The Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP) is excited to partner with the Surdna Foundation to offer the National Core Certificate Program (NCCP) to leaders working at Surdna grantee organizations at no cost to participants or their organizations. We invite you and your team to learn more about this exciting new partnership!
NCCP equips nonprofit, public, and social impact leaders with the skills, knowledge, and networks they need to make strategic, mission-driven decisions that center diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), and effect meaningful change in their organizations and beyond.
Accelerate Organizational & Community Impact
The National Core Certificate Program is a unique, cohort-based program designed to equip executives and senior-level leaders with new tools and concepts to manage and lead high performing teams and organizations, connect with peers and expert faculty in a supportive and dynamic learning environment, and build the confidence to make strategic, mission-driven decisions that accelerate organizational and community impact. By participating in this program, leaders will:
- Put Theory Into Practice: Curriculum content is designed to be immediately applicable to leaders’ work to help address challenges and opportunities in real time. Through expert-facilitated seminars and small group discussions, leaders share and receive actionable feedback and advice from peers and explore innovative ways to solve the complex problems they face in leadership to achieve their goals.
- Build a Lasting Professional Network: INP brings together mission-driven leaders from the nonprofit and public service sectors, across a broad range of fields and roles, to share best practices and facilitate peer learning. Participants gain access to INP’s diverse network of over 4,000 social impact leaders across the country who are ready to help one another navigate the complexities of leadership and management.
- Enhance Organizational Performance: Participants strengthen critical leadership competencies to propel both individual and team performance. By participating in this program, leaders can demonstrate their commitment to personal and professional growth and help foster a culture of continued improvement within their organization, while supporting a more effective, connected, equitable, and diverse social impact sector.
- Develop Adaptability: The social impact sector is constantly evolving in response to local, national, and global circumstances. This program prepares leaders to navigate new challenges and seize new opportunities through expanded confidence, networks, and skills.
Learn more about our 2024-25 NCCP schedule, and stay tuned for details on dates, times, and modality for the next cohort to be announced.
Who are NCCP Students?
At INP, we know that the learning experience in the classroom is strengthened by the diversity of our students and our faculty. Our students represent a wide array of fields and roles across the social impact sector, from education to the environment, and finance to fundraising.
Ideal candidates for the National Core Certificate Program are:
- Growth-oriented individuals seeking to enhance their leadership and management impact through classroom learning and hands-on practice.
- Nonprofit and public sector C-suite executives, social entrepreneurs, and senior-level leaders who share a passion for and dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
- Collaborative leaders who aspire to build or expand national, cross-sector networks/partnerships for social change.
- Must be working in an organization currently part of the Surdna Foundation’s grantee portfolio.
Priority applications for our 2025-26 National Core Certificate Program are currently open and being accepted through Friday, February 28th. Please contact Rayce Lamb, INP Director of Recruitment, at rlamb@nonprofitpractice.org with any questions regarding the application process or the program.
Did you know?
We actively recruit diverse classes in order to strengthen students’ learning experience and build a leadership pipeline that reflects our communities. Typically, more than 70% of Core Program students are BIPOC.
Meet this year's classRebecca Rego, Core AlumnusThe INP experience is something unique and transformative. As a result of INP, I have a stronger sense of self, including who I am as a leader—and that is empowering and invaluable. And at a tactical level, the INP program has provided me with a plethora of tools and broadened my horizon to new ways of thinking.
