By Stephen Alexander, Exponent Philanthropy

In its third year, the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network’s (YNPN) Atlanta chapter launched an Opportunity Grant program to support Atlanta’s young nonprofit professionals. YNPN Atlanta awards individual grants up to $750 to current members for professional development opportunities such as conferences, classes, or association memberships. The following is an excerpt from a conversation with Lindsey Hardegree and Kate Naylor who have run the grants program since its inception in 2014.

What motivated you to create YNPN Atlanta’s Opportunity Grants program?

There’s little funding for professional development for young professionals in Atlanta, and it’s frustrating to them. Many organizations, big and small, don’t budget for professional development, and the ones that do typically reserve funds for senior level professionals. We saw this grant program as an opportunity to provide a service that few employers are offering in Atlanta.

We believe the lack of professional development funding impedes young professionals from growing their careers. Your first job in the nonprofit world doesn’t necessarily line up with your long-term ambitions. As nonprofit organizations, we’re oftentimes so focused on operating on our shoestring budgets that we’re unable to properly prepare staff (or ourselves) for the future.

YNPN Atlanta has always strived to provide affordable and accessible professional development opportunities. When we realized we had more money for the year than we needed, we recognized an opportunity to steward our money in a creative way while addressing this obvious need. The answer was clear: give the money back to members in support of their professional development.

Describe your grant program for us.

We’re a tiny organization, and for us this program makes up a massive piece of our $25,000 budget. Our plan is to give away $7,500 over the course of a year, with a maximum of $750 to any single individual. A quarterly grant cycle seemed like a good start, because it offers us flexibility in case we receive more strong applications in any given quarter than we can fund. This last cycle was easily our most competitive!

• Application—We see the application process itself as a professional development opportunity for members. We want them to be able to spell out why this opportunity is so critical to them, and our questions are aimed at helping applicants think through their big-picture career goals.

• Grants management & selection process—We employ a high-touch grants management process. We reach out to individuals directly when we haven’t received the items we need or we think a few tweaks could build a stronger case. After the decisions are made, we notify everyone who applied, and we always provide feedback about why their application was (or was not) accepted.

• Focus & transparency—One of our goals is to be very clear about what we do and do not fund. We created an FAQ page on our website following one of our in-person informational sessions. For instance, we receive a lot of requests for support with tuition. Whereas it’s certainly in line with the impact we want to have, we don’t usually think tuition is the best use of our limited funds because there are other resources available for tuition assistance.

• Accountability & evaluation—We ask grant recipients for documentation showing how the money was spent and a final report following the development opportunity that explains what they got out of it and how they anticipate it will continue to benefit them. We also want to elevate our great grantees, so we ask for a headshot and bio to put on our website and use on social media.

View YNPN Atlanta’s Opportunity Grant recipients >>

What are you learning?

There’s excitement! People in the nonprofit community in Atlanta are talking about the program. It’s particularly exciting when we hear from applicants’ employers, allowing us to hear about the impact of the grants from those they work with. For us, it’s so fulfilling to be validated by more seasoned professionals who may or may not have had opportunities like this.

We really hope to be able to go back to applicants 2-3 years from now to see what difference the grants made in their personal and professional growth. One story in particular comes to mind: A law student who works at a food bank applied for financial support for the bar exam. She couldn’t afford to pay for it on her own. Not only did we empower her to pursue a career as a lawyer, we also heard from the food bank how valuable it would be to have one on staff. We’re all excited to see what happens!

Thinking long term, what do you hope to achieve through the Opportunity Grant Program?

There’s so much potential in the nonprofit sector. For the first time, we’re seeing people pursue careers in the sector from an early age instead of simply falling into this line of work. So many people at nonprofits have to rely on on-the-job training; this would be fine, except that most nonprofits are understaffed and underfunded. It’s so hard to train people to do outstanding work when everyone is just trying to keep the lights on.

For us, it’s exciting to be able to help develop and retain young talent. We want to find a way to give people the training and opportunities they crave. This work will help more young nonprofit professionals stay in the nonprofit sector and find ways to make this work remain exciting for them.

It may take 15 years or more to make these types of changes, but we hope we can continue to connect the dots, provide access to opportunity, and grow a talented pipeline of nonprofit leaders.

Exponent Philanthropy Program Manager Stephen Alexander designs sessions for our educational programs and coordinates content production with the goal of delivering the best service possible to our community. Previously, Stephen worked with Thomson Reuters, Jones Lang LaSalle, and two small nonprofits in Washington, DC. Stephen currently serves on the board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network’s DC chapter. Follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenALXdc and Exponent Philanthropy @exponentphil.

Lindsey Hardegree is a co-founder of YNPN Atlanta and currently serves as treasurer on the board of directors. During the day, Lindsey works as a nonprofit fundraiser, managing and developing boards, building relationships, consulting, and planning events. Lindsey was recently recognized in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s inaugural 30 Under 30.

Kate Naylor coordinates the YNPN Atlanta‘s micro-grant program, the YNPN Atlanta Opportunity Grant, and serves as the finance & fundraising chair on the board of directors. During the day, Kate works as program coordinator for the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University.