Each day this week on our blog we are highlighting a finalist for The Washington Post 2011 Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management.

Meet Post Award Finalist Latin American Youth Center

The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)’s mission is “to support youth and their families to live, work, and study with dignity, hope and joy.”  LAYC is a multi-cultural, multi-service agency for all youth in the Washington, DC metropolitan area providing services and opportunities to over 4,000 individuals each year to support academic achievement, promote healthy behaviors and guide youth toward successful adulthood. LAYC’s staff includes 223 full-time and 50 part-time employees with support from approximately 50 volunteers annually. The organization’s budget size is approximately $15 million.

Q & A with Post Award Finalist Latin American Youth Center

What does this award mean for you and your organization?

Being named a finalist for this award is an affirmation of a four decades long journey for LAYC.  We have grown from a very small neighborhood organization in the late 1960’s to a regional organization with 50+ diverse programs and a complex funding base.  Nonprofit organizations can learn so much from other ones so the way in which the award is presented as part of a best practices workshop is so beneficial to everyone who competes as well as those that simply attend. Vibrant, interesting programs may attract participants, donors and grants for a time but if those programs are not managed well they will not last; winning this award would be the culmination of our hard work “behind the scenes” and would validate our contribution to the region not only as an organization that serves its clients and employees well, but as one who serves its community partners well by setting a good example and sharing its secrets to success.

What have you learned through the application process for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management?

This year marks our third year entering the competition and it is the second time we have been named a finalist.  Each time we tackle the questions in the written portions and for the site visit presentation, we appreciate the opportunity to reflect and soul search in ways not usually afforded to us while preparing traditional grant proposals.  Each time we enter the award competition, we find ourselves thrown into a mini-strategic planning session where we are forced to think about the bigger picture of our work.  We have to really think about where our strengths lie and how best to describe them; this process, in turn, shows us where we may need more work—which things we want to build upon or abandon—and sets up the agenda items for our next formal planning process.  LAYC prides itself on foreseeing and preparing for challenging times (e.g. the economic recession, a change in political administrations), but working on this application made us look even deeper about how we balance innovation and risk taking with prudence and sound judgment.  Staff from all levels of the organization were consulted while writing the application to give the most complete picture of how we manage this large, complex and stable institution.

What advice would you offer for other nonprofit leaders/organizations striving for excellence in nonprofit management?

A piece of advice we would give concerns the reality that nonprofit organizations often attract large numbers of very young employees. In order to avoid the pitfall of a high turnover rate, upper management teams must work to involve their young employees in decision making as much as reasonably possible. LAYC’s program staff—a majority of whom are bilingual and 30% having participated in LAYC programs or living in the service neighborhood—are encouraged to bring their ideas to the attention of supervisors.  Creative thinking is rewarded at LAYC.  Other organizations can learn from this by fostering staff involvement in program development, staying abreast of issues in the community and the policy and funding worlds, and maintaining involvement with all stakeholders.  The challenge is to being open to new ideas while avoiding moving too far away from mission.

Learn more about the Latin American Youth Center:

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook

Register Now for the Best Practices Celebration on Wednesday, May 25 at The Washington Post.

Learn more about the Award.