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Read “Nonprofit Leadership Transitions: Four Ways Funders Can Support Leaders of Color” >>
The experience of leaders of color while transitioning into a leadership role, and the supports funders can provide, change throughout leaders' early tenures. Here is how organizations can prepare for leadership transitions, how new leaders feel about their experiences, and what funders can do during the first few years to support new leaders of color.
Preparing for the Transition
Board members and leadership team
- Clarify the organization’s racial equity commitments and invest in them at the staff, executive, and board levels
- Engage in intentional, multiyear recruitment and transition planning processes that incorporate racial equity
- Prioritize racial equity and DEI during the recruitment process
- Co-create clear expectations for how the board and leadership team will support the leader during the early years
- Add a specific, separate budget for incoming leaders to invest in their professional and skills development
- Plan to partner with staff to communicate the rationale and process for the transition
- Identify internal and external mentors and supporters who can connect incoming leaders to key stakeholders, funders, and resources
Current funders
- Invest in internal racial equity efforts to develop equitable funding practices and build trust-based relationships with incoming leaders of color
- Provide unrestricted funding or general operating support to an organization that anticipates a transition to a leader of color
1st Year of Transition
Current felt experience of leadership transitions
What current leaders of color thought it would look like... |
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What it actually looks like... |
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Primary feelings |
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Supports leaders need from funders
Lengthen the funding runway |
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Build platforms and connect to networks |
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Support peer exchange, mentorship, executive coaching, and well-being activities |
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Provide targeted supports for leaders, boards, and team (based on interviews; illustrative, not prescriptive) |
|
2nd Year of Transition
Current felt experience of leadership transitions
What current leaders of color thought it would look like... |
|
What it actually looks like... |
|
Primary feelings |
|
Supports funders can provide
Lengthen the funding runway |
|
Build platforms and connect to networks |
|
Support peer exchange, mentorship, executive coaching, and well-being activities |
|
Provide targeted supports for leaders, boards, and team (based on interviews; illustrative, not prescriptive) |
|
3rd+ years of transition
Current felt experience of leadership transitions
What current leaders of color thought it would look like... |
|
What it actually looks like... |
|
Primary feelings |
|
Supports funders can provide
Lengthen the funding runway |
|
Build platforms and connect to networks |
|
Support peer exchange, mentorship, executive coaching, and well-being activities |
|
Provide targeted supports for leaders, boards, and team (based on interviews; illustrative, not prescriptive) |
|
Source: Avoiding the Glass Cliff: Advice to Board's on Preparing For and Supporting a New Leader of Color, BoardSource and the Building Movement Project, 2022; Avoiding the Glass Cliff resource page, BoardSource; Monika Kalra Varma, "Beyond the Glass Cliff: Reimagining Executive Transitions in the Sector," Philanthropy New York, April 26, 2023; Bridgespan interviews.
