Haas Leadership Initiatives

The Haas Leadership Initiatives (HLI), a project of the Tides Center, was founded in 2005 by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund (the Fund) to make it possible for the Fund’s grantee partners to access strategic leadership and organizational development resources. The HLI program understands that it takes skilled leaders to change policies and systems and to do the hard work of advancing rights and creating opportunities for all people. And that it takes strong, fully funded organizations to keep at it and to work effectively in social movements. Across the country, nonprofit organizations and public agencies are tackling tremendous challenges with limited support. Investing in leadership development makes a big difference; stronger leaders catalyze lasting and transformational change and get better results. The HLI’s leadership investment programs are a key strategy for ensuring the success of individual organizations and of the networks and movements of which they are a part.

Beyond investing in the capacity and leadership of the Fund’s grantee partners through its centerpiece program The Flexible Leadership Awards, the HLI focuses on building the field in two ways: 1) improving leadership and consulting practice by supporting innovative approaches to raising resources, cultivating talent, and embracing racial equity; and 2) encouraging foundations to invest more – and more effectively – in leadership. 

HLI is home to the Haas, Jr. Fund’s Flexible Leadership Awards Program, the LeaderPower Collaborative (the expansion of the FLA to other funders), and the ReSet Fundraising Initiative. In 2019, more than eighty grantee partners -- non-profit organizations across the state and the country -- were supported by the Haas Leadership Initiatives capacity building programs. The Irvine Foundation’s Fair Work Initiative is HLI’s newest foundation partner, coming on-line in June 2020.