Relaunching
Last fall I made a professional transition. I was hired by the board of directors of a small, DC-based youth-serving nonprofit as their new Executive Director. The chance to take the helm of a small ship with the potential for big impact seemed exactly the shift I was ready for after 25 years in education.
Unfortunately, the role did not work out as I hoped. After a handful of months and a series of unexpected discoveries about the health of the organization, I resigned.
One of my gifts as a leader is my fundamental conviction that “I can fix that!” My sheer determination to overcome obstacles and build for success has been an asset. But it is a gift that can also be a curse. It can lead to blindspots and overconfidence in my capacity to fix things that may simply be irreparable.
There are some situations that cannot be fixed. There are others which may be repaired, but at a cost that is too high to be worthwhile or which comes at the expense of the mission of the organization and its people. At this moment, an increasing number of education nonprofits, their leaders and boards face difficult decisions about how to proceed when confronting irreparable circumstances. This is especially true in the public charter school sector.
Some nonprofits are well-positioned to weather these times, and even to grow through them. But many are not. Too many leaders I’ve spoken with feel faced with a binary: either you will make it, or you’ll fail. But there are other possibilities.
What struggling nonprofit organizations and charter schools need at this moment are more options and adaptive guidance in time to help them take proactive action. What possibilities exist to alleviate the strain of this moment but stop short of outright closure? How might organizations find ways to continue their mission while changing their form, merging with other like-minded orgs to see their work thrive? And if an org must close its doors, how can the people leading help it do so with as much grace and dignity as possible, honoring the work they accomplished?
I wrote my doctoral dissertation in 2017 on charter school closures and “restarts,” acquisitions in the charter school space. The phenomenon was nascent at the time, but DC had experienced a few, and while I found an audience for my research, it didn’t seem to have national relevance. I think it does now.
As I relaunch EdPro Consulting, I’m eager to find ways to bring my experiences and expertise to support leaders and boards working to make sense of their strategic options in the face of complex challenges. I'll be writing more here and, if you’re interested in exploring options together, I’d love to connect.
