I do a lot of capacity building work with nonprofits, and it is much more common for a Board to be concerned about a departure of their leader than not. Most do not have a sense of what they would do if their leader were to announce that they were going to leave or became suddenly ill. 

When succession planning is brought up, many people believe that it means that the specific person to replace the leader is known and resides within the organization. For many organizations, especially smaller nonprofits, this is not what should be expected from a succession plan. I consider a nonprofit fortunate if they have an “obvious” successor.

How I view succession planning is a readiness to implement a plan at the time of the announcement of a departure or an emergency plan ready to implement if the departure (temporary or permanent) of the leader is sudden. 

When a departure is planned, the Succession Plan should include:

• Goals of the succession plan

• Communication plan

• Confirming job description/leader’s role

• Recruitment/hiring process

• Communication plan post hire

• Orientation of new leader

When a departure is sudden, you should have a policy in place to include:

• Accountabilities of duties detailed by role

• Activities of the Board Chair or Board leadership

I have developed two templates for organizations to use to begin to develop their own Succession Plan and Policy and Protocol for Unplanned Departures. I invite you to use them as a starting point if your organization does not yet have a plan in place to respond to a leadership vacancy.