September 29, 2008
Contact: Doug Robinson, 202-220-2360, drobinson@nw.org
Amidst Demand for New Ideas in Community Development, NeighborWorks America Chooses the Fourth Class For its High-Impact Organizational Development Program, Achieving Excellence
Washington, D.C. –NeighborWorks America, the nation’s leading trainer of community development professionals, proudly invited 50 outstanding candidates into the fourth class of its NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence in Community Development program. Addressing what experts call a crisis in leadership across the nonprofit sector, Achieving Excellence is a comprehensive organizational development program that results in senior managers at local non-profit organizations that are better able to address the critical challenges facing their organizations, to increase their positive impact within communities, enhance fundraising capacity and better work with local government. Importantly, this type of program leads to a more fulfilling leadership experience and increases nonprofit leadership retention rates while also fostering collaboration and innovation inside the nonprofit community. This session of Achieving Excellence welcomes another diverse and skilled group to the 18-month experience that will begin at Harvard University on October 14, 2008.
Participants in the past three classes – 130 leaders from every region in the U.S. who participated in Achieving Excellence classes since the program began in 2002 – report significant improvement in their businesses and improved service to even more people. For example, leaders who finished the third class in February 2008 reported a 146 percent increase in people served, or more than 53,000 community members across America, specifically because of their participation in the program.
“These are remarkable results,” said Paul Kealey, director of training at NeighborWorks America. “The NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence in Community Development program has proven to be one of the most innovative and high impact programs in the affordable housing and community development field. This type of organizational investment leads to a very high return on investment for the participants’ organizations, their communities and those who support this work.”
In a period where homeownership was precarious and access to affordable financing became difficult, organizations led by graduates from the third class of Achieving Excellence were able to increase the number of homeowners served by fifteen percent and also increase their assets and access to capital. Moreover, the organizations attribute a 32 percent increase in the number of affordable housing units started, or more than 1,100 new affordable homes, to the skills learned and the strategic plans developed while in the Achieving Excellence program.
“The numbers of how many we have helped have doubled if not tripled, in part due to a better accounting, but also partly due to our strategic participation; 200 families in homes last year compared to 30 families before the program,” said the board member of one graduate. Yet Marina Peed of The IMPACT! Group, an early graduate of the program, points out that “AE is about more than 'increasing the number of units produced/people served.' The numbers do not tell the story, as the funding marketplace changed drastically over the last four years. …There were organizational capacity impacts that were profound for the organizations as well as the communities that they served.”
About NeighborWorks America
NeighborWorks America creates opportunities for people to improve their lives and strengthen their communities by providing access to homeownership and to safe and affordable rental housing. Since 1991, we have assisted nearly 1.2 million low- to moderate-income families with their housing needs. Much of our success is achieved through our support of the NeighborWorks network ― more than 230 community development organizations working in more than 4,400 urban, suburban and rural communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In the last five years, NeighborWorks organizations have generated more than $15 billion in reinvestment in these communities. NeighborWorks America is the nation’s leading trainer of community development and affordable housing professionals.
