At LCCF, we believe strong nonprofits are essential to building a thriving Lake County. That’s why our Leadership Development and Capacity Building Programming is designed to support both organizations and the people who lead them.

Through these opportunities, we work to:

• Foster stability and resilience so nonprofits can adapt and thrive in changing times

• Cultivate a robust, equitable leadership pipeline that truly reflects the diversity of our community

• Encourage cross-sector collaboration to maximize resources and impact

• Strengthen the overall nonprofit ecosystem, creating a more effective and equitable network of organizations ready to serve our neighbors

By investing in nonprofit leaders and organizations today, we are helping to shape a stronger, more connected and more resilient Lake County for tomorrow.

LCCF defines leadership development as opportunities that help build a pipeline of competent, emerging leaders for the county’s nonprofit sector, increasing access to quality programming and building the overall leadership capacity of the nonprofit sector.

Capacity building is defined as providing support to nonprofits to build their internal capacity so they can better serve the community. LCCF recognizes that providing capacity building support is a vital tool to supporting nonprofit sustainability, efficiency and growth.

In the summer of 2024, LCCF — in collaboration with local partners — surveyed nonprofits across Lake County to better understand the sector’s most pressing leadership development and capacity-building needs.

In addition, we hosted a focus group with diverse nonprofit leaders to dive deeper into emerging issues and trends impacting the sector.

Nonprofits identified their top 3 most significant challenges as:
• Fundraising
• Staff retention and recruitment
• Capacity building issues (such as the need for additional office space, processes to measure and demonstrate impact and strategic planning)

To learn more about the findings from the Leadership Development and Capacity Building Survey, check out the Executive Summary and Survey Results below.