Interim Executive Directors: All Your Questions Answered
Have you ever wondered how to find and hire an interim executive director for your nonprofit? Or maybe you’ve considered whether taking an interim executive director job is the right career move.
In the nonprofit sector, we don't talk much about interim executive directors. Yet these leaders play key roles in helping organizations of every size and type navigate change.
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Richard Burns, who has more experience serving as an interim executive director than anyone I know. Below, he answers all your burning questions (based on Google searches and questions to me in recent years) about the role!
You've been a nonprofit leader for decades, including serving as an executive director for New York’s LGBTQ Community Center for 22 years. I also think you're now on your seventh stint as an interim executive director.
Richard Burns: I'm on number 10, which is cool.
Sean Kosofsky, The Nonprofit Fixer: That has to be a record!
What is an interim executive director? What exactly does an interim executive director do?
Richard Burns: Moments of executive transition can be moments of extreme vulnerability for any organization. All the stakeholders get nervous. The staff, the board of directors, the funders and donors, the people you serve, and the media that scrutinizes your subject and work.
When an executive director leaves either voluntarily or involuntarily, the board is faced with this moment of vulnerability.
If an executive director has been in place for some time, it often means the current members of the board of directors have never looked for a new CEO before. It’s a new brand experience for them.
More and more frequently, instead of jumping into a permanent hire, a board will bring in an interim executive director. Depending on what needs to happen at the organization and what kind of search the board is planning, they could hire an interim executive director for anywhere from seven months to two years.
An interim executive director role is profoundly different than a regular executive director or permanent executive director role. When operating normally, the board chair leads the board, the executive director leads the staff, and, ideally, you have a nice work marriage between the board chair and the executive director.
With an interim executive director, it's a little different. An interim executive director has a more limited scope for long-term planning and activities. For example, an interim director is not going to begin a capital campaign. They are not going to undertake a strategic plan. Those are things that the next executive director should do in partnership with the board of directors.
I always say that an interim executive director should over-communicate with the board so that there are no surprises.
“I always say that an interim executive director should over-communicate with the board so that there are no surprises. ”
Richard Burns: When serving as an interim executive director, I always work to be extra transparent with board leaders. There might be operational details that, as an interim executive director, I would share with my board leadership that I would not share if I were the regular executive director. But because of this moment of vulnerability during the executive transition, we have to be very vigilant that there are no surprises for the board or staff.
How do you manage staff relationships as an interim executive director?
Richard Burns: When an executive director has held a role for many years, often they will have hired almost the entire staff. So there can be a period of loss and mourning on the part of the staff.
For some staff, this person may be the only manager or boss they've ever had. Then suddenly, their “work mom” or their “work dad” leaves and they're bereft. They're sad. Or, on the other side, sometimes people didn't like their executive director and they're furious because they never got to punch him in the nose!
In short, a lot of feelings come up among staff especially. The interim executive director has to come in and listen to those feelings. Absorb them. Make people feel heard.
“In short, a lot of feelings come up among staff especially. The interim executive director has to come in and listen to those feelings. Absorb them. Make people feel heard. ”
Richard Burns: Following the period of loss or anger, there often comes a moment when people then say, “Wait a minute. The person who hired me is gone. Do I have a job? Is the new person gonna keep me?” So, the interim executive director needs to absorb and manage this anxiety too.
Finally, if all goes well and the organization finds a new executive director to hire, you move back up the hill where there's excitement about the new leader. People are inspired and invigorated, and the job of the interim executive director is to set that new leader up for success.
How long does an interim executive director typically serve?
Richard Burns: In my experience, most interim placements are under a year. You've got to help a board that perhaps has never done an executive search before, so you might introduce them to six or seven search firms. The board leadership talks to them and invites proposals. The Board leadership creates a search committee to select the search firm, which can take a couple of months.
Then, the search firm gets going. They have to interview all the stakeholders, key board members, staff members, and perhaps key funders to put together a position description that is both a job description and a marketing tool for the organization.
Why is this CEO role an exciting opportunity? Why should someone want to leave their current job, which they haven't thought about leaving, and leap into this organization in an executive director role?
With a board transition committee or on their own, the board chair needs to form a search committee for the new executive director. Sometimes this committee is just board members. Sometimes it is board members and staff representatives. In one case, it was board members, staff members, and community stakeholders. I went through one instance where there was a 14 or 15-member search committee. Most search committees are smaller than that, though.
Then the search firm goes out to market. They’re talking and emailing hundreds of people, and amassing a pool of potential candidates, before winnowing it down. The search firm works with the search committee to determine who they're going to interview, conduct interviews, and check references. Make an offer.
From hiring a search firm to wrapping up reference checks can easily take six months. For example, if the board moves quickly, it could take four months to find a great candidate. Then you make an offer, and the candidate accepts the offer, but they already have a job. They might have to give a month's notice or two months’ notice. Then they want a month off to go on vacation with their partner before they start their invigorating, hard, new job. So all of that adds up.
In most places, it’s now a best practice to have some kind of overlap between the interim and the new executive director. I've done overlaps that lasted just two weeks to one that lasted almost two months. It depends on what is going on in the organization.
What are the resources of the organization? What does the board want? What is the experience of the new executive director? Because, at this point, the interim executive director is developing and leading the onboarding process and acting as a coach. It's all about setting up the new executive director for success.
