Five years after the launch of Valley Leadership’s “Pivot Towards Impact”, leading philanthropic partners have renewed their investments totaling more than $1 million in the organization’s evolutionary shift on how it develops a culture of leadership steeped in values, action and engagement of more leaders.
Valley Leadership has evolved from a traditional, nine-month leadership program to a strategic and leveraged portfolio of programs that prepares 100+ leaders annually for action in their communities. VL’s reimagined programs are Catalyze, Explore and Summit which all culminate in the Impact Maker, a collaborative space to solve challenges together.
“As part of Impact Maker, our leaders roll up their sleeves and get to work right away – drawing on the values, skills and perspective gained from their VL experience. Joined with strategic partners and community champions, Impact Teams chart a path toward thoughtful, strategic solutions on the issues that matter most to Arizona,” said Dave Brown, Valley Leadership’s CEO.
“Our goal is to activate the immense pool of talent, creativity, intelligence, and caring in the VL network while creating a pipeline of leaders committed to meaningful results on the most pressing issues in Arizona. I’m proud to say that we’ve gone from paper to practice with this goal, and the results are clear in the work of the Impact Maker,” he explained.
The Impact Maker teams work alongside those already working on the pressing issues across our state to create clear, measurable and lasting impact. The Impact Maker currently has 72 VL alumni and about one dozen strategic partners working on 10 to-dos across six teams addressing issues ranging from education, workforce development to childcare, housing and many more.
Helios Education Foundation, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust all renewed their multi-year investment in Valley Leadership’s work. Additionally, the Garcia Family Foundation has made a three-year commitment and VL continues to receive year-over-year support from the Arizona Community Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Foundation, BHHS Legacy Fund, Carstens Family Funds, Greater Phoenix Leadership, Molina Foundation, Salt River Project, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, Vitalyst Health Foundation, and Wells Fargo.
“Helios Education Foundation is proud to support Valley Leadership as it continues to make a difference on the most pressing issues in our state through its Impact Maker model,” said Paul Luna, president and CEO of Helios Education Foundation. “Our investment will support the Education Impact Team’s work focused on chronic absenteeism and postsecondary access among Arizona students. We think improvements in these two areas will help increase student achievement and college enrollment.”
“Known for its ability to empower, leverage and mobilize leaders for meaningful impact, Valley Leadership’s Impact Maker program takes leadership development one step further by providing a collaborative space for these leaders and strategic partners to create solutions to community issues in Arizona,” said Gene D’Adamo, president and CEO of Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. “We are proud to support such innovative work.”
“Arizona, like many others, faces a number of substantial, but solvable challenges. We’re very pleased to be working with and to support Valley Leadership in taking actionable steps toward several of those solutions,” said Jon Ehlinger, President, Garcia Family Foundation.
“With the renewed investment from these leading community organizations, Valley Leadership will continue to build a broad spectrum of Arizonans who can work together to create long-term impact on the issues that matter while setting the example on leadership,” said Paul Komadina, Valley Leadership board chair and Catalyze Class 1 graduate.
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