New member Leadership Fellows New York (LFNY) seeks to ensure that the next generation of nonprofit leaders has the knowledge to advance social justice and racial equity.
We asked LFNY’s administrative director, Shel Ho, to tell us more about their work.
Independent Sector: Tell us about your organization’s areas of interest, the communities you serve, and how your work helps to advance an equitable and healthy sector and nation where all people can thrive.
Shel Ho: Leadership Fellows New York is the premier professional development opportunity for mid-career nonprofit practitioners in the metropolitan New York City region. The fellowship program represents a diverse, inclusive, and talented community of nonprofit leaders who are advancing social justice missions in New York and beyond.
In 2014, the New York Community Trust’s program officers noted that there was an especially severe leadership gap in the nonprofit sector in the New York metropolitan area. The Bridgespan Group had recently reported that approximately 60,000 nonprofit directors were retiring each year across the country. In response, the Trust created a professional leadership program for emerging practitioners, especially emerging BIPOC leaders, and invited the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College to design it as an executive certificate program. Today, 400 new leaders have graduated from the Leadership Fellows New York program, representing 250+ nonprofit organizations from New York City, Long Island, and Westchester.
Our fellows are mid-career professionals with a minimum of five years of overall nonprofit experience and at least three years of managerial experience. Many fellows represent BIPOC-led organizations and mirror the diversity of New York. To date, they represent more than 250 nonprofit organizations from across the New York City metro area and are representative of our region, with 60% of fellows identifying as people of color.
Through applied learning, mentorship, and a lifelong community of peers, our Leadership Fellows put their learning into action immediately. Working at a variety of nonprofit organizations, they tackle a broad range of issues including but not limited to advancing immigrant rights, broadening access to the arts, cultivating youth skills, addressing climate change, and fighting for racial justice.
IS: What are your organization’s core programs that support the community you serve and help strengthen the nonprofit sector?
SH: It is critically important that future nonprofit executive directors and managers in New York have the necessary knowledge and skills to guide their organizations in successfully addressing the challenges and opportunities facing New Yorkers and the nation. We believe that these competencies are developed holistically, through a combination of formal instruction, lived experiences, and workplace learning.
Our program features:
- a curriculum taught through the lens of real-world issues and trends;
- small group exercises using tools and strategies to address the particular challenges and/or opportunities faced by the nonprofit sector;
- Leadership Conversations where fellows connect with nonprofit sector, social justice practitioners, and government leaders; and
- the opportunity to have a minimum of four one-hour meetings with a carefully selected mentor.
Our objectives are:
- to equip 60 mid-career practitioners each year with the knowledge, competencies, and skills to be more effective managers and leaders;
- to support these practitioners in applying their newly learned skills within their organizations;
- to develop participants’ understanding and appreciation of both the overall nonprofit sector in the greater New York City region and the impact of local, state, and federal government policies and regulations on their work;
- to foster a network of graduates who can learn and find support from their peers within and across the different sub-sectors of the New York nonprofit community;
- to connect practitioners with leaders and policymakers in the New York metropolitan region;
- to provide a malleable curriculum that allows participants to identify and enhance their particular talents; and
- to create an appetite for lifelong professional development.
We aim to provide a supportive and inclusive environment for communities of color and immigrants, and we encourage executive directors to consider nominating talented people of color from their staff.
Upon completion of the program, Leadership Fellows receive an executive certificate from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College and have access to a community of lifelong learners.
IS: Independent Sector brings together a diverse community of changemakers at nonprofits, foundations, and corporate giving programs that are working to achieve a racially just and healthy sector and nation where all people in the U.S. thrive. What influenced your decision to become an Independent Sector member? How does your work align with IndependentSector’s mission and our member organizations?
SH: In alignment with our continued commitment to center race and gender in all facets of the program, we decided to join Independent Sector’s diverse community of changemakers at nonprofits, foundations, and corporate giving programs in order to help us refine our approach to racial justice. IS’s news digests, policy briefs, and research will help us keep our program on the cutting edge of what is happening in our sector, whereas its community will help us redefine what it means for our program to innovate in the nonprofit leadership development space.
IS: How can collaborating with Independent Sector help you better achieve your mission?
SH: We’re very interested in creating partnerships and friendships between us and other IS members with similar educational and philanthropy-related missions! We’re very proud to be part of IS’s community of changemakers and we’re excited to meet other changemakers working to improve society for all people.
IS: What is most special about the community or people you serve?
SH: Each and every single one of our cohorts is special, but what always moves me is how they are all willing to be supportive of each other. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing many lifelong friendships form in our program.
IS: What would you like people to know about your organization that might surprise them?
SH: Despite the depth and breadth of our program and its reach across the New York nonprofit sector, we actually only have three staff members — me; our Director, Michael Seltzer; and our Communications Officer, Jenée Gerald!
Learn about other Independent Sector members and becoming a member.
Lindsay Marcal is Manager, Membership at Independent Sector.