Do most interim executive directors have employment contracts?
Richard Burns: It's just a simple consulting contract with standard things that are in any consulting contract, like If you're hiring a direct mail consultant. In the paragraph that describes what you're going do, the contract says I'm going to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of an Interim Executive Director.
Very often, a board will have a list of priorities for you or a scope of work. I never put those in the contract. They're not necessary.
I always include a “no-fault” escape clause because I say to the board, “Look, you might not think that I'm the right fit for you, and that's fine. If you don't want me, I don't want to be there. It would then be 60 days' notice or 30 days' notice. However, some boards have said to me, “Oh, no, it's 90 days,” because the escape clause is two ways. They can say goodbye to me. I can say goodbye to them. No reason, no fault, no rancor.
I've never had anyone in my 10 interim executive director assignments exercise the escape clause in the contract. I've also never exercised it. But I think that a board should have that sort of insurance and so should an interim executive director. It's mutual risk management.
Then, in your standard consulting contract, there's the compensation and the number of days per week. Some interim assignments are five days a week if they're really intense. I was five days a week at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and five days a week at the Drug Policy Alliance. Many others are three days a week. It really depends on the needs of the organization and their financial wherewithal.
Remember, if you are an interim executive director working as an independent contractor, you are not getting benefits. You're paying your own payroll taxes. So all of that is folded into your fee. If you go on staff, you're eligible for benefits. They're paying your payroll taxes. So you will want to think about the costs of each and factor that into the rate of pay.
Are most interim executive directors working as independent contractors or on staff?
Richard Burns: It depends on what the consultant needs. If they need the health benefits, they should go on the payroll, and if they don't, they don't need to. The bottom line cost to the organization should be the same either way.
As an interim executive director, I prefer to be an independent contractor. Out of my 10 assignments, I've gone on payroll once. As it happens, I'm married to a union guy. I get my health insurance through him, so I don't need the benefits. It really comes down to personal circumstances.
When do most nonprofits decide to engage an interim executive director?
Richard Burns: An organization that has a succession plan will have decided in advance whether to bring on an interim executive director when the current leader leaves.
A succession plan does not have to be fancy. It can be one page. It can say: “If and when our CEO leaves, we will hire an interim executive director. We will form a search committee. We will hire a search firm. This is our timetable.” If the organization has some reserves, as they should, they will have money set aside to do this.
It’s actually much easier to make a succession plan when you don't need it.
How should organizations set expectations for interim executive directors’ authority regarding staffing, budget, planning, etc.?
Richard Burns: It actually varies dramatically. I know interim executive directors who will not take an assignment unless they explicitly have full authority.
I generally have full authority, but I always say to a board leader, “I am never going to fire anybody without you knowing every detail and agreeing.” It's part of that vulnerability moment. It's part of hyper-transparency and ensuring that the organization is stable. Everybody needs this message and a feeling of stability in order to know that things are okay.
It's never my goal to terminate staff, but I've certainly had to do it. But I've brought the Board leadership along every step of the way and never had to do it until the board chair says, “Oh, yes. Please, by all means.” But most of the time, I don't have to do it.
I’ve also done hiring as an interim executive director. There have been occasions where the board is going to take eight months to hire an executive director, and there's no development director, or there's no HR director, and the organization is bleeding money. You have to do it.
Again, I’ll bring the board leadership into the hiring conversation. I've had to hire many, many people at all levels of the organization over the years, and I try and leave whatever I can for the next executive director so that they have a chance to pick some of their own people. But, I've got to be thinking all the time about what's best for the organization.
What advice would you give to someone considering becoming an interim executive director?
Richard Burns: Most interim executive directors have already served as executive directors, so they know how to do their job. What they have to then learn as they become an interim is, “How is the role different?”
Former executive directors already know how to make the trains run on time in an organization. They know how to work for and with a board. They know how to lead a staff, they know how to read and build a budget and balance a budget. They know how to raise money. They know how to be the public face of an organization. So all of the skills and experiences that are required to be a successful executive director, most new interims already have. Then they need to learn “What's different here as an interim? What are the nuances?”
The Support Center for Nonprofit Management in New York City offers a great two-day institute on how to be an interim executive director. There are usually 20 people in the class, most of whom are experienced executive directors. They come into the class for two days to learn how to be the interim. The program also has a panel of experienced interim executive directors who answer questions. It’s an excellent primer on how to make that leap from being an executive director to an interim executive director, which is usually something someone does later in their career.
What factors should be considered in compensation for an interim executive director?
Richard Burns: Very often what an interim will do is, with the board chair, look at the budget, look at the 990 or the audit, and see what is the salary level of the executive director. What are the benefits and costs? What are the payroll taxes?
Once you know the entire compensation cost of the executive director, the interim can say, “Okay, I'm an independent contractor, so that is what you're going pay me.” That's what people often do very early.
Once you're established, you have a consulting rate that you charge everybody, and they can decide whether they want to retain you or not.
But it really depends on your level of experience and where you are in that marketplace.
Most board chairs take a while to realize that whatever they paid their outgoing executive director, they're probably going to pay their incoming executive director more.
We had a wild inflation rate in the last few years. The marketplace for labor at all levels has changed. So there's sticker shock for everybody. And it's usually the search firm that very directly informs the board leadership about the market.
