When you think of all the things that go into making a community great, strong leadership is one of the key components.

It takes strong leaders from business, education, law enforcement, government and the nonprofit sectors to work together to create a community that is welcoming, prosperous, safe, caring, and one that offers a wide range of recreational and cultural activities for all to enjoy.

The Porter County Community Foundation is investing in our nonprofit leaders to help them grow and become more effective. They partner with the Edward Lowe Foundation in Cassopolis, Mich., to provide their nonprofit leaders the same kind of retreat learning experiences that leading for-profit CEOs and entrepreneurs enjoy. In these sessions, the group shares issues and challenges they each may be facing and then they work together to try and develop solutions or strategies to tackle the problem.

The feedback we get from this group on both the retreat and the follow-up sessions has been incredible.

“The retreat was an amazing opportunity to meet with my professional peers”, said Jennifer Wright, CEO of Hilltop Neighborhood House.

Kris Krouse, executive director of Shirley Heinze Land Trust, said, “It was so valuable to be surrounded by exceptional leaders from Porter County, making it a great learning experience.”

We believe this is such an important initiative that we are continuing to schedule annual programs with new and innovative curriculum in addition to continuing the peer learning session support for existing and new groups. At the Porter County Community Foundation, we believe investing in the people in a position to lead their organizations so they can positively impact our communities is just about one of the best investments we can make.

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