Our Mission
Taking nonprofit organizations to higher ground in their service to others™
Founded in 2002 by a group of nonprofit professionals with significant experience serving diverse communities as chief executive officers and chief development officers of prominent causes and associations, Third Sector Company, Inc. was created with a single mission:
To foster leadership continuity solutions that help systems, organizations, and individuals to advance sustainable community causes.
Our History
Third Sector Company is about community. It always has been. In 2002, a group of about 40 nonprofit executives from leading organizations, both large and small, from throughout the Greater Los Angeles area gathered to talk about the growing amount of turnover occurring amongst their peers.
At the same time, the funding community was realizing the nonprofit sector was ill-prepared for executive transitions complicated by few nonprofit organizations having directed activities aimed at succession planning, executive retention, and talent pipelines cultivating future staff and board leaders. With a mission statement of “leadership continuity for the nonprofit sector,” the group formed a professional community, under the leadership of former Senior Vice President of Community Development for United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Jeffrey Wilcox, which would later incorporate; first, as Executive Consulting for the Nonprofit Sector, and, later, Third Sector Company, Inc.
For the next 18 years, the ever-expanding community of peer-selected colleagues, each with their own experiences in serving the third sector themselves, would evolve a full-service organization whose goal would be to offer a unique line of services that leverage human capital to advance the missions of nonprofit organizations with the financial capital necessary to mobilize their services. The group would aspire to be the largest co-branded capacity-building community and virtual social enterprise of its kind providing interim chief executive and development officers and a new work and life balance for career nonprofit leaders.
As the community grew and its training deepened into a national model for preparing interim leaders to transform complex situations into sustainable missions for their successors, Third Sector Company began offering other programs aimed at fostering nonprofit leadership continuity. Today, the professional interims and succession planning specialists at Third Sector Company are driven by five forces that shape their current and future programming:
- Assuring quality transitional leadership is available on-demand to the nonprofit sector when it’s needed most;
- Reducing avoidable executive attrition that can be costly to organizations and careers;
- Edifying a culture of succession planning that plans for cultivating people to serve a common mission;
- Facilitating sound nonprofit executive hiring processes that support community leaders to complete effective searches on their own; and
- Fostering a pipeline of future talent that excites another generation to lead nonprofit organizations and their communities.
Now serving the United States and Canada through online training programs, virtual community groups, and on-demand online consultations having helped over 700 nonprofits in two nations, Third Sector Company stands committed to further evolve its founding principals in unique and impactful ways that lift the nonprofit sector to higher ground in its service to others.
The roots of our organization are exactly like the roots of our customers: We began as a cause.
We started as a conversation in a church basement. We believed we could accomplish something together that could have a lasting impact. We hope we have the opportunity to involve you in making our mission possible for the entire nonprofit community, the third sector of our society.
Our Equity Statement
Third Sector Company, Inc. is committed to advancing diversity, inclusion, equity, and access as foundational to its programs.
We acknowledge and honor the fundamental value and dignity of all people; and we pledge our individual and organizational efforts to build respect, dignity, caring, and equitable treatment for all. As an organization, we are committed to transforming the world into one that promotes social justice and freedom from oppression, including but not limited to, racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism. Thus, we aim to be adaptable, actively anti-racist, embracing cultural differences, and to be accessible for people who are differently resourced and differently abled.
Since we do not want financial hardship to be a barrier to participation in our services and community life, we practice sliding fee pricing based on organizational budget, offer scholarships to all education offerings and invite pro-bono or reduced fee service delivery by application.
How does Third Sector Company facilitate collaboration and development within the nonprofit community?Lindsay ShieldsSenior Professional Advisor, Long Beach, CA
For More Information
We’re are happy to chat with you about our company and how we can support your unique nonprofit organization. We have a team located throughout the United States and Canada. Our Senior Advisors are available to bring their years of nonprofit leadership expertise to serve your nonprofit.
Learn more about our services and commitment to the nonprofit sector with our Introduction to Third Sector Company Fact Sheet.