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ProInspire’s New Board Members, Board Officers, and Network Leadership CouncilWe are excited to welcome ProInspire’s new Board Members and Officers and the new ProInspire Network Leadership Council members and Co-Chairs. …
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Takeaways from American Express Leadership Academy 2.0 at the Aspen InstituteProInspire had the chance to talk with alumna Maggie Goldstein Cooper (2016 Managing for Success SF cohort) about her experience at the 2018 American Express Leadership Academy 2.0 at the Aspen Institute: a Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit Leaders. Maggie works as the Head of Talent + Communicati…
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Alumni Engagement Summit: TakeawaysBy: John Campbell, Co-Chair ProInspire Alumni Council and 2016 DC ProInspire Fellow Over the Summer, I had the opportunity to represent ProInspire at Capital One Foundation’s Alumni Engagement Summit. Over 30 organizations from around the country gathered to share best practices, learn about alum…
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A Recap of the Capital One Foundation’s Alumni Engagement SummitBy Andrea Rush Last month, I participated in the Capital One Foundation’s Alumni Engagement Summit in New York City. I had a great experience meeting other social sector organizations and sharing best practices and lessons learned. It was an eye-opening experience to see how other organizations th…
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2016 ProInspire Fellows Share Leadership Lessons as They Conclude Their Fellowship YearLast week marked the final training for 2016 ProInspire Fellows in Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a time of both celebration and reflection, as the Fellows looked back on what they had learned over the past year, and set goals for their future as leaders in the nonprofit …
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Managing for Success Alum Daria Hall Selected for American Express Leadership Academy 2.0 Emerging Nonprofit Leaders Fellowship CohortCongratulations to Managing for Success Alum Daria Hall on her selection to the American Express Leadership Academy 2.0 Emerging Nonprofit Leaders Fellowship Cohort! Daria will join 14 other executive and management level nonprofit professionals and social entrepreneurs for a weeklong program lat…
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Everyone is a FundraiserBy John Campbell, 2016 ProInspire Fellow Fundraising. It’s a word that causes people to feel uncomfortable, donors to feel like prey, and can even make nonprofit executives squirm. For too many organizations, fundraising is seen as a ‘necessary evil,’ separate from programs and the ‘real’…
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Giving Back and Growing UpBy Alex Stanton, 2016 ProInspire Fellow My penchant for volunteering stems from growing up in a big family. As the middle of five kids, there were always chores to do be done, siblings to be watched, and problems to be solved. From a young age, I enjoyed taking care of my siblings and helping them …
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Moving Forward into 2017By Laura Chen, 2016 ProInspire Fellow Over the past few weeks, as we have once again changed our calendars to mark the beginning of a new year, the annual tradition of making resolutions surfaces. Whether relevant and necessary or antiquated and enforced, the habit and conversation of reflections …
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The Logbook: ProInspire alum Alice Liu shares her method for capturing insights and accelerating goalsIn a recent article on Medium, 2014 Bay Area ProInspire Fellow Alice Liu wrote about The Logbook System, a simple method she devised to capture thoughts, ideas, and learnings as a way to lead a more intentional life and achieve her goals. A more simplified version of a journal, the Logbook is hosted…
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Strength in CommunityBy Marley Leitner, 2016 DC ProInspire Fellow Julie Beck recently wrote an article in The Atlantic about how to cope with stress. In it she states that “strengthening connections with families, communities, and organizations is the most important preventive approach.” My experience with the Pro…
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Reflections from the 2016 Net Impact ConferenceBy Paul Collier, 2014 Bay Area ProInspire Fellow Earlier this month I attended my fourth Net Impact Conference, one of the country’s largest annual gatherings of professionals dedicated to making a social and environmental impact through business. This year’s conference was hosted in Philadelphi…
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Leaning in to Learning: What the ProInspire Fellowship Taught Me About MyselfBy Crystal Cheng, 2015 ProInspire Fellow at Opportunity Fund When Gene Kunde, ProInspire’s Bay Area Executive Director at the time, sent me the Fellowship role description for the Business Process and Implementation Associate at Opportunity Fund, it felt serendipitous. In 2009, I was part of a sma…
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Two ProInspire Alumni Selected for American Express – Aspen Institute’s Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit LeadersProInspire congratulates 2015 Management Fellows Maria Choi and Emmanuel Imah, who were selected for the 2016 American Express – Aspen Institute Academy 2.0: A Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit Leaders. 15 Fellows are selected annually for this program, an invitation-only, yearlong Fellows…
