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

Written By T. Bakare

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:

T. Bakare