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.

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The challenges are identical.

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Same Problem, Different Context

Think about it. Whether you're governing a 200-unit condo building or running a $5 million community organization, the fundamentals are the same:

• Volunteer or civic leadership with finite terms
• Limited time and competing priorities
• Fiduciary responsibilities to a defined community
• The need to maintain continuity despite leadership changes
• Critical external relationships that can't afford disruption

In community associations, an unexpected board departure can delay building maintenance decisions, disrupt vendor negotiations, or create budget planning chaos.

In nonprofits, it can jeopardize funding relationships, stall program expansion, or compromise compliance.

Different contexts. Same problem. And critically—same solution.

Why It Never Gets Done

I've worked with enough boards to recognize the pattern. Succession planning stays on the perpetual to-do list for three predictable reasons:

It feels theoretical. When everyone's present and engaged, planning for departure seems unnecessary. Why plan for a problem that doesn't exist? Until someone gives 30 days' notice, and you're scrambling to transfer three years of vendor relationships, donor cultivation, or compliance knowledge.

It's uncomfortable. Talking about departures can feel like planning for failure. The board member who's served for seven years might wonder if they're being pushed out. In reality, succession planning is acknowledgment that leadership is stewardship, not ownership.

It never feels urgent. The budget needs approval. The grant deadline is next week. The vendor contract expires tomorrow. Succession planning can always wait.

Except it can't.

The Real Cost: Two Stories

Let me show you what this looks like in practice.

Community Association Scenario:

A treasurer of seven years resigned with 45 days' notice. Sounds like plenty of time, right?

Except no one else on the board understood the reserve study methodology, the vendor payment schedule, or which budget line items were legally restricted. The outgoing treasurer tried to document everything, but you can't compress seven years of institutional knowledge into a six-page memo.

The incoming treasurer spent six months just figuring out what questions to ask. A special assessment that should have been planned proactively became a crisis decision. Vendor relationships deteriorated because the new treasurer didn't know which ones required specific handling.

Nonprofit Scenario:

A board chair who had cultivated the organization's three largest funder relationships over a decade stepped down. She'd built these relationships personally—dinners, site visits, informal check-ins. She assumed the development director had the relationships too.

The development director had the transactional relationship. The board chair had the trust relationship.

Those personal connections weren't documented anywhere. No one knew the funders' giving philosophies, their concerns, their communication preferences. The organization lost two major gifts the following year—not because the work changed, but because the relationship continuity broke.

These aren't dramatic organizational failures. They're quiet erosions of capacity. Death by a thousand undocumented handoffs.

And they're entirely preventable.

Starting with the End in Mind

When it comes to board leadership—nonprofit, community association, any volunteer governance structure—I start with the end in mind.

The truth is people leave.

Life happens. Terms expire. Jobs relocate. Health changes. People die. Family obligations shift.

The question isn't whether someone will leave your board. The question is whether you'll be ready when they do.

How well a board is prepared to transition people is an indicator of how smooth the transition will be.

I ask boards to start with two questions:

• How do you want the departing board member to feel as they leave?
• How do you want the remaining board members to feel as the transition occurs?

Your answers reveal everything about your actual preparedness.

If you want the departing member to feel confident they're leaving things in good hands—what does that require? Documentation. Overlap. Knowledge transfer. Clear handoffs.

If you want the remaining board to feel steady and capable—what does that require? Cross-training. Accessible information. Relationship continuity.

From there, you work the departure timeline backward, identifying practical tasks to execute.

The Framework: Eisenhower Matrix for Board Transitions

I've adapted the Eisenhower Matrix—made famous by Stephen Covey—specifically for board transitions. It categorizes tasks by urgency and importance, helping leaders prioritize what matters most during leadership changes.

This works whether you're transitioning a community association treasurer or a nonprofit board chair.

DO IT NOW (Urgent-Important)

Succession Planning​
Departing member: Prepare your successor. If time allows, create a co-leadership model where they actively participate while you're still available.

Remaining members: Understand the roles and responsibilities of all board positions. Don't wait until someone leaves to learn what they actually do.

Finalize Key Decisions​
Wrap up major decisions that need your input before you leave:

• Nonprofits: budget approvals, strategic initiatives, grant applications, new board member confirmations
• Community associations: vendor contracts, capital improvements, assessment increases, rule changes

Critical Project Handover​
Ensure ongoing projects have clear transition plans. Transfer ownership explicitly. Document everything.

Whether it's a capital campaign or a building renovation, critical knowledge should stay with the project, not leave with the person.

Communication​
Thoughtfully communicate the transition:

• Nonprofits: Personally inform funders, partners, stakeholders, major donors. Make it a warm handoff.
• Community associations: Notify residents, vendors, property managers. Update website contacts.

Both: Create out-of-office messages and email forwarding. Make it easy for people to reach the right person.

FUTURE PLANNING (Not Urgent-Important)

Knowledge Transfer​
Document essential knowledge:

• Institutional history (Why do we do it this way? What have we tried?)
• Key processes and their rationale
• Relationship context (Who are critical partners? What's the history?)
• Ongoing commitments and timelines

Write a comprehensive memo outlining ongoing projects, critical contacts, compliance requirements, and essential information for your successor.

Review and Update SOPs​
Ask honestly: "Is this how we're actually doing it?"

Most organizations have SOPs describing what they think they do or what they used to do. Reality has drifted. Capture reality.

Document processes that have never been formalized, even if it's messy. Real documentation beats perfect documentation that doesn't exist.

Ensure Continuity of Culture​
Culture doesn't transfer automatically. Discuss explicitly:

• What do we want to preserve?
• What's ready to evolve?
• How do we make decisions?
• What are our unwritten norms?

Finalize Long-Term Strategic Plans​
Complete and review plans extending beyond the transition: multi-year capital plans, program expansion strategies, organizational growth roadmaps.

The Boards That Get This Right

The organizations navigating transitions well share common practices:

They treat succession planning as infrastructure, not crisis management. New board members are onboarded understanding that preparing for their eventual departure is part of the role.

They document as they go. Every major decision includes context for future leaders. Every key relationship has a contact record with history and preferences.

They create overlap periods. Incoming and outgoing leaders work together for 30-90 days depending on role complexity. Real-time knowledge transfer beats static documents.

They normalize the conversation. The best boards don't treat succession as taboo—they treat it as responsible stewardship.

What This Means for You

If you're recognizing your organization in this email—nonprofit or community association—that recognition is the first step.

The principles of leaving well transcend organizational type. Leadership is temporary. The organization's mission is enduring.

Your job as a board member is to set up the next person to succeed. That requires intentionality, documentation, and willingness to plan for your own departure.

Most boards wait until someone announces they're leaving. By then, you're in reactive mode—compressing years of knowledge into weeks of transition.

Organizations that thrive through transitions build succession planning into governance from day one.

The question isn't whether people will leave your board. The question is whether you'll be ready when they do.

If you want to talk through how to implement this in your organization—or if you're facing a transition and need support—hit reply. I'd be glad to discuss what this looks like in practice for your specific context.

If you'd like to learn more about how to use the Eisenhower Matrix in your organization, watch the explainer video here.

If you'd like to join the LinkedIn conversation, please do so here. Would love to hear your insights!