The Junior League of Washington is dedicated to cultivating leadership skills among its members through their Leadership Institute Committee. This committee collaborates with other JLW Leadership to develop and coordinate programs and resources aimed at enhancing leadership capabilities among the more than 140 current and future JLW leaders. This committee also oversees the JLW Leadership Institute curriculum, which includes managing the League’s Get on Board (GOB) training, Summer and Mid-Year Training Sessions, and creating additional trainings, workshops, and seminars as needed. JLW’s leadership training focuses on multiple areas necessary for non-profit and League leadership development, including competencies and skills in areas such as collaboration and negotiation, commitment to diversity and inclusion, effective resource utilization, logistics management, relationship building and networking, and strategic thinking. These skills are crucial for effective community and civic leadership and align with JLW’s mission to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training.  

In 2024, JLW launched its inaugural Get on Board 2.0 training program, designed to deepen members’ knowledge, experience, and potential impact in the Washington, DC community and beyond. Different from its 1.0 counterpart, this program featured an advanced curriculum and provided participants with additional exposure to nonprofit and corporate executives, equipping them with valuable skills and resources to serve on boards that benefit the greater good.  The Get On Board 2.0 was made possible by gifts to the JLW in remembrance of past JLW and POLL President Elizabeth Marshall Keys.  Elizabeth’s vision and passion for women’s training and development continue to inspire JLW members to excel in leadership roles. The success of both Get on Board 1.0 and 2.0 and other Leadership Institute Committee trainings underscores the dedication JLW has for the training and development of our members and their commitment to making a positive impact in their communities, along with continuing Elizabeth’s legacy.  

Congratulations to the Junior League of Washington, DC!  

Award Recipients in Division 4 have 501+ Actives + Provisionals. 

The Junior League of the Palm Beaches recognized that in a post-COVID world, their members had a decreased education in league operations and overall non-profit requirements. In response, they created a curriculum, titled The President’s Leadership Series, with the goal of re-focusing JL of the Palm Beaches on training women in leadership in order to best serve both their League and the local community. Spearheaded by President Chelsea Bellew, JL of the Palm Beaches utilized AJLI resources to enhance preexisting knowledge on the topics such as Board Service, How to Be an Effective People Manager, Non-Profit Finance 101, Putting the Fun into Fundraising, and Communications Training.  This project embodies the Junior League Mission, and each session targets a different advancement in women’s leadership including volunteer action, collaboration and training. Attendance at each session was strong and led to more interest in self-nominations for the upcoming league year. The curriculum not only provided mission-based value to members of JL of the Palm Beaches, but also positively impacted community partners by better preparing volunteers to impact the community as a whole. 

Congratulations to the Junior League of the Palm Beaches!  

Award Recipients in Division 3 have 151-500 Actives + Provisionals. 

In 2022-2023, The Junior League of Annapolis embarked on an ambitious endeavor to enhance member training through the creation of the Annapolis Leadership Initiative for Growth and Networking (ALIGN). JLA had noticed that volunteers gravitate toward work in areas where they can contribute effectively. Recognizing the importance of a diversified skill sets in volunteer work, ALIGN was established to provide comprehensive leadership development opportunities across various domains.  

Driven by a commitment to advancing women’s leadership and community impact, ALIGN aimed to equip members with the necessary tools for meaningful engagement. ALIGN’s goal is to offer training led by subject matter experts in order to enhance leadership expertise. With an annual investment of $10,000, ALIGN received support from local grantmaking organizations, underscoring the program’s significance in the Annapolis area.  

ALIGN is available to JLA members, members of the two other Maryland-based Junior Leagues, as well as current and former JLA Community Partners. Since its inception, ALIGN has reached over 300 individuals from 30 different nonprofits. Each organization serves hundreds of community members, expanding the true reach exponentially.   With a focus on inclusivity, ALIGN welcomes participants from diverse backgrounds, ensuring balanced representation and a rich tapestry of perspectives.

Congratulations, Junior League of Annapolis!  

Award Recipients in Division 2 have 51-150 Actives + Provisionals. 

The Volunteer Education and Training (VET) Program is unique because it not only focuses on maintaining and continuing to build upon volunteers’ skills, but it also addresses topics that uniquely impact women’s personal and professional lives. To name a few, “Supporting the NYJL’s mission through legislative advocacy, “Trauma-informed volunteering,” and “Practicing self-care to care for others,” are some topics that VET sessions have covered. This program allows The Junior League of the City of New York to ensure it has a trained and reliable volunteer force that exports the highest quality programs that meet the needs of their communities.

