What We Do

Interim Directions is a team of highly experienced Interim Executive Directors who are equipped to best serve your nonprofit organization during a transition. Collectively, we have decades of experience leading and managing nonprofit organizations and have honed skills as problem solvers and transition specialists. Each member of our team is proficient in the areas of planning, fundraising, finance, marketing and governance areas. We employ the best professional practices with creative problem solving and systematic tools to provide a fresh approach to an executive transition. Our goal is to help organizations achieve their missions, stay on track, and think strategically all at the same time.

Executive Transitions provide new opportunities to innovate; but stability is essential. We bring the leadership, wisdom and organizational knowledge to maneuver the obstacles that inevitably arise during these times. We work closely and collaboratively with the board and staff to traverse the rocky terrain of change and arrive at new and innovative solutions to stubborn and prickly problems.

Interim Directions provides our clients with a current working analysis of the organization when we begin and a status report when we conclude the transition. Everything in between is carried out with the utmost of care and collaboration. Some advantages of working with Interim Directions include:

• We understand what you are going through! We have first-hand experience of successfully operating nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes as permanent and Interim Executive Directors.
• We are quick at assessing the situation. With many Interim positions completed, we can quickly get the lay of the land and propose some solutions that result in both immediate and long term improvements.
• We are quick and effective at implementing solutions. We develop a custom solution that includes access to our network of professional expertise. We are a learning community of associates who bring not only our years of experiences, but those of our colleagues.

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• What is an Interim Executive Director?

  Interim Executive Directors offer a unique perspective through the lens of a seasoned professional while sitting in the executive director’s chair. Interim Executive Directors are experienced change agents, safeguarding the organization through an important time in its organizational life. Although an existing staff or willing board member may be assigned the acting or interim executive role, they often do not have the time or skills to effectively do so.

  The decisions we make and mentoring we provide to the staff and board, reflect our expertise and temporary status. As consultants we are able to manage, teach, guide, negotiate and build confidence in the capacity of the organization to successfully withstand change. Read MoreRead Less

  Research studies show that those groups that utilize the Interim Executive Director model emerge stronger and more financially stable from a transition, and with higher levels of optimism about the future (source: Interim Executive Directors: The Power in the Middle, Compasspoint, 2005). Funders and community members are more confident in the board and the organization’s capacity. Interim Executive Directors are highly skilled and trained managers, who have run nonprofits throughout most of their careers and are able to quickly take responsibility for the leadership of the organization.

• Utilizing an Interim is a Cost-Effective Strategy

  The Interim Executive Director position can be funded in whole or part, by the annual salary of the permanent executive director. We are hired in a full or part-time role with a single focus: to manage the organization through change that prepares for new leadership. We are prepared to quickly tackle the essential issues and priorities. As highly experienced Executive Directors, we have the ability to make an immediate and significant impact in a short amount of time.
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  Research demonstrates that poorly managed executive transitions inflict high costs to organizations and communities (source: Interim Executive Directors: The Power in the Middle, Compasspoint, 2005). The work of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation has found that as many as 70% of transitions are non-routine and occur due to an organizational crisis or the departure of a founder or visionary leader. Too frequently there is repeat executive turnover and extended periods of underperformance. In extreme circumstances organizations go out of business and leave a wake of broken commitments and financial entanglements. Founder transitions (or long-term executive directors) are the most perilous as key funders and staff tend to identify the organization with its first or long-term leader. More often than not, these leadership transitions pose a threat to the very communities they serve and have disruptive implications for the delivery and quality of services.

  Selecting the right transition leader is not only important, it is crucial! We have seen first-hand how leadership transitions create exciting opportunities for the organization to step back, assess, and rethink what the future might hold and how best to lay the groundwork for the next leader’s success. Whether the transition is the result of an unexpected loss of an executive director, a long planned retirement, a sabbatical, or a transition from a Founder, they are complicated. Utilizing a highly seasoned and trained Interim Executive Director provides the board and staff the opportunity to “take a breath,” determine the sort of leadership needed, and how best to establish conditions that will lead to the future executive director’s success.