Richard Raya has spent about a decade in collective impact, cradle-to-career work. Two years ago, he became CEO of Marin Promise Partnership (MPP), succeeding its beloved founding leader at a moment when the board was ready for a bold new direction.
Serena Moy, Associate Partner at Edgility, led the search that brought Richard to MPP. Two years in, the two sat down to talk about what he’s built, how the transition went, and what’s next.
MPP works to close educational disparities between Marin communities by addressing the social determinants of academic outcomes, including income inequality and access to housing and healthcare. It partners with government, nonprofits, and residents to do it.
Marin is often seen as a tourist destination, but Richard points out that it also has significant low-income communities and a history of redlining and racial covenants that shaped where families could live. It’s a diverse landscape of urban, rural, and suburban areas, with, in his words, “a lot of great energy” from community leaders working to reduce disparities.
Richard’s first big point of pride is the strategic shift he’s helped carry out. MPP’s board had adopted a plan to stop focusing all its energy on countywide change and instead drill down to the neighborhoods where disparities are greatest, intending to eventually drive change across the county.
Richard had done similar place-based work in San Francisco. Together with the MPP team and roughly 100 community partners, including government agencies, nonprofits, and resident groups, he has launched two neighborhood-based planning processes. The best part, he says, has been seeing “the community fabric” up close, with people rallying around a shared vision for better youth outcomes.
That momentum attracted a major national investor. Strive Together awarded MPP $3 million over four years to carry out the new strategy. The funder sees Marin as a proof point for an approach that organizations across the country are exploring, based on a growing awareness that neighborhoods are where the biggest difference can be made.
Succeeding a founder can be one of the trickiest dynamics in nonprofit leadership. Richard credits MPP’s preparation, not just himself. The board planned the new CEO’s first six months before Richard stepped into the role. They also thoughtfully considered what role the founder could play to support the organization while giving the new CEO room to build his own approach and relationships. The founder, in turn, cleared the space for him to lead early on. She also left the organization on solid footing by securing long-term donors and making sure the finances were in great shape before the handoff. She stayed available for regular meetings as needed, and a small advisory contract made that support part of the arrangement.
It wasn’t him alone, Richard stresses, and a prepared board and a supportive founder made all the difference. Their thoughtful planning and generosity gave him the room to lead from day one.
As seen here, a founder transition goes best when the outgoing leader treats setting up their successor as part of the job, and when the organization is ready to be led differently. The Edgility Search team is a fierce advocate for board and founder support for incoming CEO's. If you're curious to learn more, read these blogs by Christina Greenberg and Roslyn Hill to take a look at this process from the founder’s point of view or the organization’s lens.
Richard is most excited about “investable plans,” neighborhood roadmaps that lay out how partners will work together and what that collaboration costs, including expanded services, data, evaluation, and convening. MPP plans to create four across Marin and is on pace to complete the first by January 2027.
Attaching dollars to strategies, he says, “makes the plan feel very real.” Funders are paying attention. Richard sees donors looking beyond one-off, temporary services toward the root causes and systemic solutions these plans are built to address.
His closing thought sums up the work: collective impact comes down to “seeing your neighbor, caring about your neighbor, talking to your neighbor and working together.”
At Edgility, we believe a great placement starts with trust and is measured long after the offer letter. The real test is whether a leader is thriving a year or two later and whether the transition was set up well. MPP’s board did much of this work themselves, planning the new CEO’s first six months and thinking carefully about the founder’s role. That’s the kind of preparation we encourage through our Find. Hire. Keep. approach, and our free succession planning toolkit can help boards get started.
We’re thrilled to see Richard thriving, and we’ll keep cheering on him and the MPP team from the sidelines.
Catch Richard’s full interview on Edgility’s YouTube page.
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Searching for a mission-driven leader who can bring your community together? Learn more about Edgility Search’s approach to executive search, or reach out to Serena and the team to map out a thoughtful process and timeline for your search.