Jean Butzen

Letting Go of Your Nonprofit Jean Butzen

Through six vivid, engaging stories of individual leaders of nonprofit organizations who let go of their power and position in order to further their organization's mission through a merger, Jean Butzen provides an innovative, practical roadmap for executive directors, CEOs, and board member considering this strategy. Why were these leaders willing to risk their personal status and jobs? How did they handle the stress and uncertainty of seeing their organization absorbed into a larger one?

Each story contains the history of the leader and why they decided to seek a merger. Then the chapter walks through the process for completing the merger and, crucially, the steps each leader took to let go of their nonprofit and their position. The final chapters go into more detail about the steps, and summarize the advice from the leaders.

Butzen finds that all the leaders went through a similar six-step process. The result was always that the merger produced a stronger organization that better fulfilled its mission. And what happened to the individual leaders who merged themselves out of their position? They all prospered as well. Their stories provide both inspiration and practical advice on how to make a merger successful. But it all starts with the courage to let go.