Funders as Leadership Field Builders to Support Transitions

By Bipasha Ray, Project Lead, Leading Forward

In the heart of a Queens neighborhood in New York City, the Damayan Migrant Workers Association is buying a building to serve as a community center. This is “a home away from home” for Filipino migrant workers, caregivers, domestic workers who are often seen and treated as “disposable.” This move is a metaphor for opportunity within crisis. Amid a federal climate that is antagonistic and harmful to migrant workers and labor rights, Damayan and its new Executive Director Riya Ortiz are using their period of leadership transition to renew their commitment to their constituents and to rally funders to invest in this symbol of organizational stability. 

When Ortiz was selected as the ED of Damayan, she felt excited and nervous about the new role, after almost 30 years of community organizing. After a competitive board search, Ortiz was selected to take on the reins from her mother, the founding ED of the organization. Instead of waiting for the new ED to prove herself, funders, including the Worker Justice and Dignity Fund, stepped in. They invested in communications training for Ortiz, a cohort for peer support, and a leadership coach who offered the organization some “hard truths and a treatment plan,” said Ortiz. This holistic support enabled her to thrive as a leader.  “It was so comforting to see that there are funders who believed in my leadership,” she said. She anchored herself in the organization’s values, raised staff compensation and benefits, and is now investing in community and organizational stability by buying a building.

This is just one of the ways nonprofit leaders are turning the vulnerable times of executive transitions into organizational opportunities, with support and partnership from funders. This was shared during the workshop “Not Just a Moment: Funding Leadership Transitions for Long-Term Impact,” hosted by Leading Forward at the biennial Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) national conference in Boston in June 2026.

Funders as Leadership Field Builders

The nonprofit sector is currently undergoing a sea change of contraction, with organizations transitioning, restructuring, merging and winding down, amid massive funding cutbacks, increasing demands for social services, attacks on civil society, and widespread leadership burnout. In this landscape, one of the critical ways that philanthropy can support organizations to lean into their strengths and rejuvenate their social change missions, is to robustly fund leadership and executive transitions. If funders step back during these times, they risk losing the “knowledge chain” and institutional memory that keeps movements alive. “There's instability within organizations and leadership at the time when we want the most fighting power against fascism and authoritarianism,” said Nikki Dinh, ED of Leadership Learning Community. “We need to make organizations survivable for leaders. We need to invest in leaders now.” 

A world of possibility can open up when funders start seeing themselves as “leadership field builders” rather than simply stewards of their grantmaking portfolio, Dinh shared. Whether a funder focuses thematically or geographically, “you are building the field innately, you know the ins and outs, you know the players, you know how to get the support to set up the organization and the field for success,” Dinh said, which builds trust for funders to directly support the leaders who power the work.

Holding Space for the Messiness and Emotional Aspects of Leadership Transitions

While acknowledging that leadership transitions can be messy, even the well-funded ones, these are critical periods to hold space for grief and human emotions which can then help gear up for long-term organizational health and resilience. During the workshop’s breakout discussions, participants discussed helpful grantee-centered funder practices before, during and after the transition, grounded by the Leading Forward Action Guide for Funders. Here are some of their recommendations:

Before an outgoing leader departs:

• Fund leadership sabbaticals: sabbaticals for leaders support not just their sustainability but act as “creative disruption”– the name of a seminal report on this topic from Durfee Foundation – unlocking leadership prowess throughout the organization. This sets the stage for better succession planning that will eventually lead to healthier leadership transitions. Programs such as the Windcall Residency offer space for this.

• Self-Education about True Partnerships: When funders blunder into conversations about succession planning with grantee partners without appropriate training, this can cause undue stress and even harm to grantees. Countering this requires self- and peer-education about how to center grantees, amplify relational practices, and reduce extractive ones.

During the transition and recruitment

• Stand with the grantee as it navigates change: Funders should recognize and support the means to “hold space for the grief and emotion” of change, said Holly Bartling, Director of the Worker Justice and Dignity Fund. It is critical to remember the humanity and emotional toll of transitions on the leaders themselves. Funders need to “stand alongside the organizations as they are navigating all these things including the emotional parts,” and be invested in those leaders’ success. 

