Normal/superconducting transitions

years close to seventy percent of current nonprofit executive directors will be leaving their jobs and transitioning out of the sector. Further, seventy-five percent of the respondents did not have a succession plan for their organization and over fifty per-cent of all the responding executive directors were over the age of 50. The Support Center’s survey results are similar to those of nationwide surveys conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foun-dation, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, and the Maryland Association for Nonprofits. Those surveys found the rate of executive director turnover expected over the next two years to range from fifteen to thirty-five percent, and the rate of turnover over the next five years to be from sixty-two to almost seventy-eight percent. This turnover rate is predicted to continually increase over the next decade. As baby boomers retire, the devolution of government spending increases, competition from other sectors becomes more intense, and the workforce shrinks, we can expect the leadership mantle in the nonprofit sector to become evermore precarious. The question is how to plan and support transitions so that founders and long-term executives leave with dignity and a legacy, while strengthening and improving the organiza-tion, and ensuring that a qualified leader can step in with the tools and support to succeed. Properly planned, funded, and supported with expert exec-utive transition services, these transitions can serve as pivotal moments, enabling organizations to clarify their mission and vision, change direction, maintain momentum, build or rebuild their infrastructure, and correctly identify and put in place both the board and executive leadership they need to move the organization forward