Supporting BIPOC Leadership Transitions 

Over the past decade, many social change organizations have started to take action to address systemic racism within their systems and structures. As part of this shift, many organizations have sought out the BIPOC leadership. However, in many cases, organizations have not created the conditions that would support these leaders to flourish. Nevertheless, leaders of color have brought strength, experience, and brilliance into positions of power and created ways to advance much needed change. 

We have seen these leadership shifts mirrored in the organizations that RSCF supports, and wanted to learn more about the experiences of incoming BIPOC leaders, and surface strategies, policies and practices that can make these transitions easier and more joyful, and lead to the full flourishing of BIPOC leaders.

To this end, RSCF has supported two recent reports:

Making (and Taking) Space (2021) - researched and written by the Building Movement Project. 

This report shines a light on one small group of organizations and offers some findings, rather than recommendations. It helps to better understand the realities of what is happening on the ground as groups like RSCF seek to develop a better set of considerations and capacities for releasing and sharing power that white people in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors must hold themselves accountable to, particularly during this critical period.

Brilliant Transformations - Toward Full Flourishing in BIPOC Leadership Transitions

Written by Michelle Flores and Elena Conte, Independent Consultants under the advisement of Bianca Anderson of ProInspire, AiLun Ku of BIPOC Leaders Network, and Ericka Stallings of Leadership Learning Community on behalf of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

This study reflects the insight of BIPOC leaders navigating positions of power in social change organizations as they succeeded white predecessors. The report researchers spoke with BIPOC leaders from across the country, who shared a wide range of experiences related to their transitions, their strategies for navigating these transitions, and specific recommendations for how to make these transitions better.