Insights and Events

When we talk about opportunity, experience, and the right season for both an organization and a leader to come together, Alexandra Salas and SECU Family House Winston-Salem are a perfect case study.

Fundraiser turnover averages 18 months across the nonprofit sector, and it puts capital campaigns at material risk. Losing a development director mid-campaign interrupts donor relationships, slows solicitation momentum, and forces remaining staff to rebuild trust that took years to establish. Protecting campaign outcomes means treating nonprofit talent retention as a strategic risk, not an HR […]

Retained search is a proactive methodology: a firm is engaged upfront, builds a customized candidate pool that includes leaders who aren’t actively job hunting, and manages the full process from candidate profile through finalist. Passive recruitment — posting the position publicly and reviewing whoever applies — is the reactive alternative. A third structural option, contingency […]

As a consulting firm, we understand that selecting a consultant is not a simple process for any nonprofit. This post shares expertise and guidance to help.

Nonprofit boards prevent leadership vacancy crises by treating succession as ongoing governance, not an emergency response. That means building a written transition plan long before any executive director hire becomes urgent, strengthening the board’s own succession pipeline, and maintaining current knowledge of leadership benchmarks and candidate markets in your region. A vacancy becomes a crisis […]

A nonprofit interim executive is an experienced outside leader temporarily placed at the helm during a leadership transition. They stabilize operations, assess organizational health, and prepare the organization for a permanent hire, typically serving four to eight months while the board conducts its nonprofit executive search. Interim executives are increasingly common in the sector, and […]

Leila Thomas Joins CapDev as Senior Counsel We are excited to introduce Leila Thomas, who joins our team as Senior Counsel. Leila comes to CapDev with a strong background in philanthropy, strategy, and nonprofit finance, along with a track record of driving sustained revenue growth and building meaningful, mission-aligned relationships. Prior to joining CapDev, Leila served […]

Three months into the campaign, the committee meeting had become awkwardly quiet. Eight people sat around the table, but only two had made any solicitation calls. The others offered various reasons: too busy, waiting for the right moment, not comfortable asking, needed more training. The campaign chair finally addressed what everyone was thinking. “We recruited […]

The board member looked concerned. “If we’ve only raised $8.2 million of our $10 million goal after 14 months, shouldn’t we announce the campaign publicly and ask everyone for help?” The campaign chair shook his head. “We’re actually ahead of schedule. Our plan was to reach 80% before going public, and we’re already past that. […]