Program Helps Young Leaders Build Sustainable Nonprofits in Baltimore

Start­ing in mid-Sep­tem­ber, par­tic­i­pants in the sec­ond cohort of the Bal­ti­more Young Lead­ers Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Pro­gram will learn about build­ing sus­tain­able, self-suf­fi­cient non­prof­its and initiatives.

In the six-month pro­gram, which is run by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and Com­mu­ni­ty Wealth Part­ners, young lead­ers from 14 orga­ni­za­tions will strength­en their skills in numer­ous areas — includ­ing bud­get­ing, fundrais­ing, net­work­ing, board devel­op­ment and data analy­sis. Par­tic­i­pants, all of whom are under age 30, will meet vir­tu­al­ly for numer­ous work­shops and have access to one-on-one coaching.

The young lead­ers, many of whom are return­ing from 2019’s inau­gur­al cohort, will also dis­cuss how to devel­op and main­tain rela­tion­ships with fun­ders and key part­ners dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID-19 out­break has caused hard­ships for all non­prof­its, but espe­cial­ly for grass­roots and com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions that have lost access to key fun­ders and part­ners dur­ing the cri­sis,” says Tal­ib Horne, direc­tor of the Casey Foundation’s Bal­ti­more Civic Site. ​“We should do all we can to ensure that these orga­ni­za­tions — espe­cial­ly those run by young, bud­ding lead­ers in phil­an­thropy and social change — have the tools nec­es­sary to get through the pandemic.”

A 2018 study called Young, Gift­ed and Under­fund­ed by Open Soci­ety Insti­tute-Bal­ti­more inspired the pro­gram. The authors of the pub­li­ca­tion found that, despite tal­ent­ed young peo­ple start­ing and lead­ing Bal­ti­more non­prof­its, many of them lacked fund­ing and oth­er supports.

2020 cohort mem­bers include:

• Ciera Daniel, Young Kings’ Lead­er­ship Acad­e­my;
• Ralikh Hayes, Orga­niz­ing Black;
• Tonee Law­son, The Be. Orga­ni­za­tion;
• Alphon­so Mayo, Men­tor­ing Men­tors;
• Eli­jah Miles, Ten­dea Fam­i­ly;
• Nic­hole Mooney, Black Girls Cook;
• Tre Mur­phy, Orga­niz­ing Black;
• Matthew Reeds, The Reeds Autism and Sar­coido­sis Fund;
• Ana Rod­ney, MOM­Cares;
• Dar­ren Rogers, I am MEN­tal­i­ty;
• Aman­da Ross, Dream BIG Foun­da­tion;
• Rashad Sta­ton, Cat­a­lyst of Change;
• Fred Watkins, Lil’ Laughs; and
• Brit­tany Young, B360 Bal­ti­more.

See more Casey Foun­da­tion resources on lead­er­ship development