YANA Podcasts

Nonprofit Founders: Lessons Learned

Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance

Founders Series: Advancing Peace, Education, 
Community Impact, and Working Waterfronts 

Thinking about starting a nonprofit? Curious to know what it’s like to create one? Then listen to the stories of these four nonprofit founders and learn from their successes, failures, and advice on venturing into nonprofit entrepreneurship.Each panelist represents a different school from the Yale community (College, School of Management, Divinity, Environment), and all were compelled to follow their inner calling to address the issues before them.

  • Jeremy Chiappetta (SOM ’02), co-founder of Blackstone Valley Prep, Rhode Island’s first Mayoral Academy that successfully brings together suburban and urban students; 
  • Nimisha Ganesh (YC ‘15), Co-Founder of GenUnity, a community leadership non-profit based in Boston that supports and empowers diverse, everyday adults to unpack why local issues exist and develop their capacity to drive structural change; 
  • Yvonne Lodico (DIV ‘09), founder of Grace Initiative Global, a peace-building initiative based in VT, and a logical off-shoot of the work she did for years at the UN, and inspired by the concept of “grace”-- a source of sustainable healing and love – that she explored while at Yale Divinity School; and 
  • Rebecca Rundquist (FES ’02), based in Maine, advocating for local trees and working waterfront communities as a means to maintain local economic diversity, she founded two different kinds of nonprofits: the Frank Knight Foundation and the Sea Meadow Marine Foundation.



Join us for compelling discussions about best practices, trends, and careers in the social impact space.

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