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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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ProInspire’s Journey to Center Equity in our WorkBy Monisha Kapila Over the past two years, ProInspire has been actively building our knowledge and capacity to more clearly center equity¹ in our work. We deeply appreciate partners who have shared their journey with us, so our team will share learnings, questions, and struggles as we pursue our ow…
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Looking Ahead: An Update on ProInspire’s Strategic PlanBy Monisha Kapila I am happy to share an update on ProInspire’s strategic plan as we prepare for 20 18-2019. This update includes exciting plans to launch new programs, and our decision to sunset the ProInspire Fellowship in 2018. As a quick review, in Fall 2017 our Board approved ProInspire’s B…
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The Design Principles Guiding Our Competency Model DevelopmentBy Sandy Stonesifer, ProInspire’s Advisor for Leadership Development As ProInspire’s CEO Monisha Kapila shared in a blog post earlier this year, we are in the process of defining a competency model for social sector professionals. Our team spent the past few months reviewing existing literat…
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Dear CEO: Successful Diversity Needs the Right State of MindTo conclude ProInspire’s work as curation partner for Independent Sector’s collection of diversity, equity, and inclusion resources, Ericka Hines and Monisha Kapila co-authored the following blog post about the importance of leadership mindsets to the advocacy and advancement of diver…
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Bold Goal Strategy 3: Influence the Sector to Prioritize Talent, Equity, and InclusionBy Martha Searby Influence (v): to cause someone to change a behavior, belief, or opinion, or to cause something to be changed In order to achieve ProInspire’s Bold Goal that social sector organizations have high performing leaders at all levels in order to fulfill their missions, we must go bey…
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Bold Goal Strategy 2: Creating Pathways for Leaders at All LevelsBy Kristen Lucas ProInspire was founded with the idea that we need to expand career pathways into the social sector and increase diversity in the field. In order to achieve ProInspire’s Bold Goal that social sector organizations have high performing leaders at all levels in order to fulfill their …
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Bold Goal Strategy 1: Develop Leaders to Drive ResultsBy Dionne Galloway and Monisha Kapila As we shared last week, ProInspire’s Bold Goal is that social sector organizations have high performing leaders at all levels in order to fulfill their missions. The first strategy we have defined to achieve our bold goal is to develop leaders with the mindset…
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Introducing ProInspire’s Bold Goal and Strategies for ImpactBy Monisha Kapila In March 2015, ProInspire started down the path of defining our bold goal for impact, and creating a strategy for the organization’s future. As a young and lean organization, I thought our strategy process would take about a year. Along the way, we gained tremendous learnings thr…
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Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter: A Blog Post by Monisha KapilaAs we mentioned in our announcement this week about Independent Sector’s new Focus Area on diversity, equity, and inclusion and ProInspire’s role as curation partner and issue expert for it, Monisha Kapila (ProInspire CEO) co-authored an introductory blog post to help frame the Focus Ar…
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ProInspire Strategy Update 5: Findings from Internal and External AssessmentBy Monisha Kapila, Founder and CEO Last year, ProInspire embarked on a strategy process to define our bold goal and set the course for the organization’s future. Over the past six months, we have conducted an internal and external assessment to better understand our strengths, assets, and the exte…
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ProInspire Strategy Update 4: Strategy Steering Committee Kick-Off MeetingBy Monisha Kapila, Founder and CEO, ProInspire In April, ProInspire’s Strategy Steering Committee met and discussed the Internal Assessment based on stakeholder interviews. The Steering Committee includes a cross-section of ProInspire stakeholders, including staff, Board members, partners, and alu…
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ProInspire Strategy Update 3: Results from Internal AssessmentBy Monisha Kapila, Founder and CEO, ProInspire As I described in our last blog post, ProInspire is in the midst of a strategy process to define our bold goal and set the course for the organization’s future. We have completed the first phase of the process, an Internal Assessment. The goal of the …
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ProInspire Strategy Update 2: Strategy Process OverviewThis is an exciting year for ProInspire, as we have embarked on a strategy process to define our bold goal and set the course for the organization’s future. We were inspired to think about our bold goal by Community Wealth Partners, which wrote: “We challenge change agents to shift their attenti…
