Description

We continue to experience a surge of sector leadership transitions – and data suggests we can expect more changes in executive leadership in the year ahead. These transitions are made more challenging by overlapping generational shifts, funding instability, burnout, unsustainable workloads, and other structural issues. 

PhilMO Members have a special opportunity to join Midwest colleagues and national leaders at Leading Forward to explore two facets of this reality: 

(1) leadership transitions for foundations, and 

(2) the role foundations can play when their nonprofit partners experience change.

Participants will:

– Unpack the makings of values-aligned executive transitions that strengthen internal practice and external impact and are grounded in equitable, trust-based practice. 

– Delve into the role that foundations can play in supporting grantee partners before, during, and after leadership changes.

– Explore the range of opportunities for foundations to support nonprofits-in-transition, from simple practices of care and dialogue to more intentional funding portfolios and other meaningful investments in organizational effectiveness and long-term sustainability.

– Receive tangible takeaways and high-impact resources and research from the field.

Together, we can help ensure that leaders have the resourcing they need to be bold, courageous, and resilient.

AUDIENCE & REGISTRATION

Our colleagues at Council of Michigan Foundations are hosting this Midwest Partnership webinar, which has been designed with all types of grantmakers in mind.

PhilMO Members may participate for free. If this is your first interaction with the new PhilMO website, choose “Create New Account” when registering. 

If you encounter any challenges registering for this program or otherwise navigating the new website, help is available by contacting info@philmo.org. 

KEY RESOURCES

- Accountability in Action Toolkit: Lessons and Resources from NFG’s Leadership Transition, Neighborhood Funders Group

- Action Guide for Funders, Leading Forward

- Executive Transition Fund Report, Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative

- Funding Through Change: Learning Through Leadership Shifts in the Gender Equity Field, Schusterman Family Philanthropies

- Lessons from the Durfee Foundation’s Dual Leadership Transition, National Center for Family Philanthropy

- What Board and Executives Need to Know: Executive Searches

GUEST PRESENTERS

Kyle Caldwell

President & CEO Council of Michigan Foundations

Kyle Caldwell began his tenure as president and CEO of CMF on November 1, 2018, bringing more than 25 years of government, and nonprofit and philanthropic sector experience. He has also been a supporter of CMF as a volunteer for many years and was formerly a member and co-chair of CMF's Government Relations Public Policy Committee. Prior to his appointment with CMF, Kyle, a Michigan native, was executive director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University, one of the country’s leading academic centers for philanthropy. 

Kelley Kuhn

President and CEO Michigan Nonprofit Association

Kelley Kuhn lives and breathes the business of nonprofits. She’s in the most perfect job in the world to help the nonprofits on the ground make lives and communities better – Kuhn is the president and CEO of Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA). It wasn’t always numbers and meetings though. Kelley fell in love with the power of change nonprofits can create, when she was in college, and volunteered as a coach for Special Olympics Unified Sports. After that, an internship in Jackson County sealed the deal. Nonprofits need safety nets too, and Kelley aims to be the fuel that helps keep all nonprofit programs moving forward here in the great state of Michigan.

Melissa Madzel

Founder and Principal Do Good Connections

Melissa Madzel is Founder and Principal of Do Good Connections, a boutique talent advisory launched in 2023 to strengthen nonprofit and philanthropic leaders and boards through strategic recruiting. She brings experience from Koya Partners/Diversified Search Group and Axis Talent Partners, and has led equity-centered searches to place CEOs and Executive Directors with organizations including Neighborhood Funders Group, Building Movement Project, CHANGE Philanthropy, and board members with Groundswell Fund, Proteus Fund, among many others. Prior work includes roles with UNICEF USA, City Year New York, and Safe Horizon. She serves on the Board of Stonewall Community Foundation and lives in Brooklyn with her wife and two children.

Bipasha Ray

Project Lead Leading Forward

Bipasha Ray is a human rights and social justice advocate with a passion for supporting the resilience of activists and movements working towards a more just and equitable society. She specializes in designing and running leadership development, values-aligned fiscal sponsorship offerings, organizational sustainability, and fellowship programs. As an independent consultant, she works with equity-minded philanthropies and nonprofits to design human-centered programs and peer-learning communities that support individuals and leaders. She has a particular interest in sustainable leadership transition support after running the New Executives Fund at the Open Society Foundations. She currently runs the Leading Forward initiative, which is a funder community advocating for better support of executive leadership transitions and succession planning in order to strengthen the capacity and resilience of community-led nonprofits. Originally from India, Bipasha combines nearly 20 years of experience in political philanthropy, fiscal sponsorships, human rights, journalism, and policy research. She is a proud board member of Riverside Immigrant Services and Empowerment in New York City and the Groundswell Fund.

SPECIAL THANKS

While PhilMO often partners with the Council of Michigan Foundations via the Midwest Partnership, this program is offered individually by CMF for peer funders in Missouri. We appreciate the opportunity for Missouri funders to join in shared learning around such a timely and important topic. This program will take the place of a June 2026 Midwest Partnership webinar.