Philanthropy N The Black
Philanthropy N The Black is not your typical nonprofit talk. This is for the folks who are really in the trenches — nonprofit professionals, board members, fundraisers, community leaders, and culture shifters who know that the work doesn’t stop when the goal is hit and cameras cut off.
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This mic brings nonprofit news, strategy, and unfiltered conversation — where survival, sustainability, accountability, leadership, and legacy aren’t just buzzwords… they’re the mission.
Because keeping organizations “in the black” isn’t just about money — it’s about power, impact, and making sure our communities don’t just exist… they thrive.
Philanthropy N The Black
PNTB Quick Take: When Legends Leave. UNCF and Dr. Michael Lomax
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Sully Sale, Philanthropy in the Black Podcast. Listen, guys, the Dr. Michael Lomax has announced that he is stepping down as leader, uh president, I'm sorry, of the United Negro College Fund after over two decades at the helm, man. Two decades. And when I say legend before the game and legend in the game with UNCF, this is who I'm talking about. I'm talking about a man under his leadership. They've raised over four billion dollars B with a B for students. Their endowment has gone from five uh fifty million dollars to six hundred million dollars under his leadership. They've helped hundreds of thousands of students, and that's what it's all about under his leadership. That's legacy and that's legend. But what we want to talk about is succession planning, like what happens when the legend has to step away from the game. LeBron James, Drew Brees, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. When you have a leadership leader that has been at the helm over 15, 20, 30 years, donors don't just know your organization, now they know that person, and they begin to have a develop develop a relationship with that person that sometimes make it hard makes it hard for the donor to separate the brand of the individual from the brand of the organization, and that in turn kind of will set the new leadership back at a deficit or whatever when um you haven't done the proper planning to introduce your team in this process to your donors, they're really hooked on that one person. And when I say hooked on that one person, it becomes uh sometimes a problem because donors disappear when we haven't done the due diligence needed. And what I mean by due diligence is this you should be building uh relationships between your donors and multiple staff members, not just one, you know. You have an advancement team for a purpose, it's called advancement because not only you advance the mission of the organization, and a lot of that is external work. Um, you put leaders out in front. You're if you have a cabinet, are you bringing them and introducing them to the right people? You strengthen your board, and also you get that next generation of leadership up and running. And I when I mean that by that, I mean whoever's taking the helm and whoever's there stepping or whoever's there stepping up, right? And what I think um you're trying to do is make sure that your strategic plan doesn't reside in one person's head and now that person is leaving. So if you take the right steps and have that runway, you give that new leadership an opportunity to step into the role fully. And here's what I think that uh UNC UNCF's board did correctly. One, he's staying on to 2027, I think that's very important. Two, they've already begun looking for his replacement. Great, and side note, there are HBCU's presidents around this country salivating at the opportunity this will be. Trust me, it's about to go down. But we ain't talking about that. But they have started the search for his replacement, and after he uh steps down, he'll stay on as consultant. That's a runway and not just a jump off or exit, and I think that is absolutely important because the greatest test of a nonprofit leader might not be what he or she does while they're there, it might just be what they do when they're gone, because that succession plan will set the next team up for success. We've seen it fail at organizations when that 20, 30, 40 year uh leader steps away and we haven't done the homework, and it is hard for new leadership to take reins and change, and the the trauma to staff alone is enough to make people step aside. But that's neither here nor there. Shout out to the UNCF board, shout out to my man Dr. Lomax for everything you've done your entire career, and this is just a fragment of it. But thank you so much. And listen, organizations, get your stuff together, all right? We get get your plan together. Some of y'all, first of all, y'all not even staying five years no more at these. I'm you know what? I'm gonna back off. I'm gonna back off. I'ma back off. Nobody doing 20 20 years, nobody doing 20 years no more. Let's get it together, people. Thanks, Dr. Lil Max. Peace. Check out the podcast.