November 2025 | A Newsletter for the YANA Community

Find Your Board Match This December

Dec. 2 | 6:30 PM ET – Virtual via Zoom

Ready to channel your expertise into meaningful social impact? YANA Board Match connects experienced professionals with emerging nonprofits at critical inflection points in their development. On Tuesday, December 2 at 6:30 PM ET, join us virtually to meet organizations that need your skills and passion.

Board service offers a unique opportunity to contribute to causes you care about while expanding your professional network and developing new skills. Featured Organizations Seeking Board Members:

• Marked By Covid – Justice and remembrance movement led by Covid grievers working to ensure a brighter future through art, advocacy, and education
• LearnServe International – Empowers young people to become changemakers, equipping them with skills and mindset of global citizens
• FriendshipWorks – Reduces social isolation and enhances quality of life for older adults in Greater Boston
• ViviendasLeón – Works to eliminate rural poverty in Central America by empowering rural communities
• Uptown Stories – Empowers young writers of upper Manhattan with accessible Pay-What-You-Can programming
• YVote – Ensures every New York high school student is empowered to engage, act, and lead change in their city
• Waterspirit – Spiritual ecology nonprofit inspiring people to deepen consciousness of water’s sacredness

What to Expect

Each organization will present their mission, impact, and specific board needs in a structured format designed for authentic dialogue. Whether you’re a seasoned board member or exploring your first nonprofit governance role, this event offers the chance to connect with passionate leaders building organizations that matter.

Join Us for Our December Town Hall

Dec. 10 | 6:30 PM ET – In-Person (Yale Club of NYC) & Virtual via Zoom

Mark your calendars for our December Town Hall on December 10 at 6:30 PM ET, where the YANA community comes together to celebrate 2025 achievements and shape our 2026 programming. Join us either in-person at the Yale Club of NYC or virtually via Zoom—you don’t need to be a Yale Club member to participate.

December’s session will feature updates on our mentorship program, highlights from our recent Social Impact Conference, and a look ahead to 2026 initiatives. Most importantly, we want to hear from you—bring your ideas for programming, your questions about YANA’s direction, and your enthusiasm for building a more just and equitable world.

Whether you’re a longtime YANA member or exploring what our community offers, town halls provide an accessible entry point to our network. These events serve professionals at all career stages—from those just beginning their social impact journey to seasoned leaders looking to give back and stay connected. The diversity of perspectives and experiences makes every town hall a rich learning environment.

Support YANA Forward This Giving Tuesday

Tuesday, December 2

This Giving Tuesday, on December 3, invest in the leaders transforming our world. As we celebrate 15 years of YANA’s impact, the YANA Forward Campaign supports the programs that make our community thrive: mentorship for emerging nonprofit leaders, fellowships that launch careers in social impact, convenings that spark collaboration, and resources that help Yalies scale their impact.

Celebrating 15 Years of Impact. Building the Next 15 Years of Change.

Join us in launching a historic campaign to raise $200,000 by December 2027. Your support today helps us reach our immediate Phase 1 goal of $15,000 and ensures we can continue empowering the next generation of Yale changemakers.

Double Your Impact Today

Thanks to a $25,000 matching challenge, every dollar you give is matched dollar-for-dollar. When you give $100, it becomes $200. Give $500, and it becomes $1,000. This special offer amplifies your generosity and accelerates our community’s impact.

Your contribution directly enables:

• Mentorship programs that connect over 100 nonprofit leaders with experienced practitioners each year—like the guidance that helped Jackson Higgienbottom save a free clinic serving 3,000 uninsured patients
• Fellowships that introduce dozens of students to social impact careers—the kind of support that helped August Rios develop his passion for affordable housing policy
• Conferences and town halls that convene hundreds of alumni working at every level, from grassroots organizers to foundation presidents
• Board Match programs that place skilled professionals with emerging nonprofits at critical growth stages

Resources and networks that amplify individual efforts into collective impact

Our Social Impact Conference Brought Together Visionaries and Practitioners

Our recent Social Impact Conference proved once again that the Yale nonprofit community is a force for transformative change. More than 300 alumni, students, and partners gathered to share strategies, forge partnerships, and reimagine what’s possible in the social sector.

Beyond formal programming, the conference created space for the organic connections that often prove most valuable. Executive directors compared notes on board development over coffee. Early-career professionals found mentors during lunch discussions. Funders met innovators working on solutions they’d been hoping to support. These informal exchanges—during breaks, between sessions, and at the closing reception—generated partnerships, job opportunities, and collaborative initiatives that will extend the conference’s impact for months to come.

Attendees consistently highlighted the quality of both content and community, noting that the diversity of roles represented—from grassroots organizers to foundation presidents, from social entrepreneurs to corporate social responsibility leaders—created unusually productive cross-pollination of ideas.

