LEADERSHIP PATHWAYS & DEVELOPMENT

Volunteer leaders—board members, committee chairs, volunteer coordinators—carry enormous responsibility for your nonprofit’s mission, yet rarely receive the development investment given to paid staff. This comprehensive guide explores how coaching transforms volunteer leadership effectiveness, from helping board members understand governance versus management to developing the volunteer-to-staff pipeline. Learn practical approaches for coaching across power differentials, retaining volunteer leaders through development rather than just appreciation, and building virtual volunteer leadership capabilities for today’s hybrid environment.

Executive transitions rank among the most vulnerable moments in any nonprofit’s lifecycle. Whether you’re the departing leader processing legacy and letting go, the incoming executive navigating the first 100 days, or the board trying to maintain stability while managing change, transition coaching provides essential support that prevents costly derailments. This guide covers all three transition types, addresses what goes wrong when transitions fail, and shows how professional coaching transforms organizational anxiety into transformational opportunity.

Most leadership development plans in nonprofits fail—not from lack of motivation, but from approaches designed for corporate environments with resources nonprofits don’t have. This guide provides a nonprofit-specific development planning framework based on the 70-20-10 model, complete with a downloadable template, manager support guidance, and organizational implementation strategies. Learn how to create development plans that survive first contact with reality and actually drive growth for you and your team.

Most nonprofit leaders have a vague sense of their leadership bench—a few promising staff members, a general feeling about organizational readiness. But when asked for actual pipeline data on depth, diversity, readiness, and retention, they fall silent. This comprehensive evaluation framework helps you move from assumptions to actionable intelligence about your nonprofit’s leadership future.

Nonprofit leaders often struggle to distinguish between coaching and mentoring—and the confusion costs them valuable development time. While mentoring shares wisdom from someone who’s walked your path, coaching helps you discover your own answers to current challenges. This guide clarifies when each approach serves nonprofit leaders best, how to find the right mentor, why mentoring programs often fail, and how to build a comprehensive support system that includes both modalities. Stop wondering whether you need a coach or mentor—get clear on what will actually accelerate your growth.

Most nonprofit senior teams aren’t really teams at all—they’re collections of capable individuals protecting departmental turf while strategic conversations get lost. Learn how team coaching transforms senior leadership groups from siloed competition to genuine collaboration, including practical frameworks for breaking down organizational barriers and building collective accountability.

Nonprofit middle managers face unique pressures—managing up, down, and sideways while being overlooked for development resources. This comprehensive guide explores why middle management coaching matters, addresses the “forgotten middle” phenomenon, covers managing former peers, and provides a practical six-month transformation roadmap for developing the leaders who hold your organization together.

Identifying and developing emerging leaders is one of the most strategic investments a nonprofit can make—yet most organizations wait until they have urgent leadership needs before paying attention. Learn how to spot leadership potential beyond performance, create safe failure spaces for growth, navigate the tricky transition from doer to leader, and build development programs that work within resource constraints. Your organization’s future leadership pipeline starts with intentional cultivation today.

Most nonprofit organizations fill senior positions through external hiring at twice the rate of for-profits—a pattern that signals a leadership development crisis. This comprehensive guide introduces the PATHWAYS MAP™ framework for systematic leadership development, covering the five stages of nonprofit leadership, matching development modalities to leader needs, avoiding common traps that derail development efforts, and building pipelines that ensure your organization always has leaders ready to step up. Whether you’re an ED worried about succession or a board member concerned about organizational sustainability, this roadmap provides practical steps for investing in your organization’s most valuable asset: its future leaders.