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Congrats to the Graduating Fellows, Bring on the Next Class…By Mike Rocco, ProInspire’s Managing Director, Bay Area I recently celebrated my one-month anniversary with ProInspire and ended the day by joining the 2015 San Francisco Bay Area Fellows for their Graduation Dinner. While it is simplistic to say that I was impressed by the eight Fellows, tho…
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Transforming Unexpected Obstacles into Unexpected Opportunities: the First 90 Days of My ProInspire FellowshipBy Brad Hamilton, 2016 ProInspire Fellow at the National Human Services Assembly The first ninety days of my ProInspire Fellowship were filled with transition – into the nonprofit sector, into my new role at the National Human Services Assembly, and into my new life in a new city. While that amo…
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ProInspire Alum Ivellisse Morales Shares Social Sector Learnings in Presidio Institute’s Newsletter2014 ProInspire Fellow Ivellisse Morales recently published a piece about her Fellowship experience in Reveille, the Presidio Institute’s quarterly publication for social impact leaders. In this thoughtful reflection titled ‘365 Days in the Social Sector,’ Ivellisse shares …
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A Fellow’s Insights on Diversity and Inclusion AwarenessBy Lars Parkin, 2015 ProInspire Fellow at Population Services International (PSI) My working environment over the past five months has been more diverse than over the previous five years combined. While I would love to say that my diversity and inclusion awareness has increased through my day-to-…
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ProInspire Alum Marcus Noel Selected to 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 listProInspire Alum Marcus Noel has been selected to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Marcus is the Founder of Heart of Man, a social enterprise he started before the ProInspire Fellowship. Heart of Man operates at the intersection of education and retail, allowing middle and high school students to c…
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Advisory Council Member Justin Steele Launches Google.org InitiativeProInspire would like to extend congratulations to Justin Steele, a member of ProInspire’s Strategy Advisory Council and Bay Area Giving Lead at Google.org. Justin has been a partner and advisor to ProInspire since our early days, when he worked at Year Up of the National Capital Region. Thi…
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From Ohio to Washington DC to……Botswana!By Mike Solarz, 2014 ProInspire Fellow After spending three years in a promising career in public accounting with a “Big Four” firm, I decided it was time to transition into a position that better aligned with my desire to promote social impact. The ProInspire Fellowship fit the bill for the nee…
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ProInspire Fellow Featured by Boston University College of Communication2014 ProInspire Fellow Ivellisse Morales was recently featured in COMTalk, a publication put out by her alma mater, the Boston University College of Communications. The article, “Nonprofit PR and marketing offers more than just a warm feeling inside,” highlights Ivi’s experiences in the nonp…
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Explore the Woods: Lessons from American Express – Aspen Institute Academy 2.0By Ellie Canter, 2014 Management Fellow “To anticipate, not the sunrise and dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter, before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been about mine! So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the t…
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Does Your Nonprofit Deserve to Exist?By Nicolas Takamine, 2009 ProInspire Fellow Editor’s Note: This is part two in a series of blog posts by Nicolas Takamine (2009 ProInspire Fellow), inspired by ProInspire’s request for engagement in its strategy process in ProInspire Strategy Update 1: Start With Your Result. [Read Part 1 he…
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2014 ProInspire Fellow Ivellisse Morales Promotes Year Up in SF Bay AreaCongratulations to 2014 ProInspire Fellow Ivellisse Morales for successfully working with the San Francisco Chronicle to profile Year Up! As the only local Marketing and Communications Manager at Year Up Bay Area, Ivellisse taps into her PR/marketing agency experience to provide strategic marketing …
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ProInspire Alum Marcus Noel – Advice to a Younger Me (Ashoka Changemakers blog)Marcus Noel was a 2012 ProInspire Fellow with Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS). Following his Fellowship, he stayed on at BCPS and continued working on the project he launched, Heart of Man. He then became a ConnectED Fellow & Education Pioneer Fellow at the Department of Education̵…
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Building a GradNation: How America’s Promise is Creating ImpactBy: Angela Richardson, 2014 Proinspire Fellow When I started my fellowship at America’s Promise, I came at a very exciting time in the GradNation campaign. The GradNation program at America’s Promise strives to achieve a 90 percent high school graduation rate across the nation. For the first…
