Meet Our Clients
Outfest
Leadership Development
The Project
ESC’s Wells Fargo New Executive Directors Institute (NEDI) helps new nonprofit leaders build a solid foundation of leadership skills for a complex job that has no formal preparatory track. Kirsten Schaffer of Outfest enrolled in our 2010-2011 class after a year at Outfest’s helm.
NEDI is a year-long program imparting critical skills for effective, mission-driven nonprofit leadership. Classroom-based training sessions build skills and provide peer networking and feedback for executive directors who have been in their positions for three years or less, while ongoing executive coaching helps participants implement what they have learned and address other organizational challenges through completion of a strategic project.
ESC’s Wells Fargo New Executive Directors Institute and its counterpart for experienced leaders – the Wells Fargo Executive Directors Leadership Institute – are grounded in a model that produces real and lasting results. Studies have proven that executive coaching is the critical difference that allows leaders to translate learning to action, and therefore impact: training combined with executive coaching has been shown to boost improvement fourfold over training alone.
The Result
Through ESC’s Institute I was able to reconnect to my organization’s core values and our cause. Using the “Model of Non Profit Leadership” I created a roadmap to move us from values, to a picture of success, to strategies, to leadership! We have completed a new three-year strategic plan that incorporates much of what I learned and puts us on a path to develop new programs that engage youth and emerging artists through education and mentorship. By defining our cause we were able to see our relevancy and to envision a future that serves our community.
The Institute caused such a profound shift in how I lead Outfest that I wanted to ensure other leaders in the organization had firsthand experience with ESC’s model. We are now participating in ESC’s Developing Development Program, which engages Board members and additional staff in a similar model for improving fundraising strategies.
Kirsten Schaffer
Executive Director, Outfest
