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Inside a $5-Million Effort to Aid the Nonprofit World's Next Generation
By Eric Frazier
Christopher Mateo had a life-transforming experience last
summer.
Working as an intern at the Latino Commission on AIDS, in
New York, he watched as people heaped praise on the
organization's president, Dennis deLeon, during an award
banquet in Mr. deLeon's honor. The award was nice, Mr.
Mateo thought, but even more impressive was Mr. deLeon's
passion and commitment. Suddenly, the young man had a
vision of his own future.
"Just seeing him up there accepting his award, it was an
amazing experience," says Mr. Mateo, 20. "It really affirmed
that this is what I want to do after college. My goal is to go to
Latin America and work with HIV/AIDS there."
That transformative experience might not have been possible
without the help of American Humanics' Next Generation
Nonprofit Leaders program, also known as NextGen. The
program gave him a $4,500 scholarship — essentially a
stipend to sustain him during an unpaid internship at the
Latino Commission. Mr. Mateo, a senior at Southern
Adventist University, in Collegedale, Tenn., says he couldn't
have accepted the internship without it.
He is among the first wave of students from across the country
to benefit from the NextGen program, an ambitious five-year
effort that hopes to nudge a diverse group of 1,000 college
students toward leadership positions in nonprofit
organizations.
The new program is well in keeping with the mission of
American Humanics, a nonprofit group in Kansas City, Mo.
The organization prepares college students for nonprofit
careers, providing undergraduate curricula, scholarships,
leadership opportunities, and internships in line with that goal.
Emphasis on Diversity
So if American Humanics was already grooming future
nonprofit leaders, why the need for the NextGen program?
Organizers say the program's roots can be traced to the
research of an American Humanics faculty member who was
trying to answer a simple question: Why doesn't every
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From the issue dated May 29, 2008
American Humanics student enrolled in the organization's
undergraduate certification program finish it, and then go on
to jobs in the nonprofit world?
"The major issue," says Richard Potter, American Humanics'
spokesman, "was the unpaid internship."
Many students were deciding they couldn't afford to spend the
roughly six months it would take to complete the 300-hour
internship required for American Humanics certification.
"Many nonprofits look at internships as a cheap source of
labor," Mr. Potter says. "They either pay nothing or they pay a
minimum amount."
The solution seemed obvious: Supplement the internship pay.
Fortunately for American Humanics, the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, in Battle Creek, Mich., has long been interested in
efforts to move skilled young managers into nonprofit
organizations. It helped American Humanics grow its network
of affiliated campuses from about 12 in the early 1990s to
about 75 today. When Kellogg asked for a proposal to solve
the internship problem, American Humanics complied, and the
Next Generation Nonprofit Leaders program was born.
Kellogg is committing $5-million to the project over five
years. The goal is to select 1,000 future leaders for the
program. Each receives a $4,500 scholarship or stipend to help
him or her complete an internship and earn American
Humanics certification. Each NextGen intern will also gain
access to and support from a network of mentors in nonprofit
organizations.
The program began in the spring of 2007, with slightly more
than 200 students. About 200 more will be selected each year
through 2011, with the hope that at least 40 percent to 50
percent of them will be members of minority groups. Forty-
seven percent of the first year's class were minorities.
"It's working. We're really pleased," Mr. Potter says. "We
want to do everything we can to make sure the next generation
of nonprofit leaders reflects the diversity of the communities
they serve."
 Inside a $5-Million Effort to Aid the Nonprofit World's Next Generation
From the issue dated May 29, 2008
Page 2
That has long been a problem in nonprofit groups. Eighty-two
percent of chief executives at the nation's nonprofit
organizations are white, according to a 2006 survey by
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, in San Francisco, and the
Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, in Washington.
At grant-making organizations, some 94 percent of chief
executives are white, according to 2006 figures from the
Foundation Center. About 67 percent of the nation is white,
U.S. Census figures show.
"It's gotten better," says Alandra Washington, deputy director
of the Kellogg foundation. "But there is a huge gap to access
and resources in traditional and marginalized communities.
Historically, communities of color have been left out of the
many aspects of the mainstream in America. This is just
another sector in which this plays out."
Gender Gap
Women are also underrepresented, especially at the highest
levels of the nonprofit world. While female executives lead
half of all nonprofit groups with budgets of $1-million or less,
only a quarter of groups with budgets of more than $50-
million are led by women, according to GuideStar, a group in
Williamsburg, Va., that collects financial information about
charities and foundations.
Molly Hamm is just the kind of future leader the NextGen
program is seeking to nurture.
Ms. Hamm, 21, is a junior at Kansas State University who has
already embraced charity work and volunteering. She has
volunteered with an afterschool program, served as an
AmeriCorps volunteer, and is so highly regarded by American
Humanics that she was asked to give a presentation during the
organization's recent conference.
She wanted to go to Washington this summer to participate in
the Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service, at
Georgetown University. The summer-long program allows
students to take classes at Georgetown and do an internship in
the nonprofit field. Ms. Hamm elected to do hers at The
People Speak, an educational campaign by the United Nations
Foundation that seeks to engage youths on global issues.
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She would have struggled to handle living expenses in the
nation's capital, even though her internship is paid. But the
NextGen program's stipend will help her meet her expenses.
"This is a good way for me to go and participate without
having to stress over the finances," she says. "A lot of times
students don't think they can go into nonprofits if they have a
lot of debt or if they don't think they'll be able to maintain
their standard of living. Giving them this early contact with
the nonprofit world hopefully will allow them to develop that
affinity for the sector."
The program has definitely worked for Mr. Mateo. His major
is in nonprofit administration and development and he says he
has been offered a full-time job by the Latino Commission
once he graduates. It is nice to have an offer on the table, says
the New York native, but he's not sure he wants to go back to
big-city life.
"I'm still weighing my options," he says.
Karen Brown can testify to how well the NextGen program
works. The group she leads, Aspiring Youth, a small charity in
Houston that works with disadvantaged middle-school
students, operates on a tight $500,000 budget. Her NextGen
intern, LaShic Patterson, dove into a variety of projects, from
writing grant proposals to arranging student visits at local
businesses. Ms. Patterson, a University of Houston senior,
made herself so indispensable that when her internship ended
in late April, Ms. Brown quickly hired her as a development
and programs coordinator.
Ms. Patterson was Ms. Brown's second American Humanics
intern — and the second one she has hired. Ms. Brown
marvels at how "job ready" the interns have been: "I should
have been so amazing when I was their age."
Ms. Washington, of the Kellogg foundation, says there are still
far too few women and people of color in key positions, like
development officers and executive directors, as well as on
boards of directors. But she likes what the NextGen program
is doing to put a dent in the problem.
"We're still early into the program, but we're pleased with the
results," she says. "So far, so good."