The idea of shared leadership has always been around in some form or another in the nonprofit space for years. However, nonprofit co-leadership across the entire sector gained popularity as a concept 5-10 years ago, and we continue to see some organizations choose this format today. Since its heyday conversation around whether it’s a worthwhile concept seems to have faded somewhat into the backdrop behind other more pressing nonprofit topics like decreasing philanthropy funding, diversity, pay transparency, and unionization. And yet, because “distributed leadership” is such a vague term we can’t say organizations are altogether done with it these days because it can mean different things to different organizations in different circumstances.
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Let’s look at where it’s still being used and why, as well as who is most likely to embrace it!

For over two years one of the most popular articles on our blog has been about helping staff through planned leadership transitions. It likely comes as no surprise to anyone that nonprofit leaders are often concerned with how to best prepare their organization for success after they leave, so they are eager to find resources on how to make the transition smoothly to ensure success for everyone. But a planned leadership change is vastly different than an unplanned leadership change. The timeframe is different, the considerations are different, the emotions are different, the operational needs are different, the communications are different. Everything is different!

There is very little that can be said about preparing for a leadership change that applies when a nonprofit loses their Executive Director without warning. The jarring nature of losing a leader unexpectedly provides a whole host of unique challenges.

Our hope is that this resource will give boards the framework they need to manage through an unexpected leadership transition so that if their Executive Director quits, is terminated, or is abruptly unable to lead, the organization will be fully equipped to keep moving forward.