We are thrilled to unveil the insightful findings of the Nonprofit Women of Color Report, a groundbreaking collaboration between LeaderSpring Center, The San Francisco Foundation, and a coalition of dedicated voices.

Dive into the untold stories of resilience and empowerment with the Women of Color LeadStrong Health and Well-Being Survey Snapshot. Unveiling the stark realities encountered by Women of Color leaders within the non-profit and social sectors during the tumultuous COVID-19 pandemic, this snapshot illuminates the unique challenges they faced and conquered.⁠

We are talking about a structure where groups of volunteers who barely know one another, see one percent of the work, often don’t reflect the communities we serve, and who may have little to no experience running nonprofits, being given vast power to supervise leadership and determine values, policies, and practices. Why did we think this weird structure would work?

How does your relationship with money, wealth, and power influence the way you lead in the social sector? Join us to explore these questions and more with a panel of BIPOC Women leaders in philanthropy.

Join us for a day-long, in-person gathering of LeadStrong Alumni and Fellows to facilitate continued relationship and skill building among powerful Women of Color (WOC) leaders in the social sector. Through this gathering, we continue to support WOC doing heart-centered work and help strengthen their leadership so that they can nourish a visionary and interconnected community of peers.

Join us to hear from HMD’s leadership team about their journey, lessons they learned along the way, and the ways that their organizational structure currently embodies equity. Moderated by Safi Jiroh, Principal Consultant at LeaderSpring Center.

There is much emphasis, if not urgency, on centering equity in the work of nonprofit organizations, whether or not they have a social justice or social service mission. Join us in a participatory learning experience with four organizational leaders whose efforts to center equity in their organizations elevate the values of humility and trust, and prioritize the collective.

Sonia Mañjon, Executive Director, interviewed Cecilia Muñoz, for California Institute of Integral Studies “Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise” program in July 2020. Cecilia is the first Latinx person to direct national domestic policy issues and knows the difficulties of getting ahead without trailblazers to follow. In their conversation Cecilia shared invaluable insights about working through fear, overcoming injustices, facing down detractors, and more.

In December 2019 Executive Director Sonia Mañjon and Advisory Council member Yulkendy Valdez gave a joint TED talk at TEDxAlbany. They presented LeaderSpring Center and Forefront’s collaborative research project to create viable pathways to increase participation and retention of women of color in the technology sector.

In this interactive session, we will workshop strategies to identify how self-reflective intentionality can be a driver for equity in the design thinking process. This workshop will provide an overview of design thinking and its most common applications and uses, while introducing areas of blind spots that may not be considered within the process. We will learn how, if unaddressed, these blind spots and biases risk perpetuating the very inequities we are trying to remedy.

LeaderSpring Center Executive Director Sonia Mañjon and Deputy Director Safi Jiroh discuss the Women of Color LeadStrong Fellowship and the impetus for diversifying social sector leadership.

In this SFGate article, Bay City News Service interviews LeaderSpring staff Sonia Mañjon, Safi Jiroh, and Molly Linares and Women of Color LeadStrong Fellow Adria Moss about the importance of empowering female leaders of color in the social sector.

Tune in to hear Executive Director Sonia Mañjon engage in conversation with Living Room host Kris Welch on KPFA 94.1 about what's at stake in today's election, especially for women and communities of color. Discussion includes hopes and fears emerging from the election, as well as commentary on Black Female Project founder Precious Stroud's op-ed, "Will I Take a Morning After Pill on November 7?"