In its fourth year, The Junior League of Houston’s Leadership Institute Training (LIT) Program furthers our Mission by training future leaders to lead authentically within the League. With multiple touchpoints throughout the year, the LIT Program culminated with a leadership-oriented service project in which small teams of participants collaborate to creatively solve an existing community need and pitch their proposed solutions to existing and future Junior League of Huston leadership.

The program has trained more than 100 women, and over 75% of all participants have gone on to serve or are serving in leadership roles in or outside the Junior League Community.

To promote quality board service, The Junior League of Wichita (JLW) initiated a series of board development and training opportunities. This program prepares League members, local nonprofits, and community members to serve as competent and impactful board members. The training ensures that participants will be able to contribute to developing and enhancing a board’s functionality, thereby making them more effective, and essentially, truly building a better community as they are deployed out into their local nonprofit ecosystem. To date, they have trained 289 individuals and provided consultation to 6 area nonprofits. In 2020, the number of community nonprofit board members taking advantage of this program has increased by almost 80 percent.

The Junior League of Austin (JLA) recognized that because of its location in Central Texas, it faced a unique challenge. Often the population it serves through its diverse volunteer work speaks only Spanish or is more comfortable speaking Spanish. However, the majority of its members are not bilingual.

In order to better serve the community in which they are based, JLA came up with a solution which would better prepare its member and better serve the community, the Spanish Immersion Program (or Sí).

The Spanish Immersion Program is a placement for JLA members that is structured in two parts:
The first part is designed to train and develop our members. Members attend weekly 90-minute Spanish classes for 15 weeks in the spring and 15 weeks in the fall that are designed to teach them Spanish from beginner to conversational.
The second part allows the same members to use their newfound skills to be of service in the community, serving the most vulnerable of the area’s population.

There are five classes a week that cater to various skill levels, allowing our members to continue growing with the program. The class size is intentionally kept small so that each woman gets to participate fully and receive individualized attention in the course. No more than ten women are enrolled in any one class section.

The Junior League of Santa Barbara chose the difficult, delicate and complex issue of child sex trafficking as their Focus Area. The League knew that an in-depth understanding of the issue was essential to the success of the program and so embarked on creating a program to turn its members into experts.

The true strength of the program lies in the variation of leadership skills it imparts and the innovative approach it takes to teach those skills. At its core, the program is designed to give women expert level training, awareness and education on the topics of Domestic Child Sex Trafficking, Commercial Sex Exploitation of children, youth at-risk and knowledge of all the resources available to combat these issues.

The League instituted Mandatory Annual Focus Area Training conducted by the most well-versed experts in the county. They used webinars and presentations, created a Focus Area Roadmap, posted extensive resources on their website, created a Focus Area Book Club complete with a Suggested Reading list and even held a Guest Author Event. Using all resources available, the Junior League of Santa Barbara created weekly educational posts that furthered both their members’ and their community’s understanding of the issue.

The training was held throughout the year and its impact was significant. Strategic Partnerships were formed with the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office; the League’s members sat on the DA’s Human Trafficking Task Force and on the Community Collaboratives. This led to unprecedented engagement with the Focus Area issue, and has led many members to describe what they’ve learned as “life-changing.”

This year’s JL Award for Leadership Development goes to The Junior League of Washington's Leadership Development Institute.

Just how important is leadership training for League members?

Well, the Junior League of Washington has an answer….46% of JLW members in a 2014-2015 survey said that leadership training was a key reason for their continued membership.

More than 90% of JLW’s 2,300 members work full-time, serving in corporate, political, military, non-profit, and private sector roles throughout the region. But many members are clearly calling out for more leadership training as volunteer leaders.

And that’s the rationale for the JLW Leadership Institute.

The training is both flexible and focused:

Get On Board is a four-part series that prepares women for successful board service, whether with JLW or in the community.

Nuts and Bolts offers training for first-time leaders, with in-depth sessions on topics like committee budgets and setting effective meeting agendas.

Rising to the Challenge is exclusively for JLW’s 15 rising chairs and provides insights into the work of JLW’s board as well as a safe space to test ideas and raise concerns unique to serving in a step-up role.

This year’s JL Award for Leadership Development goes to The Junior League of Cincinnati's Board Bank program.

