Our Leadership Initiative elevates the importance of leadership development, focusing on strategies that build the success of our program strategies. It explores how organizations support leadership and how our resources might strengthen these efforts.

To this end, two different tracks guide our investments in leadership development:

• Technical Support: Addressing core leadership development needs (funding trainings, assessments, coaching, planning, on-line resources)

• Adaptive Support: Addressing cultural or structural barriers to effective leadership (funding service providers, organizational restructuring, research)

Long-term Goals

• Grantees incorporate best leadership practices, supporting the development of skills and capacities of staff and volunteers at all levels.

• Grantees are innovative in their approaches to leadership development and experiment with alternative organizational structures and systems.

• Grantees have successful leadership transitions and organizations assess ways to strengthen their work at times of transition.

• Employment and volunteer opportunities at grantee organizations are highly sought after by talented people with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Types of Projects

• Leadership training for staff and board members; individual leadership assessments and workplace coaching.

• Executive transition management or succession planning.

• Organizational restructuring to enhance leadership development and make executive leadership more sustainable.

• Organizational efforts to attract and support new leaders.

• Support for capacity builders to expand or adapt their services to help meet the evolving needs of our grantees.

• Research into trends, best practices, and innovations in the field of leadership.

Funding Details

Typical grants, awarded at one of three board meetings held each year, are funded through our Conservation Capacity Program. They are earmarked for groups already receiving support from our other programs and range from $5,000 to $40,000. Inquiries for this program are accepted on an ongoing basis and proposals are accepted by invitation only.

Grantees interested in leadership support can refer to Nonprofit Leadership Best Practices and the Leadership Self-Assessment Tool in the Resources section.