Succession planning for Cultural trusts: the archivist, the conservator and the director
In a small trust one person may hold the keys to the collection, the grant relationships or the festival network. Succession planning keeps the work going if they leave.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsWhy succession planning matters in cultural trusts
The archivist has catalogued the collection over many years in a way no one else follows. The director holds the donor and grant contacts. The head of the school knows every student's family. If any of them is ill or retires, the trust loses months, or access to the collection itself.
Planning does not need a long document. It names the roles that matter most, the person who could step in today, what that person would need to learn and by when. For director and trustee roles, it also covers how a successor will be chosen and introduced.
How to set it up
1. Identify the roles with the highest risk
Ask what would hurt most if the person left next month. Archivist, conservator, director and school head are typical.
2. Name a possible successor for each
Often a junior staff member or a long-standing volunteer. If none exists, mark it as an open gap.
3. List what the successor must learn
Methods, contacts, keys and passwords, and relationships. Break the list into tasks with dates.
4. Start a handover file
The current holder writes routines and contact notes, adds to it every quarter and shares it with the successor.
5. Review every year with trustees
Once a year, the trustees read the list, ask what changed and approve development steps. Link it to the competency and talent management work if you wish.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Write down the three roles whose absence would stop a programme.
- Ask each holder who could cover them for a week and how confident they are.
- Look for contact details or keys known to only one person.
- Check whether trustees have discussed the director's succession at all.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach succession planning in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Start early, define the role apart from the person, and involve trustees in a clear process for the search. Let the founder help with handover but not hold the new person back.
It is the start. Pair it with shadowing and a trial period of the successor covering short absences, so the written notes are tested.
Treat that as a signal to build skills or to find a partner institution that can lend support in a crisis. Document the gap and plan to close it.