Mission

The mission of The Center for Social Leadership is two-fold: To build the leadership and managerial capacity of nonprofit organizations; and to teach low-income youth the necessary career-building leadership skills to design their own exit strategies from poverty.

Our Vision

At CSL, we give 100% of our hearts and minds to developing high-
quality, cutting-edge conferences and workshops that blend the art of transformational leadership (the why) with the science of transactional skill-building (the how). We aim to offer leadership training that focuses on the participant in a dynamic, FUN, engaging, interactive way that brings out their unique thoughts, ideas, current challenges and experiences.

We aim to offer leadership training that enables positive, breakthrough personal and social change – more specifically, that enables individuals and organizations to recognize the beauty, courage and solid values within, to develop a Vision centered around those values, and to act in ways that are aligned with and strengthen that Vision. In other words, our Vision is to enable you to realize your Vision. Yet as you will learn in our Goal-Setting workshop, for a Vision to always inspire it must be unattainable. There is always more to do. Here are the ways we at CSL are currently striving to attain our Vision:

Current Programs

For Executive Directors and Senior Nonprofit Leaders: Our Nonprofit Leadership Webinar Certificate Programs blend the art of leadership and the science of nonprofit management to enable nonprofit leaders to manage and grow their organizations in a challenging economic environment. Video and written feedback from past partcipants of CSL's nonprofit leadership training programs provide a window into the impact of this training.

For All Members of the CSL Community: CSL offers The Balcony - a bi-monthly newsletter that includes free leadership tips, leadership articles, nonprofit leadership best practices and recommended books and movies with important leadership themes that will keep you thinking and staying on the cutting-edge of your career. Take a minute to register for our website now and join the CSL community, and you will already be able to access free leadership videos, articles and other leadership resources.

For High-School Aged Youth: Our Young Leaders Program enables young people to tackle the challenges they are facing in their lives - getting into college, becoming more employable, discovering what they are passionate about, navigating complex personal relationships - through the lens of the transformational leader. Feedback from past youth participants speak to the impact of this program.

For University Students: CSL also offers a University Leadership Program, similar to the Young Leaders Program yet different in that it applies the art of transformational leadership to the specific challenges faced by university students.

Definition of Leadership

After years of coaching thousands of successful nonprofit executives, the primary definition of leadership CSL has arrived at is 'Leadership is the capacity to develop and sustain multiple key relationships toward a common purpose.'

An old definition of leadership is 'A leader is someone who has followers.' CSL redefines leadership with its principle that 'A leader is someone who empowers other leaders.' CSL believes a true leader is not surrounded by followers, but by other leaders.

Experiential Methodology

CSL's philosophy of empowerment and facilitation can be summarized by the following quote from Tony Silard, CSL's Founder and President: