By Hailey Rudd

The Professional Development Resource You Didn’t Know You Were Missing: All You Need to Know About the Alliance for Better Nonprofits.

Young Professionals of Knoxville offers so many wonderful benefits to your professional development that you may not even know about all of them! Did you know that your YPK membership includes a membership to the Alliance for Better Nonprofits? The Alliance for Better Nonprofits (ABN) is an organization that offers professional development workshops to members of the nonprofit community. As a member of YPK, a nonprofit organization, you have access to this awesome resource!

While ABN is geared towards nonprofit professionals, the workshops, cohorts, and conferences they provide can be of use to any professional. ABN offers training in 5 main areas: Board Development, Human Resources, Leadership, Marketing, and Fund Development.

As a nonprofit professional myself, I have taken full advantage of the training ABN provides. I am working to acquire my Marketing Certificate from ABN. This is achieved by attending 6 marketing workshops within 3 years. I have just attended my 4th marketing workshop. I’ve learned all about professionally leveraging social media, how to market to attract volunteers, and more!

ABN produces an extensive calendar of workshops every year; it’s full of professionals from the tops of their fields who come in and share their wisdom and experience in their area of expertise. Access to these instructors in the casual environment these workshops create is invaluable. You are allowed the time to ask questions and often workshop ideas alongside these excellent teachers.

The Alliance of Young Nonprofit Professionals (AYNP) is a group within ABN specifically for, as the name implies, Young Nonprofit Professionals! This group is a great opportunity to network and meet more of you Knoxville peers. AYNP hosts Coffee & Conversation at the Regas Building in downtown Knoxville on the third Friday morning of each month. They also offer occasional Lunch & Learns that are typically free to attend; I attended one where the speaker was Olympic gold medalist Kate Ziegler! She talked about being comfortable with being uncomfortable, a great lesson to learn for any young professional to learn early on! All you have to do to get in on these events is RSVP!

The Alliance for Better Nonprofits also offers a job board specifically for career opportunities with in the nonprofit community. These are often jobs that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. If you work for a nonprofit organization, you can also post jobs to the job board. If you’re looking for a change in your career path or a new team member for your nonprofit, this is a great resource to take advantage of!

ABN workshops usually cost $225 for non-members, but as a YPK member, and subsequent ABN member, you can attend for just $75! (If you happen to be a student, you get an even better deal: $25 per workshop).

I would recommend asking your supervisor if these workshops and your pursuit of a certificate through ABN would be covered under a professional development budget at your company. I’ve attended several workshops over the last couple of years, and my boss has approved the expense every time! It’s at least worth the conversation; the worst they can do is say no!

 Here are step-by-step instructions on how to join ABN using your YPK Membership (instructions for desktop version of site):

-Head to http://betternonprofits.org

-Click the yellow “Become a Member” button in the top right corner

-Under Nonprofit Organization, after it asks “Are you staff, a board member, or a volunteer of a nonprofit that’s already an ABN Member?” select “HERE.”

-Scroll down through the list of organizations and select “Young Professionals of Knoxville”

-Create a username and enter your first and last name

-Continue to the next page and fill out the requested information

-Click “Submit,” and you’re done!

You can now register to attend trainings for the discounted rate. Enjoy this awesome resource!

NOTE: Under “Professional Information,” enter Young Professionals of Knoxville as your organization and select “Volunteer” or “Board Member” accordingly as your profession within the organization. If you are already a member of ABN through another organization but wish to reassign your account to YPK, you’ll have to contact ABN at info@betternonprofits.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hailey Rudd is a communications professional with a passion for working with nonprofit organizations to convey their stories and needs. She graduated from Lee University in 2017 with a love for creative writing and a desire to bring her gifts and skills back to her community. Hailey has been a contributing member of Young Professionals of Knoxville since July 2018. She enjoys traveling the world in pursuit of new adventures, experimenting with baking, and spending time outdoors with her dog.