Empowering Nonprofits, Forging Opportunities
The central mission of Leadership York is training, inspiring and connecting those in volunteer leadership positions across the York community. Here, board members and business executives hone their skills and abilities in proper board governance and beyond to improve nonprofit operations.
Motivated by a vision of a better York, Leadership York began its mission more than 40 years ago. Through its Leadership Training Program, the organization has sought to bring opportunity and empowerment to those whose work and social activities wouldn’t otherwise include leadership roles while championing diversity.
When it was founded in 1978, Leadership York had only one leadership development program. Over the past four decades, Leadership York has grown and expanded its offerings to six total programs, including executive connections and networking, mentorship and board and executive director development. To date, nearly 4,000 individuals have graduated from Leadership York courses and gone on to serve in leadership roles with hundreds of local charities.
As Leadership York planned to expand board development training, create programs for alumni to stay up to date on current trends, establish an annual fund and more, Louis Appell, Jr. was ready to lend a helping hand to ensure these efforts would be carried out.
Mr. Appell’s support of Leadership York was driven by his strong desire to develop a cadre of motivated and well prepared individuals who could assume leadership positions in organizations that helped improve the York community. He truly felt that successful outcomes depended on individual efforts that were based on a desire to do good who were well prepared and understood the challenges and opportunities. The Leadership York Organization has a proven track record in fulfilling these objectives.
Jack R. Kay, Former Board Chair at Leadership York
With the help of the Powder Mill Foundation, Mr. Appell provided Leadership York with a grant for capacity building. This grant provided multiple years of funding to the organization. It also allowed Leadership York to transition a part-time position that covered five areas of core responsibilities to one of full-time status, now with the ability to concentrate solely on fundraising and alumni engagement.
In addition, Leadership York was able to launch a new Corporate Giving Program, which secured $8,400 in new corporate support, and created Get on Board, an annual event that brings nonprofits looking for trained board members and alumni seeking board opportunities together. The annual event series has been successful, selling out each year with 20 nonprofits participating.
Going into our 40th anniversary, Leadership York was poised for growth with a vision to launch new programming and enhance existing opportunities for our alumni and community leaders. To accomplish this, we needed to build our internal capacity and the support of the Powder Mill Foundation has allowed us to increase our staff resources and services to the nonprofit community. They understand the importance of training people to serve and how that impacts the organizational health of a nonprofit, and the York County community overall.
Wilda Alessi, Executive Director at Leadership York
