Leading with equity

Emerging leaders Fellowship

After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to postpone the 2026 launch of the Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Given the current climate and the continuous crises in our communities, the current capacity of our agency is shifting. Agility is one of our core values and we want to ensure that we as an agency are responsive to the current need and are putting all our efforts into services and support for young people in Chicago. We apologize for the inconvenience to those who have applied, we hope to launch another ELF cohort in the near future!

Overview

The Alternatives Emerging Leaders Fellowship (ELF) is a nonprofit leadership development program that prepares the next generation of leaders, particularly those of color, for executive and director-level roles. By providing a safe space to learn, make mistakes, and engage with the complex issues common at the leadership level, the program helps participants develop the skills needed to become values-driven, anti-racist decision-makers.

The goals of the Emerging Leaders Fellowship are:

To cultivate a generation of executive and director-level leaders who are anti-racist decision-makers, actively working to build an Inclusive nonprofit sector, interrogate power structures, and center racial equity in all organizational practices.
To ensure fellows are comfortable in all essential functional areas of a nonprofit, including strategic planning, fiscal management, equitable compensation models, people management, ethical fundraising, and program design, with a values driven lens.
To successfully apply all learned knowledge and skills by collaboratively designing organizational projects that demonstrate knowledge of governance, financial planning, programming, and development aligned with anti-racist principles.

The need for the ELF Program

The nonprofit sector, despite often serving marginalized communities, has a significant disparity in its leadership. Between 2019 and 2024, data shows that while 47% of all nonprofit employees identified as white, a much higher 70% of CEOs and Executive Directors were white. In contrast, Black leaders made up 15% and Latinx leaders accounted for just 6% of these top positions.

When Black and Brown individuals do reach leadership positions, they often face unique challenges and may experience burnout more quickly. The ELF program addresses this by providing participants with access to specialized knowledge and experiences they may not get through other programs. The goal is to open doors and create a more inclusive and representative nonprofit sector where there is room for everyone at the leadership table.

What is this for?

Alternatives Emerging Leaders Fellowship program is intended for folx in the Chicagoland area who:

Currently work in the nonprofit sector
Want to grow in your nonprofit career
Want to eventually be a nonprofit director or in executive leadership.
Current executive directors or nonprofit leadership who want to incorporate an Anti-Racist framework into their organization

Training Overview

Through this fellowship, you will gain a deeper understanding of the following topics through an Anti-Racism lens:

Nonprofit Overview
Finance & Budgeting
Program Planning & Development
Development & Marketing
Human Resources
Management & Supervision

TESTIMONIALS

“It feels good to be in a space where we don’t always have to have the right answers and we can learn from the collective expertise in the room like Alternatives staff and other fellows”

“Being Black and Brown, we are not exposed to a lot of these skills and tools that are talked about in this program. So I want to apply these skills to my leadership to be able to utilize them and thrive with my team.”

“I really appreciated the equity focus because i've been trying to learn about ways to lead in a way that matches my values”

“I enjoyed the budgeting section because I’ve written a lot of grants, but I didn’t really understand what goes into how much we ask for and how we budget things out.”

“The skills of management, supervision and program design will be integral in whatever I’m doing next. So I’m really happy to be able to learn and practice these skills in real life scenarios through this program”