Our Mission

We provide nonprofit organizations with professional Insight, Leadership, and Action during times of transition. We help nonprofits secure a brighter future.

Our History

Chris Dame, MCP, started Non-Profit Transitions in 2003 following a stint as Interim Executive Director for a troubled nonprofit when he was asked as a Board member to step in temporarily during the executive search.  Given his background as an international business consultant making change, it was only natural that Chris recognized the opportunity the interimship presented to identify critical deficiencies and initiate immediate improvements to prepare the organization for a new leader and a better future.  Chris concluded, as many others like the Anne Casey Foundation were discovering, that interim periods are excellent times for thoughtful organizational reflection, renewal, and rebirth. He came to believe that the outside professional, untied to past decisions, is uniquely positioned to provide objectivity and leadership during transitions. Chris also concluded that the interim’s job frequently involves working on a wide range of intertwined issues: governance, finance, human relations, and development. It’s usually necessary to build a team of internal and external change agents under a single, focused leader to achieve the maximum results. The professional interim can also serve as a continuing resource to the Board and the new Executive Director as the next chapter begins. Finally, the professional interim’s direct change leadership experience derived from practice, not theory, can powerfully assist other organizations make change and build internal leadership capacity.

Our Present  

NPT is a consortium of dedicated, trained professionals who work as a team to assist funders, Boards, and executive leaders improve nonprofit businesses in a wide variety of areas. In addition to professional interim leadership, assignments range from leadership training and seminars, to strategic planning, to organizational assessment, to turnaround management, to crafting mergers and partnerships. Recently, under N. Paul TonThat,  NPT added a new service – professional long term transition leadership. Some nonprofits, like those who have recently merged two disparate organizations, recognize that a longer period, say 18-24 months, may be required to design and implement comprehensive governance and organizational change, and to forge a new identity separate from the parents. NPT believes there is a demonstrable advantage in completing this process under the leadership of a skillful professional who agrees to step away after its sometimes painful completion to allow a new leader, untainted by the birth, to usher in the new era. But the successful transition process requires more time than the typical interim.   

Our Future

We believe that nonprofit organizations perform an essential role for society, one that grows in importance daily as government resources shrink and societal needs increase. Although nonprofits measure success by social impact, rather than monetary rewards, we firmly believe that nonprofits need to be sustainable. They should be operated with sound business practices in mind. Our success yardstick will always be matching client actions to mission and adherence to best practices for the nonprofit sector.

NPT will always be a learning community. We’re dedicated to sharing our knowledge and to contributing to the dialogue about what constitutes effective organizational change and how best to achieve it.