March 5, 2024

Our community needs a different kind of leader – NOW – people with the same challenges we face on a daily basis. New Leaders Council believes that to create the equitable country we aspire to be, we must build power among the leaders closest to their communities’ lived experiences. These leaders do not remain complacent in a world full of injustice and inequality and, although they have immense potential, they have been historically excluded from leadership pipelines. These leaders are the people who change the world! These leaders are NLC!

NLC Fellows and alumni are the kind of people our world needs: those committed to promoting inclusion, diversity, and equity; those who center their values; those who work collaboratively with diverse groups of people. They engage, inspire, and motivate others. They are a new kind of leader.

In 2023, NLC’s Programs and Operations team expanded its procedures to create deeper and more intentional support for volunteers and alumni in chapters all across the country. Support came in the form of better financial tracking, improved resources for chapter boards to run the NLC Institute, one-on-one conversations that supported chapters in local board management, and streamlining a variety of processes to increase sustainability.

In 2023 NLC HQ also prioritized rest and denounced systemically oppressive hustle culture by shifting our programs to meet chapters at their level of capacity. The unofficial theme for the Programs and Operations team for the year was “go small, to grow big”. We made the strategic decision to create new categories for chapters, including energize (chapters in a year of rebuilding) and legacy (chapters with alumni, but no active board)*.

The NLC Programs and Operations team is excited to continue building programs and systems that put our leaders first. We thank our amazing volunteers, alumni, and supporters who continue to give their time and resources to further NLC’s mission. With the problems our country faces, our community doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for one type of leader – some hero – to save us. So we stopped waiting for a hero, and we built a movement.

Together we will continue to build a new kind of leadership.