Yesterday, Jennifer Renner posted this candid message on behalf of the executive committee for NeXtGen Digest, a networking group for young nonprofit professionals in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Apparently, NeXtGen Digest has decided to opt out of the national structure of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN), and for good reason it seems. Jennifer states:

After careful consideration, the Fort Wayne chapter has decided to exit our YNPN association. When we joined YNPN, our intent was to strengthen our existing group, add value for group members via a national network, and gain access to useful communication tools and resources. Instead, we spent the last 6 months trying to fit the YNPN structure to the detriment of our group members. After tracking our progress since joining in May, we found a sharp decline in our attendance and interactions as a direct result of our shifting focus to YNPN requirements instead of focusing on our relationships with local young nonprofit professionals, or more directly – you.

Bummer. As you may or may not know, each YNPN chapter is completely staffed by volunteers, so I can only imagine how hard it is to be a novice chapter trying to meet the YNPN requirements AND still continue to provide valuable programming for members at the same time. My local chapter here in DC is quite strong and it’s been around a while, so again, I can only imagine. It sounds like NeXtGen Digest stuck it out for a while, and then came to decision point after weighing the pros and cons for their members. Jennifer goes on to explain:

We fully support the YNPN mission and organization, but our local young nonprofit group is better served by the Executive Committee focusing on building on our previous successes rather than starting down a different path. Had we known the details of what it would take to become a YNPN chapter, we would have had made different decisions and perhaps avoided a rocky six months for our group.

I must say that I have never heard this sentiment before. The Fort Wayne group’s experience makes me wonder if other groups have also left the YNPN National movement or are planning to go the same way because of all the alleged hoops they have to jump through. One curious dynamic that I have noticed though is with Philadelphia’s Young Nonprofit Leaders. There is no link or mention of the Philadelphia group anywhere on YNPN’s website, presumably because they are not an “official” YNPN chapter. Which is too bad because I think that’s a huge information gap for young nonprofit leaders in Philadelphia who are searching for a way to plug in by going to the YNPN site and not finding anything, even though there is, in fact, support available to them in their city.

Now as you all know, I think YNPN is an amazing organization that is absolutely essential right now for young nonprofit leaders. We need peer support now more than ever in doing the ever difficult work of social change. But what the NeXtGen Digest story shows is that you don’t necessarily need to start an “official” YNPN chapter in your community to support your peers. Indeed, the happy ending for young nonprofit professionals in Fort Wayne was this affirmation:

We are recommitting to you and our local community and carrying on in our original capacity.

And that’s what really matters. I’m still curious though. Has the YNPN movement stalled? If so, what needs to change to keep the momentum going? I personally would like to see a chapter in every city so that every young nonprofit leader could easily plug in and get the support they need. But that’s just me. What do you think?

UPDATE: I’m told that Nashville’s Young Nonprofit Professionals also decided not to join YNPN National “because it was more work than return.” Instead, they formed their group through the Center for Nonprofit Management. Alas, the Nashville group is also not listed on the main YNPN page, making it all the more difficult for young nonprofit leaders in Nashville to find out about the support that is already available to them in their city.

UPDATE: YNPN Board Chair Josh Solomon stresses that new chapters are not required to opt into the website platform, stating: “the website system is purely voluntary and opt-in for chapters.  A number of chapters have their own solutions in place already and are not using iModules.  The platform has been delivering strong results for a lot of chapters and its also presented a substantial learning curve.  We’ve retained two part-time consultants, Caroline Bolas and Aaron House, to work with chapters to support their use of iModules and make the website platform easier for them to use.”