The Search Process for a New Executive Helps Foundation Achieve Its Mission

When an executive leaves a nonprofit, many organizations hire recruiters to conduct the search for a new leader.

Over the past decade, I have had the opportunity to work on executive searches with a range of organizations, and I’ve learned that under the right circumstances, using a search firm can be an ideal choice: —iIt frees up staff time, doesn’t need to overwhelm board members, and leaves much of the difficult work in the hands of knowledgeable professionals.

However, when my team at the Samuel Bronfman Foundation embarked on an executive- search process for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel to hire a director of education who would work hand in hand with the head of strategy and community engagement, we chose to go a different route.

We were not simply looking to replace a top leader, but to create an entirely new approach to leading the organization—one that would have two executives sharing the duties for the two critical pieces of our program.

To complement the skills of the senior- level executive already in place, we needed a cutting-edge educator, who could embrace the 25-year history of the youth fellowships the organization while advancing the need to move into a new phase to expand the program’s vision and meet today’s challenges.

While called a youth fellowship, the Bronfman program is designed to provide as a lifelong education affiliation, and part of the job is to keep alumni active, so we wanted someone who could appeal to both today’s participants and those who were involved decades ago.

We started the search for an education leader in February 2011, and within five months we were able to hire the candidate who best embodied the skills and vision we had identified at the outset.

During the process, we clarified the benchmarks for success for the position, and the depth of the process allowed everyone who would be involved in working with the education director to form a relationship with the candidate right from the interview stage.

Most important, it meant the successful candidate started on the job only after thoroughly articulating and refining his own goals and intentions in taking on the position.

A year later, now that we have seen the full results of the process, we offer some suggestionshere’s what to keep in mind when you conduct a search:

Involve all the key people invested in the position early in the search process.

Throughout the different stages of the search, we conferred with board members, past and present faculty members, the board president of our alumni group as well as many alumni themselves, and key education experts.

Additionally, we worked with a leadership consultant, who is also a parent of a fellowship participant and someone who has extensive experience working with leaders in Jewish philanthropy.

She helped identify the challenges and opportunities that this new leadership model presented, and worked with us to determine which candidate would be the best fit for this role.

Use your staff’s time strategically.

To run a search efficiently, you will need to devote focused time to the project, which requires allocating staff time in a way that does not debilitate the day-to-day operations of the organization. In our case, on behalf of our board, I managed this project during the five-month process while other staff members provided additional support.

Clearly outline criteria.

Get all the key players together to define the important characteristics and qualifications to include in the job description. This will help ensure that all involved in the search are on the same page and will make the decisions more transparent. A clearly defined job description is a critical tool for guiding the rest of the process to come.

Get the word out.

When we started the recruitment process, we were less concerned with getting a high number of applicants than we were with getting the right kind of candidates.

Instead of using the traditional route of advertising the position on job seekers’ Web sites, we took a more strategic approach and reached out to the professional networks of both the foundation and the people served by the fellowship program, allowing us to reach a varied and qualified candidate pool of over 70 applicants.

Make the interviews count.

When meeting candidates in multiple stages, make sure that each round explores a different component of what the candidate might bring to the position.

In our search, the candidates went through an initial round of interviews, speaking with executives from the foundation and the alumni board president to determine if they should move forward.

The candidates’ managerial and human resources skills were then evaluated by a separate set of interviewers, followed by an assessment with a credentialing committee made up of leading education experts. It was in the final hiring stages that the principal donors to the program had an opportunity to meet the finalist candidates and explore their shared vision for the organization.

Manage expectations.

In a long process where candidates are expected to produce deliverables at each stage—such as teaching a text in front of a panel of educators, or answering questions in written form —candidates may often become anxious and turn down other offers.

We learned that it is crucial not only to lay out a clear timeline, but also to outline the details of the process from the outset so that candidates understand what is required of them in advance.

Making a new executive hire can be both arduous and risky for any organization. The process is therefore all the more important in ensuring that the new hire is successful.

Ultimately, it was not only the candidate but also the very hiring process that will help us achieve our mission of grooming leaders and agents for change in the Jewish and wider world.