The JLC’s Board Bank program develops the potential of women by training them to be successful non-profit board members and by helping to place Board Bank graduates on non-profit boards within the Cincinnati community.

Since 2012, approximately 60 JLC women have completed the Board Bank training program, and most of these women now serve on non-profit boards*. Many women are interested in Board Bank as a way to prepare for their first non-profit board experience, and others go through the training so that they may add more value to the non-profit boards on which they already serve. In either event, the training that they gain through the Board Bank program empowers them to be informed, responsible, and effective board members. As such, the JLC’s Board Bank program has a direct impact on their community by providing well-trained board members for a variety of non-profit organizations, for example, in the areas of human services, animal welfare, and the arts.

The JLC views itself as a non-profit incubator within the Cincinnati community, and the Board Bank plays an integral part of this role, as they introduce well-trained civic and community leaders. Many non-profits reach out directly to the JLC when seeking new board members because of the reputation of their members as community leaders.

*The 2015 Board Bank graduates are currently being introduced to non-profits looking for new board members.

The winner of this year’s Leadership Development Award is The Junior League of Memphis which designed its Leaders Evolving and Developing Program to provide education and development opportunities to men and women who serve the Memphis community as well as members of the League interested in pursuing positions of leadership.

Recognizing the staggering number of nonprofits in the surrounding community in need of qualified, skilled leadership, The League re-tooled and expanded its existing program known as Leadership Certification and opened up enrollment to members and nonmembers alike.

LEAD sets the League apart from other organizations in that its sessions are taught by individuals who are not only qualified in education but who also have had experience putting their lessons to the test in the real world.

Taught in two-hour increments over the course of 10 weeks, the curriculum covers essential, applicable topics such as nonprofit leadership, technology, communication, teamwork, personal and organizational branding, life/work balance, decision-making, networking and delegation. Qualified facilitators ask questions that stimulate reflection and discussion and the content is updated annually by the LEAD Chair and Committee. At the conclusion of the course, participants who have been surveyed have praised the program and indicated they would “definitely” recommend it to others.

In the last four years, LEAD has served as an affordable professional development opportunity for 150 nonprofit leaders in the Memphis community who together form a network of colleagues, advisors and friends who help each other navigate the nonprofit leadership landscape.

The Junior League of Greensboro won this year’s Leadership Development Award for its two-part initiative known as the Women to Watch (W2W) training series and the Women’s Leadership Summit.

Program Goal

To create impactful training and development opportunities for JLG members and women in the community.

Program Description

Five years ago the League recognized that it could maximize its impact on the surrounding community by equipping women to lead it. It organized a series of monthly seminars for small groups led by local experts in a variety of disciplines. Known as Women to Watch, the program addressed a whole range of topics from public speaking and dressing for success to economic development, financial education and advocacy.

The League then indoctrinated a new annual tradition: the Women’s Leadership Summit, which consisted of a single day of leadership preparation open to both League members and locals and offering personal, professional and civic development and training to build their strengths as leaders.

Results/Outcomes

Over the past four years, W2W graduates have achieved tremendous personal growth and leadership development.  Most recently, W2W graduated 27 women in 2012-13. Seventy-five individual women attended at least one session and 7 community members were introduced to the league as guests of the series. Equally as impressive, are the 51 graduates celebrated in year one of the program, 21 graduates in year two, and 25 graduates in year three.  In 2012-13, the Junior League of Greensboro launched year four of W2W, soaring to the highest attendance rate to date at the first session of the year with 46 attendees.

Evaluation

The Junior League of Raleigh won the 2013 Leadership Development Award for its Capital
Leadership Initiative, which locally confronts a national issue by offering leadership training to
women in the community.

Program Goal
This program is designed to offer leadership training to local women in order to reverse the trend of
women being underrepresented in corporate leadership positions.

Program Description
This nine-month program trains women in everything from financial planning and motivating others
to governance and communication skills, all of it applicable to their lives in the office, at home, and
in the field as volunteers. To accomplish the task, the League partnered with Northwestern Mutual
Financial, which provides financial support as well as participants.

The program is open not only to members of the Junior League of Raleigh, but also to members of
other North Carolina Leagues as well as area businesses and not-for-profits. It’s priced at $150 for
League members and $200 for community members.

Results/Outcomes
Since its start in 2010, the program has touched nearly 100 women and remains one of the only
programs of its kind in the state. In final evaluations, 100 percent of participants have reported that
the program helped them achieve their personal goals.