United Way NEXT is proud to partner with organizations that share our commitment to strengthening the nonprofit community and the greater United Way network!
Today we’re featuring an article from our Event Programming Sponsor, Third Sector Company, highlighting why leadership transitions at nonprofit organizations are everyone’s business, and what United Ways and communities can do about it. Paired with their recent webinar Succession Planning Reimagined: Positioning Local United Ways for Effective Transitions, we hope these insights support your organization & your community!
When a nonprofit loses its leader without a well-known and thoughtful strategy in place, the consequences rarely stay contained inside the organization. Programs stall, trust erodes, donors hesitate, and partner agencies feel the strain. Sadly, the people most affected are often the community members who depend on the services the organization was built to provide.
That’s why leadership transition planning is not solely an organizational responsibility; it is a community obligation to an eco-system that works together to afford a quality of life for all. Organizations that treat succession planning as a shared concern for the long-term wellbeing of their communities better protect their collective investment and ensure that mission-critical services survive.
It is this domino-effect of an entire community-based system of organizations being ill-prepared for what’s NEXT, that should catch the attention of local United Ways. We believe it should also be a wake-up call for United Ways to be the example of what thoughtful on-going succession planning and leadership continuity should look like in a community-dependent organization.
Leadership continuity positively impacts the people serving within United Ways and across the nonprofit sector, while also supporting the Thriving United Way framework pillars like Community Leadership, Equitable Community Impact, and Strong Organizational Foundation.
United Ways play a pivotal role in facilitating community conversations that can morph the succession planning paradigm from a private matter into a community conversation. It’s time the subject of succession planning moves away from being a transactional elective to a transformational obligation vital to sustaining service to the community. Local United Ways can help lead this shift by stepping into a visible leadership role where they can:
Change the definition and language of succession in your communities.
Reposition a lack of succession planning as a threat to a community’s eco-system of programs and quality of life services.
Orchestrate a community initiative that brings together leaders that care about the pipeline of future talent for vital organizations in their community.
Support a community of consultants trained to provide a high standard of professional succession consultations to diverse organizations throughout the community.
Train nonprofit interim executives to support organizations facing executive vacancies.
Establish a volunteer corp helping seasoned nonprofit executives to successfully plan for and transition into retirement with community support and honor.
Function as resource center providing workshops and technical assistance to nonprofit executives, boards, consultants, and interim leaders to ensure that the ripple effect continues as a community-wide effort to steward the nonprofit leadership continuity landscape for the entire community.
This is the work of Third Sector Company. This is our mission. And we are here to help.
Succession planning, done well, is quiet. It rarely makes headlines because it prevents the crises that would usually hit the news cycle. That invisibility is exactly why it is so often underfunded and overlooked. Communities that change the pattern will be the ones whose nonprofit sector remains resilient, trusted, and ready to serve, no matter who is leading any single organization at any given moment.
It’s time for the nonprofit sector to ask every organization what’s NEXT for their leadership and to help them discover their answers in a united way.
United Way NEXT Partner Spotlight event replay (June 2026)
If you haven't already, watch Succession Planning Reimagined: Positioning Local United Ways for Effective Transitions featuring Jeffrey Wilcox of Third Sector Company and Kyle Rahn, Interim Executive Academy graduate & United Way Alumni. Together they shared 5 structured pathways to leadership continuity, key questions you can ask to support effective leadership transitions in your organization, & 6 must haves in an organization’s succession plan.
To learn more about Third Sector Company, you can explore our dedicated pages on becoming an interim executive or hiring an interim executive today. Plus, you can check out their event calendar to stay up to date on their complimentary introductory sessions, paid workshops, and more.
If you have any questions about Third Sector Company’s trainings and services or would like to take advantage of the 30% discount UW NEXT members receive off of the Interim Executives Academy, please email Carole at carole.peters@uww.unitedway.org. And if your organization is interested in partnering with United Way NEXT, we'd love to hear from you too!