Strategies to Onboard, Support, & Retain Your New Executive Director
July 15 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Virtual Workshop – Live/Online
Fee: $95 for MCN members / $135 for nonmembers
Successful Executive Director onboarding requires intentional planning and strong Board/ED collaboration. Transitions are challenging, especially for BIPOC or non-traditional leaders entering majority White organizations. Many nonprofits invest heavily in hiring but overlook onboarding and retention—despite research showing most EDs decide within three years whether to stay, often describing their transitions as “rocky.”
This session with Becky Schueller will cover early-stage onboarding goals (30, 60, 90 days), 6-month, and 1-year benchmarks to support new EDs. We’ll also explore key contract elements—compensation, PTO, evaluations, and grievance policy alignment—to ensure both Board and ED are set up for a successful transition.
Learning Objectives
- Develop a structured process for Board/ED communication about first year goals
- Create a plan for executive transition onboarding, support and retention
- Understand the importance of a board/ED discussion to structure a contract that identifies stay incentives as well as conditions in the event of “no fault” and “fault” exits
Event Details
This virtual event will take place on the Zoom platform.
Your access link will be emailed to you the day before the event after 12 p.m.
This session will be recorded. The recording will be made available to registrants after the live event.
Captioning is provided automatically through Zoom. For information on requesting CART, ASL, or another accommodation, please visit our Registration Policies page.
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Speaker Information
Becky Schueller has three decades of experience working with national, urban, and rural nonprofits, community groups, tribal organizations, and local and state government. After relocating to Minnesota in 1998, Becky developed the first Catalog of Philanthropy for the Northwest Minnesota Foundation and served as a Business Development Specialist for the Native American Business Development Center. She also worked in the Leech Lake Tribal Development Department training grant writers. Becky was Executive Director for Evergreen Youth & Family Services (Bemidji) for nearly 16 years (2001-2017). She also served as the Northwest Minnesota Continuum of Care (CoC) Coordinator, working with housing and homeless assistance providers, HUD, local & state government and faith-based and other organizations in a rural, 12-county region.
Becky has trained more than 7,000 board members, supervisors, and frontline employees from nonprofits, tribes, cities, counties, and schools since 2017. She holds a BA degree in Middle East and Asian History and Women’s Studies from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). She is a 2016 Graduate of the Institute for Executive Director Leadership (a Certificate Program of the University of St. Thomas Opus School of Business). Becky completed a Community Service Management Certificate Program at the Roosevelt University School of Public Administration in Chicago.
