Young Nonprofit Professional of the Year Award
In honor of its 10th Anniversary, YNPN Cleveland presented the inaugural Young Nonprofit Professional of the Year Award in 2019. Through this award, YNPN Cleveland honors young, nonprofit professionals that have made a significant impact on the nonprofit sector and the city of Cleveland through their work and community efforts. We seek candidates who are current or aspiring leaders within their field, and are actively working to make a difference within the nonprofit sector and the Cleveland community as whole. Nominations are submitted on behalf of the nominee by supervisors, co-workers, peers, mentors, and friends.
Nominations for the Young Nonprofit Professional of the Year Award are announced in the Spring.
Past Award Winners
2020 Award Winner:
Tom Heines, Empower Sports
“He instills a culture of kindness, teamwork, empathy, acceptance, inclusion and diversity in school and corporate teams of youth and adults that will undoubtedly carry this culture and set of values within their own circles. Tom exhibits a sincerity and depth of social responsibility beyond most I’ve encountered in over 20 years of nonprofit leadership roles. Tom was in his 20’s when I was hired as a consultant to provide the requirements for the infrastructure of a start-up nonprofit organization. He took the overview provided and led a handful of interested supporters to what I’m certain has grown to thousands of supporters and involved community members.”
2019 Award Winner:
Brian Schultz, Candid
“From very early on in his employment at the Foundation Center, Brian showed courage in his leadership, taking on the development and implementation of a new program series designed to highlight critical social issues and opportunities for philanthropy to accelerate social change. The first topic Brian was charged with in this new series was LGBTQ Issues. To be a young professional – new in his position, working in a very small staff environment – this was a deeply complex undertaking professionally and personally. Despite the risks, Brian leaned in and created a wildly successful program that opened new channels of communication about the relevance of LGBTQ issues to the local philanthropic community, the local nonprofit community, and his own organization,”
Past Award Nominees
Khush Baig | Program Manager, Cleveland Clinic
Audrey Bucholtz | Development Coordinator, Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center
Ian Charnas | Director of Innovation & Technology, Think[box]
Rachel Ciomcia | Executive Vice President, Cleveland Leadership Center
Tom Heines | Founder, Empower Sports
Marcela Lopes | Associate Director of Community Partnerships & Programming, Cleveland Play House
Ashley Basile Oeken | President, Engage! Cleveland
Michael Bernot | Director of Advancement, West Side Catholic Center
Amy Btiebet | Executive Director, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
Audrey Bucholtz | Development Coordinator, Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center
Heather Englander | Director, Business & Community Engagement, Business Volunteers Unlimited
Kristen Glazer | Senior Manager of Donor Relations, Greater Cleveland Food Bank
Daniel Hamilton | Operations Manager, LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland
Grace Heffernan | Sr. Project Manager, Policy & Special Project, Towards Employment
Erin Huber | Founder & Executive Director, Drink Local, Drink Tap
Meghan Marano | Associate Banking Advisor, PNC Bank
Polly Mytinger | Campaign Specialist, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Brian Schultz | Manager of the Funding Information Network, Candid
Christine Stonebraker-Martinez | Co-Director, The InterReligious Task Force on Central America & Columbia
Simone Swanson | Community Liaison, The Gathering Place