• Support Interim Leadership: An interim leader can support organizational and new leadership success, giving the board and staff time to adjust to new leadership, clear the pathway, and make necessary decisions while a permanent hire is made. While an interim leader chosen internally can be helpful for leadership development, it can also pose challenges if the interim applies for the permanent ED job and doesn’t land it. Another common scenario – of board members stepping in as interims – also pose challenges including blurring of management and leadership oversight functions. Hiring a transition consultant as an interim ED can mitigate these risks, said Dinh.  

After a new leader starts:

• Step up not back: Funders often wait to see if a new leader will succeed before committing funds, when the opposite is necessary to continue organizational momentum, said Bartling. “Fund transition plans because transitions actually require additional resources.” Beyond money, this includes creating space for multiple funders to work together and getting creative about supports beyond money.

• Address the Glass Cliff: Speakers and workshop participants raised a painful trend that is also bolstered by other research including from the Building Movement Project. Women leaders of color, in particular Black women leaders, are often brought in to rescue failing organizations without being given the resources to succeed. This is often accompanied with funding relationships leaving with the outgoing leader or the departing founder. To counter this, Bartling recommended funders offer wrap-around support for new leaders including making introductions  to peer funders, sharing intelligence about philanthropy with the new leader, and hosting funder briefings. Working together to stand by incoming leaders during their “growth edge” gives them a “runway” to launch rather than a cliff.

• Lean into relationship: Bartling encouraged her peer funders to move away from written narrative reports to more informal and relational ways of checking-in such as phone calls. This can help build a deeper relationship of trust, and can also serve as an “early warning system” for grantees to have an opportunity to share t possible challenges including burnout. 

Social change movements and organizations are only as strong as their ability to support its people and leaders through change. When funders see themselves as leadership field builders and robustly support leadership transitions, they help build space for multiple leaders to grow, which lead to stronger movements.

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A Tale of Two Leadership Transitions: CTUL’s and ISAIAH’s Journeys to Build Organizational Resilience

By: Bipasha Ray, Project Lead, Leading Forward

Amid extraordinary demands on civil society, executive leadership transitions are rising across the nonprofit sector. Movement and nonprofit leaders are contending with civic and political repression, funding cuts, and burnout. Long-time leaders are recognizing the need for new energy and are creating space for more purpose-driven leadership structures. When properly resourced, leadership transitions can be valuable periods to reassess organizational needs and leadership structures and build strength for greater community impact. 

At Change Philanthropy’s Unity Summit in Minneapolis, Leading Forward’s breakout session “Funding Acts of Courage: Supporting Nonprofit Leadership Transitions” highlighted how leadership transitions can be strategic opportunities for targeted and sustained funder support. Stepping into leadership in these times is an act of courage. If movements and nonprofits are to survive and thrive, they need philanthropy’s unwavering support. 

Fostering renewal and rejuvenation 

The story of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), a Minneapolis-based worker-led statewide organization, shows that even when the leadership transition does not go as planned, it can foster renewal and rejuvenation with strategic leadership and funder support. 

After one of its founding co-Executive Directors announced her departure, CTUL embraced the chance to re-examine its needs and the true costs of a thoughtful transition process. It committed to raising $1 million over three years to cover recruitment, leadership development and capacity needs, ensuring that its community-led board could lead the recruitment process and support a new leader. “We stepped back and recognized that yes this was a big challenge. But as organizers …you use that energy and turn it into an opportunity,” said Merle Payne, the other co-founder.

The board bolstered its governance policies, undertook trainings, and took on a more public role along with staff leadership. Support from Ford Foundation’s BUILD program, through its technical assistance and long-term commitments, helped CTUL assess strengths, identify areas for growth and implement needed changes.

But the journey was far from linear. After selected ED candidates backed out twice due to personal crises, CTUL focused on stabilizing internally – elevating staff into leadership roles, reinforcing member and board leadership and building new structures for impact. One major development was launching a 501(c)4 arm to better advocate for policies that advance worker power.

Payne acknowledged the strain of this period. “I felt like I was just trying to keep the boat afloat but nobody was guiding the ship,” In mid-2025, he committed to serving as the sole ED for two more years to strengthen CTUL during a pivotal time for immigrant and worker justice and leave the organization better positioned for a new leader.

While some might see this as an incomplete or failed transition process, the result was very much still a win. “Many people may see this (period) as making the organization weaker, but what we want to show is that CTUL didn’t crumble, it’s not weaker,” one of CTUL’s board members shared, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter.  “We took it as a challenge to keep moving forward. We don’t yet have a new ED but that hasn’t stopped us, we feel stronger.” 

