By Amy Nelson, CEO
Nine months ago, I took over as CEO of Venture For America, a national nonprofit that is mobilizing the next generation of job-creating entrepreneurs. The previous CEO was also our Founder, Andrew Yang. His were huge shoes to fill — Andrew had been named a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship by the Obama Whitehouse, one of the “100 most Innovative People in Business” by Fast Company, and had written a best-selling book. I was his number two, mostly laboring in the shadows and with zero national awards to my name. It was terrifying and humbling to say the least.
While it’s too early to declare victory, Venture For America is on an upswing post transition: Our Fellowship applications increased 72% this year. Fundraising is up almost 20%. We have made major improvements to our team and our programs. I feel 1000% confident that we are resilient and poised for the future.
I’ve been asked a lot about how we did it — and had more than a few coffees where I’ve shared this story with other organizations in transition. I’m hopeful that our experience can help other organizations develop their transition playbook.
So, here’s how we did it, step by step.
Preparing for new leadership
Andrew and I had been discussing my potential future leadership of VFA since late 2015, but I never fully believed that he would move on. Even after he appointed me Managing Director of the organization in early 2016, and started slowly transitioning away from the day-to-day, I always saw him as our visionary and principal cheerleader. It took several one-on-one lunches in January 2017 for me to fully believe not only that he was serious about stepping down, but that he wanted me at the helm.
Andrew then met individually with all our Board Members to break the news. Active internal dialogue broke out, but Andrew was very clear that he wanted me as his successor. I had more than a few lunches and calls with various Board Members throughout February, all the while keeping mum to everyone except my husband about what was happening. We put together a detailed presentation to the Board for their March 15th meeting, which made the case for my leadership, but also plotted out other options.
That night, I joined the meeting and dutifully trotted in and out of sequestration to answer the board’s questions while they deliberated. They came to a decision on the spot, no need for further meetings: they believed I was the right person to lead VFA through the next chapter. Initiating a formal search for a successor, which was likely to conclude with the same result, risked creating uncertainty within the organization. They wanted to send a clear signal to the market that I had their full confidence.
Trust me, I’m still pinching myself here.
Communicating the transition
This was the most critical step in the process. VFA has a complex and highly dedicated group of stakeholders: our Fellows and Alumni, the startup partners who hire them, donors, and our team. Fortunately, one of our Board Members, Havas PR CEO Marian Salzman, is an expert in critical communications and she and her team dived in with a strategy that we were able to roll out swiftly and effectively.
We started with the VFA team, as they would be most affected by the news and could keep the information confidential. Andrew started by telling key team members individually once the decision was made, and then we did an announcement to the full team, including an overview of the communications plan. We later hosted a series of internal townhalls throughout the transition to keep the team up to speed and ensure radical transparency.
Donors, perhaps the most critical of our relationships, came next. We wanted all of our significant donors to know what was happening before a general announcement; so Andrew and I locked ourselves in a room for three days and had back-to-back phone conversations with more than 40 of our top supporters. Looking back on my notes from that time, their comments were a huge relief:
“This is an easy set of news to take in as a funder. It’s a logical progression. We couldn’t be more excited for you and for VFA.”
“I’m glad you were able to grow the talent internally. I always prefer to see that type of transition in an organization…Let me know what I can do to support.”
“We would be happy to write a letter of support fully endorsing this transition that you can share with other donors.”
Next up were Fellows and Alumni, and then broader partner and supporter community. We hosted two Town Hall style conference calls to make the announcement. More than 300 people joined them. Andrew was awesome: he shared his gratitude for all that we built at VFA, and then became my hype man. He gave me a ringing endorsement that left no room in anyone’s mind that this was anything short of the best possible outcome for VFA. I then spoke briefly about my vision for the organization, making clear that I valued continuity and had a deep commitment to our community. We had some Q&A, and did our best to ensure transparency and communicate how deeply we value the relationships we have built.
Finally, the big announcement — mass emails, personalized emails, a press release, and, thanks to Marian and Havas, some splashy press coverage. Notes of support poured in from all over. Longtime supporters reached out for lunch and coffee meetings. Things were in motion — now I just had to prepare for the big job.
Did I mention that all of this happened in the space of exactly two weeks?
