Investing in Excellence: Leadership Enrichment for BIPOC Community Impact

UnBoxed2Lead launched the BIPOC Leaders’ Peer Support Community (LPSC) in March of 2023. This year-long leadership enrichment intensive facilitates mastermind groups, provides one to one coaching, leadership courses, bootcamps, and networking. We help leaders understand relationship systems in order to create a more productive, inclusive, and healthy workplace. Each cohort is made up of ten to twelve leaders from various backgrounds and it has been an incredible experience both for our members and the team at UnBoxed2Lead. 

While we provide several customized Peer Support Communities to meet the dynamic needs of leaders from every experience, the BIPOC LPSC aligns with our commitment to DEI and is thus a priority. 

For years BIPOC leaders have found their voice and impact in the nonprofit world. They have stepped up to address systemic and societal gaps to serve the underserved and forgotten among us. The more we worked with various BIPOC nonprofit and community leaders the more we realized we could help address a need for leadership enrichment that could do two things:

1. Provide a trauma and cultural informed approach that would be relevant and applicable to their immediate reality
2. Facilitate the wisdom of the group. It’s about nurturing the network and creating the environment where leaders can support each other, problem solve, share resources, and develop partnerships 

How Foundations Made a Difference

Cost is always a challenge for leadership programmes like the BIPOC LPSC. Many BIPOC lead nonprofits lack the financial resources to participate in this type of program. This is why partnering with foundations and corporations is so important in making this programme a reality. Because of their generosity and buy in we were able to create a scholarship opportunity for fifteen leaders.

We put a call out to BIPOC nonprofit and community leaders on Linkedin to apply for the scholarship. We started with a small outreach on Linked in and the response was overwhelmingly positive. We ended up with a waiting list for those who want to be part of this community in the future. Those who were accepted into the program received a one year membership on the condition they would help to make the program better for future members as well as become mentors, network, facilitate, and support future members of the programme. 

The Next Step in the DEI Journey

As foundations think about their DEI efforts and look to support more BIPOC communities we are offering a way to increase their funding impact. Investing in leaders beyond program funding is a way for foundations to demonstrate their commitment to BIPOC leaders. We are working with potential partners who will consider making the BIPOC LPSC a condition to funding. 

The rationale for this mandatory technical assistance program is that the success and impact of community services depend heavily on the leadership skills and capabilities of nonprofit leaders. However, for many BIPOC leaders, access to quality leadership training and resources remains a significant barrier. Investing in leadership enrichment will empower BIPOC leaders to develop the skills they need to drive meaningful and lasting change within their communities.