Being selected to revamp and relaunch Leadership Mahoning Valley after a three-year hiatus and to develop and roll out the new Center for Nonprofit Excellence is for JoAnn Stock a “natural progression” of a successful career spent in the social service, health care, and arts and culture fields.

“It’s kind of bringing everything together, which I find very exciting,” the Boardman resident said.

She began in the role of executive director for the organizations — both free-standing nonprofit groups, but housed within the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber — toward the end of November.

Since, it’s been nonstop, really, for Stock, who is simultaneously putting in the work to reinvigorate Leadership Mahoning Valley (LMV), a program to groom future local leaders across all walks and backgrounds, and to develop the center to support and offer professional development and other resources to nonprofit groups in the Mahoning Valley.

Guy Coviello, president / CEO of the regional chamber, said with Stock’s expertise the organization “will have a much greater impact on the community” through the two initiatives.

“We are privileged to have one of the Valley’s most respected and successful nonprofit professionals join our team,” Coviello said.

LMV

The organization formed in 1994 when Leadership Youngstown, which started in 1984, and Leadership Warren, which had been around since 1988, combined. It was 2006 when the organization came under the umbrella of the regional chamber.

LMV went idle when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As a result, no new programs or activities were in progress, and the board, essentially, disbanded.

Enter Stock.

It’s been her mission to reassemble the board, which is growing from nine to 15 members, re-engage LMV alumni, develop programs and activities, and rebrand the organization with a new website, social media presence and collateral materials like brochures and the application.

“We are hard at work right now on planning the 2023-24 program year, which will actually begin on Thursday, Sept. 28, with a kickoff breakfast,” Stock said. “At the kickoff breakfast is when we will announce the class … that will be their first day of a two-day opening retreat.”

Dates for the program days are set, but some work remains to finalize the programming.

Other work now to standup the LMV is finalizing the application and adding content to a page on the regional chamber’s website. The plan was to have the application live Thursday, with the deadline to apply at the end of July. Tuition is $3,500. The fee covers all expenses related to the program.

Also on Thursday was an alumni social event at the Youngstown Country Club, where past graduates could reconnect. More socials, Stock said, also are planned.

“My main goal is to engage as many alumni from the program as possible,” Stock said.

“We are so fortunate in the community to have 1,200 alumni from Leadership Youngstown, Leadership Warren and now totally, Leadership Mahoning Valley. These people are business and community leaders who we want to have help us with all aspects (of LMV).”

Past graduates, she said, are key to the program’s future success. It’s why she’s intent on having them involved, either as board members or as board committee members, or helping to plan program event days.

“The alumni that have gone through the program over the years are our leaders in the community now, and we want to make sure they are engage with the program to help it and grow it going forward,” Stock said.

After the opening retreat in September, several daylong programs are planned that could include topics from the history of the Valley to business and economic development to arts and culture to housing and community development.

She also plans something with professional development to work on “developing each individual’s personal leadership skills, analyzing their leadership style, looking at team building, communication techniques and things like that,” she said.

Something new to the program is offering participants to provide feedback after each session.

LMV board Vice Chairman Scott Schulick went through the program in 2000. Through it he built a camaraderie with other members and developed relationships that last today, and that’s part of the reason why he offering his service on the board.

It’s nice, he said, to be a part of what he called Leadership Mahoning Valley 2.0 in “resetting, restarting and modernizing the program for a whole new class of leaders now and going into the future.”

The goal is to have 30 participants in this first class back. Also, Stock is aiming for a return of the Youth Leadership Mahoning Valley for 2024.

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE

Throughout her career, Stock has received calls for nonprofit consulting and has helped small organizations with grant writing or management. That work developed into the concept for the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, which she proposed to the chamber because of its membership and resources that can help businesses and nonprofit reduce operating costs.

Already, Stock has hosted four focus groups with people in the local nonprofit world. From them she learned “there is a real interest” in the center and what sort of help nonprofit groups would like the center to provide, she said.

Also, she has presented a program in partnership with the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley about fundraising that was attended by about 40 people.

The topics the center could address include fundraising principles, grant writing, fiscal management, governance, marketing and public relations, measuring results and human resources.

Part of the plan is to engage subject matter experts who are chamber member companies to help with training in their areas of expertise, Stock said.

Another part is to address board training and development.

“This is where there is a great tie in with Leadership Mahoning Valley because the trained community leaders, the alumni of Leadership Mahoning Valley, we will ask them to continue to serve the community and a way they can continue to do that is by serving on these nonprofit boards,” Stock said.

“So we’ll be able to create a resource of ready, willing and able individuals who want to serve on nonprofit boards.”

This story previously was published in Valley Business magazine.