Starsha Valentine on finding her sweet spot
“I am fully committed to ensuring that we support an inclusive sector with leaders representing the full spectrum of the rich communities they serve.”
- Starsha Valentine
In 2016 my very first consulting client asked me “Why did you choose nonprofit management as your career?” This question came after I gave a passionate presentation on fundraising planning to a room full of his wide-eyed board members. Despite the simplicity of my presentation, my enthusiasm for the process of building organizational capacity was likely surprising and frankly…unusual. After a thoughtful pause, my response was “Because there aren’t many people that look like me in nonprofit leadership and this is my sweet spot.”
Throughout my career I have routinely been the only Black woman in the room. I’ve worked with organizations where diversity and inclusion stopped at the front door and senior leadership resembled traditional Fortune 500 CEOs rather than the communities they served. I’ve attended numerous conferences and trainings showcasing “best practices” that only work for large, well resourced organizations with huge budgets and homogenous leadership. Rarely did I see the dynamic emergent leadership models that leaders of color were using to support their constituencies.
In recent years, the sector has taken steps to build more representative leadership, however, according to the Urban Institute’s Nonprofit Trends and Impacts 2021, only 21 percent of nonprofit executive directors and board chairs are people of color. Moreover, Black or African Americans represent only 8 percent of all Business Management consultants in the U.S. These statistics are why I’ve dedicated my career to supporting the nonprofit sector and serving as a consultant to community-based organizations. I, like so many other Black leaders, bring my whole lived experience to my work. That perspective has allowed me to connect with some of the most dynamic Black-led organizations in the Mid Atlantic region.
Valentine Group Consulting was created as an extension of my personal mission to bridge the capacity gap for Black-led and grassroots organizations in Washington, D.C. In 2020, our evolution drew us to partner with Purpose Possible. PP’s commitment to its Core Values, particularly an “Inclusive + Empowered Team” are in direct alignment with my mission to help build impactful organizations that create a more resilient, equitable world. Our merger with Purpose Possible further fosters our shared vision for connecting people with purpose and will allow us to deepen our footprint while also building the sustainability of the sector.
Together with the firm’s founding partners, Susannah Darrow and Laura Moody, I am committed to empowering mission-driven organizations to overcome the roadblocks that prevent them from making their purpose possible. I am also fully committed to ensuring that we support an inclusive sector with leaders representing the full spectrum of the rich communities they serve. I am delighted to join the PP team and look forward to the next phase of our journey!
