Every month, LinkedIn for Nonprofits highlights four of the incredible organizations that partner with us to build brand awareness, elevate their development strategies, hire exceptional talent, and enhance their teams’ skills. Their stories inspire and motivate us every day—and we hope they’ll inspire you, too.

This month, the organizations we’re featuring do amazing work supporting learners of all ages, providing leadership development opportunities, and saving and improving lives. Learn more about their missions and programs below, and be sure to follow them on social media for news and updates.

Finding Exceptional Nonprofit Talent
Shaping Leaders Who Change Lives: Center for Creative Leadership
 

A mission-driven and human-centric organization, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) strives to provide leadership development to all, regardless of where they are in the world or what level they’re at within their organization. CCL believes that leaders at all levels can play a transformational role in improving the lives and circumstances of individuals, teams, organizations, and communities, making leadership development a critical factor in driving positive change. 

“We’re a big believer that leaders touch a lot of other lives,” says Kent Price, Chief Human Resources Officer at CCL. “We’re not just impacting leaders’ lives—we’re impacting the lives of those they interact with.”

CCL uses LinkedIn Recruiter extensively to fill open roles, perform proactive outreach, and build relationships with candidates that have expressed interest in the Center’s work. The organization also uses the platform for marketing purposes, including hosting live events on LinkedIn Live to discuss topics like listening to understand, the importance of coaching, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

“LinkedIn Live helps us with employer branding, too, because we can share those sessions with our followers,” says Sherita Gatling, Sr HR Business Partner at CCL. “That gives them another chance to come back, look at our website and LinkedIn Career Page, and see if they’re interested in any opportunities.”

Visit the Center for Creative Leadership’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

Getting the Word Out About a Great Mission
Connecting Patients with Vital Transplants: Be The Match
 

For over 30 years, Be The Match has saved lives. As the world’s largest and most diverse bone marrow and blood stem cell registry, the organization helps connect patients battling life-threatening blood cancers and diseases to the only cure: a perfect ​donor match on the registry. This has always been a complex process, but COVID-19 created additional challenges—like figuring out how to hand-deliver live blood stem cells in under 24 hours at a time when most travel was restricted. 

“We had to figure out ways to overcome travel challenges in a very short amount of time, because people’s lives were on the line,” explains Ryan Peña, Paid Media and Social Media Supervisor at Be The Match. “Nothing slowed down for our patients. They still needed help and were getting prepped for transplant, and we needed to make sure that happened.”

In the face of these challenges, Be The Match defied the odds—managing to ​impact the most lives ever in 2020. This was thanks in large part to the incredible efforts of volunteers, the generosity of companies that provided private air travel, and the altruism of the many people on the registry who answered the call. The organization also used this time to raise awareness of the fact the cheek swabs needed to join the registry can be sent to a person’s home—information that resonated with those looking to give back while sheltering in place. LinkedIn proved a key platform for sharing this message.

“Whether you’re on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or another social channel, you’re still the same person,” Ryan points out. “The LinkedIn community is so willing to accept non-traditional content on the platform, as long as it’s tastefully done and it speaks to what drives change from individuals. We’ve actually gotten registrations through LinkedIn.”

Visit Be The Match’s website for more information, follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and learn more about joining the registry here.

Elevating Development Efforts
Forging Pathways Between Education and Employment: Strada Education Network
 

A social impact organization, Strada Education Network aims to forge clearer and more purposeful pathways between education and employment—driving better outcomes for individuals and stimulating systems change that improves the experience for all. To do this, the organization takes a three-pronged approach: supporting a network of nonprofit affiliates with shared services that allow them to focus on mission delivery; making strategic grants and investments that help bring good ideas to life; and conducting research and thought leadership to identify and share best practices, learner needs, and solutions.

“Improving access to college and helping students complete their education are important goals,” explains Devan Andrzejewski, Vice President of Marketing at Strada. “Strada’s mission is to go a step further, ensuring that lifelong learners can chart more effective pathways to meaningful careers.”

To build awareness of both the challenges and solutions within the post-secondary education-employment sector, Strada shares organic content on LinkedIn, from event invites to research reports. The organization also uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify potential partners in better supporting learners as they navigate education and career transitions.

“Reaching other professionals in our field is incredibly important,” says Amy Dunham, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Strada, “and LinkedIn is a really valuable platform for us to do so.”

Visit Strada Education Network’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.  

Prioritizing Learning and Development
Helping Kids Grow Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder: Sesame Workshop
 

Photo credit: Sesame Workshop/Ryan Heffernan

Sesame Workshop’s mission is to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Now in more than 150 countries, the organization’s programming reaches preschool-age children through their screens, in their classrooms, and in their communities, providing joyful learning experiences to help them achieve their full potential.

“Our mission is the driving force behind everything we do,” says Janelle Aviado, Senior Director of HR at Sesame Workshop. “In our programs for our own employees, we are constantly thinking about the leadership competencies that we’ve developed, because they are the behaviors that are necessary to achieve our mission. They are an intentional part of our performance appraisals, and we encourage our managers and employees to have ongoing conversations around them.”

Since continuous learning and growth are central to Sesame Workshop’s internal culture, the organization uses LinkedIn Learning on a regular basis to help employees and leaders enhance their skills—whether that’s learning a new piece of software or developing core competencies around diversity, equity, and inclusion. When employees began working remotely as a result of COVID-19, the appetite for learning only increased. Sesame Workshop responded by extending LinkedIn Learning licenses to its international employees and the majority of its contingent workforce, curating content that would be meaningful and helpful to employees, and requiring at least 10 minutes of training every other month to encourage people to dip their toes in and explore the library for themselves.

“It was important to us that everyone have this resource for their own self-development, especially since LinkedIn Learning isn’t just about technical skills,” Janelle says. “There are so many rich resources on there to help people’s emotional wellbeing. We’ve gotten really good feedback and our teams are starting to run with it.”

Visit Sesame Workshop’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.