Couldn’t join us this year? Watch our conference highlight reel to experience highlights from the day, including keynote moments, session excerpts, and candid conversations that capture what makes YANA conferences uniquely valuable. You’ll see the energy in the room, hear from participants about what they learned, and get a preview of the connections and insights that make these events so powerful. The full conference recording will be available to conference attendees in the coming weeks as editing finishes.

Thank you to our 2025 Sponsors!

Lanyard Sponsor

Yale Beats Harvard – Historic Victory Celebration

This victory represents a watershed moment not just for Yale, but for the entire Ivy League. For the first time ever, an Ivy League team will compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs. The conference only began allowing its teams to participate in postseason play this season, making Yale’s automatic qualification all the more momentous.

Yale entered The Game ranked No. 25 in the FCS Coaches Poll, while previously unbeaten Harvard held the No. 10 ranking. What unfolded was a dominant performance that announced Yale’s readiness for the national stage.

For YANA’s community, this victory represents more than athletic achievement—it’s a reminder of Yale’s commitment to excellence across all endeavors, from the playing field to the nonprofit sector. Just as the football team demonstrated resilience, teamwork, and strategic thinking to reach this historic moment, YANA members apply these same qualities to create social impact in communities around the world.

Strengthening Yale’s Pipeline from Campus to Social Impact

Assembly and Convocation provided an opportunity to hear President McInnis and trustees discuss Yale’s strategic priorities, with particular emphasis on preserving the institution during unprecedented attacks on higher education. The conversations covered everything from maintaining academic excellence and supporting research to protecting the university’s independence and commitment to accessibility. The trustees’ perspectives on challenges facing universities—from political pressures to financial sustainability to maintaining diverse and inclusive communities—resonated with challenges many YANA members face in their nonprofit work. The strategies Yale employs to navigate complexity offer lessons for social impact organizations navigating their own turbulent landscapes.

The Yorkside Conversation

The highlight of the visit was lunch at Yorkside with YANA’s student chapter and School of Management student leaders. This gathering brought together alumni who have built careers in social impact with students actively planning their paths forward. The energy was remarkable—these students are thinking strategically about how to build sustainable social impact careers, not just about landing their first job.

Student Priorities and Vision

The students articulated three clear focus areas that will shape YANA’s engagement with campus:

1. Making pathways to the nonprofit sector more feasible for Yale students – Students recognize that social impact careers often require navigating financial constraints, from student debt to lower starting salaries compared to corporate or consulting roles. They’re interested in how YANA can help students think strategically about building financial sustainability while pursuing mission-driven work. This includes everything from fellowship opportunities and loan forgiveness programs to long-term career planning that balances purpose and practicality.

    

2. Helping School of Management students easily plug into YANA after graduation – SOM students expressed strong interest in social impact careers but noted that pathways from business school to nonprofit leadership aren’t always clear. They see YANA as a natural bridge—a community where they can connect with alumni who have successfully applied business skills to social challenges, learn about organizations seeking leaders with management expertise, and find mentors who understand both business and mission-driven work.

    

3. Building a stronger pipeline from Yale to social impact careers – Beyond individual career paths, students are thinking about systemic change. How can Yale better prepare students for social impact leadership? What resources, courses, and experiences would help? How can alumni networks like YANA provide ongoing support as careers develop? Their thinking is sophisticated and ambitious—they want to ensure future Yale students have even better pathways to social impact than they do.

Intergenerational Community

What struck us most was the continuity between the students we met and YANA’s established members. The same questions students asked over lunch—How do I build financial sustainability while pursuing mission-driven work? How do I find the right organization or role? How do I develop skills I’ll need as a leader?—are versions of questions YANA members ask throughout their careers.

This reinforced a core insight: social impact is a career, not just a job. It requires ongoing learning, evolving strategy, sustained commitment, and supportive community. YANA’s role is to provide that community and support from students’ first explorations of social impact through their entire professional lives.

The Yorkside conversation wasn’t just about what YANA can do for students—it was about how students will shape YANA’s future. The next generation of social impact leaders will face challenges we’re only beginning to understand. They’ll need to navigate increasing political complexity, climate change impacts, technological disruption, and evolving models of social change. Building a strong intergenerational community now ensures we’ll face these challenges together.

Applications Open: Join the 2026 Gratitude Network Fellowship

We’re excited to share that applications are now open for Gratitude Network’s 2026 Fellowship—a world-class nonprofit accelerator empowering children and youth-serving leaders to expand their leadership skills and scale their organizations.

What Fellows Receive

This highly selective 13-month program provides comprehensive executive-level support valued at over $10,000. The fellowship is designed to address the real challenges facing nonprofit leaders while building the skills, networks, and confidence needed for sustained impact.

