Executive Director Transition Plan Template for Nonprofit Boards
What is in an executive director transition plan?
An executive director transition plan is the board’s working checklist from the day a departure is known to the new executive director’s first 90 days. This template covers five phases: before the announcement, the gap period, search and hire, handover, and onboarding. Every step gets an owner and a target date.
Say the resignation letter is on the board chair’s desk, the executive director’s last day is four months away, and nobody has written down what happens in between. Copy the executive director transition plan template below, put a name and a date beside each row, and the board has a working plan before the news goes public.
For how organizations grow their next leaders, see our guide to nonprofit leadership.
Key Takeaways
- The plan has five phases, and the search is only the third.
- Give every step an owner, a backup and a date, because the person you name may be one of those leaving.
- Tell everyone, from the full board to the public, within one to two weeks of the private planning, as CompassPoint advises.
- Plan past the hire: the new executive director’s first 90 days belong in the same document.
What Is an Executive Director Transition Plan?
An executive director transition plan is a time-bound checklist the board uses once a departure is known or has happened. A succession plan is the standing policy written in calm times, including who steps in during an emergency. The transition plan puts that policy to work, with names and dates.
In Daring to Lead 2011, a study of more than 3,000 executive directors by CompassPoint and the Meyer Foundation, just 17% of organizations had a documented succession plan. Use this template now, and write the policy afterward with our guide to nonprofit succession planning.
Executive Director Transition Plan Template
We call the template below The Five-Phase Handover. It runs from the first private conversation to the 90-day review. Each row names an owner by role. Copy the table, replace each role with a person, name a backup and set each date from the last day or the start date.
| Step | Owner | Backup | Target date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: Before the announcement | |||
| Confirm in writing the last day, the stated reason and the executive director’s role until then | Board chair and departing executive director | ||
| Name a transition committee of three to five board members | Board chair | ||
| Write the communication plan: the message, who hears first and the public date | Committee chair | ||
| Decide who leads during any gap: an interim, an acting executive director or the departing leader | Full board | ||
| Phase 2: The gap period | |||
| Give the interim or acting executive director a written mandate: what they can sign, hire and spend | Board chair | ||
| Update bank signatories, payroll approval and check-signing limits | Treasurer | ||
| Call each major funder and partner before they hear the news elsewhere | Board chair | ||
| List grant reports, renewals and Form 990 deadlines that fall in the gap | Treasurer | ||
| Phase 3: Search and hire | |||
| Update the job description and what the next executive director must achieve in 12 to 18 months | Committee | ||
| Set the search budget and timeline, and decide whether internal candidates may apply | Committee, then full board | ||
| Interview finalists, check references, and have a nonprofit attorney review the offer | Committee, then full board vote | ||
| Phase 4: Handover | |||
| List key relationships (funders, partners, government contacts) and book introductions | Departing executive director | ||
| Gather bylaws, policies, grant agreements and contracts, and transfer every login | Departing executive director and treasurer | ||
| Write a one-page memo: what is stable, what is unfinished, what the next leader inherits | Departing executive director or interim | ||
| Phase 5: The first 90 days | |||
| Agree on 90-day and 180-day goals and a monthly check-in with the board chair | Board chair and new executive director | ||
| Introduce the new executive director to major funders and partners | Board chair | ||
| Arrange support for the new executive director: a coach, a mentor or a peer group | Board chair | ||
The phases follow the three stages in CompassPoint’s 2017 essay The Evolution of Executive Transition and Allied Practices: prepare, search and onboard. This version splits preparation into the announcement and the gap period, and adds a handover. The essay also supplies two timings: a one-to-two-week announcement window and 90- and 180-day goals.
Before Phase 3, list the executive director responsibilities the departing leader actually carried, including the unwritten ones. For the finalist round, start from our interview questions for executive director candidates.
How Does the Plan Change by Departure Type?
A planned departure runs all five phases in order, usually with months of notice. A sudden vacancy starts at the gap period, within days. A founder’s exit needs the longest runway, because the founder’s role after leaving has to be settled, and staff and funders often know the organization through one person.
Sudden vacancy. Settle signing authority first, then choose an acting executive director from staff or an interim executive director from outside. Plan for more than one empty seat: a board president of a small Colorado organization told us in a coaching application that the director of operations gave notice and the treasurer and the president resigned, all within two weeks.
Founder exit. Start as early as the founder’s notice allows, and decide the founder’s role afterward before the search opens. Our guide to the founder executive director transition covers those decisions. If the board is also facing founder syndrome in nonprofits, start there.
What Do Transition Plans Usually Miss?
The gap Daring to Lead 2011 describes is a plan that stops at the hire: many boards appear to “see executive transition as ending with the hire,” when new leaders need deliberate support as they grow into the role. Other common gaps: one board chair owning every row, no backup owners and no dates.
Three questions for the transition committee. Which rows carry the board chair’s name, and who else could own them? Who has the bank login if the treasurer resigns tomorrow? What will the new executive director need from the board in month four?
Letting go is work too, and coaching through an executive transition gives the outgoing and the incoming leader each a confidential place to think.
Who Supports the Incoming Executive Director?
The board does, by putting support in the plan as its own row, with an owner and a date. A new executive director often has no one inside to think out loud with: the board evaluates them and the staff report to them. A coach, a mentor or a peer group fills that seat.
Some coaching applications we receive come from board chairs on behalf of their executive director. Our guide to supporting the incoming executive director shows how a board sets this up. Center for Nonprofit Coaching volunteer coaches donate their time, which is why one-to-one coaching for executive directors costs $300, $400 or $600 for six sessions, by operating budget, 85%+ below market rate. Coaching works on the new leader’s own choices, so it cannot settle a divided board.
This week, if you chair the board, write a name and a date beside each phase. If you are leaving, start the relationships list for Phase 4. Once the new executive director is named, start an application for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does an executive director transition take?
It varies with the departure. CompassPoint’s 2017 essay puts a transition led by an interim executive director at four months to a year or more.
How do you set the target dates in the template?
Count back from the departing executive director’s last day for Phases 1, 2 and 4, and forward from the new executive director’s start date for Phase 5. Phase 3 dates follow the board’s search timeline.
Should the departing executive director choose the successor?
No. Hiring the executive director is the board’s decision. The departing executive director briefs the committee and introduces the new leader to key relationships.
Put Support in Phase 5 of the Plan
Our volunteer coaches donate their time, so six sessions cost $300 to $600 by operating budget, 85%+ below market rate. Share the application with your new executive director.
Start an Application →
