Helping nonprofit leaders and their organizations succeed

Nonprofit organizations play an essential role in protecting and advancing the rights and opportunities of all people. The success of these organizations depends on strong and capable leaders.

At the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, we’re experimenting with new approaches to strengthening nonprofit leadership in the fields and movements in which we work. Through our Flexible Leadership Investment program, we’re investing in a variety of efforts to support and develop leaders who are current grantees of the Haas, Jr. Fund working on issues from education to immigrant and gay & lesbian rights.

Now in its fourth year, the Fund's Flexible Leadership Investment (FLI) program engages executive directors, senior staff and board members of selected nonprofits to think expansively about where their organizations want to go, what kind of leadership they need to get there, and how to make sure staff and board leaders have the skills and the support that will help them succeed. Through the FLI program, leadership capacity building grants and other initiatives, we’re providing nonprofits with dedicated resources to hire coaches and enlist other forms of customized leadership support.

In addition to providing direct leadership development support to grantees, FLIP supports a limited number of programs and initiatives serving a broader base of individuals and organizations, with a focus on developing immigrant leaders and leaders of color. An example is the 21st Century Fellows program, which aims to support and cultivate leadership of color for LGBT organizations.

Over the last several years, the Haas, Jr. Fund has become a major funder of leadership development for the nonprofit sector. As we continue down this path, we plan to keep documenting what we’re learning so we can tell the story of how stronger leadership leads to better results for nonprofits and the people they serve, and how best to ensure that these organizations have the leaders they need to succeed.

Over the past five years (2005-09), the Fund has made grants totaling nearly $8.8 million in this program area.