Fellowship Components:

Executive Coaching – 12–24 hours of 1:1 performance leadership coaching with certified executive coaches. Coaching is personalized for each Fellow’s needs with the goal to strengthen unique leadership capabilities. Each coach brings their own approach and blend of skills to support Fellows’ growth.

Scaling Up Curriculum – 10 hours of engaging strategy and operations sessions for your leadership team, facilitated by expert trainers. These sessions cover everything from strategic planning and revenue diversification to operational systems and team management.

Peer Circles – 12 hours of global peer learning with other nonprofit Fellows. These sessions foster connection, support, and a global community, helping Fellows amplify their learning and leadership confidence. Many Fellows describe peer circles as the most valuable component—a space to share challenges, celebrate wins, and learn from leaders navigating similar journeys.

Team Empowerment – You’re no longer on an island. Your leadership team is invited to attend Scaling Up sessions as well as network activities to build team alignment and collaborative strategy planning. This ensures your entire organization benefits from the fellowship experience.

Lifelong Alumni Network – You and your organization receive ongoing access to Gratitude Network programming, resources, and support, even if you move beyond your current role. The connections and learning extend far beyond the formal fellowship period.

The fellowship serves leaders at various career stages, from executive directors of growing organizations to social entrepreneurs building new models. Gratitude Network specifically seeks to support leaders from communities most impacted by inequity and those working in under-resourced contexts.

Application Process: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until February 6, 2026.

Saving a Lifeline: How Mentorship Helped One Alum Preserve Essential Healthcare
Jackson Higginbottom MPH ‘20 – YANA Nonprofit Mentorship Mentee

How do you preserve an organization built around one person’s vision and relationships? How do you restructure operations, expand specialty services, and maintain quality care when you’re managing the clinic remotely from Connecticut? How do you lead an all-volunteer organization through grief while ensuring patients continue receiving care?

Higginbottom turned to YANA’s Nonprofit Mentorship Program, where he connected with experienced healthcare leaders who had navigated similar organizational transitions. These mentors provided practical guidance on volunteer recruitment and management, board governance, financial sustainability, and the emotional dimensions of leadership during crisis.

Impact Against the Odds

Today, Manos Juntas continues serving its community despite operating with no paid staff and limited Saturday-only hours due to budget constraints. The clinic has actually expanded its specialty services even while adapting to leaner operations. Every patient seen represents not just medical care delivered but a community’s lifeline preserved.

The statistics tell part of the story: over 3,000 uninsured patients served annually, free primary and specialty care provided by dedicated volunteers, a clinic that remained open when it could easily have closed. But numbers don’t capture the full impact—the patient who can now manage their diabetes, the family with access to preventive care, the community that still has a safety net.

From New Haven Housing Advocate to Rhodes Scholar: A Dwight Hall Fellow’s Journey
August Rios ‘26 – YANA Dwight Hall Fellow & Rhodes Scholar

Rios’s path to the Rhodes Scholarship began in New Haven. As a YANA Dwight Hall Summer Fellow and Urban Fellow, he interned at the city’s Fair Rent Commission, examining how housing policy affects vulnerable communities. Those experiences revealed gaps in how residents accessed information about their rights—knowledge that should be public but often remained inaccessible to those who needed it most.

In response, Rios co-founded the Yale Student Association for Small Claims Assistance, an organization providing free legal information to Connecticut residents navigating housing disputes and other small claims matters. The work required translating complex legal concepts into accessible guidance while remaining within ethical boundaries of providing information rather than legal advice. It also required building systems that could sustain beyond any individual’s involvement—the kind of institutional thinking that characterizes effective advocacy.

For YANA, Rios’s achievements highlight the importance of supporting students during their formative years. YANA Dwight Hall Fellows often go on to careers of significant impact, but they need support, mentorship, and community during their undergraduate years. YANA’s partnership with Dwight Hall ensures students have access to alumni networks and resources as they develop their commitments to social change.

Looking Forward

After Oxford, Rios plans to continue working at the intersection of housing policy, community development, and evidence-based intervention. His goal isn’t just to understand how policy affects communities but to create systems that center those most impacted by housing insecurity in policy design and implementation.

This commitment to community-centered policymaking reflects lessons learned through Dwight Hall, his work with first-time homebuyers, and his service on New Haven’s Affordable Housing Commission. Rios has seen how policies designed without meaningful community input often fail to address real needs. He’s determined to help build more inclusive, effective approaches.

The housing crisis facing American cities—and cities worldwide—requires exactly the kind of leader Rios is becoming: someone who combines rigorous analytical skills with deep community connection, someone who understands both market dynamics and human needs, someone who can bridge academic research and policy practice. His Rhodes Scholarship will give him tools to amplify his impact, but his commitment to housing justice was evident long before this recognition.