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Building a Movement- Lessons from Shot@LifeBy Yewande Akinleye, 2014 ProInspire Fellow According to Merriam Webster the term “movement” means the act or process of moving people or things from one place or position to another. According to the very same source, to “build” means to increase the amount of (something). If we were to c…
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Five Lessons on Social EntrepreneurshipBy Christine Lynch, 2014 ProInspire Fellow In the social sector, social entrepreneurship is a buzz word that has gained in popularity. According to Ashoka, social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persiste…
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Creating Pathways to Economic EqualityEditor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts about the Opportunity Summit By Tracy Williams, 2014 ProInspire Fellow I had the distinct privilege of attending the 2015 Opportunity Nation Summit in Washington, DC and it was one of the most inspirational and transformative events I have ever expe…
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Cross Sector Collaboration is Crucial to the Opportunity CrisisEditor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts about the Opportunity Summit By Angela Richardson, 2014 ProInspire Fellow “WE GOT THIS!” was the mantra heard throughout the Opportunity Summit on February 26th. The constant reminder of “we got this” stood out like a sore thumb to me, espec…
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Think you need superpowers to change the world?By Yewande Akinleye, 2014 ProInspire Fellow I’d like to share a secret with you…yes you. I don’t often expose myself like this, but right now I feel as though I can confide in you. Quite frankly, I can’t keep this to myself and I hope that you will be inspired once you know my secret. [&hell…
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Powers for Change: Information and CollaborationEditor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts about the Opportunity Summit By Christina Pappas, 2014 ProInspire Fellow I’ve been challenged and inspired throughout my ProInspire Fellowship to articulate, debate, re-think, and re-commit to many of my existing beliefs, both regarding the world …
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Creating #OpportunityMoments for OthersHow You Can Be Part of the Movement to Close the Opportunity Divide Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of posts by ProInspire fellows and alumni who attended the National Opportunity Summit in Washington, DC By Ivellisse Morales, 2014 ProInspire Fellow Chances are, that if you’re r…
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ProInspire Alum Nikita Mitchell Featured in BerkeleyHaas Student AchievementsProInspire Alum Nikita Mitchell (2011 DC Fellow) was featured in BerkeleyHaas Student Achievements for her work as Class President of her Haas MBA class and as a liaison to the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Read more about Nikita’s work in this Student Spotlight… It was …
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ProInspire Fellow featured on Commongood Careers on “Life After Fellowship”This article was featured on the Commongood Careers site, and features Marian Leitner, 2011 ProInspire Fellow. Read below about different Fellowship experiences, and Story #3 for Marian’s story. LIFE AFTER FELLOWSHIP: THREE CAREER SUCCESS STORIES Fellowships in the social impact space are expe…
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Power in being the “only”By Shala Marks, 2014 ProInspire Fellow Hello, my name is Shala Marks and I am the only ________. My experiences have allowed me to fill in that blank with a myriad of examples. It seems like all of my life I have been the only something. Let’s see, I was the only… African-American female writer …
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ProInspire Fellow, Ivi Morales, on NBC Telemundo2014 ProInspire Fellow Ivellisse (Ivi) Morales serves as Marketing Manager for Year Up Bay Area. Ivi Morales is leveraging the cause marketing expertise she honed as an account executive for Boston-based Cone Communications to succeed in her new role. Ivi is piloting bilingual advertising and …
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Congratulations to 2013 ProInspire Fellows!The 2013 ProInspire Fellows in Washington D.C. and San Francisco Bay Area completed their Fellowship programs this summer. All 26 Fellows spent one year driving forward mission critical work at their organizations. The good news is that most of them will be staying at their organizations and co…
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Alumni Perspectives on the ProInspire FellowshipBy Sonia Shekar and Dionne Galloway The 2014 ProInspire Fellows in Washington D.C. had a chance to sit down, with three of the 2013 ProInspire Fellows earlier this month. The Alumni shared their insights on taking initiative, being a trusted resource for your organization, and fully utilizing the ab…
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ProInspire Alum Article in NextBillion – Financial Inclusion and the Internet of ThingsBy Pat Wilson (2013 DC ProInspire Fellow) and Stephanie Pow, Accion’s Frontier Investment’s Group This post originally appeared on the NextBillion blog. The Internet of Things (“IoT”) is a term that has been tossed around by tech wonks and futurists alike. Put simply, IoT is the use of te…
