Executive Director

Start with the Ending

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A Guide for New Executive Directors

As a seasoned executive director, I’ve learned that the most effective leaders are those who not only excel in their current roles but also thoughtfully plan for their departure. While it may seem counterintuitive to think about leaving as you’re just beginning, a strategic approach to succession planning ensures a smooth transition and positions your organization for continued success.

Key steps to take from day one:

  • Develop relationships with all staff, board, and key partners. It’s easy to get caught up in small crises when you start a position but building relationships will allow you to make the changes you need long-term. All of the other steps will result from this initial work.
  • Conduct a comprehensive organizational assessment. This will identify quick fixes to implement right away and longer-term projects to explore.
  • Understand the finances in-depth. I create both short and long-term forecasts to help the board make realistic plans for their new executive director. I need to understand all of the funding sources and their potential for continuation
  • Implement board succession planning – including planning for term limits, filling vacancies, and recruiting officers. I often find that this has been neglected at nonprofits.
  • Explore succession planning with the board and work with them on a succession policy.
  • Create an operations manual. I document my work as I go knowing that I will be handing it off to someone else soon.
  • Start leadership development planning while assessing staff capabilities. I won’t make significant staff changes, but I will take care of any serious issues. I might suggest staff restructuring or a change in responsibilities. Or I recommend staff who are potential future leaders and how to expand their skill sets.
  • Help the board establish initial goals and evaluation processes for the new executive director so everyone is on the same page about priorities from the beginning.

Sometimes I wish I had taken my own advice. For example, it took three months to understand the complex finances at one organization where I was the interim. They had various funding sources and were paid in arrears for most of their work. I wished I had spent more time focused on what was coming in from the beginning. The board and I addressed some deferred building maintenance, but in retrospect, we should have focused more on fundraising before spending funds we didn’t have.

Remember, a well-planned departure is not just about handing over the reins; it’s about setting the stage for future success. Start with the end in mind, no matter how far off it is.

Navigating Change and Growth: My Journey at Lincoln Bike Kitchen

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Lincoln Bike Kitchen (LBK) was an organization in need of a major transition. With no staff members previously, the functioning of the nonprofit relied heavily on the dedication of its board members for all administrative and operational tasks. The Lincoln Bike Kitchen’s mission to repair donated bicycles and provide them to the community was supported by a strong volunteer base that preferred to wrench on bikes rather than manage spreadsheets. Recognizing the limitations this model presented, the board concluded that hiring staff was the essential next step towards organizational growth. At the same time, they were embarking on a capital campaign as part of an upcoming move to a larger location and needed staff support to manage the campaign details. LBK hired me as their interim executive director to help them reach their goals.

Upon joining, I met with board members to assess the needs at LBK. My agenda prioritized not only tangible improvements such as software implementation but also a cultural shift within the board to adapt to a staff-led management approach.

I set up the Bike Kitchen’s first donor database and populated it with donor information from the previous three years, after extensively cleaning the data. This enabled the Capital Campaign Committee to identify and communicate with their top donors. I also developed procedures to track and recognize donations throughout the campaign.

Another important change was switching to using QuickBooks from spreadsheets for financial management. With construction and adding staff, a spreadsheet was no longer sufficient to track all transactions and they were ready to make the change. Together with a volunteer, we set up a chart of accounts appropriate for a small organization and began tracking all income and expenses.

These were two of the concrete steps I took to prepare the organization to grow. In addition, I focused my work on helping the board transition its role from directly managing all aspects of the nonprofit to a governance-based model overseeing an executive director who would be in charge. I also implemented various changes to smooth the way for the new executive director as I anticipated that this person wouldn’t have prior ED experience. 

Some of the steps I took included:

  • Establishing regular board meetings, board packets, and board agendas
  • Updating bylaws and ensuring compliance with existing term limits
  • Trainings at board meetings about the upcoming changes with a permanent ED and how the board and an ED could work together successfully
  • Drafting fiscal policies and personnel policies

After I led the board through the hiring process, I encouraged the board and ED to work together on setting mutual goals and an evaluation process for the new ED.

Along the way, I was reminded of many lessons I’ve learned. As always, it takes longer than you think. I was in the position for about seven months. I made great progress on many fronts and helped the Bike Kitchen complete its capital campaign but wished I had more time to help build consensus about what the new ED’s role would be. Toward the end of my time, we were focused on wrapping up the capital campaign, planning for the move and selecting the new ED, and there was little time for anything else. 

I had hoped to help LBK implement improved bike tracking and communication systems but that proved to be a bigger task than we anticipated. There weren’t solutions in place that we could implement right away. 

