profile

Leaving Well in the Workplace

Structural Change as a Tool—Not a Threat (all about mergers, partnerships, and dissolutions)

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

This podcast conversation with Kate Harris landed differently than most.

Kate runs KHG Nonprofit Strategy and has spent years doing work that most of us avoid: mergers, dissolutions, and what she calls "structural change." Not because organizations are failing, but because structure is the vehicle—not the destination.

Here's what stuck with me:

Your mission is your destination. Structure is just the vehicle getting you there. Most nonprofits pick a vehicle and never reassess whether it still works. Kate asks: What's your organization's estate plan? Because avoiding that conversation doesn't make you brave—it just shrinks your options.

Mergers force you to inventory everything. Even if two organizations decide not to merge, both come out stronger. They understand their unique value better. They know where real collaboration lives. You can't brush things under the rug when you're doing structural due diligence.

Mission resilience matters more than organizational survival. The people at the center of your work—the ones your mission exists to serve—they can't be left behind just because you're attached to a name or a legacy or the way things have always been.

Kate said something that is sticking with me:

"Structural change is a tool for social change. It's underutilized in the nonprofit sector. So I want to normalize this conversation."

She's not trying to consolidate every nonprofit. She's trying to give leaders permission to have the conversation before it's a crisis. The sooner you start, the more options you have. Wait too long, and your choices narrow to two: involuntary dissolution or barely hanging on.

If you're a funder reading this: don't drive collaboration conversations, but fund the work. Capacity building grants exist for exactly this work. Are you robustly making that type of funding available to your grantees?

If you're a board member or ED: get the checkup. Not because something's wrong, but because responsible stewardship means knowing if you're in the right vehicle.

​

Planning a leadership transition? I help nonprofits navigate succession that actually works. Reply to this email to start the conversation.

To get in touch with Kate (tell her we sent you!) and learn more about mergers and partnerships, check out her website: KHG Nonprofit Strategy and Collaboration.

​

P.S. If you found this useful, forward it to another nonprofit leader who needs to think about succession planning, mergers, or intentional and thoughtful partnerships. Most boards and leaders wait too long to have these conversations, but you can help change that norm!

About Leaving Well: Providing interim leadership and proactive succession planning for nonprofit organizations. Because your next leadership transition is coming whether you're ready or not. Visit us today.

Gravel Road, Chattahoochee Hills, GA 30213
​Unsubscribe · Preferences

Leaving Well in the Workplace

Naomi Hattaway, Founder and President

Your Leaving Well guide to navigating workplace transitions 🧡 I normalize workplace transitions one organization + person at a time. Leaving Well is the art + practice of leaving in the workplace, with intention + joy.

Read more from Leaving Well in the Workplace
A black and white image of ballerinas on a stage. The image is blurry.

Misty Copeland almost disappeared quietly. After 25 years with American Ballet Theatre—with metal plates, torn ligaments, and constant pain—she was ready to fade away. No farewell gala. No public goodbye. Then Darren Walker intervened. Walker, the outgoing president of Ford Foundation, convinced her to make it public. "It feels like a launching pad," Copeland said after his encouragement. Then Walker did something even better: Ford Foundation became the lead underwriter for her October 22...

2 days ago • 1 min read

Hi! I want to tell you about something that happened last week that reinforced why I do this work the way I do (and how I accomplish my work as well). A client needed board training. Not the cookie-cutter, here's-your-binder-good-luck variety. Real training, as in: How do we run an annual review process for our executive director? We need to learn how to read financials without glazing over! What's our actual role in fundraising? How do we onboard new members so they don't spend a year...

20 days ago • 1 min read

You probably use the word "stakeholder" dozens of times a week. In proposals, meetings, strategic plans. It feels neutral, professional, standard. It's not. The term comes from literally driving stakes into land to claim it—to forcibly mark indigenous territory as someone else's property. Every time we use it casually in our sector, we're invoking the language of dispossession. I just released a podcast episode with Austen Smith and Julie McFarland diving into why this matters and what to do...

22 days ago • 1 min read