Businesses need to learn how to collaborate with youth in order to be successful.
Members of the Cabrini community learned from distinguished nonprofit leaders in arts and humanities, education, social services and more. The event was sponsored by the Nerney Leadership Institute. Executive Director of the Nerney Leadership Institute, Maria Vizcarrondo, held a panel of professional nonprofit leaders to examine the future of nonprofit.
The most talked about topic throughout the panel was the importance of technology and the way it has shaped the manner in which we live our lives.
“Technology is absolutely critical to our future, it is here to stay. We communicate differently, we walk different and we talk different,” Nancy Albilal, vice president of development at Foundation Center in New York, said. Albilal also expressed that social media has caused us to not know when our days begin and end. It is a never ending source throughout the world.
As technology continues to shape the way we live, it is important to be able to adapt. Adaptability is one of the key benefactors in how successful one can be in the nonprofit world. “It is important to not sit back and say ok well this is how we’ve done it for years and this is how we will continue to do it. I think it’s important to make sure you are always looking at the next thing and the new way to handle your services,” Sybille Damas, chief operations officer at Congreso, said.
Skills such as adaptability is a must have if one is looking to invest in nonprofit. The most important skill that was discussed was leadership. Ronald Cowell, President of the Education Policy and Leadership Center, examined the definition of leadership. “Leadership is doing something that causes other people to do something that they otherwise would not do,” Cowell said.
Leaders learn from other leaders and then become leaders themselves. However, just having leadership skills is not enough in the nonprofit world.
“Leaders will have to learn to collaborate with other organizations to ensure the success of their organizations,” Nancy DeLucia, Executive Director of Hatboro-Horsham Educational Foundation, said.
Not only was the collaboration and communication with other organizations stressed but also the communication with the youth. The youth have grown up with the advances in technology and are caught up to speed with it, whereas some adults are still adapting to the changes. “Invest in the youth. We cannot afford to lose them. They are our future assets,” Anita Kulick, President and CEO of Educating Communities for Parenting, said.
The youth are utilizing social media every day. They are the individuals that will shape the future of nonprofit. By using social media, one can get nonprofit organizations the recognition they need in order to become a relevant item in society. It is the leaders of the nonprofit world’s responsibility to center themselves around the youth to ensure the success of their organizations.
