Nonprofit executive succession planning

What is it about?

The aim of this article is to compare the extent to which nonprofits have planned for executive director succession in six different countries. The article compares the data from the survey findings of six recently published articles that used the same questionnaire in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Russia, and the United States. The article focuses on succession planning and executive selection issues (formal versus informal planning and insider-outsider selection). Implications for managing sustainable organizations include the need to be attentive to strategic priorities so as to anticipate and deal with the expected and unexpected departures of incumbents.

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Why is it important?

Executive succession planning represents significant challenges for most nonprofits for several reasons. This article address the limited evidence from non-U,S, countries by comparing the findings of recent nonprofit succession research on six countries (Australia, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Russia, and the United States) to determine the degree to which they have planned for executive succession that is critical for organizational sustainability.