YNPN Chicago is proud to announce our Spring 2021 Professional Growth Grant recipients. The program was launched in 2020 to support current YNPN Chicago members and our network with professional development opportunities such as conference attendance, class and workshop fees, membership to professional associations, and much more. Recipients are eligible for individual grants of up to $500. With the addition of the Spring 2021 recipients, the Professional Grant Growth has supported five (5) young professionals to date with grants totaling nearly $2,000.
Please join us in celebrating our Spring 2021 Professional Growth Grant recipients:
Tricia Gopalakrishnan (she/her)
6-week Advanced Proposal Writing course $149
Tricia plans to use the Professional Growth Grant toward a 6-week Advanced Proposal Writing Course. Through this course, she hopes to grow and build relationships with new foundations and corporations, gain knowledge about funders, and ultimately write better grants to increase sources for the Black Ensemble Theater. She also hopes to increase her ability to write effective government grants. Tricia hopes to use her grant-writing skills both for her professional role and also for passion projects!
Elizabeth Foster (she/her)
Participation in Wealth Reclamation Academy of Practitioners online Lab for Emerging Mobilizers
$500
Elizabeth will leverage the Professional Growth Grant funds to participate in the Wealth Reclamation Academy of Practitioners (WRAP) online Lab for Emerging Resource Mobilizers. This 11-week program connects emerging fundraisers to challenge traditional understandings of philanthropy and re-learn "fundraising" as resource mobilization: activating community networks to reclaim wealth (in all its forms) in support of social justice causes. Her priority is to learn new skills and practices that align fundraising (or resource mobilization) with racial, gender, environmental, and economic justice. Elizabeth wants to understand and experiment with different ways of finding the resources we need to do our work, and help guide the nonprofit sector towards fundraising practices that align with social justice causes.
Sara Shanley (she/her)
Leading Innovation in Nonprofits Course towards Kellogg Nonprofit Management Executive Scholar Certificate
$350
Sara recently completed the Allstate Foundation’s Executive Leadership Program through Kellogg at Northwestern. Sara will use the Professional Growth Grant to take an additional class at Kellogg as she works toward a Nonprofit Management Executive Scholar Certificate. Specifically, she will enroll in the Leading Innovation in Nonprofits course to explore the concepts of process- and design-based innovation.
You can learn more about the Professional Growth Grant here and past recipients here. Thank you to all of the individuals who applied for the 2021 Professional Growth Grant. We look forward to receiving your application in the future.