We find the leaders
missions depend on.
We've placed 0+ nonprofit leaders. Let's find yours.
A vacant seat doesn't pause
your mission. It strains it.
Every week a leadership role sits open, your organization absorbs costs that never appear on a balance sheet. The board feels it. The staff feels it. The funders start asking questions.
Stalled Campaigns
Major gift solicitations freeze when the ED seat is empty. Donors wait for a relationship they can trust before committing six-figure gifts.
Board Fatigue
Volunteer committees absorb operational decisions they were never meant to make. Governance erodes. Burnout spreads before a new leader arrives.
Staff Attrition
Senior program staff read the vacancy as a signal. Without visible succession, your most capable people update their LinkedIn profiles.
Funder Uncertainty
Government and foundation grants stall at program officers who won't renew multi-year commitments to an organization without steady executive leadership.
Average total cost of a failed executive hire in a nonprofit with a $5M+ annual budget — including search, onboarding, severance, and 18 months of operational disruption.
The search, step by step.
Every engagement follows the same four phases — adapted to your organization's specific circumstances, timeline, and stakeholder landscape.
Landscape Analysis
Reading the room before entering it.
We begin where most firms don't — inside your organization. We review your bylaws, your most recent 990, your strategic plan, and your last board retreat notes before we ever post a position. We interview departing leaders confidentially. We map the sector ecosystem: who's moved recently, who's quietly available, who the field respects but hasn't heard from in a year.
Deliverable
Deliverable: Role profile, sector map, and a preliminary list of 40–60 prospective candidates within 10 days of engagement.
to initial candidate map
Candidate Cultivation
We recruit. We don't post and pray.
Fewer than 30% of the leaders we place were actively looking when we called. We maintain a living network of 2,400+ nonprofit executives across every subsector — health equity, arts, housing, advocacy, and community development. Cultivation means a phone call, not an email blast. It means understanding why someone would leave a stable role to take on yours.
Deliverable
Deliverable: Curated slate of 8–12 active candidates with written assessments, presented at the six-week mark.
placed leaders not actively searching
Stakeholder Alignment
The search committee isn't the whole story.
A hire that satisfies the board chair but alienates the development team fails within 18 months. We facilitate structured listening sessions with staff, funders, and community stakeholders before finalist interviews begin. We help your search committee articulate what they mean by "strong communicator" and "entrepreneurial" — and build evaluation rubrics that hold up under pressure.
Deliverable
Deliverable: Stakeholder synthesis report and finalist interview guide tailored to your organization's specific culture.
retention at year two
Finalist Presentation
Three candidates. Not thirty.
We don't overwhelm committees with options. We present three to four finalists — each with a written narrative profile, a structured reference summary, and a clear articulation of why this candidate fits this organization at this moment. We stay engaged through negotiation, offer acceptance, and the first 90 days. We guarantee our placements for 24 months.
Deliverable
Deliverable: Finalist profiles, reference summaries, compensation benchmarking, and offer negotiation support.
placement guarantee
Where they were.
What changed.
Every placement is a turning point. These are the stories behind three of our 400+.
New Roots Housing Alliance
Executive DirectorAfter a founder's 22-year tenure ended abruptly, the board faced a $2.1M deficit and a staff of 34 watching for signals. Major funders had paused renewals.
Darnell Washington, previously Deputy Director at a Chicago-based housing nonprofit with a track record of turnaround fundraising.
Within 14 months, New Roots closed a $1.8M capital campaign, renewed three lapsed government contracts, and promoted two senior staff who had been considering departure.
Coastal Arts Foundation
Chief Development OfficerThe ED had been managing development alongside her own portfolio for 18 months after the previous CDO left for the private sector. Annual fund performance had slipped 22%.
Miriam Okonkwo, a major gifts specialist who had built a planned giving program from zero at a mid-sized environmental nonprofit.
Annual fund stabilized in year one. A planned giving program launched in year two has $4.2M in documented expectancies.
Sunrise Youth Collaborative
Executive DirectorA search committee of seven volunteers had been running a search for nine months with no finalist. Board morale was fraying. Three program officers had already left.
Kezia Fontaine, a program director who had never held an ED title but had managed a $6M portfolio and two direct reports who went on to become EDs themselves.
Staff turnover stopped. A $500K capacity-building grant from a major Atlanta foundation arrived within 90 days of her start — a grant the funder had been holding pending stable leadership.
Steward placements featured in
Start your search.
Tell us about the role. We'll respond within one business day with a preliminary scope assessment — no commitment required.
The Board's Guide to Executive Search
32 pages · Free downloadWritten for search committees who've never recruited above $150K. Covers how to write a role profile that attracts the right candidates, how to structure finalist interviews, and how to negotiate an offer without losing a candidate to a longer process.
- Role profile template with 14 fields that matter
- Compensation benchmarking methodology
- Interview rubric for nonprofit executive roles
- Reference check script used by Steward associates
We don't share your information. Your submission is reviewed only by a Steward associate assigned to your sector.