Nevertheless, my contributions, particularly in financial acumen, non-profit governance expertise, and administrative management, were well-received by the board members. While my tenure may have been brief, the groundwork laid has paved the way for the Lincoln Bike Kitchen’s continued growth.

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Are you looking to transition your organization to having its first staff member? Or do you need to focus on a different kind of transition? Contact me to discuss ideas.



An Executive Director Search on a Budget

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Many small nonprofits aren’t ready to hire a search firm to find their next executive director. Organizations can do the search themselves but should involve people in the process who have experience in searches and follow best practices. Below is an overview of the process that will result in the best possible hire on a budget. Keep in mind that this method will take a significant amount of the board’s time to carry out.

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Hiring the First Executive Director for Your Organization

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You’ve started your nonprofit organization and it has grown with the help of an amazing team of volunteers. But now it is getting too successful. You and your fellow volunteers have full-time jobs and can’t devote the time to the nonprofit that it really needs. What’s the next step? Hiring someone is a big decision and has the possibility of growing the organization significantly. But it also comes with a lot of challenges as the current board and volunteers are used to doing things their way and need to be ready to let someone else take over.

Hiring that first staff person can make a tremendous difference for your organization. It levels up your work in a way that is hard to imagine in advance. Having paid staff means you have someone with the time to devote to the work and to building relationships in the community. It also means someone who has professional experience in nonprofits or who has the time to dedicate to learning about how nonprofits best work. And finally, having paid staff often leads to more stability in your organization as compared to an all-volunteer group. Funders and potential partners will take your organization more seriously if you have paid staff – they know you are going to be around and doing the work long-term.  

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Succeeding as an Acting Executive Director

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Being promoted to acting executive director can be an honor but comes with its fair share of stress. You are suddenly taking on a new set of high-level responsibilities while still trying to maintain your existing work. There’s a huge advantage to the organization to temporarily fill a position internally. It is a fairly fast and simple process, but there are significant challenges to overcome.

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Skills of a Successful Executive Director

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Becoming a strong executive director takes a wide range of skills. No one can be strong in every single area, of course, but you do need to have the basics down in each and know where you can improve. The skills listed below are all ones you can learn with practice.

When I first became an ED, I had a variety of skills from my previous nonprofit position, but there was a lot to learn. The biggest areas of growth for me were financial management, fundraising, and HR, as I came from an organization with whole teams for those tasks. Other skills I had already. I was passionate about the cause, and cared about helping others. I had written and managed grants of all kinds. I had managed staff, and programs. Especially in those first few years, I spent my time learning the areas that I wasn’t as strong in.

Below are a few of the broader skills to consider developing if you are interested in an ED role. The good news is that they are applicable across all sectors. All my ED knowledge was quite valuable in my later roles as an interim ED in very different types of nonprofits.

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Conducting a Great ED Interview

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Interviewing someone for an executive director position is not as easy as hiring for any other position in a nonprofit (or business for that matter). Making a good hire is critically important to the organization. It’s frustrating when I see board members rush through the process or assume it is easy to do.

I’ve shared a number of resources previously including How to Make a Good Hire, the Advantages of Using an Executive Search Firm, and the Value of Using an Interim Executive Director.

Here I provide some sample questions you can use in initial screening interviews and second-round interviews.

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Departure-Defined Succession Planning

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A wide range of terms are used in succession planning and the type of plan you create varies depending on your current stage in the process. I covered the basic types of planning necessary for all organizations in my article on succession planning. In this article, I will provide an overview for those organizations that have a long-time executive director who is planning far in advance for a transition.

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What Interim Executive Directors Do [video]

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What Interim Executive Directors Do – recorded August 12, 2020

Interim executive directors play an important role in a nonprofit leadership transition. But what do they actually do? Why are they valuable? How can you become one?

Watch here.

Creating a Leadership Development Plan

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Good succession planning is about more than choosing a successor to the executive director. It needs to encompass planning for all leadership roles to strengthen the organization for the long term. A key component is leadership development planning, which provides a structured method to build leadership capacity.

As a young program manager at a social service agency, I was lucky to have many supervisors who were great mentors. They encouraged me and stretched my skills. They expected me to learn how to budget for my program, ask hard questions, supervise and mentor staff, communicate clearly, and develop partnerships in the community. They supported me in learning these skills by stretching my thinking and giving me opportunities to take on higher-level tasks. When I left that role to become an ED of a nonprofit, those leadership skills helped me tremendously, although I still had plenty to learn.

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