Nonprofit Spotlight| The LEAD Project and "A Toast to LEAD" Benefit

by Bridget Ulrich
follow me on Twitter: @bridgetmpls

An Interview with Peter Wagner, LEAD Board Member

What is The LEAD Project?

LEAD was founded in 2006 and stands for the Leadership Emergence and Development Project. Our goal is to engage young professionals in the charitable and philanthropic communities of the Twin Cities.

How do you achieve your goal?

LEAD’s goal, and our mission, is to engage young professionals in the Twin Cities nonprofit community. We host various events that are all aimed at creating relationships between the young professional community and the nonprofit community through skills-based volunteer opportunities. We host several different types of events including Board Bootcamps, PhilanthroFairs and large scale charitable events. To learn more about our events click here.

What has been your impact on our local community?

We estimate that LEAD has helped connect over 250 young professionals with Board and other skills-based volunteer positions at local nonprofits. We’ve helped educate over 1000 young professionals on the expectations of being a nonprofit Board of Director through our Board Boot Camps.  We have held 13 large charitable events and as a result have donated over $130,000 back to nonprofits. We have also partnered with over 50 nonprofits in the past two years through our PhilanthroFairs. But we believe our true impact is making philanthropy accessible to young professionals and maximizing the amount that they contribute by donating their time in meaningful ways. 

Tell us about the upcoming LEAD Event.

A Toast to LEAD celebrates our five year anniversary and the 50+ nonprofits we have partnered with.

When: Saturday Feb. 18 (8 pm- 12 am)

Where: Le Meridien Chambers

What:

• An all-night open bar with a signature drink

• Separate party rooms/floors with two DJs

• Access to Le Meridien Chamber's Ice Bar

• Premier silent auction

• A special tribute to all the nonprofits we have partnered with over the past five years

• The chance to vote for which nonprofit the money we raise should go towards including; Project Success, World without Genocide,  People Serving People, Make-a-Wish Foundation and Bolder Options.

Cost: $75 per ticket through Thursday, February 16th (so don’t delay!), then $95 per ticket

Tickets: www.theleadproject.org

For more information about The LEAD Project visit: www.theleadproject.org

The Scoop| News from Our Members

There's change happening all around our network, and we aim to keep you in the know through our ongoing e-news column, "The Scoop." Share your updates for March by emailing bridge@ynpntwincities.org.

Here's what's new with our members this month:

Sara Benzkofer began a new position as Director of Policy and Communications with the MN Association for the Education of Young Children and MN School Age Care Alliance.

Megan Gamble joined Minnesotans United For All Families as a Finance Assistant.

Nathan Magel has embarked on a year's adventure in clarifying personal and professional purpose and values, and articulating commitment, through his participation in the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute.

Chris Oien, Jamie Millard, Cary Walski, Ada Okolue, Jason Samuels and Robyn Perry are presenting at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Technology and Communications Conference on March 16.

Emily Franklin was promoted to Associate Director of Development and Communications at Environmental Initiative.

Matt Beachey began a new job as Blog Manager at Finnegans (the beer brewers that donate all their profits to their nonprofit community fund).

Trisha Reinwald started a new position with MACC CommonWealth as the Director of Member Services. The CommonWealth is a nonprofit collaborative that provides member organizations shared administrative services like finance and human resources- together they can access experts to manage their administrative areas allowing them to focus resources on their mission.

Tanya Cothran will be presenting next month at the Library Technology Conference in St. Paul. Her panel is titled “Plan, Execute, Evaluate, Repeat: Social Media for Libraries and Non-Profit Organizations.”

Getting to Know the New Crew - Part 2

by Aisha Eady, Krysten Ryba and Sara Shaylie
follow us on Twitter: @aishaeady, @shayspeed

We’re thrilled to introduce three of YNPN’s new board members, Aisha Eady, Krysten Ryba and Sara Shaylie. Here they are saying a quick hello and highlighting an event they are looking forward to in YNPN’s 2012 season. You and folks you know are invited to come on out to sharpen your skills and connect in person with them and other great YNPNers!

