We would encourage you to take part in research being conducted by ‘From Success to Succession’ which aims to create a new resource about succession for social impact organisations. It’s a survey that takes around 20 minutes.

Participants may also volunteer for a confidential follow-up interview. The findings will feed into an open-source handbook, planned from the first quarter of 2027, bringing together practical experience, case-based insights, best practices and concrete guidance for future transitions.

“What happens to a social enterprise when its founder or long-standing leader steps back — and how can responsibility be transferred without losing knowledge, relationships, organisational identity or social impact?

The international initiative ‘From Success to Succession’ is gathering first-hand experience from social entrepreneurs and others directly involved in leadership transitions. The research looks at succession from three connected perspectives:

• the personal experience of letting go and changing roles;

• the organisation’s readiness for transition;

• the wider consequences for employees, beneficiaries and social impact when a viable succession solution is — or is not — found.

Founders, long-standing leaders, successors and others directly involved in a transition are invited to take part. All stages are relevant: from first thoughts about succession to active handovers, completed transitions, mergers, orderly wind-downs and processes that did not work out as planned.

Experienced social entrepreneurs hold knowledge that is difficult to capture in models alone. Sharing that experience can help make succession less isolating, more deliberate and more sustainable for the next generation.”