This resource shares practical insights from the Durfee Foundation’s dual leadership transition, where co-leaders navigated succession planning and organizational change after decades of shared service.

NSI Fund’s video library shares firsthand learnings from nonprofit leaders and board members navigating executive leadership transitions. Funders can learn how thoughtful transition support strengthens governance, leadership models, and organizational resilience during moments of change.

This SSIR article examines how co-leadership models reshape organizational culture by distributing authority, fostering collaboration, and breaking down traditional hierarchical norms.

This report highlights how thoughtful funder support can strengthen nonprofits during leadership transitions. It offers actionable insights on trust-based relationships, direct transition funding, and long-term leadership development to help organizations navigate change with resilience and continuity.

This curated collection gathers practical tools and templates that support feminist leadership and shared decision-making. It includes exercises, reflection guides, and frameworks for power-sharing and collaborative governance that can inform more equitable leadership practices.

This Nonprofit Quarterly piece offers practical guidance for nonprofit boards and leaders navigating the complex dynamics of founder’s syndrome.

This report offers funders an up-to-date, data-driven snapshot of nonprofit health: what’s working, where capacity is most stressed, and how external pressures are reshaping nonprofit operations.

This report from Schusterman Family Philanthropies captures key lessons from leadership transitions in the gender equity field. It highlights how funders can strengthen nonprofits by showing up (even early on) with trust, resources, and long-term partnership during times of change.

This podcast episode features leaders from the Open Society Foundations sharing why investing in new executive directors is essential to strengthening the nonprofit workforce. It explores how funders can shift their practices to better support leadership transitions and long-term sustainability.

This blog post, featured on the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project website, urges funders to reexamine their approach to nonprofit leadership transitions. It advocates for viewing these transitions as opportunities for renewal rather than risks, emphasizing the importance of trust and proactive support for incoming leaders.

Discover valuable insights from two decades of the Durfee Foundation’s sabbatical programs, emphasizing how structured rest can empower leadership, enhance organizational resilience, and facilitate long-term systems change—essential strategies for impactful funding decisions.

This Open Society Foundations report offers powerful, first-hand reflections from nonprofit leaders navigating leadership transitions, highlighting the emotional, strategic, and organizational realities of stepping into executive roles. It outlines how funders can better support leaders through these high-stakes moments of change.

This podcast episode offers an inside look at an executive transition through the voices of both the outgoing and incoming executive directors. Their candid reflections reveal the personal and organizational dynamics that shape a successful leadership handoff.

This podcast episode features leaders from the Open Society Foundations sharing why investing in new executive directors is essential to strengthening the nonprofit workforce. It explores how funders can shift their practices to better support leadership transitions and long-term sustainability.

This Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative report highlights how funders can strengthen the nonprofit sector by proactively investing in leadership transitions. It showcases the impact of the Executive Transitions Fund in helping organizations not only survive change but grow through it.

The Cricket island Foundation’s new report, Supporting Nonprofit Leadership Transitions: A Foundation's Journey, examines how funders can best support nonprofits before, during, and after leadership transitions—offering suggestions for how philanthropy can support the people, planning, and processes involved in all aspects of transitions.

The Takeaway: Funders will explore importance of continuous leadership support and development, rather than viewing it as a one-off, transactional effort.

This briefing offers foundations a strategic approach to investing in nonprofit leadership development. Foundation leaders will find this resource insightful for developing long-term strategies that align leadership development with broader philanthropic goals.

Author: The Center for Effective Philanthropy
Publisher: The Center for Effective Philanthropy
Resource Type: Report Snapshot
Leading Forward Principle: Cultures of Belonging & Wholeness

This CEP Research Snapshot offers insight into foundation leaders’ perspectives and actions related to the well-being and burnout of staff at the organizations they fund.

Use this report snapshot to:

• Explore how foundation leaders understand the state of well-being among their grantees and what they do to support it.

• Access resources about assessing and supporting well-being practices in the nonprofit workplace.

Take away: Why you should loosen grant restrictions to end the nonprofit starvation cycle.

In this essay, part of the Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community's, authors Jeri Eckhart Queenan and Jeff Bradach depict the pervasive pattern of ingrained funding practices that undercut nonprofit financial health and effectiveness.

Effective organizations make their purpose clear. Externally, there is a vision statement, a stated mission, and a set of guiding principles. Internally, an organization may be working on how they model equity and uphold the values of ethical fundraising, storytelling, and programming. Change has never happened overnight (especially in our sector), but if there ever was a time to look at internal and external practices, it is now.