twestival organized by volunteers last February, which raised $250,000 for the cause was an example of social network fundraisng at its best.

Click away on these links for some excellent examples and consider what might be applied to your organization to help achieve best practices in fundraising.

Fundraising in The Republic of Georgia

July 10, 2009 By Ruthellen S. Rubin, CFRE

Shout out to my newest friends:  four visiting Georgian students involved in an intensive summer program at NYU.  Dato (David,) Deduna, Mariam and Salome are recipients of a prestigious grant to study arts administration and nonprofit management for two months this summer.   Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with them talking about fundraising and board governance in the Republic of Georgia.

My new friends are a talented group -- a singer, a jewelry maker and a filmmaker -- and they all stressed to me the incredible arts talent that pervades The Republic of Georgia.  With no nonprofit structure as we know it, and no culture of giving to public benefit organizations, they struggle to compete for the limited foundation dollars available.

They came to NYU to search for a model and to take with them some of the fundamentals of the culture of philanthropy that has built a great society of arts in the United States.  I wish my new friends well and look forward to seeing what they build, with the tools they acquire this summer, to help support the great talent and passion for the arts in Georgia.