How can you announce a leadership transition without torching your donor list?

That’s a question that strikes fear in the hearts of nonprofit marketers everywhere – a key member of your leadership team (or worse, your Executive Director) moves on, and you’re left holding what can feel like a big communications emergency.

You can future-proof your communications by spreading the love around, relying on more voices to engage with donors, and finding the minimum amount of communication you need in times of crisis.

Communications can take the brunt of people leaving

Leadership transitions are one of those moments where either communications work falls apart quickly – or becomes the thing that helps hold everything else together.

If you’re facing a leadership transition – or if the idea of someone on your leadership team leaving keeps you up at night – here’s a look at how I help guide my clients through it.

First: acknowledge that people leave.

‍There’s often this reflex in organizations — an "US?! NOT US?!" — like somehow your org is exempt from the fact that leadership changes.

It's not. Every organization goes through change, yours included. Acknowledging that up front — instead of treating it like an emergency exception — is going to make the actual transition go better.

(Going through an organizational change? My friend Naomi helps organizations going through transitions. Check out her work here.)

Second: realize that one person can't do it all.

The question we started my session with was “How can you announce an exit without torching the donor list?” Even that framing tells you something. It implies that many organizations’ communications and fundraising are so tied to ONE person – one personality – that their leaving could genuinely burn the whole thing down.

That's not a communications problem. At its heart, it's an organizational problem. (A lot of "communications problems" are actually three organizational problems in a trenchcoat, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

We can – and should – future-proof our organizations through communications. So, let’s take a look at how we can do that, shall we?   ‍

Spread the comms love around

If your communications (donor-facing or otherwise) revolve around one person – like emails and donor letters that ONLY come from your Executive Director, social media posts that only highlight the work of one person or your leadership team – that, my friends, is a problem waiting to happen.

I recently did a social media strategy audit and, while looking at comparable organizations that offered the same services as my client, I saw a pattern play out repeatedly: one person fronted all the social content, and when that person left, the social presence went with them.

If your organization isn’t relying on one person on social – take a quick look at your emails or donor letters. If one person’s “writing” (we know you’re writing it, ok?) or one person appears in every communication piece - the day they leave, the organization suddenly has to invent a new voice from scratch, under pressure, in public.‍ ‍

Blending and highlighting the viewpoints and work of multiple staff members does double duty: it protects you from this exact scenario, and it shows the real depth and breadth of your people. It doesn’t just offer one entry point into your organization – it offers many.

Don't make donor engagement a one-person job

Your donor communications — start to finish — should include an organizational voice, not just an individual one. This is easy with donor thank you emails or notes, but if you’re doing 1:1 communications – like in-person or phone thank you, make sure there isn’t just one person or team making those calls. Bring in board members, volunteers, even people from your programs if that's appropriate.

Find your minimums, and stick to them

During major leadership changes, you often see a pattern emerge, especially with smaller orgs – the main channels (social, email) go dark. Not a word to be heard.

There are varied reasons for this: confusion about what's okay to share, not wanting to step on a new leader's toes, and sometimes (when things are really bad) LITERALLY not knowing what to say. But your communications commitment is never actually to your leadership – and yes, I’m going out on a limb here, and this may make you really uncomfortable – your communications commitment is to the people you serve and the people who support your mission.

So even when there's some fog about what to post or send, stick to your baseline minimum until you find your way back to normal. It's okay to just say it plainly: "Hey, we're figuring some things out right now, but here's what's happening today."

It’s not about being perfect – or even perfectly transparent

None of this is about having a perfect succession plan or a five-tab communications binder or sharing EVERY SINGLE THING that goes on at your organization.

It's about not letting your organization's ability to talk to the people who care about it live inside one person. One of my guideposts is “Small and real beats big and theoretical” – and that’s true for life and for transition planning too.

Need help with communications as your organization manages a transition? If "small and real beats big and theoretical" sounds better than a crisis binder that no one looks at, that's the kind of support I offer. Sometimes it's a focused roadmap to get your footing; sometimes it's more hands-on help through the whole thing (and beyond!).

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