The Unspoken Risk: Why Succession Planning is Your Board's Most Overlooked Duty

The average charity CEO departure costs £75,000 and 6-9 months of momentum—yet 67% of UK charities have no succession plan.

• Why succession planning isn't morbid—it's mature

• The hidden costs of unplanned transitions

• A practical 5-step framework for succession readiness

• How to have the conversation without creating panic

• Building bench strength at every level

Let's start with an uncomfortable scenario. Your CEO calls an emergency board meeting. They've been diagnosed with a serious illness and need to step back immediately. Or perhaps less dramatically, they announce they've been headhunted by a larger charity and will leave in four weeks.

What happens next?

If you're like most UK charity boards, what happens is controlled panic. Hastily convened meetings. Rushed recruitment. Interim appointments that drag on. Donor confidence wobbles. Staff morale dips. Momentum stalls.

The Cost of Denial

We don't talk about succession planning in the charity sector because it feels disloyal. If we're planning for someone's departure, are we pushing them out? If we're identifying potential successors, are we undermining the current post-holder? This emotional discomfort costs us dearly.

The Charity Commission doesn't explicitly require succession planning, but it does require trustees to ensure organisational sustainability. It's hard to argue you're meeting this duty when a single resignation could derail your strategy.

Consider the real costs of unplanned transition:

• Recruitment fees (typically 15-20% of salary)

• Interim leadership costs (often 40% above standard salary)

• Lost institutional knowledge

• Stalled fundraising relationships

• Delayed strategic initiatives

• Staff turnover as uncertainty breeds anxiety

• Reputational damage if handled poorly

One major donor told me: "When a charity can't manage its own leadership transition smoothly, I question whether they can manage my six-figure donation."

Reframing the Conversation

Succession planning isn't about planning for failure—it's about ensuring continuity of mission. It's not about replacing people—it's about protecting the organisation's ability to serve beneficiaries regardless of who's in post.

The most successful charity leaders I know actively engage in their own succession planning. They see it as part of their legacy, not a threat to their position. One CEO put it brilliantly: "My job is to make myself replaceable. If this organisation can't survive my departure, I've failed as a leader."

The 5-Step Succession Framework

Step 1: Map Critical Roles Not every role needs succession planning, but some departures can cripple an organisation. Map your critical roles by asking:

• Which positions, if vacant, would immediately impact service delivery?

• Which roles hold unique relationships or knowledge?

• Which posts would take longest to fill?

Beyond the obvious CEO role, this often includes: Director of Fundraising (holds major donor relationships), Head of Safeguarding (statutory requirements), and key programme leads.

Step 2: Document Institutional Knowledge How much exists only in someone's head? Create knowledge capture processes:

• Relationship maps for key stakeholders

• Process documentation for critical activities

• Password and system access records

• Historical context for major decisions

One charity discovered their Finance Director was the only person who understood their complex restricted funds structure. They spent six months documenting this before she retired—imagine if she'd left suddenly.

Step 3: Identify Development Needs Look at your deputy directors, heads of department, senior managers. What would they need to step up? This isn't about promising promotion—it's about building capability.

Map the gaps:

• Technical skills (financial management, governance)

• Leadership capabilities (strategic thinking, board management)

• Sector knowledge (regulatory requirements, funding landscape)

• Relationships (stakeholder networks, partnership connections)

Then create development opportunities: board observation, project leadership, external networking, formal training.

Step 4: Create Emergency Protocols Who makes decisions if the CEO is suddenly unavailable? Who signs cheques if the Finance Director is incapacitated? Who manages safeguarding if your DSL cannot?

Document:

• Delegation of authority matrix

• Emergency contact trees

• Interim appointment processes

• Communication protocols for stakeholders

One charity tests their emergency protocols annually, like a fire drill. They've never needed them in earnest, but the confidence this creates is invaluable.

Step 5: Regular Review Succession planning isn't a document—it's a discipline. Review quarterly:

• Have critical roles changed?

• Has anyone's departure risk increased?

• Are development plans progressing?

• Do emergency protocols still work?

Having the Conversation

The elephant in the room: how do you discuss succession without creating anxiety or insulting incumbents?

Start with transparency. Frame succession planning as organisational resilience, not individual replacement. One chair opens the conversation annually: "If any of us won the lottery tomorrow, how would the organisation cope?"

Make it reciprocal. Ask leaders: "What would you need to feel confident handing over your role?" Often, they're relieved to discuss it. Many senior leaders worry about leaving well but don't know how to raise it.

Normalise career progression. The charity sector has a problematic relationship with ambition. We need leaders who are excellent AND ambitious—for themselves and the cause. Succession planning acknowledges that good people move on.

Building Bench Strength

True succession planning goes beyond emergency protocols. It's about building bench strength—developing talent at every level so the organisation has options when transitions occur.

This means:

• Investing in middle management development

• Creating secondment opportunities

• Encouraging external networking

• Supporting qualifications and training

• Promoting internal progression

The best succession plan isn't a name in a sealed envelope—it's a culture where multiple people could step up because they've been developed and supported.

The Trustee Imperative

If you're a trustee reading this, succession planning is your responsibility. Not HR's. Not the CEO's. Yours. The board owns organisational continuity.

Start by asking:

• Do we have a written succession plan?

• When did we last review it?

• What would happen if our CEO left tomorrow?

• Are we developing internal talent?

• Do we have emergency protocols?

If you can't answer confidently, you have work to do.

Contact Details:

Need to strengthen your succession planning? Fern Talent brings deep expertise in charity sector leadership transitions. Our network of thousands of sector specialists can help you identify, develop, and secure the talent pipeline your organisation needs.

Contact us for a free consultation—no cost, no risk, no commitments:

📧 contactus@ferntalent.com 📞 020 3880 6655

From emergency planning to long-term talent development, we help nonprofits build resilience through robust succession strategies.