Succession Planning Best Practices Workshop

Planning for executive director transition or “succession planning” is an ongoing part of organizational development and sustainability in nonprofit organizations, but it is often not a top priority for nonprofit leaders. Succession planning is used to build strong leadership, assess current operations, prescribe activities for improving operations and sets the stage for a strong transition.

To ensure effective succession planning, the partnership between the executive director and the board must be built on trust. In addition, nonprofit executives must be willing to share authority and assign leadership roles to various staff otherwise the executive director’s departure could cause the organization to breakdown. Participants learn the importance of succession planning, key elements and how succession planning aligns with their organization’s current strategic issues. Participants will review succession readiness checklist and determine the proper steps for developing a succession policy for their own organization.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify the key elements of succession planning and the importance of succession planning
• Cite best strategies to improve internal structure and staffing and best practices/strategies for increasing board engagement and ownership will be determined
• Identify the key elements of a succession policy