profile

Leaving Well in the Workplace

What Misty Copeland's Retirement Teaches Us About Funded Exits

Published 2 days ago • 1 min read

​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 retirement gala.

Here's what makes this model worth studying (read the full article):

1. Walker modeled the exit he was asking her to take
​He announced his own departure from Ford Foundation in July 2024—giving 16 months notice for a planned, public transition. He didn't just advise from the sidelines. He went first.

2. Ford Foundation funded the farewell
​Not just advice. Actual dollars. They underwrote both the gala and the free livestream for hundreds who couldn't afford $5,000 tickets. For readers who work at foundations or funding entities, when did your foundation last fund a grantee's leadership transition?

3. It's a launching pad, not an ending
​Days after her final performance, Copeland revealed she already had her next opportunity lined up in LA. She's expanding her foundation, producing films, and writing more books. Planned exits create momentum.

4. She left without someone in her shoes
​When Copeland leaves ABT, there will be no Black female principal dancer at the company, and ... she's leaving anyway. The succession gap is ABT's problem to solve, not hers to fix before departing.

Three actions for your organization:

For boards: Add "executive transition planning" as a funded line item in your next budget. Not buried in general operating. Explicit and resourced.

For EDs/founders: What's your launching pad? If you can't answer that, you're not ready to leave—not because your org needs you, but because you need to know what you're leaving for.

For funders: Make transition support a fundable expense in grant agreements. Executive transition planning, interim leadership, search process support, and yes—departure celebrations. If you want healthy exits in the sector, pay for them.

​

Want to talk about how to fund transitions in your portfolio, address succession planning at the board level, or plan your own exit? Let's talk.

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

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
Two magazines sit on the counter. One is closed showing the cover, and the other is open to an article titled "Effective Board Transitions"

I recently published an article on board succession planning in Community Association Institute's Common Ground magazine's November/December edition. The article was written specifically for homeowners associations and community association boards—the volunteer leaders who govern neighborhoods, condos, and planned communities. But like so many other topics, there is nothing in that article for community association boards that departs from the advice I'd give to nonprofit board members. The...

29 days ago • 6 min read