Must! Charities Leadership Alliance
$52,500
The Leadership Alliance provides intensive professional and personal development to strengthen participants' leadership skills. Creating supportive group and one-on-one environments for nonprofit leaders encourages participants to be transparent, authentic, and encouraging of one another. This creates new opportunities for cross-organizational collaboration, issue processing, and idea refinement. The Leadership Alliance is embarking on a twelve-month pilot project from April 2024 to April 2025 to analyze the impacts and feasibility of potential future growth.
The Need
The United States economy is comprised of diverse industries, yet nonprofits alone account for a significant portion of the national economy, employing 12.3 million Americans. There are 1,986 nonprofit organizations in San Luis Obispo County. Nonprofits continue to increase their economic impact and remain vital features of the economy by contributing through expenditures and employee compensation and by creating a cycle of economic growth in local communities. Being beneficial both socially and economically, nonprofits are essential to support healthy communities.
It stands to reason, then, that we strengthen the skills of local nonprofit leaders to strengthen the positive social impacts on our community.
The Outcome
Non-profit executives often find themselves alone, burdened, and with minimal support. The Leadership Alliance will:
- Create a safe, confidential space for the collective growth of local non-profit leaders.
- Strengthen participants' skills that will externally and internally strengthen the organizations they represent and, ultimately, our community.
- Create valuable connections and collaborations with local progressive non-profit leaders.
- Help leaders navigate the demands, unique challenges, and daily time management pressures effectively.
- Expose leaders to innovative ideas, creating inspiration through shared values and diverse perspectives.
- Establish an external support structure and sounding board to support business growth.
The Impact
In its pilot year, the Leadership Alliance will lay the foundation for what we anticipate will be a highly sought-after, effective, and inspiring opportunity for non-profit leaders. We seek to:
- Invest in personnel that equates to decreased turnover and burnout in an overworked and underpaid sector.
- Develop strong leadership skills and focus on effective management to significantly improve organizational performance.
- Increase leaders' pursuit for personal and professional growth to improve year-over-year.
- Decrease turnover, onboarding, and training costs by focusing on leadership skills that promote healthy cultures and continual feedback opportunities within the organizations.