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Affinity Groups

Alliance Affinity Groups

Alliance members have created a space to meet and exchange experiences with others who share in their interests or identities. Join the Alliance today to get involved! Alliance members may join an affinity group and learn more about its activities via the member area of the Alliance website or write to education@allianceonline.org.

The currently active affinity groups are listed below. In addition, potential new groups include professionals who focus on international work, coaching, plus independent consultants.

Governance

The Governance affinity group will provide a forum within the Alliance community to forward creative thinking in the field of board governance and development, including the generation of new approaches and models for community–based organizations. Through sharing of new approaches, practices, and research among a diverse group of consultants, MSO’s and researchers, the affinity group hopes to not only further the field, but also to increase the knowledge base, generative thinking, and consulting skills of its members.

Executive Transitions

This affinity group brings together capacity builders who focus on strengthening nonprofits during times of executive transition. Search consultants, interim executive directors, researchers, MSO leaders, and other organizational development professionals share experiences in the wide range of issues facing this relatively new field. Helping the organization think about more than the hiring process – especially about the development of healthy processes and structures during the search – can mean that a new executive director has the chance to truly succeed. This affinity group is leading the way in defining the critical issues facing this important field and offers collegiality and support for professionals who focus on the many aspects of executive transitions in nonprofits.

Faith-Based Capacity Builders Affinity Group

The Faith-Based Capacity Builders (FBCB) Affinity Group provides a forum to unite Alliance members working with faith-based organizations and institutions for the purpose of knowledge and resource sharing, skill development, networking and promoting promising practices within this sector of the nonprofit community. The FBCB Affinity Group helps members share knowledge and resources that contribute to the increased efficiency and effectiveness of faith-based organizations and institutions served by Alliance members. Currently, there are limited places for faith-based capacity builders to share their experiences, thoughts, ideas and concerns about this emerging field. Having an opportunity to network by the email/web forum, newsletter, and conference calls between the national and regional conferences helps Alliance members remain connected with their peers. Click here for a listing of service providers for faith-based organizations.

MSO Executive Directors

A thriving nonprofit sector is one that embraces dynamic change—the kind fostered by high quality capacity building. Among the people best positioned to ensure capacity building and expand a constituency for change are executive directors (EDs) of “management support organizations” (MSOs). MSOs—nonprofit organizations that offer ongoing learning activities, broker or directly offer consulting services, and bring a pool of resources to capacity building and to nonprofits—need knowledgeable, innovative, determined leadership. The MSO EDs meet to exchange information and renew themselves—offering a support group and a leadership cohort. Given turbulent times economically, socially and politically, the group brings people together to share about the latest challenges, trends, experiments, and successes. Currently, an emphasis is on identifying how to expand the MSO’s own funding base, long-term sustainability, and responsiveness to the times. It is carrying forward many conversations over the years that have made a valuable difference in how well MSOs are able to practice what they profess about nonprofit effectiveness.

People of Color (POC):

The POC affinity group, formed in 2001, has been the trailblazer for all Alliance affinity groups. The POC group offers a forum for capacity builders of color to share experiences and work to expand the presence of people of color in the Alliance and in the field, as well as catalyzing change in the field, the nonprofit sector, and ultimately the larger society. The POC group is currently in the process of defining and advancing “cultural competency” in nonprofit capacity building—which will result in a book, professional development activities, and peer exchange. By gathering people of African, Asian, Latino, Native/American Indian ancestry, and other people of color, the POC group accelerates peer learning, challenges business as usual, and generates ways and means to honor the journey of these groups in the Americas through capacity building practice. Recognition, resources, multi-ethnic collaboration, mentoring, marketing and partnership are all tools. In so doing, the group seeks to transform nonprofit capacity building into a force for progressive social change. Click here for more information on the POC Affinity Group.

Young and Emerging Professionals

The capacity-building field is fortunate to be attracting a new contingent of professionals, relative newcomers to the field—both young people and people entering from other walks of life. The affinity group is a rare forum for learning across different levels of experience—glimpsing insights that might otherwise come only over a much longer period of firsthand experience—and for comparing professional systems so as to continually improve our own. The group supports members who wish to identify and pursue career paths, make connections, form relationships that offer two-way mentoring, and contribute as leaders who bring fresh energy to the nonprofit sector. The affinity group also attracts members whose capacity building is mainly through higher education and professional development—the people who offer teaching, training, or research with a focus on the new stream of talent coming into the field.

Interested in Joining an Affinity Group?

Taking part in affinity groups is a benefit of membership in the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. Join the Alliance online see or call 202-955-8406 for more information. Alliance members may join affinity groups online by visiting the member area of our website or by writing to education@allianceonline.org.