Mentors helping prepare new nonprofit leaders

TAKING THE LEAD: Rebecca Bertrand, right, interim deputy director at Newport Art Museum, and Lori Urso, executive director of the Old Slater Mill Association, discuss leadership strategies. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
TAKING THE LEAD: Rebecca Bertrand, right, interim deputy director at Newport Art Museum, and Lori Urso, executive director of the Old Slater Mill Association, discuss leadership strategies. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

Robert Randall, 33, was operations coordinator at the Providence After-School Alliance when the position of director of middle school initiatives became vacant.

Not only did he get that promotion, he says now, but he might not have been prepared to seek it out had he not applied for and enrolled months earlier in the Rhode Island Foundation’s Emerging Leaders program. Promoted in January 2014, Randall had been assigned a mentor, Peter Mello, managing director of WaterFire, in September 2013. The two clicked.

“We had a very free-form, free-flowing relationship,” he said. “The first meeting we had, he asked me to articulate what direction I had wanted to go in and I started talking about becoming a leader of the after-school program. That helped me think about it that way. Day to day, I hadn’t really pictured myself there.”

Through monthly one-on-one and group meetings, as many as a dozen mentees participate in the Emerging Leaders program in a given year, said Joanna Read, the program coordinator for the foundation.

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Randall and Mello began to work on the leadership skills needed “to get from here to there,” Randall said.

Now in its fifth year, the Emerging Leaders program runs under the auspices of the foundation’s Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence. Sixty mentees have completed yearlong mentorships in the program since 2010, Read said. The current class of 14 mentees will conclude in June, she said.

Also a part of the program are opportunities for networking, hands-on workshops and panel discussions. Mentors receive a small stipend.

“We haven’t had a year with the mentoring program where at least one person hasn’t received a promotion during the program or shortly after,” said Read.

Only Rhode Island nonprofits can participate in the program, and applicants seeking to be mentored by someone more experienced must have fewer than eight years of experience in the nonprofit sector and a demonstrated interest in growing within their organization, she said.

Read is about six months away from being able to quantify how many mentees wind up getting promoted during or after participating in the program, but she said she does know that applications have increased from 14 in the first year to, on average, 20 a year, with a high of 28 in 2013.

Rebecca Bertrand, 29, now interim deputy director for the Newport Art Museum, was promoted to that position on Feb. 28. She is doing that job while holding the position of development director, to which she was promoted from development officer in June.

Bertrand has been meeting regularly with Lori Urso, executive director of the Old Slater Mill Association.

The two share a sense of humor that enables them to connect, they both said.

“I wanted to have a mentor who could help me through our executive transition, as our executive director [Lisa Goddard] was retiring,” said Bertrand when describing why she sought out the program.

Bertrand described Urso as a “strong leader” who is “no-nonsense.” As she pursued new positions, Urso provided insight into areas like human resources, which require confidentiality and discretion, Bertrand said.

“One thing I’ve learned both from Lori and other mentees is not being afraid to fail,” she said. “You’ll try a particular technique and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Bertrand used to think failing at fundraising, for instance, “wasn’t an option.” Urso disabused her of that notion, encouraging her to instead cultivate patience and lasting relationships, even when the immediate answer is “no,” Bertrand said.

Urso said she has tried to impart to Bertrand how to “navigate the community, understand it and people’s interests, and find reasons why they would match up to your organization and the constituency it serves.”

When the opportunity to become interim deputy director arose, Urso advised Bertrand to take it, she said. Bertrand has not applied for the permanent position, but is learning a lot in her new role, she said.

“She came to me and we talked about the opportunity,” Urso said. “My advice was: ‘This is a perfect opportunity to get some hands-on experience.’ This is an organization she’s familiar with, so here’s an opportunity to understand what’s expected.”

Mentors Urso and Mello say being a sounding board for a younger peer is gratifying and mutually beneficial. Mindfulness, confidence and trust are critical leadership traits, Mello said, and this program promotes that.

“A lot of this mentoring takes place in the gray areas,” he said. “It’s about relationship-building, and in those gray areas, you’re building a safe space and opportunity for people to build confidence by having someone you can trust and share with.” •

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