My name is Krysten Lynn Ryba, and I'm happiest when I'm helping nonprofits further their missions - for me, that means conducting research, and presenting information that tells a story. My first YNPN event was an ELN lunch. I had just moved to St. Paul from Chicago (May 2010) and was excited to learn more about the Twin Cities' thriving nonprofit sector. I had a great conversation with several attendees and left knowing YNPN would play an integral part of my professional development in the coming years - and it has! As a new board member, I look forward to responding to the needs of our members as heard in our 2011 Membership Survey through innovative programming and continued greatness in our blog and e-newsletter. 

Hi my name is Aisha Eady and I'm passionate about helping others achieve their dreams through social entrepreneurship. My first introduction to YNPN was my college roommate who invited me to a YNPN happy hour. I was so impressed with everyone's energy and couldn't wait to come to another event! At the time, I was looking for opportunities to connect with others and expand my knowledge of the nonprofit sector. I'm looking forward to YNPN's next event, The LiFe LaB (Tuesday, February 21 from 5:30-7:30 at Joule Co-working Space, in case you were wondering). Life coach Beth Wallace will be there to help us overcome our resistance to our own success. I hope to see you there. Please say hi; I'm friendly and I'll say hi back!

My name is Sara Shaylie, I am a community organizer and dog walker living and working in the Twin Cities since 2003. I have been privileged to organize in the arts community and focus on local issues related to quality of life, democratic use of public space and access to the arts. On my professional path, YNPN has served as an open learning environment where I could hone my professional skills and expand my nonprofit network beyond the arts community. As a board member I look forward to helping provide those experiences for other YNPN members at events like our upcoming ELN lunch on the art of hosting and getting published.

The Scoop| News from Our Members

You spoke, and we listened. You want more information on our members and their professional accomplishments. So, beginning this month, we're starting "The Scoop" - a place for YNPN-TC members to share news with our network. Email your updates to bridge@ynpntwincities.org.

Here's what's new for January 2012:

Regan Smith is now the Program Assistant for Works Progress.

Jamie Millard will be on the Blogging Best Practices Panel at Weber Shandwick's Telling Your Story workshop (Feb. 11th).

Katie Tharp has been promoted to Foundation Relations and Special Initiatives Manager at the Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Former YNPN-TC Board Member James Faghmous and his family are back in the United States after James completed a fellowship in Norway.

Bridget Ulrich was featured in Plymouth Magazine for her nonprofit work in social media.

Aisha Eady, Lucas Havens, Krysten Lynn Ryba, Sara Shaylie, Lauren Van Schepen and Cary Walski began their terms on the YNPN-TC Board of Directors.

Sunshine and Showers: A Nonprofit Forecast for 2012

by Nathan Magel
follow me on Twitter: @nathanmagel

Should this year not mark the end of the world, as some calendars predict, we’ll all be finding ourselves working through it.  Some big features of 2011 were an emphasis on innovation and creativity in the ways organizations work to fulfill their missions.  In article after blog post after tweet, it seemed the bud of what Daniel Pink termed the Conceptual Age came into some blossom last year.  That said, belt-tightening across the board brought with it an ever more clarion call for data-driven impact assessment.  And guys like Mark Kramer promulgated the doom of the siloed org, the silver bullet, sharing ways we might work across organizations and sectors to find “silver buckshot” through Collective Impact.

So what does 2012 hold?  What big ideas are coming down the pike?  What themes will be shaping our work and the way we think about it?  Don’t ask me.  But let’s ask Senior Fellow for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Marcia Avner and Executive Director of the Minnesota Citizens for the Arts Sheila Smith!

And what better to do so than to enlist the help of our friends at the Theater of Public Policy!

Join us on January 27^th to hear what our local luminaries have to say about the year ahead;  and subsequently, see how these pearls of wisdom might take theatrical form through the art of improv comedy!  Be it an insight into the upcoming legislative session or a much needed barrel laugh, you’re sure to be pleased. 

TICKETS: $5 for YNPN-TC members, $10 for non-members.  (All proceeds go to the Theater of Public Policy and the Lowry Lab Theater.)** 

Not a member of YNPN yet?  Register today in our membership directory and you’re in! 

**Payment for this event is made through The Theater of Public Policy’s PayPal account, so you’ll see the name “Tane Danger” when you register.