Supporting nonprofit leadership transitions has always required more than supporting just the actual moment of transition. Broadly, it is about creating a scaffolding around the before, during, and after that allows for nonprofit sustainablity over time. For funders who are supporting grantee partners during a leadership transition, the moment invites us to lean into our commitment to the organization, to operate from a place of trust, and to share power.
The Building Movement Project has added to our understanding of leadership transitions. Their new report Trading Glass Ceilings for Glass Cliffs: A Race to Lead Report on Nonprofit Executives of Color, focuses on the experiences and challenges of nonprofit leaders of color who have attained the top position in their organizations. It builds upon the findings of the 2019 Race to Lead Revisited report, as well as a previous report on nonprofit executives from the 2016 Race to Lead survey data.
Frances Kunreither, Co-Director of Building Movement Project, will share the report findings which demonstrate that the proverbial glass cliff is an all-too-common reality for leaders of color in the nonprofit sector. Ascending to an executive position does not end a leader’s struggles with racism, and sometimes increases those challenges.
As philanthropy continues to examine its own practices and behaviors across the board, the Leadership Transitions Funders Group is excited to offer leadership transitions as a lens to philanthropy's shift towards sharing and/or building power with its nonprofit partners.
Over the last few years, Philanthropy New York's Leadership Transitions Funders Group has engaged a group of NYC-based funders to learn from grantee partners and funder colleagues about the opportunities and challenges funders face when supporting nonprofits during leadership transitions. As the sheer number of leadership transitions continues to climb, so does the magnitude of complexity, impact, and risk of those transitions for organizations and the movements/fields they operate within.
With an eye toward the future and what this community could be in the longer-term, we hope to create a space for funders to come together to learn and collaborate, where possible, to better support nonprofits going through leadership transitions and to more broadly address transition patterns or moments as they arise within the movements/fields we support.
Come hear the important findings from Building Movement Project, and then help us to plan the next phase of this work to build on our learning to create a community of practice for leadership transitions.
What will you learn?
- Highlights from the latest Race to Lead report, including:
- The racialized barriers that leaders of color overcome to attain their executive positions
- The persisting challenges experienced by people of color who hold executive leadership positions
- Philanthropy's role in supporting leadership transitions, as good organizational development partners
- The call for a community of practice in response to The Great Resignation and the potential next wave of executive leadership transitions
Speaker
- Frances Kunreuther, Co-Director, Building Movement Project
- Lisa Cowan (Moderator), Vice President, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation
Who should attend?
All interested funders in grantmaking roles. What to expect: presentation followed by breakout discussion.
Recording
In Collaboration With
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Philanthropy New York's Leadership Transitions Funders Group