Fulcrum Member Exchange – Fractional or Interim? Choosing the Right Leadership for the Moment

Fulcrum Member Exchange

Fractional or Interim? Choosing the Right Leadership for the Moment

Wednesday, October 7, 2026
1:00 PM Pacific | 3:00 PM Central | 4:00 PM Eastern

Featuring Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE
President and Chief Mission Advancement Officer
Interim Executives Academy

Nonprofit leadership does not always have to be permanent or full time to be effective.

When a senior leader departs, an organization faces a transition, or additional executive capacity is needed, nonprofit leaders and boards increasingly have options beyond immediately making another traditional full-time hire.

But those options raise important questions.

When does an organization need an interim leader? When does fractional leadership make more sense? Can an interim executive also serve fractionally? And how do you determine what kind of leadership your organization actually needs right now?

Join Fulcrum Nonprofit Leadership for an interactive Member Exchange featuring Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE, a nationally recognized leader in the training, placement, and support of interim executives for charitable organizations, associations, and congregations.

Facilitated by Chris Looney, Founder and CEO of Fulcrum Nonprofit Leadership, the conversation will explore the practical decisions nonprofit executives and boards face when considering interim, fractional, and permanent leadership models.

Together, we will discuss:

• The fundamental difference between interim and fractional leadership
• When an interim executive can provide more than simply continuity during a transition
• When fractional leadership can provide executive-level expertise without requiring a full-time position
• How interim and fractional models can overlap
• The difference between engaging an executive leader and hiring a consultant
• What boards and executives should consider before choosing a leadership model
• How a leadership transition can become an opportunity to reconsider what the organization needs next

The Fulcrum white paper that inspired this conversation offers a simple distinction: interim leadership is time-bound; fractional leadership is capacity-bound. Fulcrum White Paper – Fractiona…

But the larger question is more important:

What leadership does our organization need right now?

Answering that requires considering both the leadership expertise required and how much of that leadership capacity the organization actually needs. Fulcrum White Paper – Fractiona…

This will not be a webinar or traditional presentation. Fulcrum Member Exchanges are conversations. Come prepared to share your experiences, ask questions, test assumptions, and learn from Jeffrey and fellow nonprofit leaders as we explore how organizations can design leadership around the needs of the mission rather than simply the conventions of the organizational chart. Fulcrum White Paper – Fractiona…

This Fulcrum Member Exchange is exclusively for Fulcrum members.