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2013 ProInspire Fellows Selected to Develop Next Generation of Nonprofit LeadersFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 20, 2013 2013 ProInspire Fellows Selected to Elevate Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders Largest cohort in program history addresses talent gap, fills demand for nonprofit leadership. Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA — ProInspire, a nonprofit dedicated to develo…
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Being an effective multi-taskerBy: Kelly Pierson ProInspire Fellow 2013, National 4-H Council My name is Kelly Pierson, and I am an ineffective multi-tasker. After years of internal fighting, I can finally admit this truth. While I love to think that I can switch seamlessly between projects without skipping a beat, I simply canno…
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Post-Fellowship: What is the 2012 ProInspire Class doing now?What are they doing now? Our 2012 Class of ProInspire Fellows, recently celebrated the end of their fellowship year together with alumni, fellows, friends, supporters, and hiring partners at La Tasca in downtown D.C.. It was a great evening full of memories and highlights from the year; includin…
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ProInspire Alumni Shares Experience with Common Good Careers: My First Year as a Business Professional in the Nonprofit SectorProInspire Alumni, Gillian Peron shares her experience as a ProInspire Fellow at Good 360 with Common Good Careers: “Dear Candidate: Thank you for your interest in our organization. While your qualifications were impressive, this was a highly competitive process, and we are not able to extend yo…
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Discovering an Inspiring Model for Nonprofit LeadershipBlogs,By Dave Newberry, 2012 ProInspire Fellow Last year when I was selected to join the ProInspire Fellowship program, I accepted a leadership role working directly with Achievement Prep founder Shantelle Wright. Going into the fellowship I was excited to work with a nationally celebrated figure in the c…
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ProInspire Alumni Make Business School a Tool for Social Impact (Part Two of Two)The ProInspire Fellowship attracts a certain kind of person. Young professionals join the Fellowship because they share a belief that the discipline of business, while largely developed in the context of the private sector, can be used to create social value rather than private wealth. ProInspire al…
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ProInspire Alumni Make Business School a Tool for Social Impact (Part One of Two)The ProInspire Fellowship attracts a certain kind of person. Young professionals join the Fellowship because they share a belief that the discipline of business, while largely developed in the context of the private sector, can be used to create social value rather than private wealth. ProInspire al…
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Answers from a ProInspire Fellow: Three Questions About the Fellowship ExperienceBy 2012 ProInspire Fellow Elisa Chen Over the past few weeks I've received questions from friends who are considering applying to become a ProInspire Fellow. While we provide a list of FAQs on our website, I was happy to offer my own perspective on the Fellowship experience. Allow me to share my…
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Finding Fulfillment Beyond the 9 to 5 Through Pro Bono WorkBy 2011 ProInspire Fellow Nikita Mitchell We're on Day 4 of our 5 Days of Giving series on the blog with the goal of helping each and every one of you with your goals to change the world, in both big and small ways. Every day more and more professionals are seeking ways to have a meani…
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The Politics of ImpactBy 2012 Fellow, Jay Subramaniam My first job out of college was serving as a finance intern on then-Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley’s campaign for Governor of Maryland during the midterm elections of 2006. Later that summer, with O’Malley favored to his race, my f…
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Three Challenges in Breaking into the Nonprofit Sector and How to Overcome ThemFinding a job before you graduate is hard enough. Most college graduates cross the stage without a clue what their next move will be. The challenge doesn’t get any easier once the diploma is up on the wall and the real world begins to knock on your door. More than 50% of recent college graduat…
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The Power of We: Big Lessons from a Small TownBy 2012 Fellow, Gillian Perron Blog Action Day brings together bloggers from different countries, interests and languages to blog about one important global topic on the same day. This year the theme is "The Power of We" in celebration of people working together to make a positive dif…
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2011 ProInspire Fellows Graduate, Celebrating a Year of AccomplishmentsOn June 19th the 2011 cohort of ProInspire Fellows gathered at Busboys and Poets in DC with family, friends, colleagues, supporters and even a few 2012 Fellows to celebrate the completion of thier fellowship. The evening started with Monisha Kapila welcoming everyone and a recapping the last …
