Leadership succession key to nonprofits’ survival

NEXT IN LINE: From left, Providence Children’s Museum graphic designer Valerie Haggerty-Silva, Director of Communications Megan Fisher, and Membership and Marketing Coordinator Corrie Ignagni. Fisher has taken over as interim executive director of the Providence Children’s Museum. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
NEXT IN LINE: From left, Providence Children’s Museum graphic designer Valerie Haggerty-Silva, Director of Communications Megan Fisher, and Membership and Marketing Coordinator Corrie Ignagni. Fisher has taken over as interim executive director of the Providence Children’s Museum. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Megan Fischer is serving as interim executive director of the Providence Children’s Museum following the recent departure of a longtime predecessor, a role succession planning helped cultivate.
At a time when a new study is finding many senior nonprofit executives in New England are ready to retire within the next five years, some Rhode Island organizations have coped with the loss of their leaders by relying on succession planning, while others have found even solid planning doesn’t address every situation.
At the museum, Fischer said she was part of a working group that put together a three- to five-year strategic plan in 2011 in anticipation of changes at the top. The board of directors created new departments and hired staff to support them, she said. Executive Director Janice O’Donnell left on Nov. 28.
“We identified staffing as a key operational priority, which included succession planning,” said Fischer. “What’s crucial for us is that we did put this strong leadership team in place. We created a few senior roles and added some new expertise to the staff so we have a strong leadership level of staff to support the transition.”
The Third Sector New England study surveyed nonprofits anonymously across New England in November. Preliminary results for about 1,200 responses show 35 percent of nonprofits expect to lose key executives within three to five years across New England, according to Hez Norton, director of Partnership & Leadership Initiatives for Third Sector.
In Rhode Island, the preliminary estimate for 85 responses is that 20 percent of those surveyed, or about 17 people, are actively planning to leave during that time frame, Norton said.
Based in Boston, Third Sector New England provides management and leadership resources to help nonprofits support communities. Besides gathering data on the upcoming departures and transitions, particularly of baby boomers, the survey examines board effectiveness, bench strength and staff diversity. Full results are due in March, she said. Organizational sustainability and succession planning are not always talked about in nonprofits as fully or systematically as they are in the private sector, said Norton and Jill Pfitzenmayer, vice president of the Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence at the Rhode Island Foundation. The foundation contributed several thousand dollars to help fund the survey for that reason, Pfitzenmayer said.
“There’s never been a report like this for New England and there’s a need to understand the challenges,” Norton said. “Talking about departure and successions doesn’t happen in the sector as much as it needs to. It’s not something organizations often have the time or resources or support to do.”
Pfitzenmayer says the results of the survey will inform the foundation’s approach to programming, which already includes an Emerging Leaders mentorship program. More programming could be developed to help nonprofits, depending on survey results and the need, she said.
“Organizations get busy and wrapped up in [the] mission, so sometimes thinking about management falls to the wayside when you’re worried about whatever program or service you’re trying to deliver,” Pfitzenmayer added.
In Rhode Island, November was marked by transitions for at least three nonprofits. Trinity Repertory Company is losing Executive Director Michael Gennaro to East Haddam, Conn.’s Goodspeed Musicals. O’Donnell stepped down after 29 years at the helm. And Ann Nolan, of Crossroads Rhode Island, is retiring June 1 after 14 years as president.
Searches for successors are evolving at all three organizations.
It is not clear how Trinity Rep will adjust to Gennaro’s departure; the nonprofit did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But in the other two cases, the departures come as more natural transitions for older, longstanding leaders. Boards of directors have tried to stay on top of succession planning at both Crossroads and the museum, current leaders say. “We feel very prepared,” said Crossroads board Chairman John J. McConnell, a U.S. District Court judge in Providence. “One of Ann’s great talents is having built a phenomenal administrative team just beneath her.”
McConnell says he is confident the nonprofit will continue to be well-run and attract talent to help operate it because of the foundation Nolan laid, with the board’s help. In Crossroads’ case, that includes keeping financial operations in order and having human resource policies and procedures in place, he said.
“We are a national leader … because of Ann,” McConnell said. “So, the board feels very confident in the succession, as much as we’ll miss Ann terribly. [Succession planning] has got to be something the board is always thinking about. The fundamentals have got to be solid for succession, even unexpected succession, to be done well.”
There are times when planning falls short, however.
The Steel Yard, for example, which has five full-time staff members, one part-timer and a 10-person board of directors, was caught off-guard when an associate director being groomed for the position of executive director left unexpectedly at about the same time that the post was vacated in late 2013, said Howie Sneider, the current executive director. He was promoted in February.
“That’s one of the things about succession planning,” Sneider said. “You can plan and share information and make sure people have shared responsibilities and shared relationships, and that’s part of the culture here, for sure, but you can’t predict everything.”
Another complication in succession planning comes when the best option for a nonprofit is not to replace its outgoing leader, but to merge with another nonprofit instead, taking advantage of a whole new pool of talent. That was the case when Northern Rhode Island Community Services merged at midnight on June 30 with Family Resources Community Action. According to Christian Stephens of Milford, Mass., his retirement as president and CEO of Northern Rhode Island Community Services was timed to coincide precisely with the merger.
“Two boards met and realized that blending the two organizations together was going to take up quite a bit of time,” Stephens recalled. “I encouraged them to just jump into it, because if you’re going to have a new leader, the old leader really needs to step away. So, I moved up my retirement date by a year or two to expedite the merger. It made it a lot easier for Family’s board knowing their executive director [Ben Lessing] would be in charge.”
Lessing emerged as a contender when a transition committee at Northern explored various nonprofits as potential merger candidates, he said.
One of the young leaders participating in the “Emerging Leaders” program offered through the Rhode Island Foundation is Zack Mezera, 24, the executive director of the Providence Student Union, which is exploring becoming a nonprofit.
The youth-led program works to organize students across Providence seeking a voice in decisions affecting their education.
Formed in 2010, the organization doesn’t have an independent, legally empowered board of directors, but as Mezera transitions to a part-time, executive role, he is using what he’s learning from his peers to go through a succession process. The group does have an informal group of adult advisers, he said.
“It’s something I’m thinking about a lot even though we’re not a full nonprofit yet,” Mezera said. “What does succession planning mean and how do we make sure the organization is sustainable over the long haul? I’m not ready to leave anytime soon. [But] at the very least, PSU is an organization that is about elevating young voices and bringing youth decision making to the table. So I need to make sure [that] whatever changes happen to the organization, we maintain and don’t damage the platform for young people to find that voice.” •

No posts to display