Over the last nine months, 23 emerging leaders from different local nonprofits came together for an intensive leadership development experience – a series of group learning sessions, comprehensive leadership assessments, one-on-one coaching, team-building exercises, overnight retreats and more.
The result: the Community Foundation’s 12th graduating cohort of the Emerging Nonprofit Leaders Program (ENLP).
Since its inception in 2007, ENLP has led approximately 200 professionals from more than 100 different Greater Richmond nonprofits to develop a deeper understanding of their own leadership capacity, advance their knowledge of leadership in the nonprofit sector, and strengthen their peer network.
“This program has been so enlightening, and I’ve built great friendships too,” said Nausha Brown-Chavez, Cohort 12 ENLP graduate and Program Manager of The READ Center. “It’s an honor to serve with people who are so compassionate, thoughtful and caring about the people in their care.”
The program has also demonstrated measurable results. In a recent survey of the first 10 graduating classes, the Community Foundation sought to learn how the ENLP experience affected their professional development. More than half of the respondents have served on a nonprofit board since graduation, and 39% of alumni went on to serve in higher levels of nonprofit leadership.
“I have only been in my new position for about four months, and the CEO in my current organization has told me that she can see me becoming an Executive Director within 5-10 years,” one ENLP graduate said. “I feel as though ENLP has equipped me with stronger knowledge and skills to continue on that path.”
Regardless of whether graduates aspired to higher leadership or not, 100% of responding alumni agreed that ENLP was a beneficial experience, and that it strengthened their individual leadership capacity. Another graduate reflected, “I cannot put into words how deeply ENLP has affected how and why I work in the nonprofit sector. It was an invigorating and rejuvenating experience.”
ENLP is now accepting applications for 2019-2020. Interested? Learn more at one of our upcoming info sessions:
We encourage you to bring the leader at your organization who would be supporting your application – your Executive Director, CEO or Board Chair.
Questions? Please contact Kenisha Fallen at kfallen@cfrichmond.org.
