Founded in 2015, YNPN Triangle NC's mission is to cultivate and support young nonprofit professionals in the Triangle by fostering networking, skill-building, and resource-sharing.
Our organization has made great strides in supporting young professionals with resources across the sector. From partnering with the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits and AFP Triangle last year on the “Rebuilding for Resiliency Conference,” to connecting with ReCity and learning about their Town Hall conversations, to exploring collaborations with NC State’s and UNC’s MPA programs, to building our capacity with Triangle Community Foundation, Triangle Nonprofit & Volunteer Leadership Center, and Executive Service Corp, we are fully committed to ensuring our reach expands far and wide. Each partnership we make is intentional and is sought out with the consideration of how to support the holistic development of the young nonprofit professionals we serve.
YNPN Triangle NC is the go-to organization for individuals pursuing a career in the nonprofit sector, particularly among the next generation of leaders. As demand continues to grow for nonprofit organizations and the professional development of their employees, we must ensure our programs and services mirror the reality of our sector. We need to support and include leaders of all communities for our sector to be responsive to those growing needs. As important as our programming is, the capacity of our all volunteer-run board is limited. In 2019 and 2020, we underwent a considerable internal review, assessing our financial health, volunteer capacity, and honoring intentional change by electing the first two Black Board Chairs. Now, we’re ready to turn to the external work of transforming the sector with purposeful and colorful leadership representation. We are not just practitioners of D.E.I. but living examples of what it means to empower equity and include ideas from all spaces and places in the sector. This work is essential to uplifting the nonprofit sector because this generation of emerging leaders is fueled by an audacious ambition to change the world, and we will. It is our honor, duty, and privilege to see the greatness in others and help them explore what's possible and reach beyond it!
Young Nonprofit Professionals have a number of ways to access our personal and professional development opportunities.
1. Join our listserv full of job postings, community events, and volunteer opportunities. Want all the info? You got it! Keep plugged in to what is happening in the Triangle nonprofit community by signing up today.
2. Attend a programming event.
- Unwind in a virtual networking hangout. From scavenger hunts to bingo, to brunches to coffee chat check-ins, this is your time to meet with friendly faces and just “be.”
- Attend one of our four Resource Roundtables. These are more structured networking events grounded in YNPN Triangle NC's competency model. During these events, individuals from across the sector will come together to share essential skills and resources around our four main pillars. These competencies are always at the heart of all YNPN Triangle NC professional development events and we want you to grow with us! Our aim is to assist young professionals to build out the relevant skills and knowledge needed to flourish both professionally and personally.
- Roll up your sleeves and pull up a chair for a professional development workshop (series). This is your time to dive deep into a topic that impacts your life across all spaces. We’ll talk about financial awareness, self-care, living in a true D.E.I. world, and more. Real Talk + Intentional Work = Transformative Results!
3. Want to exchange ideas and thought leadership, even when you’re short on time? Follow us on social media (Facebook and LinkedIn) and start a conversation with your fellow emerging leaders.
LinkedIn: @YNPN Triangle NC
Facebook: @YNPNTriangleNC
Over the past several years, the number of unique individuals our organization supports has grown drastically. We put great intentionality into our programming and are mindful to include our community members as the cornerstone to inform our efforts. This is a critical time in our society and the nonprofit sector is truly challenging what the acronym D.E.I. means with regard to sincerely serving communities. YNPN Triangle has risen to the challenge of grappling with understanding each component of D.E.I to better embody its reality. YNPN Triangle is always willing to meet emerging leaders "where they are" and help them thrive on their own terms. That is the beauty and the truth of what D.E.I means. It's not one size fits all, it's not linear, and it's not prescriptive. It's real, it's messy, it's deliberate, and it takes conscientious effort all the time. We've got a lot of work ahead of us but as YNPN Triangle has been saying for years, we are #NonprofitSTRONG. We got this!
We are a very agile organization, led by a volunteer board of innovators who are not satisfied with the status quo. We are advocates for change, we step up and ask the tough questions of the leaders before us, and strive to emerge as leaders ready to transform our communities. Even before COVID-19 stopped the world, we began to refocus on what was most impactful to our members and decided that although we can do a lot, we can’t do it all, and we can’t do it alone. In order to strengthen our network, we turned to our partners to help us share the load of the work. We also quickly pivoted our in-person programming events to all virtual, all while maintaining the outstanding quality of content our constituents have come to expect from our group. We are committed, ambitious, excited, and ready for whatever comes next. We hope you’ll join us and continue to support our work of lifting up emerging nonprofit leaders along their career journey.
Learn about YNPN Triangle NC's 2020 impact!
See how you can get involved in the work of YNPN Triangle NC!
