Wed. Apr 8, 2026 | 9:30 – 11:00 AM | 1441 South Ave, Ste. 603
Preparing Your Organization for Leadership Transition.
Leadership transitions are inevitable in the nonprofit sector. Whether planned or unexpected, these moments can create both uncertainty and opportunity. Organizations that prepare for transition—rather than react to it—are better positioned to maintain stability, protect their mission, and support their teams.
Join Nonprofit Staten Island and the Support Center for a practical workshop exploring how organizations can proactively prepare for leadership change. This session will walk through the leadership continuum—from succession planning to onboarding—highlighting the systems and strategies that help nonprofits navigate transitions successfully.
Participants will gain insight into how thoughtful planning and strong governance can help organizations move through leadership change with confidence and continuity.
During this session, we’ll explore:
• How succession planning strengthens organizational stability
• The role of interim leadership during transitions
• Using data-driven search processes to guide leadership recruitment
• Building a committed onboarding strategy that sets new leaders up for success
This session is open to nonprofit professionals across the sector and is particularly valuable for Executive Directors, senior staff, and board members involved in governance or leadership planning.
Whether your organization is actively preparing for a transition or simply wants to be ready when the time comes, this workshop will provide practical guidance and tools to help you plan ahead.
Meet Our Presenter
Claas Ehlers, Director of Executive Transition – Support Center, has more than two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership. Prior to working in the nonprofit sector, he held corporate director roles and taught as an adjunct professor at colleges in New York and New Jersey.
In 2002, Claas joined Family Promise, the leading national nonprofit addressing family homelessness, working on a Ford Foundation initiative to increase engagement with the Muslim community. From there he moved into roles developing and supporting affiliates before becoming the organization’s second CEO, succeeding the founder. (That transition was cited by Bridgespan as an example of best practices in internal succession.)
As CEO, he guided the organization through rapid and expansive growth. During his six-year tenure, Family Promise tripled the number of people served, its budget, and its staff. He guided the network of 200 independent affiliates through a collective transition from site-based shelter to homelessness diversion and prevention. He spearheaded best practice sharing among other national chapter organizations and advised HUD and the Interagency Council on Homelessness; he has also served on advisory bodies for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Sesame Street in Communities, and Charity Navigator.
Claas worked as a consultant and interim executive from 2022 to 2025, guiding and supporting nonprofits in human services, housing, education, food and agriculture, and philanthropy. His focus was in organizational systems, strategic planning, staffing models and coaching, board optimization, and fund development. In the summer of 2025, he accepted the role of Director of Executive Transition with Support Center, leading the work in transition, succession, and leadership development.
He received his undergraduate degree from New York University and has done coursework at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, as well as completing the Support Center for Nonprofit’s and Third Sector’s Interim Directors programs.
He is a founding board member of Elevate to Even+, which provides students from disenfranchised communities with paid internships with nonprofits. This arose out of another volunteer activity of his, serving as a facilitator for dialogue circles on race and racism. A conversation in one of those sessions turned a discussion about racism into a solution. Claas believes such serendipity is the product of openness, intention, and the belief that change is always possible.
