How Girls Write Now Uses LinkedIn to Build a Nationwide Community of Mentors and Changemakers
Recruiting volunteers in a fast-paced professional landscape is a significant lift. Building a community of nearly 4,000 mentors, mentees, and members, plus a wider audience of 68,000 on social media, across diverse industries and geographic locations is an entirely different challenge. For Girls Write Now, a writing and mentoring nonprofit and media incubator that has expanded from New York City to serve communities nationwide, traditional recruitment methods alone simply couldn't keep pace with their growth.
Award-winning for its innovation, Girls Write Now has spent nearly 30 years elevating a multi-generational community through the power of writing and mentorship. The organization pairs today’s leaders with professional mentors across industries—from scientists and programmers to educators and medical professionals. Their mission is about breaking down barriers to build social capital for those historically disempowered, providing an onramp to connect with advocates who will open doors to creative opportunities and career advancement.
Girls Write Now bridges divides across age and background to build a network where everyone benefits from shared perspectives. To facilitate this expansive community, Girls Write Now turned to LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find the right talent, create personal connections, and cultivate long-lasting relationships.
Breaking down silos: Sales Navigator as a team sport
Many nonprofits limit Sales Navigator to development teams, viewing it primarily as a fundraising tool. Girls Write Now uses it as a tool to accomplish goals across all departments, intentionally distributing licenses across HR, Marketing, Development, and Programs.
"One strong connection can serve multiple needs," explains Maya Nussbaum, Founder and Executive Director. "When we connect to a great company, it’s a win-win: their employees find opportunities to engage as mentors, companies discover talent in our mentees, and they see the value of their sponsorship to sustain Girls Write Now as a pipeline to them."
Everyone on the team is empowered to build strategic relationships.
Vahni Kurra, Marketing and Communications Manager, describes the impact of this visibility: "Seeing who else we as staff members are connected to [on LinkedIn] is what leads people to actually volunteer. Being able to make those really personalized asks has been huge for us."
During their most recent recruitment cycle, this personalized approach drove measurable results: 610 website visitors came from LinkedIn, and at least 45 applicants specifically cited the platform as how they discovered Girls Write Now.
Making connections that count
Sales Navigator has become part of Girls Write Now’s regular workflow. Team members spend time reviewing the platform's suggestions, looking for intersections between people's passions and Girls Write Now's mission. The approach emphasizes authentic, personal connections over transactions—whether inviting someone to share their expertise or proposing storytelling collaborations. Girls Write Now synthesizes the information on LinkedIn to bring in new community members.
Vahni recently discovered a journalist through Sales Navigator after seeing her post about resources for high school students.
"I just reached out and said, 'Hey, saw your post. This is what Girls Write Now is about,'" Vahni recalls. Now she is a teaching artist helping create curriculum for one of Girls Write Now’s programs, “Spring Journey, Journalism: The Art of Profiles.”
Beyond individual recruitment, Girls Write Now has built a comprehensive presence that keeps their community engaged year-round. Their LinkedIn newsletter, "Life@GWN," generated 33,000 article views and 1,200 new subscribers in the past 12 months.
Additionally, Girls Write Now's expertise extends beyond its own walls through its work with LitNYS, a network representing 70% of the nation's literary nonprofits. By sharing their communications playbook for the professional landscape, Girls Write Now helps smaller organizations build digital footprints.
“One of the goals of the LitNYS network is for peer organizations to support each other with resources and best practices, doing more collectively for the literary sector than they could individually,” Maya explains. “By encouraging our peers to join the conversation on LinkedIn, we are amplifying the visibility of the entire community. Ultimately, this robust ecosystem also builds the social capital and professional onramps that our mentees need to thrive.”
Lessons for nonprofits to build relationships that last
Based on their experience, the Girls Write Now team offers clear guidance for other nonprofits looking to leverage LinkedIn more strategically:
Don't underestimate your place on the platform. Small nonprofits often think they don't belong on LinkedIn. In reality, it helps level the playing field and puts smaller organizations on the same platform with global corporations.
Distribute access strategically. Rather than siloing Sales Navigator in one department, empower multiple teams to build relationships. A newly discovered contact can develop into a program partner, volunteer, or donor.
Look for champions at every level. Don't just target decision-makers. Find employees who are passionate about your cause and give them the tools to become internal advocates.
Play the long game. "We bring mentees and mentors into the community through LinkedIn," Maya notes, "and those are the same people who we then hire as interns and teaching artists. We follow the trajectory of each of our contacts."
This approach transforms LinkedIn from a recruitment tool into a community platform where relationships deepen over time, where a mentee becomes a mentor, where a volunteer becomes a staff member, and where everyone's journey is celebrated and supported.
Girls Write Now has proven that with the right strategy, technology doesn't replace human relationships—it deepens and expands them. They've built not just a network, but a true community that bridges divides, amplifies voices, and creates opportunities for people to discover what they're capable of achieving.
As Maya puts it, "If you can't communicate, really listen, and understand somebody else's perspective, then it's hard to fully solve any problem. We're here to facilitate those conversations and elevate them."
Visit Girls Write Now to connect and join their community.
To learn more about how LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help your nonprofit build community, look into our online discounts for nonprofits or contact us to learn more today.