Using the transition period effectively
Once the cat was out of the bag, we had three priorities: elevating my profile, building out our leadership team, and setting a vision for my tenure.
Over the five months we had to transition, Andrew and I co-headlined more events than I can count: Fellow Selection Day, Training Camp, Alumni Reunion, Board Meetings. Most critical was our summer gala, where Andrew usually gave the “state of VFA” update. This time, he spoke briefly about his gratitude and then turned on the hype man charm. I shared my personal story with the audience, explaining why as a first generation college student from the Midwest, this work is close to my heart. In order to prepare for this big moment, I had taken on as many small speaking gigs as I possibly could in two months. (Seriously, I would show up to the opening of an envelope just to exercise the public speaking muscle.) It paid off — the torch was successfully and visibly passed.
Now, we had to fill the void that my move was making in the organization. I spent much of the month of June at the same coffee shop interviewing at least a dozen candidates for our COO role. The staff must have really wondered what I was up to after folks would come in and out all afternoon. But this hire was critical. We found perhaps the world’s only child actor – turned astrophysicist – turned entrepreneur, and he has been a foundational asset to me and all of VFA.
Finally, the vision: we had engaged a wonderful nonprofit consulting firm, Community Resource Exchange in January for a full-blown strategic planning process. While it might have seemed crazy to engage in this very rigorous process amidst so much change, it turned out to be completely fortuitous. While it was by no means easy doing all the stakeholder analysis and building consensus on our committee, we were able to make our Strategic Plan public on my first official day as CEO. We blasted it out to the community and hosted virtual town halls the following week to present it and take questions (trust me there is nothing weirder than speaking to an audience of hundreds on the phone when you can’t see their faces and they are all on mute.) But speaking into the void paid off, and the positive comments regarding our new direction far outweighed the critical ones.
Making progress
Once I was officially CEO, I set off on a tour of all the cities where we worked and a few others where we raised money. I’ve traveled every single week over the last nine months, but the facetime I have had with our community has been invaluable. Seeing the impact our Fellows are having on the ground gives me fuel to keep going, and showing up consistently telegraphs to the cities how serious VFA is about our partnerships there.
The main job of a nonprofit CEO is fundraising. This is a day-in, day-out activity that can be mentally and spiritually exhausting, no matter how much you believe in the mission. In the early days, Andrew performed pure alchemy: raising millions of dollars on little more than a vision and a promise. In the seven years since, we’ve built an incredible development team to keep the fundraising machine churning. But even with a phenomenal team, donors want to engage with the principal. We have seen results because, frankly, I’ve had something to prove. I’ve asked longtime supporters to increase their commitments — and they’ve said yes. I’ve recruited new Board Members with incredible resumes. And, perhaps most exciting, I put out a reverse-RFP to funders for bids to bring our Training Camp to a new city. We got multiple competing offers and ultimately raised $1 million in new money to relocate the program to Detroit.
One last thing that I’m proud of — we not only had a surge in applications this fall/winter, but we had record numbers of women apply to VFA. While I’m not doing the hard work of on campus recruiting, I’ve been a vocal advocate for women in entrepreneurship, and I believe that the example of my leadership made our Fellowship even more appealing to many young women. I’m excited to welcome our first ever majority-female class to VFA next month!
Still learning
There is still so much left to do. We have ambitious goals and a lot of work ahead of us. But in retrospect, there are a few things that I think helped us make it through the transition.
- Leaning on experts – I mentioned the tremendous efforts of Havas and Community Resource Exchange above, but throughout the process the Board leaned on publications, attorneys, and experienced folks on other Boards for advice. This was critical — you can’t go it alone.
- The “Hype Man” — Andrew constantly reinforced his confidence in me — both publicly and in private. The week after the Board’s decision, we had a critical, very sensitive decision to make, and he and I did not agree on the right call. He told me unambiguously that it was mine to make, and then stood behind me with the board to get it done. I’ve heard time and time again of Founder’s not being able to let go, but while it was not easy for Andrew, he gave me full ownership and permission, no meddling, and I am hugely grateful for it.
- Growing from the inside — Not every organization will have the right internal candidate, but for us, building up the bench has been critical to our success. I’m continuing to elevate leaders who I think have what it takes — just like Andrew did for me.