Corporate Responsibility Updates 2011
The Community
Download the Community update (2.5MB)
The Environment
Download the Environment update (2.2MB)
Developing New Leaders for Tomorrow
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Gandhi
At American Express, we appreciate the impact that talented leaders can have on business and society as a whole, and we dedicate significant resources to attract, develop and retain talented employees.
We are seeking the best methods, programs and partners that provide current and future nonprofit leaders with practical opportunities to learn and build leadership skills. We are especially interested in proposals that cultivate leadership opportunities for diverse communities within the nonprofit sector or that focus on innovative leadership development programs for emerging leaders of world-class institutions. Our focus is on training professionals with demonstrated commitment to the nonprofit sector in programs specifically targeted to the arts, environment, higher education and social service arenas. We will accept a limited number of requests for programs impacting emerging leaders in the public sector and requests for programs that support entrepreneurs.
Criteria:
Supported programs encourage leadership development for emerging leaders through one or more of the following:
- Addressing the leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector, whether by enabling new executive directors or supporting the training and development of emerging leaders.
- Diversifying the current landscape of nonprofit leaders.
- Transforming organizations through best-in-class management and leadership practices, whether through board leadership, implementing management principles, or expanding an organization's capacity to attract, develop and retain leadership talent.
Projects we are interested in supporting include:
- Supporting leadership training by an organization to a wider group of organizations within the same discipline or field.
- Supporting leadership development of an organization's local members or affiliates.
- Supporting leadership development of an organization located in key
geographic areas (see
list of geographic areas here).
Applications for youth leadership programs are discouraged. We do not support scholarships for an individual's personal leadership training.
Recent Examples
Americans for Indian Opportunity, Albuquerque, NM
Americans for Indian Opportunity catalyzes and facilitates culturally
appropriate initiatives and opportunities that enrich the cultural,
political and economic lives of Indigenous peoples. American Express
supported the Ambassadors program, a capacity-building initiative designed
to strengthen the ability of Native American emerging leaders, within a
cultural context, to improve the quality of life. The Program is the only
leadership initiative in the United States that encourages participants to
weave their traditional tribal values into a contemporary reality. This
unique effort providesd a creative combination of mentorship, personal
reflection, communications training, dialogue with national and
international leaders and a discovery process into tribal values. The
participants in the two year program are emerging leaders in the Native
American, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiian communities.
Aspen Institute, Washington, DC
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to
fostering enlightened leadership and open minded dialogue through seminars,
policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives. In
collaboration with the Institute, support underwrote the American Express -
Aspen Institute Emerging Nonprofit Leaders Fellowship - a leadership program
for next-generation nonprofit leaders that combined exploration of core
values with best practices and opportunities for cross-sector learning,
mentorship, and collaboration. The Fellowship's primary goal is to support
emerging nonprofit leaders and enhance the effectiveness of the sector by
giving them the opportunity to revisit core values, and to refresh and renew
their commitment to serving the public good.
The Bridgespan Group, Boston, MA
American Express commissioned Bridgespan Group's follow-up survey to the Group's 2006 study, "The Nonprofit Sector's Leadership Deficit," which documented the mounting leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector. This survey of U.S. nonprofit executive directors showed that the leadership deficit widened and identified trends, opportunities and challenges in developing and recruiting talent to fill executive vacancies in the nonprofit sector. Find the full results of this survey on the Bridgespan Group’s web site.
Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Community (ETIC) – Service
Academy for Social Entrepreneurs, Tokyo, Japan
Support funded the Service Academy for Social Entrepreneurs in Japan
designed for social entrepreneurs that are also nonprofits. Hosted in
partnership with ETIC, an organization that works to encourage
"entrepreneurial leadership" for social innovation, the training helped
participants gain a deeper understanding of customers to improve their
service. The program invited leading social entrepreneurs who have been in
business for more than five years to participate in interactive sessions,
and to hear from prominent speakers from the nonprofit and business sector.
Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Los Angeles, CA
Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) is a premier leadership
development organization for Asian and Pacific Islander communities in both
the for-profit and non-profit sector. Through the Emerging Leaders Program,
LEAP targeted talented emerging Asian Pacific Islander leaders at nonprofit
organizations to prepare them for future leadership roles. The Emerging
Leaders curriculum blended one-on-one coaching with group learnings such as:
basic leadership skills through experiential learning; leadership
simulations; interactive problem-solving; and action-planning and networking
sessions with seasoned community leaders.
National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, New York, NY
The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts ("The Guild") is a
service organization for nonprofit community arts education providers. To
address the rapid changes within the field of community arts education,
support, enabled the Guild to launch the Community Arts Education Emerging
Leaders Institute, a five-day seminar for a diverse group of high potential
nonprofit executives, typically with about three to six years of management
experience. The curriculum was developed with experts in values-based
leadership development, arts leadership programming and community arts
education. In-person sessions were supplemented with one-on-one coaching,
advanced group assignments, and three months of follow-up work. Pre- and
post- 360 evaluations measure changes in the participant’s leadership
behavior, as well as the resulting organizational impacts.
National Hispana Leadership Institute, Arlington, VA
National Hispana Leadership Institute's mission is to develop Latinas as
leaders through training, professional development, relationship building
and community action. Support funded a 10-day leadership program - Advancing
Latina Leaders in Nonprofits’ - targeted to Latina nonprofit leaders to
develop them into the next generation of nonprofit leaders. The program
cultivated, promoted and sustained these emerging leaders by providing
high-quality training to develop their leadership and management skills,
find their voice as effective community leaders, and build their external
networks by providing access to role models and mentors.
NatureServe, Arlington, VA
NatureServe represents an international network of 82
conservation/natural heritage programs in the U.S., Canada and 12 countries
in Latin America and the Caribbean. The NatureServe mission, to provide the
scientific basis for effective conservation action, is dependent upon the
strength and effectiveness of the local programs and their leaders. Support
funded the “Leader to Leader” training program, designed to develop the
leadership skills of its members; create a self-renewing pool of new leaders
in the network; and build its community.
White House Forum on Nonprofit Leadership, Washington, DC
The White House Forum on Nonprofit Leadership brought together over 200
cross-sector leaders on November 15, 2011 to develop a blueprint for
strengthening leadership in the nonprofit sector. The Forum, hosted by White
House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the White
House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, featured keynote
addresses from Kenneth I. Chenault - American Express Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, Melody Barnes -Director of the Domestic Policy Council,
Valerie Jarrett - Senior Advisor to the President, Dr. William Spriggs -
Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor and remarks from Cheryl
Dorsey - CEO of Echoing Green. The Forum launched The Initiative for
Nonprofit Talent and Leadership, which aims to advance common goals to
better prepare, train, and sustain leaders to constructively and
collaboratively address the complex challenges our society faces. During the
Forum, participants gathered in five working groups to identify high-impact
goals and actionable strategies to advance leadership and human capital in
the sector to be taken up as part of the Initiative. For more information on
this ongoing initiative go to
www.independentsector.org/leadership_initiative.