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State of the Washington DC Region – Highlights from Nonprofit Roundtable’s Annual MeetingBy Neelam Barot, ProInspire Intern On Wednesday June 24th, the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington held its Annual Meeting, including a cross-sector dialogue about the state of the region, at George Mason University’s Arlington campus. ProInspire’s CEO, Monisha Kapila, was elected to the …
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What is Nonprofit Strategy All About?By Nicolas Takamine, 2009 ProInspire Fellow Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 in a series of blog posts by Nicolas Takamine (ProInspire Fellow, ’09), inspired by ProInspire’s request for engagement in its strategy process in ProInspire Strategy Update 1: Start With Your Result. The term “…
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ProInspire Strategy Update 1: Start With Your ResultLessons from the Casey Foundation’s Talent Pipelines Learning Lab – Seminar 1 By Monisha Kapila, Founder and CEO, ProInspire This year, ProInspire will be focused on two major initiatives related to our strategy: 1. Launching a strategy process to identify our “Bold Goal” as an organization …
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GlobalGiving’s Approach to Investing in TalentMonisha Kapila, CEO of ProInspire, sat down with Jen Sigler, COO of GlobalGiving, to learn more about how the organization has invested in talent and results they are seeing. What is your overall approach to professional development? We have a very people centered philosophy at GlobalGiving. It ma…
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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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Building a Nonprofit Talent Pipeline: An Interview with Monisha KapilaFor this month's Social Innovation Interview Series Nell Edgington, President of Social Velocity, interviewed our Founder and CEO Monisha Kapila. Nell: One of the things ProInspire does is train business professionals about how things are different in the nonprofit sector. Can you, a…
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Five Strategies to Becoming the Employer You Want to Beby ProInspire Board Member Pratichi Shah “What kind of employer do you want to be?” There may be no more important question when positioning an organization for future success. Buteau and Gopal pose the question explicitly in Employee Empowerment: The Key to Foundation Staff Satisfa…
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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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ProInspire’s Growth Strategy: Defining the HedgehogEarlier this year, we decided it was time to develop ProInspire’s growth strategy. I started ProInspire in 2009 with a hypothesis – that one way to address the nonprofit leadership deficit is to expand talent pools in the sector. We launched the Inspire Fellowship to do just that by recruiting y…
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Book Review: Good to Great by Jim CollinsProInspire is no stranger to Jim Collins. Good to Great and the Social Sectors: a Monograph to Accompany Good to Great is an introductory read for all Fellows within the first few months in the sector. However after reading the monograph and receiving so many recommendations to read his best seller …
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Addressing the Nonprofit Leadership Deficit by Utilizing Business TalentOver 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 since the beginning of his presidency. Fellowships and post-graduate programs have steadily gained popularity ove…
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ProInspire Spotlight: Valerie Faillace, KIPP FoundationWe are starting a new monthly feature on our blog. ProInspire Spotlight will feature sector switchers and people using their business experience in the social sector. This month we speak with Valerie Faillace at the KIPP Foundation. Valerie and I were roommates at Harvard Business School – she…
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Bridgestar article: Cultural Fit in the Nonprofit SectorBridgestar recently spoke with Brian O’Connell about the role of cultural fit in the nonprofit sector. Brian is the author of Fifty Years in Public Causes: Stories From a Road Less Traveled, and co-founder and president emeritus of Independent Sector. Brian shared his perspectives about cultural f…
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Article: ‘Talent tsunami’ from downturn floods sectorInteresting article from the Financial Times. Discusses how the wave of business professionals trying to get into the nonprofit sector has not made talent management easier for organizations. Credit crunch: ‘Talent tsunami’ from downturn floods sector By Sarah Murray Published: May 27 2009 18:01…
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Bridgespan’s latest report on the leadership deficitLast week the Bridgespan Group published Finding Leaders for America’s Nonprofits – an update to their leadership deficit study from 2006. Many people have been wondering if the leadership deficit is no longer an issue because of the recession. Bridgespan polled 433 nonprofit EDs with re…