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Exploring a Global ‘Local’ Approach to Impact Investment as a ProInspire FellowThis is a guest post that Brint Markle, 2011 ProInspire Fellow, wrote for NextBillion.net. After three great years as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company, I decided to explore opportunities in impact investing. While at Bain, I helped start our first global social impact initiative, but felt…
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Brint Markle (2011 Fellow) writes a guest post for Next BillionExploring a Global ‘Local’ Approach to Impact Investment as a ProInspire Fellow by Brint Markle After three great years as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company, I decided to explore opportunities in impact investing. While at Bain, I helped start our first global social impa…
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Tiffany Goh (2010 Fellow) on the perfect marriage of business and passion for social impactBy Tiffany Goh, 2010 ProInspire Fellow As ProInspire kicks into gear to recruit the next class of fellows, I’m reminded of where I was when I applied myself two years ago. I applied to ProInspire eager to pursue a career that focused on my passion for social impact and international economic devel…
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Teja Padma (2010 Fellow) pursuing her passion for international developmentBy Teja Padma (2010 ProInspire Fellow) Nearly a year and a half ago, I left Mercer Consulting to join the Business Planning & Strategy team as a ProInspire Fellow at FHI 360, (formerly known as Family Health International). I learned more in the one year that I spent at FHI 360 than in th…
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“Treat” YourselfToday is Blog Action Day 2011, which happens to coincide with World Food Day. Being the passionate food advocate that he is, 2010 Inspire Fellow David DeVaughn reflects on his early memories of food. My parents separated soon after my younger sister was born when I was two years old. Once the legal …
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7 Lessons from the 2010 Inspire FellowsThis month we kicked off the third class of Inspire Fellows! We have a fantastic group of individuals joining the nonprofit sector with backgrounds in consulting, banking, private equity, and marketing. During our Foundations Training, which is provided to everyone at the beginning of their Fellowsh…
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Nikita Mitchell (2011 Fellow) writes a guest post for SocialEarthProInspire: Addressing the Nonprofit Leadership Deficit by Utilizing Business Talent by Nikita Mitchell Over the last several years interest in working in the social sector has soared. President Obama has brought considerable attention to the importance of volunteerism and civic engagement sin…
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2010 Inspire Fellows Graduate, Celebrating a Year of AccomplishmentsOn Tuesday evening, ProInspire’s second class of Inspire Fellows gathered with family, friends, alumni, board members and partners of the organization to celebrate their accomplishments over the last year. The atmosphere was relaxed, the food was delicious and the drinks were flowing. After gi…
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From Microsoft to Grassroots Business FundThis post was written by Inspire Fellow Tony Cappaert for the Next Billion blog. NextBillion.net is a website and blog bringing together the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise. T…
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Day in the Life of an Inspire Fellows Alum: Nick TakamineAfter a year as an Inspire Fellow with FHI, an international development NGO working in global health and related areas, Nick joined FHI as a Strategy & Analysis Officer. In this role, he is leading the development of a performance metrics framework for the Business Planning & Strategy…
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Alum Book Review: How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar: 50 Ways to Accelerate your CareerWhen I was in 6th grade, my biggest fear was of wasting my life. I was a strange kid. I even wrote a long, sappy poem about it. Re-reading that poem in the midst of a recent closet-cleaning exercise brought a bit of chagrin, but also a realization: living intentionally has been the hound at [&hellip…
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A business professional’s observations about direct serviceI thought I knew what I would be doing in the non-profit sector when I became a ProInspire Fellow. The roles for those of us transitioning from the business world tend to be functional and strategic, leveraging our analytical background. However, I work at Year Up, Inc., and they are not content lea…
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Grad school advice from ProInspire Fellows panelOn Friday we had our monthly Inspire Fellows Professional Development workshop. This was the first workshop since Fellows started working, so we focused on career development. The highlight of the workshop was a panel about the role of graduate school in nonprofit careers. The panel featured: –…
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Inspire Fellows pilot kicks-off!On Monday we kicked off the pilot Inspire Fellows program with a 2-day orientation! 5 Fellows from our pilot class participated and they are a very enthusiastic group. In this picture (from L to R): Nick Takamine, Monisha Kapila, Pratichi Shah, John Wilson, Matt Chou, Meg McCann, Rashan Jibowu, Kare…