Building leadership at every level 

Across town, ISAIAH, a multi-racial interfaith organization based in St. Paul, organizes in faith communities, childcare centers, barber shops and beauty shops and mobilizes white, Black and Muslim working class communities for racial and economic justice across Minnesota. It approached its leadership transition through the lens of power building and built leadership at every level – from its members, its youth organizers, its staff to its senior leadership. 

ISAIAH prioritized internal recruitment. “Leadership at ISAIAH is like an elected position. You lead with the consent of the membership of the organization. And it was impossible to imagine someone from outside the organization would be able to secure that,” new Co-ED Alexa Horwart said. It also recognized that its growing organizational footprint required a Co-ED model. Two internal leaders were tapped to lead the organization forward – Horwart, formerly the Greater Minnesota Organizer, and Rev JaNaé Bates, formerly Communications Director and a leader rooted in Black church organizing.

“ISAIAH is not one or two leaders, but a thousand,” Horwart said. “Change allows new things to grow. Not just my leadership or JaNaé’s but rather thousands of leaders. Having the season to plant the things we want to harvest 5 years from now.” 

This demonstrates the power and potential of a leadership transition process that embodies organizational values and cultures, and enables organizational leaders to experiment with new structures for leadership and governance that serve them best. 

Bates and Horwart used their 6-month interim period as their “safe to learn” space, to build their transition team with members and staff, consolidating political power across the statewide organization, building staff trust and capital, defining their vision with their members, and developing the fundraising relationships to grow the organizational budget.

Core foundation partners supported them with general operating funds, supplemental grants, transition coaches, fundraising consultants, staff retreats, and other transition-related costs. Some funders brought the new leaders along to peer meetings to expand their networks, an invaluable form of endorsement and political capital. 

Practice open dialogue and step up

Two essential funder practices support the entire arc of leadership transitions: having an “open door” and “stepping up not back,” according to Holly Bartling, Director of the Worker Justice and Dignity Fund. 

Offering phone calls instead of written reports fosters trust and honest dialogue. “Often, this is an early warning system for people to share challenges or to share something they would never put in a report to a funder about how things are going in an organization,” including early news of an upcoming transition, Bartling said. “Being able to have that open door makes it easier for people to create the pathway to explore what their organization needs.” 

Both CTUL and ISAIAH experienced funders who withdrew support during the transition – a harmful practice that undermines new leaders, organizational stability, and community trust. Instead, Bartling encourages collaborative efforts to pool resources. At the General Service Foundation, she would host collective funder calls, when a common grantee partner was undergoing transition, to jointly raise more money than each funder might give individually. “Think expansively about the resources at your disposal as a funder – often it’s not just money, it’s also connections, introductions, political capital,” Bartling said. “Saying you endorse a leader and stand behind them, that opens up doors for them.” 

Funder practices that support organizations and leaders during executive transitions:

• Long-term funding commitments 

• Ongoing organizational development and capacity building grants.

• Surge funding for transition needs, such as leadership coaches, fundraising consultants or whatever the organization needs 

• Introductions to peers funders and networks, and support  participation at funder conferences and meetings.

• Proactive financial and non-financial support without requiring mandatory participation at events and convenings.

• Maintain an open door, to build rapport and trust.

• Use funder convening power and funder organizing to mobilize transition funding for joint grantee partners

• Publicly affirm trust in the grantee board and staff.

• Support to retain staff and invest in leadership and staff wellbeing to sustain organizational health during transitions

For more supportive funder practices, see:

• Leading Forward’s Action Guide for Funders 

• Shireen Zaman, formerly of Ford’s BUILD Program, on how BUILD embraced leadership transitions as an opportunity to foster organizational stability and growth

• Holly Bartling on trust-based practices to support leadership transitions

We honor and celebrate the strength and resilience of community-led organizations in Minneapolis, like CTUL and ISAIAH, that have partnered with Leading Forward, and now are resisting, delivering mutual aid to their neighbors, fighting for worker justice, and driving demands to get ICE out of Minnesota.

StandWithMinnesota.com compiles testimonials from the ground in Minneapolis and a range of ways to take action. It also includes a directory of vetted places to donate, including legal aid and defense, community protection, and support with basic needs of community members. In particular, we spotlight CTUL's Emergency Rent Fund, which is collecting support for Minnesotan workers and families facing eviction due to ICE raids, including many who been locked in their homes for almost two months.